Overview
This year Alaniz Marketing, a digital marketing agency located in Marin County, hosted a pilot program for an Inbound Marketing Boot Camp. This 6-week program is complimentary for Sonoma State University students. Students participating in the Boot Camp independently complete an online Inbound Marketing course, as well as attend a weekly in-person meeting to discuss the topics learned throughout the course in depth. Upon completing the Inbound Marketing Boot Camp, participants will receive an Inbound Marketing Certification from HubSpot Academy.
What is Inbound?
Inbound is a customer-centric approach to marketing focused on using helpful content to attract customers searching online for solutions to personal and business problems. The inbound methodology is different from traditional interruptive outbound marketing tactics such as cold calling and spam. This shift in strategy is due to changes in buyer behavior. Consumers are smarter and equipped with technology and tools that allow them to bypass sales representatives and dodge unwanted marketing ploys. Consumers go straight to Google to to find answers to questions and to find solutions to their problems. Successful companies utilize inbound marketing by understanding that the best way to interact with their customers is to be helpful and informative before trying to sell.
My Personal Experience
As a graduating senior from Sonoma State, I have eagerly tried to find opportunities that will build my resume and expand my professional experience. I attended the Spring Career Fair and was introduced to Roxanne and Amy from Alaniz. They explained to me what a great opportunity the pilot program offered. In my eyes, I was going to take an online course for free and receive a certification that I would happily add to my resume and LinkedIn profile. At that time, I didn’t realize I would be in for much more than just a certification.
Each week, a group of students from the Boot Camp would meet with members of the Alaniz team to talk about what we have learned that week from the online class and discuss how to put these concepts into practice. I became familiar and extremely comfortable with the Alaniz team. During every meeting, they would continue to show us how they applied the principles of the inbound methodology through working with their clients. The combination of doing independent study and talking through the topics of Inbound allowed for a deeper understanding of the material. By the end of the course, all the participants gave a formal presentation on the inbound methodology summarizing the attract, convert, close, delight process.
Preparing for this presentation and answering questions that demanded you apply the material to a real world scenario solidified the material in my head. I was proud to say after completion of the Boot Camp, I not only understood the inbound methodology, but also could confidently detail how a company could embrace this new way of thinking. Going through this process and becoming acquainted with the Alaniz team has allowed me to further continue my professional development through a Digital Marketing Internship with the company. I am very pleased I joined the Boot Camp and would recommend it to others that are looking to boost their expertise in marketing.
