Day: May 22, 2015

Authority Rainmaker 2015 wrapped up a week ago, and those of us who were there are still processing the online marketing insights we had at the live event in Denver.

If you didn’t make it this year — and even if you did — we’d like to invite you to experience some of the energy at the conference.

There were so many smart people — attendees, presenters, and sponsors — gathered in one place. The collective energy of the group could be felt in the opera house seats, in the lobby, at the meals, and at the parties.

Listen below to Clark Buckner of TechnologyAdvice interview Authority Rainmaker 2015 presenters, attendees, and sponsors.

Hear their favorite takeaways below. And read on for the most compelling quotes we heard.




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Chris Brogan, on a building a feeling of belonging:

I think that there’s a lot of revenue to be made — and a lot of business to be made — by helping add value to the people you most want to help and serve.

Demian Farnworth, on being a misfit:

If the crowd is going that direction … I go the opposite direction.

Sonia Simone, on building a business around belief:

We’re looking for this belief-based tribe to belong to … there is a big part of our brain that wants that.

Arienne Holland, on owning your space:

It’s not “tell your story and people will come,” because that’s not true. But tell your story, and with the right amplification the right customers or audience will find you and identify with you.

Summer Felix, on delivering the right sales message:

We take that approach with all of our videos — sales videos, and informational videos — just to say, “Okay, who’s watching this? What do you want them to do at the end of the video? And why might they be skeptical? And how can you resolve that and answer that in this amount of time?”

Joe Pulizzi, on having two audiences for your marketing:

Our most important marketing assets are our employees. If we don’t have a communication program ready to go for our employees, it’s going to be tough … you’ve got fertile land right there ready to go, but you have to make sure you water it a little bit.

Chris Garrett, on delivering the right content to the right people at the right time:

If [the site visitor owns] product X, then promote product Y, don’t keep promoting product X to customers of product X.

Tony Clark, on adaptive content and marketing automation tactics:

It’s about … putting the right piece of content in front of the right person at the right time to … get them on the process to buy.

Lee Odden, on telling the truth in your marketing:

The thing I heard from a lot of people was just … be honest, be true.

Cory Matthews, on authenticity:

Perfection never comes. I’ve struggled with that myself for years — “Well, I have to do this exactly perfect.” No, you just need to get started.

Kevin Carlson, on Chris Brogan’s unexpected comment to him:

He didn’t need to do that. You know, that’s going above and beyond. … I’m hard-pressed to think of an example or another situation … where one of your featured keynote speakers comes up to an attendee and says ‘Hey, I see you.’

Jerod Morris, on approaching podcast sponsors:

Let’s grow this together. … here’s what it is, but there’s this big, long journey we can go on together.

Scott Stratten, on not selling out when seeking podcast sponsors:

We wanted to look from episode one that we were at the top of the game … I’d rather have no sponsor than to compromise with the values of the show and get any sponsor.

Beth Hayden, on the speakers at this year’s conference:

They are doing things that really make me think, and it’s stuff that’s really actionable, and it’s not just the same old stuff over and over again … I come out of this conference in particular with pages and pages of practical notes of stuff that I can use in my business.

Sarah Eadie, on empathy:

Empathy is an asset … empathy for your customers and for their needs, and hopes, fears, and dreams is really invaluable … is really important.

Selena Vidya (Selena Narayanasamy), on switching her business to a consultancy model:

For us, it’s more of an empowerment education-type thing, rather than being the ones who bring them the content … the goal as a consultant is to be there when they need you, but they really need to be able to do this stuff themselves as well — it’s the only way they’re going to be able to grow.

Ethan Beute, on his main takeaways from Authority Rainmaker 2015:

No matter the angle or the topic, there are all these themes that come through … treating leads as humans, thinking empathetically about other people … intense awareness of, empathy for, focus on delivering to the audience … that the people on the email list need to be treated as people you serve.

Thanks to everyone at Copyblogger Media who made Authority Rainmaker 2015 possible, and to our sponsors:

Legend Sponsors:

Spears Marketing

Wellness Media

Champion Sponsors:

Feedblitz

The Draw Shop

Top Rank Online Marketing

Thursday Night Party Sponsor:

Moz

Friday Night Party Sponsor:

AWeber

Media Sponsors:

Search Engine Journal

Marketing Profs

TechnologyAdvice

Content Marketing Institute

Many thanks to Ethan Beute for today’s post image.