The Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia was buzzing with marketing professionals on July 31 and August 1, 2018, and 3 members of the Boom team were in the mix!
For the second year in a row, we had the opportunity to attend Digital Summit, a digital marketing conference held in various locations throughout the country.
During the conference, an array of experts presented innovative strategies for getting ahead in the world of SEO and digital marketing. Since this world is constantly changing, it’s important to refresh our knowledge, so we can implement the best possible strategies for our clients.
Our 5 Favorite Tips from Digital Summit 2018
1. Don’t go to the hospital in the afternoon. We know this doesn’t sound like something you would hear at a marketing conference, but…if you can help it, avoid going to the hospital in the afternoon! From author and behavioral science researcher Dan Pink, we learned that hospital employees make the most mistakes during this time of day, and hand-washing also tends to decline. In fact, it’s an almost universal truth that things go downhill after lunch.
If our daily mental capacity and focus were a line graph, the line would start high in the morning, during your peak; then dip down in the afternoon, during the trough; then pick back up at evening, when most of us have a recovery period when our mood and productivity increases. If you’re like most people, you’re most analytical in the morning, best suited for administrative tasks in afternoon, and provide the best insights in the late afternoon/evening.
2. Tailor your social content. Social media channels are not one-size-fits-all. Facebook has the most monthly users, followed by YouTube. Facebook also has the most engagement, while Instagram has the second most. Then there are differences in the way the content is delivered. Twitter is high-volume, short bursts of texts, while Instagram is all about engaging images. And did you know that 90% of Instagram users are under 35?
Considering this type of insight is helpful when it’s time to plan the content for the different platforms. Every social network has its own tone, and keeping your audience in mind can help you get the most out of each platform.
3. Engage on Facebook. When you post on Facebook, keep your eyes peeled—see if anyone comments back! And if they do, be sure to engage them. Facebook’s algorithms value posts that get more engagement. For best results, like and reply individually to each comment you receive on every post. This is a trick we learned from Carlos Gil’s (Gil Media Co) presentation on Facebook algorithm changes.
4. Tell a story. When we market a service or product, there’s a tendency to just spout off all the reasons why it’s such a great buy, thereby engaging in “feature telling.” From Patricia Christiansen, global product marketing manager at Siemens Healthcare, we learned that when people purchase a product or service, what they’re really buying is an experience, so it’s a good idea to move from “feature telling” to “story selling.”
Think of your potential clients as characters, and your services as a story. Paint a vivid image using everything you have at your disposal: text, images, sound, and video. Create a conflict for your character, and show how your service is the resolution.
5. Test your ads! Of course you know that you should be testing your ads, but it’s always nice to have a reminder! Sometimes a simple switch of a photo or headline can make a world 
of difference in your campaigns, which is something Jeremy Hudgens of Genius Monkey talked about in his presentation on display ads. His example was the two ads shown here—while the one on the left had a higher click-through rate, the one on the right was bringing in more conversions.
And don’t forget, mobile responsiveness is absolutely key! That was also a key takeaway from last year’s Digital Summit.
