Despite the fact we were busy getting to know our new alien friend, the Mindgruve team was able to attend some amazing, informative, and insightful sessions at IDSD 2013. Check out some of our favorite takeaways from our day at the conference, which include best practices and musings from top thought leaders like Rand Fishkin of Moz and Dan Zarrella of HubSpot.
Rand Fishkin’s Tips for Marketing Through Nudges (Moz)
- Show social proof – It’s not just about how many subscribers you have, it’s about who they are
- Play the name game – Any brand should strive to be aspirational in its own unique industry. Choose your content accordingly! For example, “grow” is much more connective with consumers than “start.”
- Anchor your audience – When pricing your products or services, think about how your audience reads a page. Place the most expensive or comprehensive choice on the left, where they’ll see it first, and then work your way down as you move to the right.
- Limit choice – If a consumer has too many options, they’re likely to feel overwhelmed and not make any decision. A few straightforward, simple options work best.
- Remove unnecessary steps – No one likes to complete a ten-page process when the nitty gritty could have fit on two
- Nudge over time, not all at once – Test different initiatives for one project or product at different points in time. That way, you’ll get more targeted feedback and be able to apply your findings much more effectively – not to mention give your consumers what they really want.
Jeff Pabst’s Thoughts on Sharing (ShareThis)
- Mobile is the ultimate medium for sharing – You can tweet, post, text, and film from just about anywhere
- Sharing is all about relationships – We share to bring valuable, cool content to others, to define ourselves in social and professional circles, to build our relationships, to create word of mouth buzz, and to create self-fulfillment
- Content is the new currency – Everything from user-generated content to brand journalism can act as a “Central Bank” to create benchmarks for social content value
Danny Gray’s 6 Steps to Conversions (Google)
- Understand how mobile fits into the consumer journey – Mobile is a huge source of traffic and is only getting bigger. Make sure you know how your consumer uses mobile and apply your findings to your content and web properties
- Consider relevant conversions for consumer context – When building your sales funnel, refer to past analytics and demographic research to ensue you understand what it takes for your unique audience to convert
- Opt in to mobile ad extensions and formats – To be successful moving forward, every brand needs to make mobile a part of their overall strategy
- Optimize user experience on your website and app – Just because an app takes up a smaller screen does not mean the user experience should be sacrificed. Take the time to consider how your web content and interface will translate to an app and scale accordingly – what do you really need in there? What can you take out? If something isn’t fitting in, how can your make it work to be intuitive?
- Track conversions in Google AdWords – You’ll be able to get a clear snapshot of user behavior and content success to apply to future efforts
- Assign value to mobile actions and set bids and budgets to reflect – As with any ad content, don’t just go with the default bid. Make sure your investments reflect how your specific consumer interacts with mobile. If they’re not quite there, scale back and focus on desktop. Not sure? Experiment.
Dave Lavine’s Route to Native Advertising Success (Appssavvy)
- “’Native advertising’ is one of the most confounding phrases to captivate mindshare in the digital marketing arena… but stakeholders need to coalesce around definitions and best practices if we’re going to be able to drive the native movement to scale.”
- Empower brands to reach people where they take a natural break from content
- Go beyond standard placement – Native advertising doesn’t have to take place on a web advertorial or a sponsored post. Think about other digital real estate you can leverage so your content is easily consumed without interfering with the user experience. Since native is such a new space, your brand or agency could easily gain recognition as a pioneer with a unique idea.
- Native advertising should be looked at as an opportunity – Agencies are already spending on branded content. Why not make it integrate with the consumer experience?
Dan Zarrella’s Thoughts on Social Media and Email Marketing (HubSpot)
- Positivity is better than negativity. However, negativity is better than neutrality.
- When tweeting with links, try placing the link in the middle of your content, rather than at the end, to make it more interactive and engaging
- CTR in email and social marketing is dramatically higher on the weekend. Why? Because people actually have the time to peruse their inbox.
- The day with the most email unsubscribes is Tuesday. Many marketers have long been told it’s the ideal day to push content, which has created an oversaturation.
- Engaging in your fans’ conversations is important. However, it’s not the most important. You also need to focus on “listening” and creating relevant content.
- If 60-80% of your tweets contain links, that’s the “sweet spot” for follower engagement and CTR
Chad Robley, John Hartman, and Doug Hecht on the Digital Agencies of Today (Mindgruve, Piston, and Digitaria)
- Agencies are continually pushed to roll with the punches and develop along with, if not ahead of, the dynamic digital landscape. Shops who were once renowned for being great at one thing will now be sidelined if they don’t become more integrated. When they don’t offer a more robust suite of services to their clients, the client will move on to someone who will.
- Even if you have all of the top-of-the-line resources at your disposal, they mean nothing if you don’t have a solid strategy. Your ideas will build and maintain relationships with your clients, not your tools.
- Although agency life revolves around technology, it’s inexcusable to ignore face time with clients. Client relationships are one thing that shouldn’t go all-digital.
- Make sure you can picture life with your clients for the long haul, and vice versa. When you’re interacting every day, you want to have a comfortable and open rapport.
- It’s up to the agency to push a client out of their comfort zone. If you see an out-of-the-box campaign having major impact and ROI, but the client is hesitant to move forward, it’s your job to sell them on it.
- Clients are becoming more savvy and looking for increasingly sophisticated work from their agencies
What were some of your favorite IDSD moments? If you weren’t at the conference or just want to review, you can also check out full speaker decks on the Interactive Day San Diego blog.
