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Our Key Takeaways from Content Marketing World 2021

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Screens from Content Marketing World.

Content Marketing World has once again come and gone and, of course, did not disappoint!  This year we chose to participate virtually so that the entire Team MJ2 had the opportunity to “attend,” with Lisa Moore taking the lead in organizing all the sessions. 

Content Marketing World at MJ2.

A benefit of attending the event virtually is that many of the sessions are still available for viewing and will play a role in our ongoing continuing education. While we are still learning from Content Marketing World, Team MJ2 has a few key takeaways that we will utilize as we prepare for 2022.

  • Megan James, Owner/President

“I thought the session on “Art of the Pivot” from American Express (Courtney Colwell, Director)  was especially helpful to our brand.  I like the terms they use to describe many of the things we do, and gave thoughtful tips on how to repurpose or reimagine content, which we implemented almost immediately for our clients.”

  • Faith Saxton, Social Media Specialist + Designer

Jay Baer, Customer Experience and Marketing Expert notes that 88% of marketers have changed their content strategy since the pandemic. The fact is that while customer experience has always been important, it’s more important now than ever because people are making decisions based on perceived safety and speed.

  • Lisa Moore, Director, Content and Social Marketing

Adele Revella of Buyer Persona Institute was insightful and provided easy-to-implement strategies in collecting buyers insights for content planning and messaging. She talked about including interviews with sales you’ve lost to understand how to capture those opportunities. 

  • Erica Newell, Senior Social Media Specialist

My favorite session was also The Art of the Pivot by Courtney Colwell, Director of Content American Express. One of her tips was to “design for one, optimize for many.” She gave specific examples of how they repurposed a video into a podcast, article, pull quotes, and more. This was a great reminder on how we can repurpose content for our clients and I loved seeing it implemented by a large company like American Express.  

  • Jenn Dring, Digital Content Director

It’s all about the story! Ann Handley shared “The Art of Storytelling: Telling True Stories Well,” during which she warned about the perils of focusing only ‘company-centric’ messaging. The true hero of your story? Your customer. Your content should be about them and how your product and services can help them become the hero of their own story.

  • Andrew Bash, Director + Website and Production Management

I enjoyed Ann Handley’s presentation, “The Art of Storytelling”. We often talk about brand stories, but marketers don’t always stop to think about how real storytelling techniques can apply to sales. It was enlightening to see how we can pull elements from something like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and apply them to our marketing storytelling. As Ann said, “Stories add context, context adds value.”

  • Iris Zwirn, Digital Marketing Intern

The Birds of a Feather Visual Storytelling was interesting and informative for our goals here at MJ2 Marketing. Visual storytelling is imperative for creating content in today’s digital marketing age. Using visuals to explain a story is an easily digestible way for an audience to consume information. 

  • Jordan Roth, Web Developer + SEO Specialist

I learned a lot from The Role of Data in Content Creation discussion. It was interesting to hear a variety of ways that agencies are using data to make smart content decisions for their clients and how that impacts their ability to meet digital marketing goals.

If you are starting to plan your digital marketing efforts for 2022, we would love to chat. Connect with us to learn more about how we use the latest trends and best practices in digital marketing to help our clients grow their businesses.