On 30 November, Figaro Digital welcomed a veritable army of marketers and thought-leaders to the Royal College of Physicians for the Autumn Digital Marketing Conference, to discuss the latest trends and surprises that are shaping the digital sphere. In a day packed with insights, from the future of AI in marketing; to “de-fluffing” your social media strategy; to in-depth panel discussions on customer-centricity, marketers from around the UK were treated to a brilliant and varied spread of knowledge. Here are some of the top takeaways from the day.
5 Ways To Know Your Competitor’s Audience Better Than They Do
When looking for inspiration to maximise your audience outreach, it pays to take a look at what your competitors are doing, what might and might not be working for them, and how their strategies differ to yours. Elizabeth De Freitas, digital consultant, Hitwise, shared some of the methods for getting to know exactly what your potential customers want, and how you can shape your offering to draw in those new leads. “Who [is] that audience you’re trying to go after? Not only can you know what they’re interested in, but you can also find out what questions they ask, what products they’re looking for.” Learn from your most successful competition, compare your results with the wider industry, and unlock incredible hidden market opportunities.
Marketers, Watch Your Back: Here’s An AI That Can Write Better Email Subject Lines Than You…
While AI might not be the great threat to marketers’ jobs it was once hailed to be, Parry Malm, CEO, Phrasee, explained that although it’s not yet capable of replacing the creative talent of a human marketing team, it does have an impressive capacity for generating short form content, namely email subject lines. In an interactive presentation, the audience were put to the test to identify the human-written subject line, the results were surprising. “You no longer have to guess who is right and make presumptions about your audience which may or may not be true[…] Ultimately language has a huge role in marketing. We’ve always relied upon gut feel, but that can be wrong.” By removing human bias, you can make sure that those short, attention grabbing statements are scientifically engineered to give the result you want.
Connecting The Physical To The Digital
Miles Lewis, senior vice president, Shazam, took us on a journey back in time to the millennium, and how Shazam was able to capitalise on the acceleration of technology to connect marketing communications to mobile. Sixteen years on, the brand has moved into visual, allowing consumers to connect with brands on yet another level. “The algorithms, the machine to machine approach that is taking over this digital marketing world, has become very difficult, because the same message doesn’t work for all of us […] If I want to discover, it’s down to me. And that’s the beauty of this connection we offer.” By enabling these connections to take place, Shazam have broken new ground for customer-brand interaction, creating more opportunities to engage than ever before.
A Practical Guide To Content Marketing Strategy For The B2B Business
B2B marketing still has some catching up to do with its content marketing strategies, right? Well, perhaps not. Giuseppe Caltabiano, VP marketing integration, Schneider Electric, dispelled that theory, explaining that a B2B content strategy can be approached with a lot of the same techniques as B2C, by considering buyer persona and efficiently mapping the content you produce. “Don’t go with an isolated approach, always be aligned with the existing brand strategy.” Just like B2C strategies, B2B marketing can have a great impact with carefully selected, “big rock” content. “More content doesn’t get more results,” says Caltabiano. Cherry-pick your best content, focus on the human element you are marketing to, and you’ll see great results.”