Digital Marketing Show overview
by Scott Agass Director
Posted on December 04, 2013
Last week we attended the Digital Marketing Show at Excel. This was the first exhibition hosted by the guys that publish Digital Marketing Magazine. As it was the first exhibition of its kind and offered some interesting speaker sessions and exhibitors we gave it a go and it seemed to be worthwhile.
We attended a few of the key seminars mainly involving content strategy, organic SEO, PPC and monetisation of mobile content. There were some really knowledgeable speakers on each subject and helped brainstorm ideas and strategies for our clients at NXT. One of the reasons we all love working within the digital environment is because it constantly changes and keeps us thinking.
Some of the key ideas we picked up were mainly around content marketing successes (a really useful presentation from the guys at the IDM and a few SEO agencies) and the changes to Google search i.e. Panda, Penguin,Venice and Hummingbird. It was good to learn that some of our best practise checklists we use are still important but we also picked up some useful new tips too. We've listed some key points below, should you like to discuss these further and how they could relate to your website, give us a call.
Content:
Content does not mean copy! Content can be anything but it must be relevant, timely and useful to visitors. Ideas for content generation should include; imagery, videos, white papers, guides or infographics. These however should not be sales orientated or overly “keyworded.”
Organic SEO:
Still one of the most important factors in driving organic SEO is earning links from credible sources that are related to your business or search terms. With the new amends to search, local content has had a greater emphasis paid to it, so make sure that title tags are specific to page location(s) as well as keywords. Also, if your using local content, make sure it’s personal to the local location. This could be in form of local links or personal information to that area. There is also more emphasis made on long tail search terms. One the statistics quoted that Google now is made up of 40% new search terms each year, i.e. users are using more and more unique search terms and Google is reflecting results to show websites that reflect this. Check out how it works.
Pay Per Click:
One of the big changes in paid search is the incorporation of reviews and feedback on products. Services such as Feefo and Trust pilot are increasing relied upon to differentiate products and with an active review base, it will help promote and reassure customers to click through to your products rather than competitors. If your working with B2C marketplace, use the Facebook exchange too, as this, in conjunction with a PPC campaign achieves the greatest ROI on CTR (click through rates).
Social:
Finally, the news we all knew was coming but Google + will have more and more emphasis placed upon it especially when it comes to organic search. At the moment, the key focus is for authoring content. You may have noticed when searching particular phrases, some articles and blogs may appear with the author’s picture/name. These are referencing G+ and the authors have linked their blog to their G+ profile. If you haven’t got an account, it's maybe time to build this into your social marketing mix.
There was loads more but time is precious, so give us a call to chat about it.
About the Author
Scott leads the team of NXT designers and is responsible for all pixels and margins that NXT send to clients. With a keen interest in all the emerging web design trends, Scott loves a great examples of responsive sites and great typography. If he's not waiting for Photoshop to open he can be found with his family in Fareham including the latest edition Teddy the Cockapoo or trying not to get injured playing Squash.