You might think that after my post about the meshmarketing keynote, I’d find an afternoon of how-to sessions somehow less exciting. Not so! As much as I do try to keep up to date with trends and to-don’ts in digital marketing - I was really happy with the usefulness of the more hands-on, workshop style of the speakers in the afternoon.
Dan Martell, besides being a really energetic post-lunch speaker, was full of shareable ideas, real stories and tips for digital communications that aren’t always obvious. He opened with something that I have thought about every day since the conference: “Your website is NOT a brochure. It has the potential to operate as a 24-hour salesperson.” I’m curious about how far I could take this analogy (would you hire someone to represent your company if they dressed in polyester sweats … and you weren’t Adidas in the 70s)? Another post perhaps!
Martell says that instead of thinking of conversions as something you do after generating traffic and following up - that web marketers should turn the process around. Convert first, follow up and then begin your version of traffic-building and in-bound marketing. To do this well, you need to figure out what on your website is high value (and there better be something). Make it easy for people to ask you a question or get in touch. Follow up with everybody who engages with you and do it within 24 hours … because building an audience IS lead generation.
Another highlight from the afternoon was hearing Dharmesh Shah speak. Co-founder and CEO of Hubspot and author of OnStartups.com, he is self-deprecating, funny and full of extremely useful SEO and marketing tips for various platforms:
Blogs
- To brand or not? Company blogs are shared LESS.
- Blog post titles are for humans!
- Rarely shared: Product info, free trials, software documentation.
- Frequently shared: New market data, education content, top-notch content.
- Facebook Advertising: The cheapest form of market research on the planet.
- Fan pages are better than groups.
- The next wave of Facebook search is not for ex-girlfriends: It’s for local people-based services (real estate brokers, wedding photographers etc.) … built-in authenticity!
Twitter (Or How to Increase your Chances of Being Re-tweeted):
- Longer words are more likely to be re-tweeted (interesting because it’s non-intuitive).
- Use the word ‘please’ (but don’t abuse it).
- Tweet in the afternoon.
Shah jokes that when we send it, we call it ‘Direct Mail’ -- when we receive it, we call it ‘Junk Mail’. Remember that digital junk mail is even easier to filter out than the glossy paper that clogs our mailboxes. Make marketing about creativity and not cash. Good marketing doesn’t convince people just to buy - it convinces them to sell.
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Did you attend meshmarketing? What did you think?