Back at its new larger venue, the Brighton Centre, for the second time, the conference saw delegates from the South East and beyond come together for a day of networking, learning and talks.
PRG’s web designer Jack, and Digital Marketing Executive Jess attended the sell-out event to bring new marketing tips and tricks to PRG’s list of ever growing clients.
What did we learn?
The first session of the day for PRG’s Jess was about SEO in WordPress websites and SEO quick wins. Speakers included Lotty Chudley who spoke about persuading consumers to part with cash, closely followed by Laura Hogan who discussed quick SEO wins for marketers. Roxana Stingu concluded the session discussing SEO for WordPress and the use of the Yoast tool, including how marketers can increase optimisation beyond the plugin.
The second talk of the day for Jess was all about content. First up was Marcus Tober who told the busy auditorium why he believes content marketing and SEO should always be data driven. He stressed the importance of data, citing that 50% of data is irrelevant, and noted that content creators need quality data in order to ensure they create relevant content.
He continued by noting that marketers need to find differences and relationships between user intentions, as well as shed light on relevant topics. Marcus was also keen to point out that any old content with no traffic should be removed.
The second speaker in the content session was Tom Bennett who focussed his attention on Google Tag Manager. Tom told the room of attendees how they could transform their marketing efforts using the platform including measuring successes. Following Tom was Julia Ogden, who told the auditorium about her 8 step checklist for creating a show stopping distribution plan.
Julia noted that all campaigns need clear objectives, whether they were to generate brand awareness, concentrate on keyword rankings or create high quality links. She also spoke about the importance of available data and utilising it.
Julia’s talk also focussed on outreach and how making ready-made feature content for time poor journalists is a good tactic to gain press coverage for a campaign. She also suggested conducting surveys for unique data capturing and noted that many businesses should consider utilising video as Youtube has 69% of all consumer traffic and gets 1 billion unique visits each month, a stat beaten only by social media giant Facebook.
Following a morning of learning and information sharing, it was lunchtime, and the seaside plus hot weather obviously equalled ice cream for the PRG team.
After a sunny lunch break, Jess headed off to the SERPS (search engine results page) talks to hear the speakers discuss how to rank in the answer box, how to take advantage of Google and how to hack your SERPS using a lean approach. Marketers were reminded not to forget user intent and to address user’s needs. It was also noted that Google makes 600 + algorithm changes per year – some small and some more significant, so marketers should always remain aware of how these changes may affect their marketing strategies.
Armed with information about SEO, Jess headed off to her final session of the day. As Digital Marketing Exec, it was time for the paid social discussion. The speakers discussed some interesting stats in relation to Facebook: the channel has 1.49 billion active monthly users and 79% of total net users are on the social networking site. Six new profiles are created each second, totalling 500k per day! The speakers also discussed types of Facebook adverts and audiences, including which industries may best be able to utilise specific advert types.
Meanwhile, PRG’s web designer Jack attended the web related talks. Themes of the day included discussing how mobile first design should be the initial step in creating visual designs for any website as in 2017, over 61% of users use mobile phones to browse the internet. The web talks also discussed how e-commerce and service selling websites should focus on product reviews being displayed in order to encourage consumer trust.
Giving people a reason to come back to your website was also a hot topic for the day, with talks discussing the use of wish lists for product led services and the importance of a speedy site to keep visitors engaged. It was noted pages should be loading in under 2 seconds to ensure optimum user experience.
- Tags:
- Brighton SEO
- marketing
- SEO
- Sussex
- web design
