On Friday Dan Harrison ran his second Soton Digital event in Winchester’s Discovery Centre. This local event brings together digital marketing professionals from across the region and this month we had five presentations to look forward to.
Here is a round up of the afternoon’s talks and key points from each speaker.
First up was Rich Watts who was discussing ways how developers and non developers can work together more efficiently.
Opening with a rather telling statistic – that only 1 in 5 digital projects are delivered on time and with a positive rating from the client – Rich explored the various skill sets and personalities of those involved in delivering a web project.
We looked at the history of projects, how individual roles have been defined over time and why a more flexible framework can yield greater success.
Communication was the key theme here. Rich explained how the different skills, expectations and motivation of the people involved (from designer to developer, SEO to project manager) can easily result in miscommunication and losing sight of the original project goal.
Rich discussed tips and ideas for improving channels of communication and overall team satisfaction. Communication is a two way thing; so give everyone the chance to speak and encourage greater responsibility at every stage of the project.
The second presentation was by James Perrin who was looking at how to create great content and the content marketing strategies used to make sure as many people as possible see it.
Picking the delightful Samantha Brick and her article ‘Why women hate me for being beautiful’ as an example; we looked at the staggering impact a piece of content can have in the digital age.
Prompting discussion, debate and rather more blunt opinions; this piece of content created a talking point and huge social media activity.
We also looked at the ‘Will it blend’ online marketing campaign which turned the relatively unknown ‘Blendtec’ into a household name. A series of videos featuring company founder Tom Dickson blitzing gadgets (yes they’ve done iPads) and other random objects caught the imagination and subsequently went viral.
Guest blogging is a practical and effective way of engaging with your target audience – creating content that is both relevant and appealing.
Take the time to understand what your audience wants and make the most of the social media data available from Google Analytics.
Next up was Murray Cowell with an interesting presentation about the future of email marketing and the threat from social media.
We watched a short video that was packed with enough facts and figures about the boom in social media to make any email marketer weak at the knees.
Then it was Murray’s turn to counter the myth that (according to Mark Zuckerberg in November 2011) ‘email is dead’ and restore some faith in the email marketing industry.
For example, the number of email accounts continues to rise and is predicted to reach a total of 4.5 billion by 2016. That’s a 40% increase over the next 4 years.
300 emails are sent for every Facebook post and as far as promotional material is concerned 77% of users prefer email as the main channel of communication.
It would appear that the majority of users want their social media content to remain just that and (if these stats are anything to go by) email marketing is very much alive and well.
Our very own David Colgate was next up, talking about “Cute Kittens & Retro Artwork: SEO & Pinterest”. He covered a whole bunch of actionable takeaways to get the most from Pinterest as a business tool. I won’t go into detail here as Dave is going to publish his own post.
Ross Chapman closed the day with his views and experience with video marketing, reiterating the point that if YouTube is the second biggest search engine in the world then video as a business tool deserves everyone’s attention.
Another interesting snippet from Ross is that while 20% of people will read the content on your website 80% will watch a video. He followed by describing how video can help humanise a brand by allowing and enabling an emotional connection- with Michael Dubin’s Dollar Shave Club being a great example. Another of its attributes is that video is so eminently shareable.
The statistic that really hit home about the value of video is this:
Visitors to retail sites stay an average of 2 minutes longer (the duration of a given video) and then go on to convert 64% better than visitors to non-video content.
Presentations & Speakers
Rich Watts | @rich_watts
Isn’t Ajax a football team?
James Perrin | @Koozai_James
How to make the world see your content
Murray Cowell | @MurrayCo
Video Killed the Radio Star – but will Social Media Kill Email Marketing?
Dave Colgate | @SEODave
Cute Kittens and Retro Artwork: Pinterest and SEO
Ross Chapman | @rosschapman
7 reasons why you can’t ignore video marketing
