4 Key Inbound Marketing Takeways from MozCon 2013

Me with Rand Fishkin

I finally found a little time to write about MozCon 2013.

2,500 attendees.  First of all, I was blown away by the number of people at the conference.  It was estimated to be around 2,500 people.  Kudos to Rand and the Moz team with their ability to build a great company, solid product and a strong community around it.

Inbound Marketing vs. SEO.  I think it is symbolic that SEOMoz has changed its name to just Moz.  With each Google algorythm change, SEO is transforming from standalone tweaks to a major component of every aspect of core marketing.  

SEO-influenced Marketing Areas.  Below are a few of strategies where SEO is merging with traditional marketing and transforming it into inbound marketing.

- Keyword definition, and updates <SEO-driven>

- Messaging <SEO-optimized>

- Content strategy <SEO-driven>

- Web page building + on-page optimization<SEO-defined>

- SEO-optimized PR and AR

- Social and community activities

- Link building

Agencies vs. In-House Teams.  Lacking official statistics, I would say 95% of attendees at MozCon were agencies.  Very few in-house teams.  I see two trends in that area:

• Agency-centric.  Many companies are outsourcing SEO, PPC and other inbound marketing activities to agencies.  I don't think it is a smart model since agencies usually don't have the core market expertise, since they typically don't interact with their customers' customers.  This limits their effectiveness and significantly reduces results.
• Agency-fication. Companies with more advanced inbound teams are going deeper into SEO, PPC, content marketing, etc.  In a nutshell, they are building agency-type expertise, often leapfrogging their competitors who rely on the first model.  They just use agencies for technical advice.  This model can produce significantly better results, but requires a completely different Marketing team DNA.
   

Tools and New Practices.  What was really cool about MozCon -- you discover new tools and best practices for improving inbound marketing.  These can make a huge difference in generating leads and conversion ratios.  

Four best tracks from the conference:

• 1. Win Through Optimization and Testing.
     Kyle Rush had practical advice for planning, implementing and updating A/B testing in many aspects of online marketing.
  2. How to Be a One Person Link Building Army
     Mike Arnesen went over some extremely efficient techniques and tools for building high quality (and Penguin-safe) links with limited resources and budgets.
  3. 2013 Ranking Factors
     Very technical presentation for advanced SEOs.  Good data based on the research done by Moz.
  4.  Simplifying Complexity: Three Ideas For Higher ROI.  Really interesting and meaningful content about various inbound marketing channels, attribution and visualized ROI for complex marketing campaigns.  I personally didn't care about the presentation style with lots of profanity and posturing, but the underlying content was great.

Finally, an advice for fellow marketing executives.  I would highly recommend personally attending the next MozCon show and/or sending a team member responsible for lead generation or online marketing.