2019’s Digital Summit was jam-packed with all things marketing. With keynote speakers and marketing legends Rand Fishkin and Seth Godin, as well as a slew of other industry leaders presenting on a wide range of marketing trends and topics, I don’t even know where to start.

Let’s talk about information overload! The Digital Summit Detroit was two full days of learning, networking and absorbing all things marketing from September 25th-26th. In this post, I’ll break down what those two days looked like, as well as some of my key takeaways from the various sessions I attended (I took 50+ pages of notes!).

Digital Summit Detroit - Wednesday September 25th

I started the day off on Wednesday (Sept. 25th) attending Samantha Kermode’s workshop.

Move Content Through the Customer Journey with a Solid Content and Digital Marketing Strategy

Samantha is an awesome, inspiring and motivating speaker filled with knowledge about how to reach your customers through content and digital marketing.

She began the workshop by talking about strategy and content through social, search and video as well as mapping out a customer journey and building out customer personas. The customer journey looks like this: awareness > consideration > decision > advocacy.

In order to get your customers through their journey, you need to understand who your audience is, what your business goals are, and what your tactics are, such as creating content where there are gaps etc.

Key Takeaways:

The following is how much of your strategy you should pour into each stage of the customer journey:

50% Awareness Stage (Informational & Drives Traffic )
30% Consideration Stage (Lead Nurture & Lead Capture)
15% Decision Stage (Social, Retargeting, Chats, Testimonials)
5% Advocacy Stage (Paid Media)

Another important takeaway from her session was the governance of your team and following an acronym called RACi in order to move through your strategy and hold people accountable.

R - Responsible - Who is responsible?
A - Approver - Who is the approver of content/strategy?
C - Consulted - Who needs to be consulted?
I - Informed - Who needs to be informed?

As long as you have a solid team and solid strategy, more content = more success.

SEO

91% of consumers don’t click past page 1
53% of the websites visited are driven by organic

CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization)

CRO starts with measurement analysis and is focused around user experience vs. design. Below are actionable steps you can take on your site to boost CRO.

Add human images to sign-up pages
Add video
Button color matters
Use one simple CTA
Interactive content
Value propositions

Lead Nurture

Email is #1 across all age groups
Owned, paid, and earned audiences
A/B test email design, styles and CTA

10 Keys to Success

Build your own audience
Amplify your content (paid and organic)
Executive team must lead the way (show proof, data, set expectations, build trust, show competitors)
Foster a culture of content
Set up a strategy and share it
Optimize your content
Prioritize audience over brand
Nurture your leads
SMART goals
Implement!

Rand Fishkin - The Four Horsemen of the Web Marketing Apocalypse

Rand Fishkin’s opening keynote on day 1 was awesome! He spoke all about web and digital marketing.

He began by talking about how social is killing out-linking traffic. For example, Facebook is killing organic reach with their linking, you shouldn’t link out on Twitter or LinkedIn, instead link in a comment, and on Instagram, they are diminishing the visibility of “link in bio” posts.

He touches on discovering the true sources of audience influence by using surveys and going after areas where your competitors are not.

Key Takeaways:

66% of web referrals come from Google
More than half of Google searches end without a click (June 2019)
In 2019, Google sent 20% less organic clicks via searches
Make website and email lists the center of digital campaigns (passion and engagement trumps a broader reach!)
Make your website and email list the center of your marketing efforts…10 new email addresses and 100 new email addresses are both greater than 10,000 new followers
Focus on what is 100% yours before handing your money to Google/Facebook
Change approach to SEO - focus on fewer searches and more clicks
Create Flywheels for content marketing, PR and ads, and events and sponsorships

How to Leverage Digital & Strategic Partnerships to Reach New Audiences

Leverage partnerships can be difficult. This session was all about how to reach new audiences through social impacts like influencers, gaming, and fitness.

Key Takeaways:

Questions to ask yourself when leveraging partnerships and reaching new audiences:

Does it make sense?
Is the platform credible?
What is the likelihood of a conversion?

The Feng Shui of Modern Email

Did you know that email is the most popular smartphone activity? Jen Capstraw’s session was all about the feng shui of modern email and how to get those clicks and conversions.

Key Takeaways:

Steps to Feng Shui Email:

Clear the clutter - simplify headers, copy, eliminate menus, mirror link and preheaders
Concise copy is king - make it clear, direct and brief, use human language and make it personable with active voice (can you add “by zombies” after the verb?)
Quality, air and light - use white space and animations
Enhance wealth area - clean and bold CTAs, use buttons and white space

Implementing Action Steps to Grow and Perfect Your Personal Brand

Kristy Stanford, known as her brand Kristy Love, spoke about how to brand yourself, build relationships, and be consistent.

Key Takeaways:

Create a relatable brand story and identify something your audience wants

Ask questions
Be consistent - create everyday habits and make it a high priority
Always review priorities and strategies to make sure you are aligned with your brand goals and values

Defining the 5 Key Elements of Your Brand DNA

Adrion Porter is a great public speaker who broke down all things branding. He says, “your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.''

Key Takeaways:

5 Elements of Brand DNA:

Purpose - Why?
Positioning - Where? (category/Industry, target audience, how is it different from competitors?
Promise - What are you promising? (ex. Walmart. Save Money. Live Better.)
Personality - Who are you?
Identity - What makes you, you? (logo, recognition, style, recall)

Digital Summit Detroit - Thursday September 26th

I walked into day 2 of the Digital Summit with even more excitement than day 1.

Overcoming Content Overload: Marketing Tactics for 2020

The first session I attended was all about overcoming content overload by Paxton Gray, one of my favorite sessions of the summit.

Key Takeaways:

Look at search volume, suggested bid, and difficulty
Use tools like SpyFu, Ryte etc. to look at competitor keywords and run a semantic analysis to see how your keywords compare to everyone else’s
Use search data for SEO, PPC, content and UX design
Use follower data to get content ideas

The Purpose Behind Brand Purpose

Mona Lipson presented on the purpose behind brand purpose and spoke about being impactful and authentic through partnerships, not sponsorships.

Key Takeaways:

Find your social purpose:

Take a stand
Integrate impact across business and engage employees
Communicate in creative and impact-driven ways
Invest in issues beyond philanthropic donations
Build long-term partnerships, NOT sponsorships

How to Become a Thought Leader on LinkedIn

Another awesome session of the summit -- Ty Heath’s How to Become a Thought Leader on LinkedIn. She spoke about the importance of defining your niche and how being a thought leader builds trust.

Key Takeaways:

Share ideas and insights on all channels

Establish expertise, reinforce value
Tell network what you are working on
Invite collaboration and learning
Sharing your thoughts on trends keeps you visible
Share content from a different angle
Find out who is engaging with your content and how

Nurture Your Audience

S - Structure - Simplicity
C - Contrarian - Interesting Content
O - Ownable - Distinctive w/ Assets
R - Replication = Valuable
E - Expertise = Profitable

What Marketers Can Learn About Social Media from DJ Khaled and Drake

Another one of my favorite sessions of the Digital Summit - What Marketers Can Learn About Social Media from DJ Khaled and Drake with Carlos Gil.

Carlos states that connecting, engaging and socializing is much easier when you humanize your brand. It’s not about marketing anymore. It’s about moments.

Key Takeaways:

Facebook organic reach is dead. It’s a paid game now
Sell less and engage more
Less CTA and more content that can be shared
You are only as good as your last post
Relatable and real content builds trust
Instagram and Twitter act like real-time search engines
Community is king (not content) - without community, you have nothing, just noise
Social media never sleeps!
Be a savage and have a personality

Dennis Rodman - Special Appearance

Detroit’s special appearance, Dennis Rodman, got on stage and spoke all about personal branding and owning your success.

“I don’t need to like you to win. Hate me or love me as long as I’m doing my job that’s the most important thing.”

Seth Godin - This is Marketing

Marketing legend Seth Godin was our keynote speaker on day 2 and let me tell you, he’s so awesome!

One thing that really resonated with me during his session was his talk about authenticity vs. consistency. He says that trust is built with consistency, not authenticity.

Key Takeaways:

Don’t write for millions of people. Write for seven people. People want to click on something that’s about them, not about you

Consistency over authenticity
Make better things by making things better

Not only was his session awesome, but he opened it up to an audience Q&A.

I was shocked to receive a PERSONALIZED voice message from Seth’s team after the Summit thanking me for attending and posting about his session -- now that’s marketing done right!

Generating Brand Momentum by Turning Content into Commerce

James Royer had an interesting talk about Merrell and how to turn content into commerce using videos.

Key Takeaways:

Content and distribution strategy (which platforms?)
Sales overnight. Brand over time.
Stand out in a sea of sameness
Lead with organic
Be consumer obsessed
Align KPIs with the customer journey
Align assets to the marketing funnel
Repackage and reuse content

30+ Killer New Content Ideas in 30 Minutes

One thing I always find difficult as a writer...generating new content ideas. Sarah Rickerd’s session on 30+ Killer New Content Ideas in 30 Minutes definitely sparked some new content objectives.

Key Takeaways:

It’s not the medium that matters...it’s the message

Write about the experience, not just the product and its features

Stages of Marketing Funnel

Awareness > Drives Traffic
Evaluation > Generates Leads
Purchase > Revenue
Post-Purchase > Referrals

Questions to Ask for Content Ideas

What are your customer’s pain points?
What gaps exist when it comes to knowledge in your industry?
Can you comment on future trends?
How do customers benefit from product/service?
What do customers need to know from you to get their first moment of value as soon as possible?

How Neuromarketing is Changing Brand Marketing

This session with Nina Stanley was one of the most intriguing sessions of the Summit because it involves neuroscience and how the brain functions, which are things we as marketers don’t really think about.

Neuromarketing uses applied neuroscience to collect emotional data to predict emotional connections and navigate decision-making.

She showed us something called gaze pattern analysis which showed what an audience looked at. The slide displayed a heat map of 3 social posts that showed where the audience’s eyes went on the picture according to their brain functionality and emotional connections (no one looked at the brand or name).

Key Takeaways:

Predict emotional reactions
Be conscious of the subconscious - real decision making happens in the subconscious before you’re even aware
Understand the influence of bias
Understand the emotional brain

Get Scrappy: Smarter Digital Marketing for Businesses Big and Small

Get scrappy! Nick Westergaard closed out the Digital Summit with a session on how to get scrappy and get smarter when it comes to digital marketing.

Key Takeaways:

Brains before budget
Be efficient and effective
See ideas everywhere
Create a map and share it
Follow your digital compass
Do more with less
72% of people prefer email
28% higher open rate for those using social and email
Simplify for the long haul
Measure what matters

That’s a wrap! I learned so much information at this Digital Summit, I can’t wait to apply it all! Oh yeah…and I also won a pair of AirPods. Does that make me cool now?

Thank you Digital Summits for putting on such a great marketing conference!

Connect with me on LinkedIn!