Tag: 2018 Midwest Digital Marketing Conference

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Sessions to Attend: #MDMC18 Bucket List

The Midwest Digital Marketing Conference, also known as MDMC18, is the largest digital marketing conference in the Midwest, which is going to take place at St. Louis’ Union Station on March 27 and 28, 2018. Going into its sixth year, the conference boasts more than 100 speakers from such companies as BuzzFeed, Facebook, HubSpot, LinkedIn, Google, GoDaddy, Nestle Purina, Monsanto, Yelp, and brings marketing professionals together from all over the US.
Being a full, two-day event, MDMC18 will feature more than 100 concurrent sessions across nine tracks, namely, Data, Digital Strategy, Entrepreneurship, Academic, Career, Creative, Innovation, Social Media, and Technology.
With such a variety of topics offered for discussion the choice which sessions to attend is not an easy one. Keeping that in mind, we decided to help MDMC18 attendees get the most out of their conference experience and advise which sessions might be beneficial for them to attend based on their professional role.

Role: Social Media Manager
For those who manage social media and deal with various social media platforms on a daily basis, here is our recommended bucket list.
Day 1, March 27th
9:40 – 10:30 am
○          Crisis at the Speed of Social, Cully Eisenberg, FleishmanHillard
○          Digital Content Creation – Art or Science?, Finola Austin, Refinery29
10:40 – 11:30 am
○          Combining Paid Social and Influencers to Drive Growth for Your Business, Steve Weiss, MuteSix
○          Mobile and Video Media Revolution, Kevin Murphy, DistroScale, Inc.
○          Massive Instagram Growth for Small Businesses, Stefani Pollack, Build Digital Marketing, and Scott Thomas, Grillin’ Fools, Inc.
1:00 – 1:50 pm
○          Livestreaming for Your Brand, Stephanie Liu
2:00 – 2:50 pm
○          Livestreaming Panel
○          Facebook Family Feud, Clayton Clark, Big Rush Marketing
○          How to Create Digital Videos that Drive Real Results, Tyler Kelley, SLAM!
3:10 – 4:00 pm
○          The Future of Visual Search, Raashi Rosenberger, Pinterest
○          Metrics That Matter: How to Show ROI On Your Social Media Marketing, Steph Nissen, Atomic Revenue
○          Social Media Crisis Management Panel
 
Day 2, March 28th
9:40 – 10:30 am
○          Why is Fewer and Bigger . . . Better on Facebook?, John Patten, Facebook, and Stephanie Harwin, Nestlé Purina
10:40 – 11:30 am
○          $4.6 Million, 24 Hours: Using Facebook Live to Raise Millions in Louisville, Chris Strub, I Am Here, LLC, and Cara Baribeau, Community Foundation of Louisville
○          Social Video: 5 Mistakes You’re Probably Making, Jeremy Corray, Coolfire Studios
1:00 – 1:50 pm
○          The Power of Full Funnel Content on LinkedIn, Rachel Rickles, LinkedIn
2:00 – 2:50 pm
○          The Secret LinkedIn Playbook to Generate High Quality Leads, Build Relationships, Pat Henseler, LinkedSelling
3:10 – 4:00 pm
○          AI Can Drive What We Buy: How Social Media is Changing Content and Commerce, Obele Brown – West, Weber Shandwick
○          #Ad Isn’t Enough: Laws Affecting Influencer And Social Media Marketing, Mark Sableman, Thompson Coburn LLP
 
Role: Vice President / Director
Below is the list of sessions we would recommend to those holding managerial positions and defining company’s strategy.
Day 1, March 27th
9:40 – 10:30 am
○          The Challenge of Becoming a Data-Driven Company, Sean Cotton, Coegi, and Matt Hertig, Alight Analytics
○          Level Up Your Marketing: Using Gamification to Enhance Marketing Campaigns, Mitch Canter, Vanderbilt University
○          Can Elephants Dance? Agile Marketing At Scale – CA’s Story, Yuval Yeret, AgileSparks
10:40 – 11:30 am
○          Marketing & Media: The Intersection, Aaron Perlut, Elasticity, and Jack Speer, NPR-Washington
○          The Future of Advertising, Ben Williams, Eyeo/Adblock Plus
○          Building A Digital Dream Team Panel
1:00 – 1:50 pm
○          The Price of Privacy, Ayana Miller, Privilgd
○          Mobile UX Case Studies – Mistakes, That Most Of The App Designers Make, Csaba Hazi, Webabstract
○          Avoid The Trappings That Lead Digital Teams Toward Failure Or Mediocrity, Kevin Farr, CNTRD
○          Live Podcasting Panel
2:00 – 2:50 pm
○          Livestreaming Panel
○          Why Can’t We Be Friends? A Modern Marketer’s Guide to Teaming With Sales, Sam Mallikarjunan, HubSpot
○          Turning Big Data to Shopper Experiences, Shaun Brown, Momentum Worldwide, and Steve Mackinnon, IBM Global Business Services
3:10 – 4:00 pm
○          Making The Case For Interactive Email, Heidi Olsen, and Cher Fuller, eROI
○          Ways to Leverage AdWords, Google Shopping, & YouTube for Full Funnel Growth, Brett Curry, OMG Commerce
○          Programmatic: The Quality Conundrum, Lindsey Freed, Centro
○          They Filled Out a Form; Now What? Drives Sales with Marketing Automation, Shane Freeman, Eureka Consulting Group
○          Social Media Crisis Management Panel
 
Day 2, March 28th
9:30 – 10:40 am
○          How to Supercharge Your Marketing with Competitive Intel, Ellie Mirman, Crayon
○          Building Brand Love in B2B, Jazzy Danziger, Atomicdust
○          Beyond The Tactics: Integrated Marketing Strategy For New Product Launch, Joe Duffin, Spry Digital
10:40 – 11:30 am
○          How To Get Fans To JOIN Your Brand, Andrew Cohen, Moosylvania
○          Your Brand Is A Hypothesis: Data Science & Creativity, James Campbell, Slalom
○          Facebook Advertising Panel
1:00 – 1:50 pm
○          What’s The Deal With Location-Based Marketing?, Matthew Davis, Reveal Mobile
2:00 – 2:50 pm
○          Visual Storytelling: Creating A True Connection With Your Content, Carl Reed, Lion Forge Comics
○          Harnessing Our Humanity: Shifting Perceptions With Employee Storytelling, Kim Clark, GoDaddy
3:10 – 4:00 pm
○          AI Can Drive What We Buy: How Social Media is Changing Content and Commerce, Obele Brown – West, Weber Shandwick
○          #Ad Isn’t Enough: Laws Affecting Influencer And Social Media Marketing, Mark Sableman, Thompson Coburn LLP
 
Role: Small Business Employee
Running a small business has its own benefits and challenges. Here are the MDMC18 sessions that we think would be beneficial for those working for small businesses.
Day1, March 27th
9:40 – 10:30 am
○          Crisis at the Speed of Social, Cully Eisenberg, FleishmanHillard
10:40 – 11:30 am
○          Massive Instagram Growth for Small Businesses, Stefani Pollack, Build Digital Marketing, and Scott Thomas, Grillin’ Fools, Inc.
○          Combining Paid Social and Influencers to Drive Growth for Your Business, Steve Weiss, MuteSix
○          The Echo Chamber: How Content Is Ruining The World And What We Can Do To Fix It, Kasim Aslam, Solutions 8
1:00 – 1:50 pm
○          12 Principles Of Viral Content, Ryan McCready, Venngage
○          Live Podcasting Panel
2:00 – 2:50 pm
○          Livestreaming Panel
○          Facebook Family Feud, Clayton Clark, Big Rush Marketing
○          2018 Hiring And Compensation Trends, Elizabeth Ledbetter, The Creative Group
○          How to Create Digital Videos that Drive Real Results, Tyler Kelley, SLAM!
3:10 – 4:00 pm
○          They Filled Out a Form; Now What? Drives Sales with Marketing Automation, Shane Freeman, Eureka Consulting Group
○          Social Media Crisis Management Panel
 
Day 2, March 28th
10:40 – 11:30 am
○          $4.6 Million, 24 Hours: Using Facebook Live to Raise Millions in Louisville, Chris Strub, I Am Here, LLC, and Cara Baribeau, Community Foundation of Louisville
○          Social Video: 5 Mistakes You’re Probably Making, Jeremy Corray, Coolfire Studios
○          The Blogger’s Mindset – Find Topics, Write Faster, And Reach More People, Mike Alton, The Social Media Hat
○          Facebook Advertising Panel
1:00 – 1:50 pm
○          Why You Need To Optimize Your Video Content For Mobile, Elizabeth Giorgi, Mighteor
○          Branding While Broke, Keisha Mabry
○          Search Snippets: How To Create Content That Targets Spot No. 0 in Google, Jared Reed, Pan Galactic Digital, LLC
2:00 – 2:50 pm
○          Effective Advertising: The Keys To A Great Creative, Elizabeth King, Nielsen
○          The Secret LinkedIn Playbook to Generate High Quality Leads, Build Relationships, Pat Henseler, LinkedSelling
○          Harnessing Our Humanity: Shifting Perceptions With Employee Storytelling, Kim Clark, GoDaddy
3:10 – 4:00 pm
○          Making Digital More Human, Eliot Frick, Bigwidesky
○          Next Level Native With BuzzFeed, Phil Cara, Buzzfeed
○          Improving Your SEM Campaign To Reach Your Goals Panel
 
Role: Enterprise Employee
Working for a big company has its own peculiarities. We recommend the following MDMC18 sessions for those working for enterprises.
Day 1, March 27th
9:40 – 10:30 am
○          The Challenge of Becoming a Data-Driven Company, Sean Cotton, Coegi, and Matt Hertig, Alight Analytics
○          Level Up Your Marketing: Using Gamification to Enhance Marketing Campaigns, Mitch Canter, Vanderbilt University
○          Can Elephants Dance? Agile Marketing At Scale – CA’s Story, Yuval Yeret, AgileSparks
○          Crisis at the Speed of Social, Cully Eisenberg, FleishmanHillard
10:40 -11:30 am
○          Combining Paid Social and Influencers to Drive Growth for Your Business, Steve Weiss, MuteSix
○          Poetry Is The One Simple Hack To Increase Creativity, Shawn Pfunder, GoDaddy
○          Massive Instagram Growth for Small Businesses, Stefani Pollack, Build Digital Marketing, and Scott Thomas, Grillin’ Fools, Inc.
○          Building A Digital Dream Team Panel
1:00 – 1:50 pm
○          The Price of Privacy, Ayana Miller, Privilgd
2:00 – 2:50 pm
○          2018 Hiring And Compensation Trends, Elizabeth Ledbetter, The Creative Group
○          Turning Big Data to Shopper Experiences, Shaun Brown, Momentum Worldwide, and Steve Mackinnon, IBM Global Business Services
3:10 – 4:00 pm
○          Digital Storytelling: How Brands Can Better Understand Their Consumer Through Underground Blogs, Cami Thomas, FTCTV
○          Social Media Crisis Management Panel
 
Day 2, March 28th
9:40 – 10:30 am
○          Data Driven Conversion Optimization, Sara Kear, Adept Marketing
○          Marketing Trends: Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Craig Rutkowske, SAS
○          Building Brand Love in B2B, Jazzy Danziger, Atomicdust
○          Beyond The Tactics: Integrated Marketing Strategy For New Product Launch, Joe Duffin, Spry Digital
10:40 – 11:30 am
○          Is Your Brand Ready For AI, IoT And The Sonic Revolution?, Gabe Tartaglia, Pandora
1:00 – 1:50 pm
○          The Power of Full Funnel Content on LinkedIn, Rachel Rickles, LinkedIn
2:00 – 2:50 pm
○          Harnessing Our Humanity: Shifting Perceptions With Employee Storytelling, Kim Clark, GoDaddy
○          Making Effective Data Visualization Is A Key Marketing Skill, Kaiser Fung, Principal Analytics Prep
3:10 – 4:00 pm
○          Next Level Native With BuzzFeed, Phil Cara, Buzzfeed
○          AI Can Drive What We Buy: How Social Media is Changing Content and Commerce, Obele Brown – West, Weber Shandwick
 
 
Role: Non-profit Employee
How does working for a non-profit organization differ from working for a for-profit company? Despite utilizing similar tools, marketing professionals build different strategies, target different audiences and employ tactics specific for the non-profit sector. Here is the list of MDMC18 sessions that we recommend to those employed by non-profits.
Day 1, March 27th
9:40 – 10:30 am
○          Social Media for Non-Profits Panel
○          Digital Content Creation – Art or Science?, Finola Austin, Refinery29
○          Massive Instagram Growth for Small Businesses, Stefani Pollack, Build Digital Marketing, and Scott Thomas, Grillin’ Fools, Inc.
10:40 – 11:30 am
○          Poetry Is The One Simple Hack To Increase Creativity, Shawn Pfunder, GoDaddy
○          Data Driven Video – Your Unfair Advantage: Bringing Data to the Entire Marketing Funnel, Tony Yi, Videology Group
○          Mobile and Video Media Revolution, Kevin Murphy, DistroScale, Inc.
1:00 – 1:50 pm
○          12 Principles Of Viral Content, Ryan McCready, Venngage
○          Live Podcasting Panel

2:00 – 2:50 pm
○          Livestreaming Panel
○          Facebook Family Feud, Clayton Clark, Big Rush Marketing
3:10 – 4:00 pm
○          Social Media Crisis Management Panel
○          Digital Storytelling: How Brands Can Better Understand Their Consumer Through Underground Blogs, Cami Thomas, FTCTV
 
Day 2, March 28th
9:40 – 10:30 am
○          Why is Fewer and Bigger . . . Better on Facebook?, John Patten, Facebook, and Stephanie Harwin, Nestlé Purina
10:40 – 11:30 am
○          $4.6 Million, 24 Hours: Using Facebook Live to Raise Millions in Louisville, Chris Strub, I Am Here, LLC, and Cara Baribeau, Community Foundation of Louisville
○          Social Video: 5 Mistakes You’re Probably Making, Jeremy Corray, Coolfire Studios
○          Facebook Advertising Panel
1:00 – 1:50 pm
○          Why You Need To Optimize Your Video Content For Mobile, Elizabeth Giorgi, Mighteor
○          Branding While Broke, Keisha Mabry
○          Search Snippets: How To Create Content That Targets Spot No. 0 in Google, Jared Reed, Pan Galactic Digital, LLC
2:00 – 2:50 pm
○          Effective Advertising: The Keys To A Great Creative, Elizabeth King, Nielsen
○          Harnessing Our Humanity: Shifting Perceptions With Employee Storytelling, Kim Clark, GoDaddy
3:10 – 4:00 pm
○          #Ad Isn’t Enough: Laws Affecting Influencer And Social Media Marketing, Mark Sableman, Thompson Coburn LLP
○          Making Digital More Human, Eliot Frick, Bigwidesky
○          Next Level Native With BuzzFeed, Phil Cara, Buzzfeed
 
Role: SEO/SEM Managers
MDMC18 offers a number of sessions for those working with SEO and SEM. Here is the list.
Day 1, March 27th
9:40 – 10:30 am
○          Digital Content Creation – Art or Science?, Finola Austin, Refinery29
10:40 – 11:30 am
○          Mobile and Video Media Revolution, Kevin Murphy, DistroScale, Inc.
1:00 – 1:50 pm
○          How To Befriend Google & Win!, Chris Brewer, Online Marketing Giant and OMG Commerce
2:00 – 2:50 pm
○          Turning Big Data to Shopper Experiences, Shaun Brown, Momentum Worldwide, and Steve Mackinnon, IBM Global Business Services
 
Day 2, March 28th
9:40 – 10:30 am
○          Data Driven Conversion Optimization, Sara Kear, Adept Marketing
○          Marketing Trends: Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Craig Rutkowske, SAS
○          The Future Of Mobile, Stephanie Cox, Lumavate

10:40 – 11:30 am
○          How To Win At And With SEO, Dave Rohrer, NorthSide Metrics
○          Is Your Brand Ready For AI, IoT And The Sonic Revolution?, Gabe Tartaglia, Pandora
1:00 – 1:50 pm
○          Search Snippets: How To Create Content That Targets Spot No. 0 in Google, Jared Reed, Pan Galactic Digital, LLC
○          Content Development Panel
2:00 – 2:50 pm
○          Mapping Your Digital Footprint, Juntae Delane, Digital Branding Institute
3:10 -4:00 pm
○          Improving Your SEM Campaign to Reach Your Goals Panel
 
Role: Entry Level Professionals
For those conference attendees who are making their first steps in digital and social media marketing MDMC18 recommends attending the sessions listed below.
Day 1, March 27th
9:40 – 10:30 am
○          Crisis at the Speed of Social, Cully Eisenberg, FleishmanHillard
○          Digital Content Creation – Art or Science?, Finola Austin, Refinery29
10:40 – 11:30 am
○          Poetry Is The One Simple Hack To Increase Creativity, Shawn Pfunder, GoDaddy
○          Mobile and Video Media Revolution, Kevin Murphy, DistroScale, Inc.
1:00 – 1:50 pm
○          12 Principles Of Viral Content, Ryan McCready, Venngage
○          Live Podcasting Panel
○          The Price of Privacy, Ayana Miller, Privilgd
2:00 – 2:50 pm
○          What They Say vs What We Hear: Translating Business For Creatives, Douglas Davis, New York City College of Technology
○          2018 Hiring And Compensation Trends, Elizabeth Ledbetter, The Creative Group
○          How to Create Digital Videos that Drive Real Results, Tyler Kelley, SLAM!
3:10 – 4:00 pm
○          Social Media Crisis Management Panel
 
Day 2. March 28th
9:40 – 10:30 am
○          Marketing Trends: Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Craig Rutkowske, SAS
○          Why is Fewer and Bigger . . . Better on Facebook?, John Patten, Facebook, and Stephanie Harwin, Nestlé Purina
10:40 – 11:30 am
○          Social Video: 5 Mistakes You’re Probably Making, Jeremy Corray, Coolfire Studios
○          The Blogger’s Mindset – Find Topics, Write Faster, And Reach More People, Mike Alton, The Social Media Hat
○          Facebook Advertising Panel
1:00 – 1:50 pm
○          Branding While Broke, Keisha Mabry
○          Search Snippets: How To Create Content That Targets Spot No. 0 in Google, Jared Reed, Pan Galactic Digital, LLC
○          Content Development Panel
2:00 – 2:50 pm
○          Making Effective Data Visualization Is A Key Marketing Skill, Kaiser Fung, Principal Analytics Prep
○          Personal Branding Panel-Creating And Applying A Successful Personal Brand
3:10 – 4:00 pm
○          Making Digital More Human, Eliot Frick, Bigwidesky
○          Next Level Native With BuzzFeed, Phil Cara, Buzzfeed
Check the full conference schedule here.

 

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Turn Marketing Data Into A Business Advantage With Matt Hertig At #MDMC18


Matt Hertig is the CEO, CTO and co-founder of Alight Analytics – an analytics consultancy which works with such brands as the Memphis Grizzlies, AMC Theatres, Helzberg Diamonds and many others. When working with its clients, Alight Analytics utilizes the technology solution, called ChannelMix®, which is the world’s first data management platform designed for marketing.
During their session at MDMC18 called “The Challenge of Becoming a Data-Driven Company”, Matt and his co-presenter Sean Cotton, are going to share the tips on how to turn marketing data into a real-world business advantage, and generate real ROI from marketing analytics.
In the pre-conference Q&A session below, Mark provides his insights on digital marketing.

Q1. What do you think is the next game changer in digital marketing, such as a new, modern tactic, tool, or aspect of marketing? How will it evolve in the coming years?
M.H.: Right now, for too many marketers, digital strategy is like a puzzle without a box because there are so many channels and sources of data. Marketers have all these different pieces but no overarching view of how they all fit together. 

In the future, there’s going to be less of that fragmentation — as an industry, we’re going to solve the data problem. So instead of being forced to piece all these data sources together on your own, you’ll be able to start with a holistic picture of what happened. 
Q2. According to you, what are the top three mistakes committed by organizations today in leveraging digital marketing?
M.H.: One of the most common problems is using the wrong metrics to make decisions. It’s easy to get distracted by big numbers like impressions or pageviews. But are those really illustrating what’s happening with your marketing? You need to pay attention to the measures that will inform what you should do next. 

Another big problem is when marketers look at their marketing results channel by channel, in silos. We need to view analytics holistically — how do different channels amplify or interact with each other? 

And finally, too many marketers aren’t using analytics to drive their plans. When it comes time to allocate their media spend, they hand out 20 percent to digital, 20 percent to TV, 20 percent to search, and so on. It’s like Mom handing out cookies — everybody gets a fair share. 

But what we should do is leverage our marketing analytics to spend budget where it’s going to generate the best returns. Maybe search drives the bulk of your conversions. In that case, maybe it should get 50 or 70 percent of your spend. 
Q3. Which are your three favorite digital marketing tools?
M.H.: My team would kill me if I didn’t mention ChannelMix, our data aggregation solution for marketing. We can automatically collect, clean and organize all your marketing data, no matter the source, and put it into an analysis-ready format.

Once you’ve got that perfected data, it’s so much easier to analyze and visualize that with best-in-class tools. At Alight, we use Tableau and Google Data Studios. They’re comprehensive, customizable solutions that can do whatever you or your clients need. There are other viz tools out there that promise to be “easier,” but inevitably, we’ve seen people get stuck because those tools are so limited.
Q4. If you were looking to hire a digital marketer, what are the top 3-5 skills you would be looking for in a candidate?
M.H.: If you’re hiring an analyst or anyone who’s going to be directly involved with marketing analytics, there are three things you should look for: 

– a core knowledge of how data works 
– a contextual understanding of how different channels impact and influence each other
– the ability to tell a holistic performance story 

Because if you have all those things — that core knowledge and context — I can teach you all the technical skills you need. It’s a lot harder to teach the intellectual skills. 
Q5. What’s the industry buzzword that annoys you the most these days and why?
M.H.: “Dashboard,” at least when people treat dashboards like they’re a crystal ball that will magically tell them what to do. 

In reality, the dashboards used by most marketers aren’t tracking metrics that will enable them to make good business decisions. These visualizations are usually very pretty-looking, but they don’t contain the kinds of decision metrics that marketers need.  

We prefer the term “performance stories” when we’re talking about marketing analytics. That’s because the different pieces of your data ecosystem affect and influence each other. “I did X, which caused Y, and that resulted in Z.” When you achieve that comprehensive view, you’re going to understand your results with greater insight.

 

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Combine Direct Mail & Data To Convert More Sales With Danni Eickenhorst At #MDMC18

Danni Eickenhorst is a CMO at ReachDynamics – a St. Louis ad tech startup, where she utilizes advanced remarketing technologies to convert leads and sales. Danni is also a former UMSL Digital Adjunct Professor, and she still teaches marketing methods to achieve business goals for both – businesses and non-profits.

In her session at MDMC18 called “Data + Direct Mail: The Renaissance of a Traditional Marketing Tool”, Danni will talk about the tools and methods to combine direct mail and data in order to convert more sales and generate leads.
In the Q&A session below, Danni shares her insights on digital marketing.
Q1. What are some big mistakes a business could make when it comes to digital marketing?
D.E.: The biggest marketing mistake I so often see businesses make is putting a lower priority on retention marketing and reputation/referral marketing. In my mind, this should be a top priority in every marketing strategy because it’s easier to sell repeat services and products to someone with whom you already have a strong relationship. One important aspect many marketers don’t pursue is to seek out reviews from those happy customers as well. Some businesses choose to ignore this side of their strategy because of a misguided sense that they need to be humble and asking for a pat on the back seems too self-serving, but in my mind, there is nothing more valuable than these reviews and referrals. They are certainly self-serving, but the benefits far outweigh a momentary moment of discomfort in making that ask.
Q2. Share your favorite digital marketing case study. What did you like most it?
D.E.: In my work with ReachDynamics, I had the pleasure of recently writing one that demonstrates the power of utilizing cutting-edge technologies like email remarketing and direct mail remarketing to convert sales and leads. In this particular case study, one brand realized a 200% increase in lead conversions – and the best part is that their approach is easily replicable by other brands.
Q3. Which are your three favorite digital marketing tools?
D.E.: As someone who does a lot of coaching with small businesses, start-ups, and non-profits, I tend to gravitate toward marketing tools that make marketing possible for everyone. With that in mind, three of my favorites are:

• Canva – A beautiful, versatile, FREE graphic design tool that just about anyone can use. 

• SEMRush – An extremely powerful SEO keyword monitoring and research tool, SEMRush keeps adding capabilities that make it more valuable in my day-to-day work. Just when I thought they couldn’t be more amazing, they added content research tools and gap analysis tools that help you realize what content you’re missing when compared with your competitors. I’ve used SEMRush daily for about 3 years, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

  • ReachDynamics – I’ve been working with the team behind this tool for a little over a year, and I’ve implemented them for some of my clients as well. This tool allows companies to identify the website visitors who have left their site without converting, then to follow up with them via email and direct mail – even when they haven’t provided contact information.

  • BONUS – Almighty.Press – This is a newer tool in my arsenal. It allows markets to identify, curate and distribute trending content, before it’s trending. This allows me to cut through the clutter and identify quality content that will perform well.

Q4. If you were looking to hire a digital marketer, what are the top 3-5 skills you would be looking for in a candidate?
D.E.:

  1. PROBLEM SOLVER: I’m famous for telling people to “Google it!” when we’re identifying problems and looking for solutions, but seriously, having someone on your team who can identify a problem and at least do some cursory research to present some solutions to you? That’s a MAJOR asset in my mind.
  2. WIDE BREADTH OF CAPABILITIES: This one always gets me in trouble when hiring – but because marketing is such a varied and flexible practice, an employee that can create quality content, a graphic to go with it, add it to the website on their own, promote it, optimize it, and then track their own analytics is an INVALUABLE ROCK STAR to me. 
  3. LIFETIME LEARNER: I seek out employees that are always learning the newest and latest on their own – from active attendance at conferences, to daily listening to marketing podcasts and reading blogs. A person that keeps their ear to the ground for what’s next will prove a constant value.
  4. EYE ON THE PRIZE: When hiring digital marketers, my primary concern is that they approach marketing with business goals in mind. Let’s not make noise for the sake of making noise. Let’s strategically craft a message and a campaign that provides our clients and companies with a return on their investment.

Q5. Who are three people you respect when it comes to digital marketing?
D.E.:

  • Chris Reimer (@ChrisReimer) – Not only is he an all-around GOOD guy, but he’s also someone you can look to as a consistent presence on social media. While the rest of us go through periods of burnout, this guy keeps tweeting and snapchatting and Instagramming – and he does it well. 

    • Caitie Metz (@Caitie_Metz) and Victoria Emanuela (@victoria.emanuela) – Caitie is an artist, an activist and an all-around inspirational human being. Victoria is a counselor and meditation teacher. Together, they’ve found ways to utilize Instagram to start some really important stories, and to push forward a message of embodied empowerment, body positivity and emotional healing. They do this through a shared account and project @OnBeinginYourBody. While note solely digital marketing, they provide me with marketing inspiration. They’ve done an incredible job of building a following and a successful project – all through some brilliant uses of Instagram.

    • Mike Spakowski (@MSpako) and the entire team at Atomicdust would have to be on this list. I’ve had a professional crush on their work much of my marketing career. As a professional marketer, I keep an eye on what agencies I respect are doing. Mike and Atomicdust have been on my radar for years, and as I’ve watched their insights and their work, it’s been clear to me that they are solidly bringing their A-Game to every project and a mind for strategy as well. When they write a blog, I read it, and I’m always looking forward to what they do next.

Q6. What’s the industry buzzword that annoys you the most these days and why?
D.E.:  Activation! Because I didn’t come up in the agency world, there are plenty of acronyms and buzzwords that seem superfluous and unnecessary in my mind. I always prefer to speak plainly and to work plainly – focusing on the work at hand and the business goals. 

At the end of the day, the “targets” you’re looking to “activate” are PEOPLE and I want to always be mindful of that. Every PERSON has many reasons why they’ll buy a product or engage with a product and many reasons why they may not.