Last week our team attended Interact17 at The Ohio Union in Columbus, Ohio. The digital marketing conference was packed with inspiring speakers from the industry who shared insights on topics ranging from social media to web design.
Here’s a look at what our team learned during the presentation and workshops.
The Age of Experience – John Fimiani
Digital marketing is now customer-centric, making customer experience top priority when it comes to optimizing the digital space. Fimiani talked about his “Five Ring” strategy and how it ensures digital excellence by providing a seamless, intuitive experience for the customer.
Our biggest takeaway: By 2020 85% of relationships with enterprises will take place without humans.
The Journey to a Better Bar Graph – Daniel Orbach
Well-designed data visualization often conjures images of complex charts, whose beauty lies in the dense texture of the data they bring to life. However, these visualizations are often lacking when it comes to being easily read and consumed. In this talk, Daniel shared how to meet in the middle by visualizing information in an intuitive, but also beautiful way.
Our biggest takeaway: We should question context more. When creating graphs or charts make sure the person using the data knows what they are seeing as well as what they are not seeing. Consume critically, create thoughtfully.
Back to the Future – Jeff Blankenburg
Blankenburg put into perspective all the tech predictions from Back to the Future 2 to analyze our current and in-progress technological advances. From self-driving cars to smart fridges, Blankenburg showed the attendees what will continue to improve and what will most likely be unnecessary as the years go by.
Our biggest takeaway: Knowing which devices will be used in the future can help us strategize how to convey information to our audiences.
How to Build Data-Driven Personas You’ll Actually Use – Mary Garrick
Persona-driven strategy is effective, there’s no doubt about it — but can you confidently say you’re building personas that have life beyond your strategy? In this session, Brand Director Mary Garrick shared the best places to mine meaningful data and show real examples of how personas improve the content development process.
Our biggest takeaway: Revisit and refine your personas often.
Who Invented the Millennial? – Tim Hwang
We’ve all heard of the Millennials and have strategized how to target them…but who invented them? Who invented generations? According to Hwang, marketers were responsible for the idea behind generations and each had two important defining factors. In the 1950s when the need for a specific target audience was imminent, the “teenager” generation was first used.
Our biggest takeaway: Much like the previous generations, Millennials serve a purpose for the marketing industry. We need to understand the key defining factors of a generation to know how to target them successfully.
Bursting Data Bubbles – Annie Cushing
Cushing is an expert in data organization and iterates that not having a strategy could cost businesses a lot of time and money. During her keynote, she provided insights on APIs, data aggregators and data dashboards.
Our biggest takeaway: Marry all your data sources into one dashboard to save time and ensure consistency.
Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook Video Strategies for Marketing Your Business – Carlos Gil
The evolution of social media is inevitable, which is why a company should always be anywhere the audience is. Gil talked about the importance of using video on social media and how to properly market key audiences when organic reach is “dead.” He also encourages business to not be afraid of using Snapchat as part of their marketing strategy; even if it’s not another social network to sell.
Our biggest takeaway: Companies need to be present in the social networks that their audience is. Video is taking over the way people digest information, which means that in the next few years marketing strategies should be mostly comprised of movable content. Also, Snapchat and Instagram are predicted to be the top used social networks in the next decade.
Mastering the Micro-Moments – Scott Mowery
Scott shared the importance for brands to be visible and relevant during the micro-moments in the consumer’s journey so they can make an informed decision.
Our biggest takeaway: Be there. Be useful. Be quick. When it comes to mobile, speed wins. Anticipate people’s needs and use keywords to help them find your content.
A Content-Driven Approach to Conversion Optimization + How Your Content Inspires Your Visitors to Act – Andy Crestodina
Google Analytics guru, Andy Crestodina, was the final speaker at the conference. During his presentation, he talked about building better conversion “mousetraps.” According to him, conversion goal success depends on factors such as answers to potential questions, evidence shown, color scheme, CTAs, and amount of distractions.
Our biggest takeaway: We are all “feeling machines” that sometimes think. Provide testimonial and proof data on websites to answer questions and establish trust.
Our MJ2 team was well-represented at this year’s Interact17. We look forward to sharing our findings across all our accounts.
