Valerie Fox Answers Key Questions About Inbound Marketing

This October at Converge 2015, our focus is to bring the best and brightest together to revolutionize higher education. In this series of blog posts, Content Marketing Intern, Mikayla Wilson, asks our speakers key questions. Read on to find out more about our passionate speakers and the importance of their topics. 

Name: Valerie Fox

Institution: Bentley University

Session: The PreparedU Project: The On Ramp to Inbound at Bentley University

 Date & Time: Thursday, October 22 | 11:30-12:15PM

Summary: Learn how Bentley University’s PreparedU Project served as a springboard to inbound marketing to drive measurable results. By telling brand-centric stories, producing content that solved audience problems and highlighting research-based thought leadership, Bentley created a platform that serves multiple audiences and institutional goals. The Bentley team will share lessons learned and valuable hacks, tips and ideas from their 18-month journey to embracing inbound, content-centric marketing

MW: Tell us more about yourself.

VF: I’m a morning person and love my AM routine: veggie smoothie caffeine barre class gets me out of bed at 5:30 (a loud alarm helps, too). I crave a little routine before jumping into the ever-changing, dynamic world that is marketing today.

MW: What is new and next in inbound marketing?

VF: If content is king, distribution is queen. With more than 2.5 million blog posts published every day, we have to think beyond simply publishing to our blogs or websites and have a distribution plan in mind. That requires marketers who can think beyond writing or crafting stories to those who can mine channels to amplify content and build that into the plan from the start.

MW: What challenges have you seen in higher ed in inbound marketing?

VF: Higher ed marketing org charts still look like clusters of highly specialized professionals, whereas inbound marketing requires more “full stack marketers,” meaning marketers who have broad digital marketing skills in SEO, copywriting, pay-per-click, social media marketing, email marketing and landing page optimization.

MW: What are you most excited about for Converge 2015?

VF: A chance to learn from and be inspired by peers who are crushing it in higher education (and oh yeah, the food in New Orleans is pretty good, too)!

MW: Attend Converge 2015 to hear from Val and many other great speakers. We hope to see you there!