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An Intern’s Insight to the Digital Gaggle

We went to Digital Gaggle last week and here’s my experience on it:

What I was told: It’s a big digital marketing conference organised by Noisy Little Monkey. It’s a great place to learn about digital marketing tips, network,  and would be very “different” from what you would usually expect. It was at the M-Shed and there would be a buffet.

What I was not told: There will be a big monkey trying to sneak free bananas into your bags, a microphone you need to catch, and that Jon’s birthday is February 26.

It was (literally) bananas

Disclaimer: A large part of the conference had a lot of technical terms, acronyms, and jokes about sales.  I am just an intern, and if you want to contact someone who really knows all about those things, scroll down to the end.

On to the brilliant speakers:

Why Credibility & Reputation is Essential to Driving Conversions

BY: Aisha (Skippy) Kellaway

Credibility is essential to marketing. You can promise that your business is the best, but credibility is about people believing your promises.

  • Credibility is about what people say when you’re not in the room, and whether they understand what your brand is about. (Your mission and values)
  • Another important take away is: you may know someone needs that *something* but they may not know that they need it.  Target those who know they need it, and promote to those who aren’t aware yet.
  • Customers that believe in your mission and values will often be you best clients because they understand your business. Find those people and promote to them.

General Tips:

  1. Ask people if they would recommend you to their network. Then ask them for specific referrals. (“Who will you recommend me to” not just “will you recommend me”)
  2. Make it easy for your audience to find things they want to find. (Optimise your website via mouse tracking software to see where people are often scrolling or looking for)
  3. Try location specific IP targeting. This changes what content is shown to the user by finding out where they are logging in from (IP) and then tweaking messages and layouts to show what they might need. (Eg: “Moving to Australia?” when someone accesses an Australian bank outside Australia)
  4. Input your testimonials into world clouds. See which words are used the most, then use those words in your marketing… talk your audiences’ language.
  5. Use Site Engagement Software (eg: Hot Jar, Crazy Egg) to get data..
  6. Use the data to make improvements and then TEST THOSE IMPROVEMENTS  using user testing.

Tips to increase credibility through your website:

  1. Don’t blame the user in your 404 message and make sure your site works (shown in picture above). You can amend the messaging to suit your brand and turn an error into an endearing message!
  2. Make it easy for leads to contact you. You can use alternative contact methods to match your client profile (eg:  live chats for those who can’t call, and phone calls for those who can’t live chat)
  3. Use ordinary words to convey amazing things. You don’t need to use jargon to sound clever!
  4. People buy when they trust the brand/business / you= include social proof in your website (testimonials etc.)
  5. Be transparent about reviews. (53% of people say they trust a company more with a few negative reviews)
  6. Get your buddies in: show industry associations.
  7. Be transparent about content (eg: Show an example of a newsletter so users know what they are getting into). This way you guarantee that only the absolute 100% perfect matches join your mailing list. They’ll only join if they like your content! 

How To Deliver Growth In The Most Efficient Way Possible

BY: Jon Greenhalgh

Jon spoke about the power of data. It’s summarised into:

  1. Get the data -> Google Analytics Suite
  2. Read the data
  3. Use the data -> to get and keep customers.
  • Know that there will be data gaps and plan on how to fill those gaps.
  • Constantly update your data.
  • Live and breathe your client profiles. Don’t just start when they visit your site, consider how they start their day and find ways to make it easy for them to come to you. (Eg: Find out when they have breaks in their working day to check their phones, know which places they usually frequent and advertise there)
  • It’s all about maximising your chances of reaching the right audience, place, and time. Tailor messages, use location-specific pages, make it feel like your website was created for them.

Let’s Get Convert-sational – Call to Actions (CTAs) & Landing Pages

BY: Gertie Goddard

The general idea is:

So I’ve learnt that you are not supposed to just write “BOOK NOW” and expect people to click on a spammy looking button. The aim of CTAs is for people to want to open that trap door.

There are many ways to present your “trap door” :

  1. Forms (active)
  2. Pop-ups (passive) – click, timed, scrolling, entry and exit pop-ups as well.

The more credible your business is (throwback to speaker 1), the less you will have to advertise your trap door.

Keep it clean. The fewer distractions surrounding your CTA, the more likely people will read it and register it.

Lead Nurturing Workflows

BY: James Mulvaney
  • Create a flowchart depending on visitor behaviour on your website.
  • But wait: why can’t you just close a sale the first chance you get?
  • You need to fully understand your client to see if they are right for you.
  • 73% of sales sent to the sales team (I’ve learnt that there is a big difference now) are not ready to close, and 63% of your time is spent on non-revenue generating activity.
  • By making a workflow, you are able to send leads that have a chance of closing and therefore have more time to generate revenue.

A Crash Course In Nailing New Business Using EMAIL

BY: Jon Payne

Some great email tips: (Credits to Noisy Little Monkey)“Emails are 100% about you (the client) and maybe 50% we”

  • Make sure you automate the emails and actions after your initial contact (it will make it faster for clients to progress, and easier for you to focus on the visitors at the end of the funnel)

Video for SEO, CRO, CRM and Other Acronyms

BY: Phil Nottingham

(Unfortunately, this section is not a video)

Video is something people have easy access to now but is rarely done right. Chances are that if you are reading this on your phone or computer you have some equipment to make a video.

Why do people even watch videos?

Credits to my favourite slide of the conference: Phil Nottingham

Top takeaways from this talk is that videos have to be:

  • Vertical (usually) if you are optimising for mobile.
  • Eye-catching (try to go a bit weird – if that fits your brand)
  • For Facebook: VISUAL instead of AURAL (think about those times where earphones were a big hassle)
  • For Youtube: AURAL instead of VISUAL (most people use Youtube to listen to music)
  • For your website – use one page per video, and attribute your videos properly.
  • Using video (properly) will give you an advantage on the Google search page (it is seen in both text, video, and image search)
  • Optimise for Clicks > Keywords (if you must)
  • Match your video to your content. Informational videos seem more popular (think “how to…” “ways to…” “top tips…”)
  • Finally: Stand out by being human. Try sending out personalised videos to your audiences, with different messages, local commentary, or just a more “small homely” vibe.

Making Numbers Count

BY: Joe Twyman

To be honest, this was the talk I least looked forward to. Never mind that assumption, because Joe had managed to turn polls and data into the most interesting talk of the evening.

Representation. Representation. Representation.

  • If a poll represents it’s target participants properly = it is trustable.
  • If a poll is worded in the most neutral way without leading questions = it is trustable.
  • If a poll is commissioned by possible parties affected = …dubious.
  • Make sure your data (as talked about by speaker 2) is trustworthy.

Doing a twitter poll is not a proper representation of your audience. (Trust me, he said this a lot)

Otherwise, account for a margin of error and proceed to improve your business from there.

Final Words…

 

In conclusion, it was great. Met a lot of new people, learnt a lot of new things, and ate a lot of tapas plates.
Would definitely want to return and try to win the golden egg lucky draw again.

Want to find out more about digital marketing or what you can do?

Interested in more of that sweet digital marketing knowledge?   Book a 121 consultation with us to learn how to improve your business.

 

 

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