The 25 January 2018 saw digital marketers from around the country descend upon The Tower Hotel for the Figaro Digital Marketing Summit, a full day of presentations, roundtables, one-to-one meetings, and networking opportunities. Industry experts shared their insights and learned from each other in what was an interactive and informative day, making use of the opportunity to discuss their experiences with peers from an assortment of sectors. The latest digital marketing techniques and trends were covered, and a variety of inspiring case studies were shared, with brand marketers going back to their companies with plenty of new ideas and strategies to think about. Here, we take a look at the key takeaways from the #FigDigSummit.
The Essential Frameworks For Digital Marketing Glory
Simon Douglass, Founder at Curated, kicked things off by highlighting the need for digital marketers to set their companies proper goals, which was his reason for starting Curated: “I wanted to hone in on my client’s goals, and deliver a response to that particular goal.” He then talked through Curated’s three key frameworks for digital marketing success, beginning with the prioritisation matrix. This matrix is developed based on information given by a company, who list their best selling products, select a minimum of five business criteria, and allocate an opportunity score for each, with the scores indicating which products are most important. The prioritisation matrix can be used as a starting point from which gap analysis can be completed. This involves SEO-based keyword research to discover how customers are searching for products, manual searches to find what other content is available, and analysis of this content to discover editorial gaps, which can be then filled with new content. Simon’s third and final framework involved the best tactics to use in PPC campaigns, and he outlined Curated’s seven steps to producing a successful paid advertising campaign.
Find Simon’s presentation here.
Deliver A Data Driven Strategy Using Customer Intent Trends
“The biggest opportunity in marketing is still the amount of customer data we have from search,” began Sophie Moule, Head of Marketing at Pi Datametrics, who continued that “anticipating customer needs should be the main purpose of any marketer and the foundation of any good marketing strategy.” She used examples from the beauty and fashion retail industries, which can be converted to any business in any sector, to explain why customer trends should be used as customer research data. Trends are discovered by looking at search volume, and the data is made more useful by establishing the commercial value of the searches. Patterns can be spotted and analysed to help predict future trends, allowing companies to put preparatory measures in place such as increasing stock levels for periods of high demand. Sophie went on to show how customer intent trends can be used to build strategies, with Pi Datametrics using an approach they describe as “plan, influence, peak, repeat.” She recommended integrating customer data with other marketing datasets to get a truer view of customer intent, to identify any external factors that may be affecting trends. Sophie concluded by highlighting the importance of putting search data at the start of marketing strategies, instead of trying to fit it in retrospectively to content you have already created.
Find Sophie’s presentation here.
Delivering Truly Personalised Experiences
Acquia’s Senior Solutions Architect Simon Chapman looked into why “understanding customer journeys is exceptionally important,” and how properly understanding their journeys enables you to personalise their experience and influence their behaviour. He began by pointing out that “where you have a clear, omni-channel strategy, where you can engage with customers, you can retain them, and ultimately it compares very favourably against people that don’t have a clear engagement strategy.” He broke it down into four key questions marketers should be asking themselves: Do you have a view of who your customers are? Do you know where your customers are in their journey? Are you driving any customer engagement strategies to move them along their journeys? And do you have any success metrics or goals that you are trying to achieve? Simon outlined how thinking carefully about the different touchpoints of the customer journey means they can be targeted in a variety of ways that are personalised to match their individual characteristics. He rounded off by explaining how important it is for customers to be captured at the right moment when they are about to take action, that they always receive relevant messages, that they get the best experience at every touchpoint, and that they are understood well enough to be influenced in the future.
Find Simon’s presentation here.
How To Use Word Of Mouth And Trust Marketing
Up next was Tim Boughton, CTO and Co-Founder at Mention Me, who spoke about the importance of trust marketing: “the amount of trust that customers have in your brand is directly related to how strong your brand is.” He highlighted the proven benefits that trust brings to a company, with higher levels of engagement, higher repeat rates, and a greater likelihood of customers to spend more often. Tim also looked into referral marketing and shared Nielson research which showed that referral as a channel is much more trusted than other channels, with traditional channels being in decline and no longer as relevant as they used to be. The simple way to increase trust in your brand and subsequently drive referrals lays with ensuring your brand is trustworthy, by delivering good quality and value, excellent customer service, speedy delivery and an uncomplicated returns process. Tim listed Mention Me’s three P’s of referral marketing success: the practicalities of how you run the programme, the psychology of how you understand your customers and leverage their trust, and how widely you promote referral to your customers. He finished by going through case studies from brands who have enjoyed success with referral marketing campaigns.
Find Tim’s presentation here.
The Science Behind Subject Line Testing: Find Your Sweet Spot
Phrasee’s CCO Stefan Britton spoke about the importance of subject line optimisation, to gain more opens, more clicks, and more revenue. Stefan explained how Phrasee use AI to develop subject lines by educating AI algorithms with a brand’s language: “you’ve got the unlimited imagination of a copywriter with artificial intelligence, but every single subject line will always sound not only like it’s coming from a human, but from a human in your marketing department.“ He then outlined how the language used in your subject line elicits a particular sentiment from your audience, and that by acknowledging this you can ensure you don’t repetitively deliver messages using the same type of emotional language, as your audience will begin to disengage. Stefan shared some important lessons on how to properly test your subject lines using experimental methodology, and recapped with an important reminder, that while segmentation is a huge trend at the moment, and is indeed a valuable tool, ultimately the most important thing about your email is the message.
Find Stefan’s presentation here.