Nathan Yerian
If everybody went to school to specialize in marketing, the world would be quite boring. Regardless, marketing is invaluable to virtually any trade. Even if you’re a doctor, lawyer, or plumber, you need to know how to market your business — it’s essential to your business’s bottom line.
If you did go to school for marketing, you may not have learned about inbound marketing, a core strategy for customer acquisition online. As HubSpot puts it, “inbound marketing is the process of using content, social media, search engine optimization, email, lead nurturing, and marketing automation to attract and retain customers.” Inbound marketing is user friendly, magnetic, educational, and fun — it’s also counterintuitive to the aggressive (outbound) marketing and advertising pushes from traditional brand advertisers.
Inbound Marketing is crucial to today’s business on the Internet, which is why you need to learn about it. Don’t have time? Not sure where to start? Can’t find the right class? No worries. After you read this blog post, all your excuses will be gone. Bookmark this blog post — it’s the best collection of inbound marketing resources that you’ll find.
If You’re Learning on the Fly
1. Top Industry Blogs
Want to simply jump into your inbound marketing strategy? Go for it — but by all means, don’t do it alone. Thanks to the Internet, the marketing industry’s top thought leaders are literally seconds away from wherever you’re sitting. And they’re maintaining blogs to educate fellow marketer communities. As you jump into your inbound marketing strategy, start consulting some of the web’s best marketing blogs on a daily basis. Some of our favorites include: HubSpot, Unbounce, CrazyEgg, KISSMetrics, Content Marketing Institute, CopyBlogger, Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, Mashable, Search Engine Land, and Onboardly.
2. Whitepapers & Ebooks
Too busy to go to the library? No problem. Instead, look for eBooks related to SEO, content marketing, social media, and inbound marketing in general. HubSpot has compiled a comprehensive list of downloadable Ebooks in this blog post. You can also download one of Adhere’s most popular inbound marketing Ebooks.
3. Published Books
Books are a marketer’s best friend. Sit down, and read a few cover-to-cover, or flip to the chapters that interest you most. Leverage your morning train commutes, plane flights, and waiting room down times to learn about inbound marketing. Here are two great examples for getting started:
- Content Rules by Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman: This book will give you a crash course on blogging, podcasts, videos, ebooks, webinars, and other tools that optimally engage prospective customers. Most importantly, you’ll walk away from the book with a strong idea of how to craft a unique voice for your brand.
- The Marketing Agency Blueprint by Paul Roetzer: This book will introduce you to key concepts of hybrid PR, SEO, content, advertising, and web marketing firms. The author pays particular attention to the ins and outs of the marketing agency model. By learning how to think like a marketing agency, you’ll be better positioned to work with one in crafting your own strategy.
If You Prefer Virtual or Real Life Classrooms
4. Peer-to-Peer Seminars
Keep an eye out for free or low-cost courses from top industry marketers. One place to start is General Assembly, an organization devoted to helping professionals learn new skills related to technology, design, and business. While General Assembly only has physical locations in densely populated tech hubs like San Francisco, London, Los Angeles, and New York, presenters sometimes host courses online for anyone to watch. From time to time, General Assembly instructors will also host online lectures for free.
Another resource to check out is Lynda.com. This website provides ‘teach yourself’ training materials on virtually any tech concept from programming to marketing and design. Courses are taught by established industry experts. Beginners can check out Lynda’s Online Marketing Fundamentals course here. Other key courses include Email Marketing Basics and nsights from a Content Marketer. Lynda.com resources are available for a monthly subscription of about $40.
Every so often, Seth Godin hosts mini courses for fellow online marketers. Keep an eye out on his blog, as these courses can be competitive to be accepted. In the meantime, you can check out some of his talks on YouTube. Keep your eyes peeled for webinars from other inbound marketing experts as well.
5. Certificate & Training Programs
HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing University is an 18-course training program that you can complete while preparing for their Inbound Marketing Certificate Exam. In addition to watching lectures, you can complete readings and homework assignments — and you can do it all at your own pace. You can also pick and choose which topics you want to learn about. Although, once you start going through the videos, you will more than likely watch them all.
If you’re serious about taking the exam, there is even a study kit to help you along. What’s awesome about this program is that HubSpot is continuously updating materials to make sure that they’re current. Over time, you may find a couple of classes phased out or added, as the Internet marketing industry is evolving daily. Also here is a great article, "What-is-structured-data-and-why-does-it-matter-for-seo"
6. Open Source Courses
More and more colleges are releasing courses and assignments for free. While there are not yet any inbound marketing courses, keep an eye out for topics that are tangentially related. For instance, Stanford’s open source program has released a Human Computer Interaction course that teaches the technical foundations of how web visitors may engage with your site. This particular course is 9 weeks long with a workload of 10-12 hours per week. And yes, it’s taught by a real Stanford professor.
7. Industry Conferences
Especially if you’re new to the marketing world, conferences can function as the ultimate crash course. Keep an eye out for conferences in your area through platforms like Eventbrite. As another option, monitor MeetUp.com for more informal (yet informative) gatherings. If you’re looking for a larger event and are potentially willing to travel — Inbound is an annual conference held by HubSpot in Boston. The Content Marketing Institute hosts Content Marketing World in Cleveland. And the most recent Dreamforce by Salesforce event in California attracted over 100,000 attendees.
Final Thoughts: Aggressively Explore
To become an expert, you need to expose yourself to a variety of learning techniques. Undoubtedly, practical application is essential to that mix. If you’re a student, go intern. If you’re a business owner who wants to be an inbound marketing master, just start doing it. Start blogging. Make it a habit. Start creating advanced content pieces for lead generation. Start a company newsletter to your contacts. Learn along the way, set your own pace, and keep evolving as the Internet marketing industry continues to grow.