Starting 2011 with a BANG! : the GetIT Inbound Marketing Challenge

  • Marco

I believe that there will come an inevitable time when you will be asked to proverbially put your money where your mouth is. To be able to “walk the walk and talk the talk”, like how those sagacious old hands might say it. Well, that time came for us just a few weeks ago.

The last days of 2010 marked something special for our team here at GetIT Comms and B2Bento because it was the time when we decided to collectively take on the Inbound Marketing Certification from IMU. We all agreed that we would be doing ourselves a very big favour if we took the über informative online course and passed the challenging exam. Forgive us then for being M.I.A. since December as a result of being tied up with our virtual books and gearing up for the test. But in hindsight, it was all worth it though.

Inbound Marketing Certification: What’s in it for us then?

Coming from an industry where inbound marketing techniques are part and parcel of the staple work diet, especially now when digital marketing has matured and blossomed, it’s a must that all of us are familiar with the concepts and theories that are relevant and useful to our work.

The Inbound Marketing Certification course enlightens us on Inbound Marketing’s core principles and best practices. The course tackles subjects ranging from social media and blogging to lead conversion, lead nurturing and closed-loop analysis. After reading up on the modules and watching the supplementary videos, you can proceed further by taking the Inbound Marketing Certification exam. If you pass (by achieving a score of 75% or higher), your proficiency will be acknowledged with an authenticated badge on your InboundMarketing.com personal profile. Sounds cool right?

And the gauntlet was thrown

So, as the story goes, we accepted the challenge and embarked on the campaign to inbound marketing certification. We downloaded all the necessary resources and consumed them voraciously. We watched the videos and read the written lore like we were possessed and it was the most compelling thing to do: perusing slides at the office after work, watching videos on the train, reading .PDFs while on the bus … well, you get the picture.

After getting some confidence from all that studying, we gathered all that we learned and went for the online exam. That’s when things began to sink in for us mortals. For some of us, specifically my experienced mentors here at B2Bento, answering the questions was akin to a trip down memory lane. The test provided them with a worthwhile refresher to things that they have been practicing for several years now. For some of us greenhorns though, being presented with the 50 item exam made us feel like we were going to war. We felt like the 300 at the Battle of Thermopylae, trying to defend our inherent knowledge from the piercing questions put together by IMU. But fortunately for us, the similarities ended there because taking the test eventually proved that it wasn’t going to be our last stand.


Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat (well, not as dramatic as that)

After a few days (cue time lapse), we had the results on our hands. Check out the proud roll call of freshly brewed Inbound Marketing Certified professionals:

Nestled on the shoulders of giants

Passing the IMU Certification really means something for us. Aside from enriching our individual selves, we can proudly say that we truly belong in the world of Digital Marketing. And it’s comforting to note that we are in great company.

The best thing about all of these is the process. Wise men have always said that it is not the destination that matters but the journey. In some instances, what you reach may not be as valuable compared to what you learn. In this case, we learned that Inbound Marketing is all about getting found online through search engines and social networks. In a world where traditional rules of marketing are getting less relevant, we must be able to learn and equip ourselves with new and better skill / mind sets that will accompany our advancement in technology.

So why not start the New Year with bang by giving it a shot too. Take the Inbound Marketing Certification exam. Who knows, you might even bag the honours distinction! Do let us know about your experience! Good luck!

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1 COMMENTS

January 12, 2011

David Fallows

BANG!!