Three of the best talks at the Digital Marketing Show 2015
The Digital Marketing Show returned to the Excel for the third year running on 18 & 19th of November, and we at Pi Datametrics were there in force to make sure it was a good one.
Pi Datametrics Exhibit:
The event attracted approximately 8000 visitors, and 100 exhibitors from far and wide, and showcased leading marketing intelligence from brands and agencies across Europe.
The 7 stages:
Seven open-plan spaces provided a stage for 150 speakers over the course of the two days.
• Content Hub
• Search, Social and Mobile Theatre
• Digital Marketing Magazine Theatre
• Automated Email Marketing Theatre
• Affiliate Marketing Theatre Sponsored by Twist360
• Sales and Modern Marketing Theatre
• Demand Generation Theatre Sponsored by On24
For us the highlights were the three following talks:
1. Jon Earnshaw: SEO Conflict
At 1.00pm Jon Earnshaw (@jonearnshaw) presented he his talk on the effects of cannibalisation in the Search, Social and Mobile Theatre. Using the Pi Datametrics enterprise SEO platform, Jon showed how major companies such as EasyJet, Curry’s and Argos had dropped out of the SERPs, due to suffering from one of the four types of cannibalisation:
• Internal cannibalisation
• Subdomain SEO Conflict
• International Conflict
• Semantic Flux
Cannibalisation, as Jon explains, is all about duplicate content. Domains which share content will suffer from flux in the SERPs, as they’ll be competing for positions. Google won’t be able to differentiate between the two, so will alternately prioritise one at a given time.
Jon’s Conclusion:
• Monitor the visibility of your content daily
• Never be fooled by a straight line
• Always investigate suspicious flux
• Check for internal SEO cannibalisation first
• Let Google know which pages you want to return highest
• With subdomain conflict – re architect or agree ownership
• Be aware of semantic cannibalisation – it’s increasing
View Jon’s slides here:
Watch Jon’s talk on Cannibalisation from Brighton SEO:
Jam Packed:
Jon’s talk was one of the busiest in the Digital Marketing Show, with crowds of people cramming into the theatre to hear Pi Datametrics’ insights…
How Twitter reacted:
@jonearnshaw Hey Jon, great talk earlier on #content cannibalization! Can you share the doc you spoke about with me please? Cheers!
— Jamie Atkins (@jamiejohna) November 18, 2015
Awesome insight in into SEO by @jonearnshaw at the @DMSLDN particularly semantic flux. Most people aren’t even aware pic.twitter.com/U0N8iZS1QT — Jack Elkins (@JackElkins6) November 18, 2015
@jonearnshaw best talk of the #dms2015 so far! Thanks! #website #cannibalisation — Hannah Campbell (@HananaAlabama) November 18, 2015
@jonearnshaw @DMSLDN not something I work in at the mo but I really enjoyed it jon. Great delivery & examples — Tom Haycock (@TomHaycock) November 18, 2015
Worth watching at 1:00 at #dms2015 @jonearnshaw on social & mobile theatre (back right corner) — Dixon (@Dixon_Jones) November 18, 2015
2. The New Way to Webinar: Mark Bornstein
Another talk that caught our eye here at Pi was “The New Way to Webinar” by On24’s Vice President, Mark Bornstein (@4markb). Kicking off the day in the Demand Generation Theatre, Mark painted a picture of a new, multi-channel, hyper-engaged style of Webinar.
“Are your webinars presentations or conversations?” The New Way to Webinar: Great points made by @4markb pic.twitter.com/rPjTt7zOgK
— Pi Datametrics (@PiDatametrics) November 18, 2015
According to Mark, Webinar’s should be a “conversation” not just a “presentation”, and should include a range of the following features:
• Q & A
• Polling
• Instant chat
• Panel discussion/Informal chat between your company experts or clients
• Social sharing/integrating social media i.e. create a hashtag
Mark stated that Webinar’s work best as an informal panel discussion, as viewers feel more included, but suggested other forms, such as:
• Webcam vlogs
• Screenshare/recording video demos
• Interviews
This talk gave us some great ideas for future content!
3. Five Easy Steps to Mobile Success: Raja Saggi
Another fantastic Digital Marketing Show talk was presented by Google’s Raja Saggi (@rajasaggi), and was based around the biggest talking point of 2015: Mobile Search. Raja’s talk included some enlightening stats and takeaways.
30% of UK consumers check their smartphones within 5 mins of waking up @rajasaggi #DMS2015 #DMSLDN pic.twitter.com/cuOyUsS4GN
— Holly Lloyd (@HollyLloyd_) November 19, 2015
He began by defining 3 types of (mobile) website…
- Separate: Where desktop sites (i.e.: http://www.next.co.uk/) and mobile (http://m.next.co.uk/) are separate entities. M. sites are usually stripped-down, slower versions of the desktop site.
- Responsive: Where the same website is viewed on both desktop and mobile, but just adapts to different screens (i.e.: https://www.pi-datametrics.com/)
- Adaptive: Where the server detects the type of device trying to access the website (desktop, mobile or tablet) and loads the version of the site that’s optimized for that device.
…and moved on to talk about the importance of mobile apps as a way of communicating with customers:
“What you have in mobile is context. You could be here at a talk. You could be out at the movies. And for all of these contexts there are different ad formats. But still there are businesses not using these formats in the right way.”
Raja used the example of an innovative retail app from Guatemala which sends self-destructing, count-down promotional vouchers to customer’s phone via Wi-Fi, as they get closer to the store. The countdown number represents the % discount they’ll achieve when they reach the store. It’s highly interactive and creates urgency and exclusivity, which is a great recipe for conversion.
Hijack: Guetamalan promo app
According to Raja, there’s no such thing as ‘appearing above the fold’ on mobile, because people tend to scroll down a lot more than they do on desktop sites. There’s, maybe, a bit more opportunity to be noticed because of this, which is yet another reason why we should…