Welcome to the 1st day of the Midwest Digital Marketing Live 2-day Summit! To join us live, please make sure you are logged into your MDMC account (click here to login) and click "check-in" or "watch live" button above.

TikTok's rapid growth over the last few years has played an undeniable role in shaping today's culture. In a short amount of time, we've helped spark a new way of consuming short-form entertainment, altered the future of shopping behavior, and provided the platform for consumers and brands alike to express themselves creatively and authentically. Tune in to find out why we at TikTok view ourselves not as a traditional social media platform, but as a place for real, genuine entertainment.

You may not realize this, but the COVID pandemic and the ensuing events of 2020 and early 2021 have put your brand in crisis. The challenging circumstances people have been through in the last 12+ months requires that you change how you connect with and engage your entire ecosystem. The best brands in the world are able to face seemingly insurmountable obstacles and come out stronger on the other side. That's because they enjoy the condition called Irrational Loyalty. Irrational Loyalty is a bond so strong that customers would feel they were cheating on YOU were they to choose an alternative. One of the world's premier branding experts, Deb Gabor provides invaluable insights that will help your own enterprise build positive brand equity, goodwill, and the Irrational Loyalty that will support your brand long-term through the best and worst of times. Using real-time examples and lessons from high-profile brand implosions and successes, Deb demonstrates how top companies that break their promises inevitably suffer, and she explores the routes the more agile ones have taken to full recovery after letting their customers down.Takeaways:Learn about the characteristics of brands that can thrive in turbulent times and emerge stronger on the other side -- it's not too late to reinforce yours!Develop a blueprint for what your brand can and should be doing now to help your employees and customers navigate these difficult timesClarify how your brand can maintain and strengthen connections and develop the bonds of Irrational Loyalty even when customers aren't coming to your locations in person or buying your products and servicesLearn to leverage opportunities for your brand and do it in a way that enhances brand attraction rather than creating more crises

Get a Swift Kick In The Ads and give your Facebook Advertising strategy the fuel it needs to make the most of your advertising budget. Stop wasting marketing dollars and start optimizing the opportunities in front of you.

Most people would agree that lies and self-deception can do terrible harm to our lives, to our communities, and to the planet. But in Useful Delusions: The Power and Paradox of the Self-Deceiving Brain, Shankar Vedantam-host of the Hidden Brain podcast-argues that, paradoxically, deceiving ourselves and others can also play a vital role in human success and well-being.The lies we tell each other and the lies that we tell ourselves have been proven to sustain our daily interactions with friends, romantic partners, and co-workers. They explain why some people live longer than others, why some couples remain in love and others do not, and why some nations and tribes hold together while others splinter.In conversation with Dr. Shahla Farzan, Reporter, St. Louis Public Radio, University of Missouri - St. Louis & Winner of the Regional Edward R. Murrow Award.Useful DelusionsThe Power and Paradox of the Self-Deceiving BrainOrder Book with Signed Bookplate at 30% Off

Now more than ever, people want companies and leaders that stand for something and play a role in society. Here's how corporations and brands can use Twitter to live their purpose, be what's happening, and support the enterprise.

In this session, Christina Costello along with Jonathan Ogle will be unpacking how brands like Michelob Ultra are built to appeal to evolving consumers. They will unveil some unique insights that can help your brand create a lens that places the consumer as the hero and creativity at the forefront. 

What you should know about podcasting in 2021 and how COVID19 impacted the industry? During this session, you will learn from a panel of podcast experts who will share everything you need to know to produce a successful podcast in 2021. You will walk away knowing:The most successful formula used by some of the biggest and best podcasts in the industryWhy every brand should consider developing their own podcast in 2021Non-traditional ways to produce a podcast and grow a meaningful audience The best equipment you should use The impact of COVID19 on podcasting and what you should know 

Welcome to the 2nd day of the Midwest Digital Marketing Live 2-day Summit! Please click the check-in button above to join us live.To join us live, please make sure you are logged into your MDMC account (click here to login) and click "check-in" or "watch live" button above.

As digital marketers, we are in unprecedented times. Public health emergencies have driven us to our homes and made us more dependent than ever on a web of social platforms that are not designed to respect human vulnerabilities. Teen suicide and depression were already at an all-time high before Covid-19 drove them to their bedrooms for an entire school year, away from their social support systems. It's up to the professionals who use social marketing tools as part of their trade to use them responsibly and humanely. Lynn will talk about the challenges of being a marketing professional for the movement that brought Facebook, Twitter, and Google to accountability through the press, Congressional hearings and investigations, and public pressure.

The acquisition ecosystem is in a crisis and the advertising industrial complex is coming to an end. The shortcomings brands have when it comes to email and retention will no longer be solved by throwing money toward ads to keep re-acquiring customers over and over again. Retention is about to take its rightful place in making a meaningful impact on the way brands market to their customers.What's causing this seismic shift? Both legal and technological privacy changes have expedited the shift towards proprietary, first-party data to track the behavior of customers and prospects. The recent deprecation of IDFA and cookies going away in 2022 means the value of the email address is going up exponentially. How can email fill the void? As privacy standards change there are far fewer ways to identify customers and their behavior. As of now, the only standing identifier will be the email address.In this session presented by Chelsea McClure, Director of Engagement Marketing at Redbubble and April Mullen, Director of Brand and Content Marketing at SparkPost will show you what's changing and how we need to shift our thinking and our budgets toward email to overcome the challenges before us.

New Facebook updates are always in the works, which is to say there are always new opportunities to get ahead of your competitors. In this session with Facebook expert and live streamer Stephanie Liu, we're going to explore a bevy of changes Facebook has made over the past year including:Paid Online EventsLivestreaming to EventsLive Shopping Bring your pen and notebook because you're going to want to take a ton of notes as you learn exactly how to leverage Facebook to drive those coveted leads and sales in the coming year.

In this talk, Facebook Creative Strategist Finola Austin will discuss how brand and DR-focused advertisers can use interactivity to connect with consumers via Facebook and Instagram. With a product focus on Live, Polls, Playables, Messenger, Groups and more, Finola will share how brands can use Facebook and Instagram to connect with people in a time of physical distancing and offer experiences not possible through traditional broadcast media.

The hiring landscape for creative, digital, and marketing professionals has drastically changed in a short time. And marketing leaders in the COVID-19 era are faced with a host of challenges-keeping up with business demands amid economic uncertainty, accelerating digital marketing initiatives, and managing remote workers while maintaining staff morale. Is your company prepared to recruit and retain top talent in the new normal?Learning ObjectivesHow to build a marketing team ready to take on new and unexpected projectsWays to attract and recruit top talent in a virtual workplaceStrategies to access and develop new skills on your teamHow to support and motivate employees in a remote or hybrid environment

Have you had a CRM for 10 years or are you just starting to think about implementing one? Join us in this session featuring expert CRM professionals from Salesforce, HubSpot, Slalom and Ameren to learn the latest trends in CRM and what you should be doing with your CRM in 2021 to be successful. Every business has different CRM needs and this panel will showcase various CRM perspectives from small businesses to large enterprises. Hear from people working at the top CRM companies and practitioners who use a CRM for marketing, sales, service and more.

From daily 'COVID-19 Response' meetings to tough layoffs, this pandemic fundamentally changed our marketing jobs starting in March. In real-time, we were learning how to think and act: Should we pause advertising and social media? Create new ads with COVID-19 in mind? Alter social calendars? How to bring IRL event online...quickly…...Our panel of experts will discuss the wins and fails of the early days by brands and leaders as well as how the pandemic has changed the way we operate in the future...

The price we pay for more remote, hybrid or socially distant work is fewer in-person interactions with our co-workers. This dynamic has left employees feeling burned out, lonely and isolated.And while there is no replacement for in-person communication, organizations must find ways for employees to recreate critical touch points for culture and engagement (the non-work interactions that used to commonly occur at intramural sports games, the 5 minute hallway chat, or an offsite happy hour) in a virtual setting.From Bonfyre, Rob Seay (VP, People and Culture) and Andrew Carlson (VP, Marketing) will share practical insights - based on the science of human relationships - for how leaders can build trust and belonging within their teams. They will also detail how they approached the launch of Culture Coach, a new resource that makes it easy for anyone who cares about people and culture to take one action - in 10 minutes or less - to improve trust and belonging in a more virtual work experience.

As a search engine optimization specialist and the sister of a woman with visual impairments, I pay close attention to how SEO and website accessibility intersect and, in some cases, conflict. I've seen where SEO practices hurt accessibility and where they work together to create an all-around great user experience. With my personal and professional experience, I found that there wasn't much research into the practical application of these two disciplines. I wanted to know more about how SEO and web accessibility interact, how Google views SEO and accessibility, and how to integrate both seamlessly into a marketing strategy. For more than a year, I gathered data, interviewed 50+ SEO and web accessibility professionals, reviewed available resources and studies, and wrote about the topic.Some questions I asked and answered with this multi-stage study include: Where do SEO and accessibility practices conflict? Where do they go hand-in-hand? Is web accessibility my responsibility as a digital marketing professional? How has Google changed over time to account for web accessibility practices? How are recent ADA lawsuits playing into this conversation? What rules and guidelines can I create to encourage that both of these disciplines are effectively implemented?The findings of this study may be best summed up by one respondent who said, "If a website is not accessible, it is not fully optimized."The interviews conducted, the data gathered, and research reviewed helped me develop specific tips and tricks about applying these two strategies to benefit a website's overall performance. 

The average person is bombarded with 1,700+ banner ads per month, but only sees half of them. In a world that is becoming increasingly more digital, how can companies help consumers still feel human? As simple as it sounds, by looking past numbers and spreadsheets and taking a human-centric approach to advertising, companies can form a meaningful connection with customers. Dan can discuss how to connect with customers with human-centric ads. From leveraging context words, to maximizing the value of impressions, to improving ad performance through tactical supply path optimization (SPO), he can explain how to increase consumers' emotional engagement to create lasting connections with audiences. Dan will share how an ad that is more human will bring positive short-term and long-term results to both your company and the advertising ecosystem. 

2020 has been a challenging year for all individuals and businesses. Among all industries, travel and tourism were hit earliest and hardest up until now. While most people are still very cautious about traveling right now, they start planning for the upcoming trips when COVID-19 subdues. What that means for travel and tourism brands is that they still need to keep advertising to maintain awareness and make sure their brands will be kept in mind for that very next trip. More importantly, they need to advertise responsibly and show that they care about the health of their customers and the community.This session will talk about a data model that helps clients execute a responsible and responsive advertising strategy. In this model, we bring in COVID-19 data and the brand's customer engagement data to help them decide on an appropriate geo-targeting strategy and messaging for each season and adapt it every week based on the current situation of the disease.

COVID-19 has dramatically impacted the way that we work, with reports that 88% of organizations have implemented new work-from-home policies during the pandemic. Employees who have gotten a taste of working remotely seem to be liking it as well, and many organizations are beginning to commit to remote work as the new normal. In fact, 74% of businesses anticipate moving to more remote work long term... but is that a good thing?For better or worse, online collaboration seems to be here to stay. With the allure that distributed teams provide to both employer and employee in terms of convenience, minimizing overhead, de-regionalizing sales, hiring and more, COVID-19 seems to be forcing something that should have been normalized years ago. Anyone who has participated in a Zoom collaboration knows that remote collaboration isn't without it's pain-points, however. In the design community it is well established that putting people in a room together to hash things out tends to bring about faster, more creative results. In fact, face-to-face collaboration is a cornerstone of highly popular methodologies such as Design Thinking, Design Sprints, and Agile. We may not be able to fully replicate the value of face-to-face collaboration just yet, but we certainly can improve the way we meet virtually. In this session you will learn tips and tricks from long-time remote collaborator on facilitating better online collaborations.

Marketers wonder why it's so hard to work with influencers. Influencers don't understand why marketers don't get it. And some marketers are so afraid of getting burned on a campaign, they don't know where to start. If you think this is a chicken-and-egg kind of question, well guess what? We can sort this out in this session. We have developed a simple 4 step process for working with influencers that takes the RISK out of the partnership and helps marketers deliver VALUE for their brand out of the campaign. The average influencer campaign budget starts at about $1000, which makes partnering with influencers within reach for most brands. This is the year to add influencer marketing to your mix.

Everyone knows that the future of marketing is digital. But in practice, how do you know who and how to target to reach your most qualified customers?

Developing an effective, cohesive inbound marketing strategy poses a challenge to even the most seasoned marketers. This isn't because putting together a holistic strategy is exceedingly difficult, but the real issue is many simply don't know what steps to take. Because of this, they rush ahead with various marketing efforts that may not be working in concert with each other, and in the process, these same marketers are seeing less success and lower ROI than they'd get with a more careful plan in place. This session is designed to share my tested framework for building complete inbound marketing strategies. We'll go over 11 steps to building a comprehensive plan for attracting more targeted traffic and converting more leads. If you attend this session, you'll have an in-depth look at these 11 steps and how you can act on them to start seeing better marketing performance and greater ROI. This will include how to:Audit and assess your existing efforts to uncover opportunities for optimizing your inbound marketingSet and measure goals and select KPIs for your inbound efforts Plan campaigns that will attract more of your target audience and drive greater conversionsMap out your marketing to provide greater clarity around how your marketing channels can work better togetherCreate the kind of cohesive, goal-focused inbound strategy that seems to illude many marketers

Branding done correctly enhances the performance and profitability of your personal and executive brand.Experience the greatest moment when you realize that you have not unleashed your most powerful asset. Natasha will help you discover unique and strategic techniques for improving and retaining profitable visual branding, auditory branding and emotional branding to bring the power of agility to your executive brand positioning in the marketplace. Participants will receive tangible solutions and actionable next steps for advancing their Brand in today's economy.

While Twitch may be known to some as "that platform where you watch people play video games", savvy brands know that Twitch streamers have some of the most unique communities on social media. And with 1.5m average viewership at any given time, brands are starting to see the benefit to partnering with streamers.But Twitch is an island unto its own, and engaging with a streamer isn't as simple as throwing money at the screen to see what happens. If you're going to navigate the world of subs, cheers, raids, and hype, then you need a crash course.Mitch, aside from being a streamer in his own right, is a digital strategist who helps brands figure out how to tell their story online. In this session, Mitch will give you an introduction to Twitch and Twitch culture. We'll go over how streamers are monetized, and what that means for your brand as you partner with a streamer (and their community). We'll talk about some successes (and epic fails) of companies who have waded into the waters of Twitch marketing. Finally, we'll go over exactly how you can research, engage with, and partner with the streamer that perfectly aligns with your business' values.

A good data exchange rate makes or breaks your digital marketing bank. Let's look at a couple case studies to see why your data is not the right information to present to the management team and why you aren't getting the data you need to drive the results that support your digital marketing budget. With this information, you will be armed with solutions to solve everyday challenges when it comes to executive cooperation with digital marketing requirements, such as:Require the data you need to produce the results your companies expect.Prove your impact by providing the data executives need for business.Position Digital Operations beyond the marketing silo with real KPIs.Agree upfront on data exchange and accessibility for all parties.Automate and publicize your data to build transparency and trust.As the digital experts, business leaders are looking to you for these solutions so let's stop screwing each other with a bad data exchange rate.

The year 2020 brought new buyers as more consumers & businesses switched to online purchasing. With direct mail as one of the top three drivers to ecommerce, determine the steps you need to take to turn them into loyal, repeat buyers – or let them go – using offline with online strategies. What are the key indicators that your brand can profit from a direct mail or catalog program? What can you expect and how do you balance budget with your digital programs?By understanding how to target and measure success, you can convert first time buyers to repeat buyers, prospect for new customers and/or drive additional conversions from your existing housefile.

Avoid the traps and pitfalls of website indexation with my time-tested process. I'll teach you how to have X-ray vision with SEO site crawling tool ScreamingFrog as well as the best way to organize your crawl files to have the right information at your fingertips. Your next audit deliverable will save the day with these tips and tricks!·Organize crawl·Diagnose issues·Prepare deliverable·Present to clients

Interested in ways to better use data to uncover and reach your ideal customer profile? Goodway Group will walk through how to analyze your data to pull out insights and which sources can help produce the outputs you need to drive your business forward.

This session is for beginner to intermediate-level brands and business owners who are struggling to drive engagement on their business social channels. Maybe your service is of great quality and maybe you are receiving great leads but there's a disconnect between lookers and buyers. During this session you will:- understand the goal behind every social media channel- understand your brand story and how to integrate into your business- know the low to know cost tools to plan out your content and boast your engagement- know how to track your engagement - no longer fear being personal with your brand

Staying up on the latest Instagram changes is hard. Instagram is constantly changing how the algorithm works while adding and removing features. It's extremely frustrating to look at your company or brand's Instagram analytics and see much lower reach than you have received in the past.In this session, we'll cover how to leverage the newest Instagram features to survive changes to the algorithm. The discussion will include:Instagram's Creator Studio for scheduling Feed Posts and IGTV.Reels - Instagram's answer to TikTokThe newest stickers (Countdown sticker, Quiz sticker, Chat sticker, Polls, plus how to get the Music Sticker if you don't have it!)How to Grow Your Following by Collaborating and Going Live How to stay up on the latest features of Instagram easily.

As Simon Sinek said; People don't buy what you do. They buy WHY you do it.BEFORE you build your personal brand, you need to know your WHY. People have a hard time connecting with others who don't seem to have a clearly defined purpose for their online presence.Get started by asking yourself the below questions;WHY do I want to build my personal brand? What's my WHY for posting on Instagram? WHY would people want to pay attention to my posts on LinkedIn?Your "why" is a lot like your mission statement.Business is coming back to basics. Companies and online business owners need to come back to their sources and understand their brand's essence! It's about uncovering what makes YOU/your brand so unique! Your 'raison d'être' is about sharing your story, going back to your roots, why you started, the values that drive you.Regardless of what business you're in, my advice is to bring as much of yourself-your values, personality, style, and even your quirks.Think to yourself:Why do you buy anything? What feelings do you want your purchases to arouse? Why and how do the specific products and brands you love achieve that sensation?Your personal opinion matters, and being YOU is your greatest differentiator.

Marketers everywhere are focused on customer retention, and FAQs as a power tool should not be forgotten. FAQs speak directly to prospect and customer needs, and embedding answers to frequently asked questions throughout your content eliminates redundant response efforts and puts needed information where it's easy to find, boosting SEO. However, the idea isn't to merely answer common questions. And, creating a formal FAQ page can certainly help visitors, but it's not nearly enough.Learn the secret sauce that Jeanne Hopkins, CRO of SquadLocker, has used to upgrade FAQs to not only inform, but build powerful trust and confidence among prospects and customers. Learn to attract more visitors and inspire more conversions with killer FAQ content, including how to give all your site copy an FAQ upgrade and boosting landing pages – all for SEO. She talks about often missed opportunities like a favorite of Google – microcopy, which subtly charms visitors for a better experience. Learn to boost SEO by delivering relevant FAQs while simultaneously boosting CX, where everyone finds just what they need. That's a win-win for gaining new leads and prospects, while keeping loyal customers.

Our relationship with the sense of Touch is being forever changed. In the future we'll be touching fewer things, and instead using our voices to communicate with and command the vast digital world around us. It's important to embrace this reality and consider Voice as a powerful and innovative piece of your overall marketing strategy. This is a major shift that requires re-imagining Audio as an effective medium for keeping your brand relevant and top-of-mind. Do you have what it takes to capture the attention of Generation Voice?After this session, you'll:Gain insights into the ways COVID-19 is accelerating the adoption of voice-first technologiesUnderstand the trends and truths of Gen VoiceLearn how to capture attention in an increasingly screenless worldExperience how marketers have harnessed the power of audio to drive brand values

One of the best ways to get the upper hand with your social strategy is ensure you're humanizing it. Are you connecting with your customers and prospects in a fun, casual way? Do they see the faces of your team members that they may interact with over the phone? Are they in tune with the quirks of their favorite salesperson via a fun video? During this session, Brett will break down 5 ways you can guarantee that your followers are getting a glimpse into your company's personality. Stop acting like a marketer and start building stronger relationships by creating those two-way conversations.

In this session, you'll learn how to create email content that resonates with your audience, conduct A/B testing, and develop a creative strategy for your communications. You'll also learn about the importance of regularity and cadence in email without coming off as a stage-five cling-on.

With fewer than 1% of users clicking on a search result that appears on Page 2 of Google's results, it goes without saying that a strong SEO practice is a vital pillar of success in business. When done right, SEO is a critical compliment to your collective digital marketing efforts. But the world of Google search marketing is complex and vast, and to make matters worse: constantly evolving. It's important for marketers to stay on top of developments in the sphere and have a well informed, topline understanding of Google algorithms. If thinking of SEO work like growing a garden, it's important to not only initially plant the seeds and put hard-working strategies into place, but also to continue to prune and tend to the garden on a regular basis, fine-tuning and adjusting as needed. Static strategies in SEO just don't work; staying on top of new developments and evolving is the key ingredient to consistently appearing at the top of Google search results. An expert in taking complex technical topics and making them easy to understand, Nathan Misirian is a leader in the world of search engine marketing and a passionate speaker, skilled at crafting engaging presentations where the audience feels comfortable participating and asking questions. Nathan has led multiple Google Marketing projects in French, German, Italian and English throughout North America and Europe. Since founding Autumn Consulting, Nathan's company has successfully completed over 300 digital engagements for organizations and clients.

Description:Branding and optimization of your social media profile is essential for your marketing strategy. It's in demand because your profile on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other platforms is free real estate that can be reimagined on a frequent basis to achieve almost any of your social media marketing goals. Use your profile to generate traffic, promote events, send people to a URL, promote social activism and more. Achieving the perfect social media profile is difficult -- unless you've analyzed thousands of them and tested all the tips and tricks like N.G. Gordon has.Come and hang out with N.G. Gordon (aka DearMishuDad) to learn the best techniques to create and improve your branded social media profile on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc.This talk covers:How to tell if your Instagram profile needs a revival?How can you get the visitors you want?Learn 4 ways to tell your story brieflyWhat is the one sentence that you should be updating regularly (and how)?What is the best call-to-action to close out your profile?Key Takeaways:1) Discover at least 4 new ways to make your social media community part of your strategy through your branded profile.2) Craft successful events, community traffic, and UGC campaigns without spending a dime, right from your branded social media profile.3) Discover new and free tips to get leads, directly from your Instagram profile

Video marketing continues to rise in popularity, and more and more businesses are jumping onboard. The problem? Many companies under-utilize this terrific tactic. Emmy-winner Tony Gnau from T60 Productions will show the types of videos you should be producing, and how to use them throughout your marketing campaigns.

Did you know that our Instagram pictures are worth more than our Social Security numbers? And that those pictures, and those of our children, are (unethically) feeding Facial Recognition databases around the world? The question is.. are they even compliant with privacy regulations?After the third-party cookies will go away, what's going to be the future of our personal data? We will continue getting digital validation from unregulated compliant clicks, while our digital fingerprints will keep getting shared across big tech and start-ups managing our secrets and personal information. Oftentimes, mishandling them, getting our data stolen and sold on the dark web. My session is aimed to educate businesses and individuals on the use of data and share a vision on how to use socio-cultural principles to avoid a psychological disaster (like seen on Netflix's shows The Social Dilemma, The Big Hack, and Coded Bias).

"The customer is always right." This adage holds new meaning in the new normal. Your customers and their actions determine your bottom line. The best way to survive and even thrive in the current economic downturn is to measure the ROI of your marketing programs, projects, and initiatives to ensure that your marketing efforts deliver the business results that organizations want and need.This session builds a framework around the customers' decision-making processes and explores how to evaluate a marketing program's impact on business outcomes through a chain of impact. Specifically, marketers collect and analyze data at five levels of outcomes to measure the value created by marketing. These data examine the value creation process at different levels and represent the inherent richness of the ROI Methodology.One typical challenge facing many marketers is how to use an ROI model to measure and demonstrate value. Some professionals complain that although they understand the ROI in marketing concept in theory, they still do not know how to use it in practice. In this session, we show the step-by-step process of the ROI Methodology and provide tools and examples to support usage. These steps follow a logical model, and with this approach, the impact and positive ROI are almost guaranteedThis process can be used by all three types of marketing programs, including business-to-consumer (B2C), business-to-business (B2B), and internal marketing programs. All levels of data in the framework are applicable to the three types of marketing.

While customers face challenging times and are in a state of uncertainty, brands are also bracing themselves for a different landscape where the dynamics at play could fundamentally challenge the brand-building playbook. In this session, Juntae DeLane questions some 'golden rules' of brand-building, exploring how this conventional wisdom stands up to the consumer's point of view on brands. After this session, you'll be able to:Keep your brand top-of-mind during a crisisUnderstand what not to do during a time of crisisHelp your brand strive now and in the new normal of the post-crisis world

Today's organizational models are strategic differentiators. A successful model needs to be built to embrace and lean into the velocity of change that occurs now. Companies like Zappos, Medium, David Allen Consultants, and in St. Louis, Integrity Web Consultants, have all adopted this radically different approach to management: holocracy. Holocracy is, simply, an agile framework to organize work. It completely replaces the concept of hierarchies. Hierarchies have become too slow and the world has become too fast. But it isn't for everyone! There are books, apps, and community chats dedicated to the topic. During this session, we will break down how it works, the pros/cons, and customization techniques. 

In our evolving digital world where data is the most prized natural resource, how should brands begin to think about data privacy in their business and product practices? Many marketers assume a reactive stance toward data privacy in the wake of the demise of cookies and new regulations. But instead of looking at data privacy purely through the lens of compliance, brands can benefit from approaching data privacy as a value-add reputation builder. Marketers can build long-lasting trust with partners and customers by conducting business with heightened data privacy practices. But what does data privacy really mean and how difficult is it for brands to achieve? In this session, we will demonstrate how better data privacy practices can boost brand trust, and outline ways companies can elevate basic compliance with data privacy laws to a competitive advantage. By taking a privacy by design approach at the outset and making it core to every team, a company can fully acknowledge organizational needs and enterprise risks. Some resist the holistic approach for ad tech systems that were not developed alongside regulations; but existing companies don't need to burn the house down in order to adopt and adapt. As advertisers, brands, and publishers work to understand and comply with new and changing privacy laws, Lotame General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer Amy Yeung explains how privacy by design needs to become core to every company, embedded and integrated in every function and process.

The tables were turned upside-down by COVID closures for restaurants everywhere. As our agency was shifting into high gear toward e-commerce solutions and sophisticated automation stacks, we couldn't ignore this segment of small business owners, some with whom we had personal relationships with. The challenge was obvious. Restaurants were forced to shut their doors. Those who remained partially open were bleeding money daily. People were fearful to eat out. But pandemic or not we all had to eat. Our team who had been working on solutions for e-commerce knew we had to throw them a lifeline. We quickly developed some tools and we got resourceful. Week in and week out new valuable features were added to the digital prototype. The philosophy was straight-forward. The restaurant model isn't any longer what they learned for generations. It's not how many tables they filled but how many meals are their kitchens able to deliver out. We provided low-cost websites, within their websites we included ordering channels, mobile-friendly and touch-less elements that brought the restaurant to their pockets. Loyalty programs designed to have people come back were crucial too. We tracked every meal and in some cases we were asked to turn it down a notch. In this presentation I will dissect all the ingredients for this digital recipe. The harsh truth about Big Delivery companies, unexpected challenges and satisfied restaurant clients who today are opening new locations.

The world is watching, how are you showing up? Digital marketing is about the human decision-making process. We want people to decide to buy, support, recommend our brand. We want those decisions to go so deep that they'll continue to support us out of a sense of connection. No matter what company, service, product, or brand you represent, you must connect with your audience on an emotional level. Digital media gives you the power to show up to an audience of billions. But millions of brands are vying for attention, time, and money. You need digital to not only spotlight your highest value, but engage people to LOVE you and what you do. Showing Up: "How you show up determines what shows up for you." Dixie Gillaspie helps individuals and brands express themselves through the power of content marketing and "personal branding." She teaches how to show up online in a compelling, strategic way. Dixie shares her 3-Step process for showing up and gaining "heart-share" using any medium. Standing Out: "It's not about what you make or how you make it, it's about who you are and why you do it."Chris Ryan shares perspectives on developing personal brands into a business culture. Staying true to personal values and brand informs business culture that attracts like minded professionals; it's critical to developing meaning and purpose in professional life.Attendees leave with perspectives on leveraging their unique gifts and expression with creative solutions for engagement and strategic business growth.

Sometimes the tools we have in our marketing toolbox already exist. We've just failed to recognize them because they aren't flashy or getting the attention they deserve. Like a neglected plant that hasn't received the water and fertilizer it needs to grow, you can resurrect a tired program and turn it into a healthy, thriving and growing program.This presentation will show the audience the four simple steps Edward Jones used to turn a legacy newsletter program into a more targeted communication and content machine.Create good content that's relevant - What's important to your audience? Break it down into to specific personas or segments. How can you help each solve a problem?Repurpose content - Think beyond one specific deliverable. How can you tweak your content for social? Is there a PR angle? Could it become an educational piece for internal audiences?Measure it - Set a metric. Track it. Test and refine.Evangelize it - Make connections throughout your team and the organization to gain traction for the program and content creation efficiencies.By simply taking a fresh approach to a tired communication, Edward Jones was able to almost double engagement with its content in 2020, despite the political and economic environment. Plus, create efficiencies and build bridges within marketing with other teams.

Customer reviews are a major local ranking signal and conversion factor for consumers. A 2019 study found that a fraction-of-a-point jump in average star ratings can increase conversion rates by a remarkable 25%. Brands know this and have invested in developing review and reputation strategies aimed at boosting scores and review volumes. And because reviews are so important, fake reviews have become a major issue. Despite frequent press coverage and growing consumer concern about review integrity, nobody has quantified the problem. We analyzed more than 4 million consumer reviews in multiple verticals and 20 cities across on Google, Facebook, Yelp and TripAdvisor. We sought to determine the prevalence and types of fake reviews, and which platforms are most affected. In this session, we'll present detailed findings from this first-of-its kind study.Three lessons or takeaways for the audience:How modest changes in review score impact consumer decisions and why 5-stars aren't necessarily a good thingHow consumer review-consumption strategies are adapting to the fake-reviews problem, as well as the brand ramifications of review fraudResults of a unique, proprietary study quantifying and comparing the problem of fraudulent reviews across the major platforms

According to Google, over 940 billion local searches take place every year, presenting a constant opportunity for brick and mortar businesses to win new customers. Agencies can increase online visibility and in-store foot traffic for their multi-location clients by optimizing for unbranded and branded search. By efficiently managing business listings and online reputation, multi-location businesses can win over the 90% of consumers who aren't sure what brand they want when they begin their search (Google). Join Uberall's VP of Strategic Partnerships, Kelly Benish, to learn how to source new customers for your clients from these critical search channels. You'll discover:Why the age of 'Near Me' is here to stayHow to use unbranded search to increase client visibility and bottom lineHow to make the case for third-party management for local marketing

Society has experienced disruption unlike anything we have seen before, and the expectations for not only navigating the new normal is high, but there are new skills employers and others are looking for when collaborating on projects, hiring new professionals and working with academics. In this presentation, we will discuss the current industry state and identify the top 10 marketable skills that are needed today in this new normal. Best practices and implications along with resources will be shared.

Improving team performance can be a growth lever, and much more cost effective than redesigning your website or paying to get more traffic. In this session Natalie Luneva will share:Why online summits (to promote your thought leadership, grow your email list, build partnerships and co-promotions)Mapping of your virtual event planResearch of industry leaders, outreach and booking speakers.Leveraging your speakers' network to grow your attendee list 

In an era of social change, consumers expect brands to step up in a public role. In the 2019 Kantar Global MONITOR study, 66% of consumers across 20-plus countries agreed that it is important for brands to be "committed to making our society better." The study highlights 12 action points, emphasizing values such as purpose, creativity, optimism, alignment with global goals, activism, transparent content, community servitude, legacy, humility, taking risks and improving the customer journey.Of these, the top three speak to purpose, optimism and global sustainability and development. First, decide where exactly the brand has a useful and differentiating position. Next, transition into action, from saying to doing. People expect brands to step up and do their part - especially when it comes to pandemic recovery. Consumers both welcome and reward brands for helping to re-energize their communities. Then, engage with the goals most relevant for your brand and communicate these values to your brand's stakeholders through proven action. After prioritizing the values that are meaningful to your brand, learn how to implement these action points to purposefully impact your business. Several tactics could include:Understand your buyer personas to better target meaningful contentAnalyze the health of your company's dataLeverage influencer collaborations to improve SEOUse CRM workflows for lead nurturingBuilt trust through transparency as the first impression for your website contentUse video, UGC, messaging and storytelling and comprehensive campaigns to create connections through content.

Let's be honest, driving results is a part of your job description. You can watch hundreds of growth hacking webinars, and test the sh*t out of your ideas, but nothing will get you as far as actually having a solid digital growth strategy. So disclaimer: we won't be covering any patch-work fixes in this discussion. I also won't be giving you generalized insights that probably won't work in your field. And I'm definitely not going to sugarcoat the process. Sorry if you were looking for anything different. This session is going to be all about how to create a strategy that drives actual results and gets your promoted. Here's a sneak peek of what we'll cover:Key foundational elements needed for any digital strategy regardless of your company's sizeWhat tech stack you really needChannels where you should invest time and resources NOWGetting your leadership team onboard with your strategyAnd a ton more

In this session, we will talk about driving the digital transformation of an iconic brand through a relentless focus on the consumer, a reinvention of the Gatorade origin story (born on the field, proven in the lab), and point to ways that brands can activate digital thinking to improve the lives of those who would buy their products.

Amazon is not only the starting point for 65% of all product searches online, it has also become the #1 most trusted brand in America. Learn the proven strategies and insights from an Amazon Expert that provide the road map to help any entrepreneur, marketer or company launch, grow and protect their brand on Amazon. We'll cover the most crucial elements of SEO Keyword Research, Amazon Advertising and Registered Trademarks that constitute the greatest pain points but can also become the greatest weapons in achieving success on the Amazon platform.

 In this presentation, we will review three real-world ways you can leverage Google Analytics to make your organization more successful. We will focus on user segmentation, finding trends and patterns, and hypothesis testing. For each of these three tactics, examples will be given on how a beginner, an intermediate, and an expert user can execute the tactics using Google Analytics data. 

Clubhouse is the hottest app around and this audio-only revolution can easily grow your brand and your business! Get the most up-to-date use cases and marketing strategies for Brand Recognition, Business Growth, and Increased Sales. 

Session Description:You cannot control what you cannot measure and you cannot change what you cannot control so by defining the measurement strategy process and expected outcomes you can show success or failure. This session teaches you how to start the measurement process, define the goals and objectives, and then read the data to make sure you can tell the full story.First, you need to define the termsIdentify the main business objective and marketing goalsDefine by importance and then how to measure successHow to implement and track What are those success trackers or KPICollect the dataNow what do you do with the data and what story can it tell?Compare goals to actual performanceDoes the raw data tell it all? How to read the raw data and put it into a visual story?Provide an example of when outside events (Covid) can affect a business strategy and shift the media plan

Businesses exist to serve people. Your customers and advocates are the lifeblood of your business and its mission, so it makes sense to keep these people at the center of all your communications. That's where persona development comes in.Before you can get clear on your message and marketing, you need to know exactly who you're aiming to reach and impact.The clearer you are on your ideal audience and the stories you want to tell them, the easier everything else will come together in your outreach. In this actionable, people-centric session, you will:Learn what exactly is a customer persona and why you need one for your businessUnderstand demographics vs psychographicsLearn how to define your core audience and build an audience personaDiscover how to *actually* leverage personas to grow your businessBy having personas in your marketing toolbox, you'll save time, avoid confusion, and increase sales. Then you can go on to live out your business' purpose and grow your reach.

Google and Bing in recent years have rolled out some great free tools to help with SEO and digital marketing as a whole. Sit in and learn how tools like Search Console, Cerity, Webmaster and more can help drive more traffic to your site, speed up your site and improve your site and content overall. Dave will also dig into the tools he uses to extract the data and how he uses these tools for SEO, Content Marketing and Paid Search.Key Takeaways:What is new and improved in the that you need to know about.Ways to export and leverage the date better to help your SEO.What reports to focus on and when you should leverage them.

Three weeks after being fired from her job as a small market radio sales rep, Dana Sanchez started her own Marketing Consultant business, working with a handful of small businesses in her community.That was 10 years ago.Today her business is thriving. Her focus is on small business because it's the most rewarding and no matter what anyone tells you, it's where the money's at. Small business is also an extremely underserved market in the professional marketing world so there's tremendous growth opportunity for marketers who want to start their own business.Dana didn't graduate from college, she was, at best, an average student in high school, but she took what she was good at, (marketing), and turned it into a lucrative and rewarding business. If she can do it, so can you.

We have all heard about the importance of building an online community, but why do we really need it? And more importantly, what do we do if our community is unhappy with us? Many leaders are nervous about how quickly negativity can spread through an online community and we have all seen examples of this in the last year. At the same time there is monumental value in organizations that learn to harness the power of their online community in both good times and bad. In this session, Jennifer will discuss how to build a strong community and how to prepare for those crisis moments that will inevitably arrive at your front door.

Sadly, in many companies, the left-hand rarely knows what the right-hand is doing. Research shows how painfully truthful this is when looking at the relationship between marketing and sales departments. In reality, everyone is simply trying their best to capture revenue and mindshare; they just don't know a better way. In this session, Gv Freeman helps companies integrate their sales process, content strategy, and martech stack using a straight-forward, 10-step process built to align your marketing and sales teams and empower them to work together to create meaningful content that increases conversion rates and decreases sales cycles.

Do you know what makes for the best headshot on LinkedIn? How to be persuasive while wearing a mask? How to gesture effectively to establish trust via Zoom? Are you strategically using the art and science of persuasion to promote your personal brand and help your business thrive? Effective communication goes beyond persuasive pitching, it also involves establishing likability, trust, reciprocity and authority. When communicating, we often fall into old habits instead of really examining the effectiveness of our strategies. This is especially the case when we are reactive and habitual. Increase your personal persuasive power by communicating more effectively by learning powerful and practical persuasive tactics that work both face-to-face and virtually. 

Did you know that almost half of all Google searches express local intent?At its core, local SEO ensures that brick-and-mortar locations can be found online in organic search for relevant searches that express any kind of localized intent. This could be searches with city names, searches for establishments (e.g. "restaurants"), and the inevitable "near me" searches.So often when people think about "local SEO" they think of citations, Google Maps, and location pages. I'd like to share that it's much more than that - it's about being a great business. Going above and beyond in customer service for your core services, getting people to talk about it online, and ensuring your website is set up to communicate those same priorities generates a substantial impact on SEO performance and builds consumer trust.If you're a business that has a physical address and you aren't optimizing for local, you're likely leaving money on the table. In fact, up to 78% of location-based mobile searches resulted in an offline purchase (source). Even during COVID "near me" has shifted to "open now" with many consumers looking for the safest shopping options available.Local SEO involves a particular set of optimizations, all focusing on improving a business's indications of relevance to the query, prominence for the product or service, and proximity to the searcher. This presentation will cover tactics for optimizing for local search and provide results that a business can experience when local SEO is done properly - in the way great businesses do it.

Creating an inclusive culture that embraces a diverse workforce requires everyone in the organization to participate fully. Sheila Burkett, CEO and Co-Founder of Spry Digital will share insights and key strategies you can use to lead diverse teams. Learn how to nurture trusting relationships, use tools that help improve team communications and create an environment where everyone can be themselves.

If you've heard a lot about data-driven marketing, but have no idea what that really means, this session is for you!Data can help you understand where you are succeeding – or failing – with your customers. After all, you don't want to keep pouring money into a strategy that doesn't work. Google Analytic offers a wealth of information that can help you improve your marketing efforts, but the sheer amount of data can be overwhelming. This session will teach you about a few key reports you can use to understand how effective your marketing efforts are, and ultimately improve your ability to bring in new customers. 

There's no denying Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn have changed the way we communicate, connect and market our businesses. But regardless which social media platform you're focusing on, the name of the online game is...attention! If you're not visible and relevant to your online audience you'll fade to black. In this cannot miss session, award winning marketing consultant Vanessa Cabrera will do a deep dive of 4 simple steps you'll be able to immediately implement that will not only amplify your online visibility but will position you as THE go-to expert in your industry.In this session you'll learn:1. Why staying in your Social Media lane is vital2. How to easily create killer content your audience will find irresistible3. How to position yourself as THE go to expert in your field4. How to monetize your social media marketing FASTER

The pandemic has had a significant impact on how we do business and marketing in this new era. The world has moved to digital and the smart fast-moving companies can still thrive during these uncertain times. Through the completion of this digital marketing workshop small business owners will learn how to grow their business through the pandemic. These 8 easy to implement digital marketing strategies that cost little to no money can be applied to the business immediately. Participants will learn how to apply the same proven marketing strategies used by brands succeeding during the pandemic.Learning Objectives: Market goods, services, and ideas more effectively online Create online content that will engage new and existing customers. Use new digital marketing tools that increase results in less time. Leverage customer data to personalize service offerings Re-purpose long form content into micro-content to distribute across social media.  Sylvester will help participants understand how to best implement these new rules of marketing. Ultimately this workshop is intentionally designed to help increase the entrepreneur's odds of future success. The time is now to move beyond fear or anxiety and reset for growth. 

For over a decade, company reward programs have been growing in popularity. From airlines offering frequent flier deals to retail companies providing free products to drive growth, organizations are spending millions of dollars developing and implementing rewards programs. Why? Because they work. Rewards can and do build brand loyalty and an organization's most loyal customers are also proven to be its most profitable. As the loyalty life cycle progresses, these customers become business builders by buying more and paying premium costs. However, most reward programs are short-sighted with promotional giveaways and monthly specials. To accelerate the loyalty life cycle, a company must find ways to build partnerships with their customers so value is shared. Your goal is to develop a program where your customers are consistently educated and motivated to earn.The business technology leader for Johnson & Johnson Vision, Kate Garofalini shares a new approach on building and scaling loyal partnerships as part of a larger-loyalty management strategy. She'll take you through a Vision program that was recently introduced that has completely altered the experience between parties, accelerating both customer and business goals. Highlights:Focus on Engagement. Understand the customer experience and develop a program that provides value for them because loyalty is a by-product of engagement.Know your reward customers. Ensure you have access to new data to enhance the program and build profiles to stay close to behaviors of high value customers.Integrate technology. Power the appropriate teams (i.e., sales force) with the tools they need to successfully sell-in and pull through the program.Scale and iterate. Learn from your customers and work closely with cross-functions to rapidly respond to reward management and personalization.

Regulations around data are changing by the day. Third-party cookies are going away and 2022 looms in the future. Furthermore, without third-party cookies, attribution will decrease, return on ad spend will drop, and revenue will decrease. No need to panic -- pivot to a first-party data strategy to ensure you are prepared!Join Bridgette Doig, Strategic Data Executive at Tealium, to explore the upcoming changes around third-party cookies, how to future-proof your data for the new regulations, and how to ensure your customer experience is impacted for the better.After this session, you'll be able to Fully understand and articulate the upcoming browser regulationsAppreciate how consent plays into your marketing techniquesAssemble a plan to pivot to 1st party dataDrive impactful experiences for your customers in 2022 and beyond

If you're an executive (manager, etc) and you're on LinkedIn, I hate to break it to you, but you're doing it wrong. You've probably not touched your page since you set it up, and now it's doing little to nothing for you. Even if you are a social (media) butterfly and use LinkedIn on a daily basis, chances are your profile isn't bringing any value to you and it's mostly because you just didn't set it up right.In my session, I do a crash course on how to flip your LinkedIn profile ONE TIME, then let it work for you and the people who find you and your company for years.In this session we look at:How to improve the way you show up when people don't go to your pageHow to improve your search ability so the right kind of people find youHow to stand out in a good wayAll the right type of info you need (and nothing more)This is an Audience First Process, and spending the time solving your true audience on the platform is worth the price of admission (which is free cause you're already going to the conference).

The pace of change is so rapid lately that sometimes it can be challenging to keep up. The proliferation of connected devices has changed our entire definition of TV. The streaming wars are heating up with all the new subscription on demand and ad supported video apps that have launched just in the past year. The rise in time spent online as more people are working from home and families are preparing for a more virtual learning environment. We will share some ideas on how can you plan, execute, and measure your video campaigns with a more holistic approach across all screens. 

Many states, such as California, have enacted laws that directly impact marketing. This is on top of federal laws that also directly impact the space. In this session we will discuss recent changes to the legal landscape, such as the California Privacy Rights Act, as well as potential future changes due to the results of the 2020 election.

While marketers initially saw the demise of third-party cookies as an imposing challenge to overcome, it is proving to be a chance for high quality data to shine -- opening up opportunities for superior audience addressability. After all, third-party cookies enabled a lot of poor quality data to creep into the ecosystem. Not all data is created, collected and processed equally; some of the most valuable data is based on high quality seed data that's been modeled. In a world of disparate data sources, a lack of universal device IDs, and privacy regulations, everybody wants to leverage their data but it's hard to know how to proceed. To leverage growing opportunities for enhanced targeting, marketers and agencies need a forward-thinking playbook for purchasing and utilizing quality data. In this session, we will outline 'four pillars of transparency,' the who, what, where, and how of data strategies to boost audience addressability, and create long lasting customer relationships.

Are you finding that Google and Facebook are getting more crowded? More expensive? Less brand safe? Are you seeing your email open rates remain stagnant or even on the decline? You aren't alone. If you want your digital program to break out you need to add the power of programmatic to your media mix. Programmatic advertising has democratized access to inventory and data to efficiently reach your target audience at scale. In this session, you will learn how programmatic advertising... Gives you a cross-channel view of your target audience that creates efficiency across your entire media buy.Unlocks access to emerging channels such as connected TV/OTT, digital audio, and digital out-of-home. Provides access to a marketplace of data providers that allows you to implement hyper-targeted campaigns with unique customer journeys. Creates direct connections with publishers that affords brands access to a number of opportunities to engage with niche audiences. 

Learn how you can be an Influencer on Amazon Live! Chris Stone and Jim Fuhs of the Amazon Live show, Dealcasters LIVE have developed a creative concept to gain incremental affiliate revenue and grow brand awareness while promoting other creators in the Amazon space. Instead of treating Amazon like The Home Shopping Network, Dealcasters LIVE brings on influencers and creators like Chris Krimitsos, Dave Jackson and others to discuss voice activation, podcasting and other topics while highlighting products that help the viewer accomplish their goals.

Today, many leaders are facing increased pressure to expand and manage revenue growth while improving marketing and sales performance. Cancellations of tradeshows, in-person events, and on-site meetings have shifted businesses to rely more on digital tactics to meet revenue goals. These strategies include; online lead generation, nurturing, scoring, and more advanced pipeline management. Technology has become the linchpin to data, analytics, and new strategic insights. Digital Marketing and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology continue to be an area of emphasis and opportunity. Defining the vision, strategy, and technical nuances of technology is critical to success. Integrating the performance capabilities of both is detailed and requires focus. Discussion Topics:Data Capture and Process Design - Marketing and Sales Defining Marketing Qualified - Sales Qualified Leads Automated Workflows - Lead Generation, Nurturing, Opportunity ManagementTechnology Integrations - MarTech Stack and CRM Marketing and Sales Alignment - Communication and Change ManagementAnalytics and Insights - Performance Management High performing Sales and Marketing Teams leverage data, analytics, and technology to provide strategic insights that align business development initiatives. Creating a high-performance revenue model requires purposeful design, focused execution, cross-functional teamwork, and continual transformation. This session will provide a foundation for evaluating your internal sales, marketing, and business development framework by reviewing practical examples and common challenges. In addition, the session will offer new perspectives on digital marketing and CRM technology. 

The U.S. Department of Labor claims a bad hire can cost your business 30% of your employee's first-year earnings. The good news is Undercover Recruiter reports more than 80% of HR leaders say employer branding significantly on their ability to attract talent. 2020 taught us just how valuable our people are.Now, more than ever, is the time to take control of your employer brand and be purposeful about how you use that to recruit for your team. Through employment branding, you can demonstrate you are an employer of choice to help attract top talent to bring your customers' success. To get started using content to grow your employer brand, you need to know how to prioritize your recruitment marketing efforts to create the biggest impact, how to scale your program, and how to measure and communicate your strategies and success to various stakeholder groups across the organization. We will discuss that, in addition to all things content:Celebrating milestones and defining expectations along the candidate journeyMessaging for internal and external audiencesSimple creation techniques for any budgetTools and best practices to make your brand shineStrategies and examples you can implement immediately

An important first step in any local SEO strategy is to claim/verify your business's Google My Business (GMB) profile. Getting a Google My Business listing increases your chances of showing up high in Google search results in Google's Local 3-Pack, Google Local Finder and Google Maps. What many businesses don't realize is that claiming your GMB profile is just the first step – you must OPTIMIZE your profile.To get ahead, businesses need to take advantage of the features GMB has to offer – and these features are always changing. Smart businesses need to continually optimize listings – it's a must-do. In this session we'll cover Google My Business optimization strategies and answer frequently asked GMB questions:The difference between storefronts and Service Area Businesses (SABs)Business naming rules you must followSelecting the best categories for your business/why it's importantWhy you must check your listing for unintended changes – and why those changes happenGMB posts ideas and best practicesQuestions & Answers best practices Use messaging to connectTop things that will get your profile suspendedWhat to do if you get suspendedWhy you should download the GMB appHow to report competitors breaking GMB's Terms of ServiceWhere to get help if you have Google My Business questionsHow to contact the Google My Business support teamAnd More!Attendees will learn real-world strategies they can implement on GMB profiles. They will also have answers to frequently asked Google My Business questions.

More and more crisis events are being observed across the business landscape as your clients struggle to communicate in a fractured media environment and divided culture.Modern crisis management means using data to develop optimum communications strategies to successfully accomplish client goals:Use crisis precedent discovery to find how past events can help inform current circumstancesAssess how different company response approaches performed and curate the best series of responses and actions for your clientImprove your advisory deliverable by upgrading from "informed opinion" to "backed by data"Today, company reputations are being damaged routinely. You can bring a new level of insight and modernize your clients' crisis communication approaches.MSA's agenda includes:Highlighting the socio-economic activism exposures that companies are confronting todayThe types and classifications of information and data that can be applied to address these concernsReal life examples – how data can be used in crisis eventsCase histories: Stanford, Boston University, Harvard Law, Reevemark/McKinsey

Learn how various marketers & operations teams, and their consultancies, are adjusting to COVID. Michael will share some insights & anecdotes from his leadership of the consulting excellence & operations team and the full-service (agency) consulting business within Adobe Consulting.

The primary purpose of analytics is to help organizations discover meaningful insights that will inform better decision making. Unfortunately, too many insights fail to translate into action. In the very last mile of the analytics process, insights are squandered when they aren't communicated effectively. To avoid this recurring problem, data storytelling can help make your insights more engaging, persuasive, and memorable. In this session, Brent will share valuable frameworks and practical tips from his book, "Effective Data Storytelling: How to Drive Change with Data, Narrative, and Visuals" (Wiley). He'll give you a deeper understanding of the art and science behind data storytelling, which is an essential skill that everyone must learn and master in today's data economy.

Join Kath Pay, Bestselling Author of Holistic Email Marketing, as she shows you a simple but effective way how to map your customer's journey. Customer Journey Mapping is essential in any business to better understand how to optimize the customer and/or prospects' journey and identify key touchpoints to use to help the customer to achieve their goals.

A brief discussion on the importance of diversity in creativity and how great campaigns can be inclusive without being overly targeted.

Naming your company values is important. But have you defined the behaviors behind each of those values? Have you gotten your leaders engaged in living the values? Have you facilitated conversations with employees at every level so that they understand what's expected of them? If you answered no to any of those questions, it's highly likely that your values are window dressing, or words on a poster… or a mousepad… or a desktop background. If you truly want to "live your values," you need to do the hard work that happens after the values are named. In this session we'll review a process to do just that: define the observable behaviors that are the vision of good for each value; assess the current culture to identify strengths to build upon and gaps to close; plan for how to close the gaps and build understanding and internalization, through specific actions and changes to talent development processes; and execute the culture development plan. 

When I was 5-years-old I learned what has become the pillars of the marketing strategies I develop and implement for businesses of all sizes and professional services providers.No one likes making cold calls and talking with people who aren't interested in your product or service. It's time-consuming and takes you away from what you do best.In this interactive workshop, we'll discuss concrete ways business owners can integrate relationship marketing into their current marketing plan and generate revenue.Inbound, or relationship marketing focuses on attracting customers through relevant and helpful content. The focus is not on being the "BEST," but on being useful, helpful, and adding value at every stage in the Buyer's Journey.By creating content designed to address the problems and needs of your ideal customers, you attract qualified prospects and build trust, credibility, and likeability for your business.Relationship marketing, allows potential customers to find you through channels like blogs, search engines, and social media. When they find you and reach out to you, they immediately become a warm lead for you to nurture through the Buyer's Journey.You'll walk away from this workshop with the mindset and tactics you need to implement your first inbound/relationship marketing campaign and start generating more revenue.

When it comes to managing any project, however complex, challenges and chaos abounds, particularly with many teams working remotely. Agile was initially designed for software development project management, but this flexible methodology can be a game changer for struggling creative teams looking to set clear priorities, improve efficiencies, and not only meet tight deadlines, but speed up deliverables. The beauty of using agile to support and accelerate creative initiatives is in its flexibility to seamlessly incorporate new ideas, quickly pivot when circumstances change, and promptly make adjustments for creative challenges. The creative team at powerhouse brand SmartBear, provider of software development tools used by 15 million professionals worldwide, is a lean, mean, agile machine. For those who may be curious about what agile can do for them or if adopting agile has been on the top of your list, Eric Bomyea, Director of Brand and Creative at SmartBear, shares the agile principles that his team has adopted that are working well, as well as some that have failed. Agile methodologies have allowed him to capitalize on keeping the right talent in-house, support Marketing's needs as well as the needs of other business units at this high-growth portfolio company, and ensure creative always has a seat at the table – no easy task with a fully remote team. And, his openness as a gay man has certainly helped encourage openness, inclusion, and collaboration across teams, a key component to agile.

Video conferencing is at an all-time high (thanks COVID) and most of us are tired of being reminded that we are in "unprecedented" or "uncertain" times by every other commercial out there. So, as marketers, what kinds of video will stand out and resonate with your audience in this COVID world we now live in? Well that's exactly what this breakout session will cover. In this breakout session, Executive Producer Jon Morgan of JM Films/Ryval Studios will hit 5 actionable video strategies that will help your brand stand out and connect in a COVID world. Jon will hit on hot topics such as what types of video to consider, what your videos should be about, the best way to get your videos out there and more! Sign up for this session today so you can have a solid video plan for 2021!

From the new book, The Death of Content as King: How a Data Democracy has Revolutionized Marketing. A paradigm shift is occurring as the era of content marketing has come to an end with data-driven strategies dominating digital campaigns. This began with the platforms that have conquered search, social, and e-commerce using data-algorithms to power their user experience by curbing the reach of organic content. Organizations like Netflix, Fanatics, and many others have learned how to become data-centric, viewing data not as a new king but as the voice and vote of the consumer. This session will help attendees on how to begin the data revolution within their organizations by using new framework models that follow a more modern consumer decision-making journey. And how data can drive better personalization and consumer experiences that scale alongside key performance indicators.

The history of marketing has focused squarely on generating demand for a product or service. After all, generating demand is necessary for most businesses to find customers and produce a profit. Getting this strategy wrong, though, can result in a disruptive experience for consumers and a lot of wasted resources.The tracking and targeting capabilities of digital marketing have provided unprecedented opportunity to capture consumer demand. In this session you'll learn:The difference between capturing and generating demandHow to identify whether your business should be capturing or generating demandThe best practices and channels for capturing and generating demand

Bloggers and businesses alike will gain valuable takeaways from this packed presentation on Blogging Best Practices. You'll learn techniques from an established content marketer which will help you target the right audience, generate more content ideas, make your writing more compelling, and find ways to reach more readers.Mike Allton has been blogging and teaching others how to blog for over a decade, and has been awarded the prestigious Top Ten Social Media designation by Social Media Examiner two years in a row. During this presentation, you'll learn the strategies and tactics that Mike has developed and used to create outstanding content quickly, and how he's used that content to grow a massive audience.

Small businesses have been impacted by Covid more than any other business segment, yet there are positives as well. The pandemic has had peaks and valleys with the increases in ecommerce following suit. During the valleys consumers have shown, especially during Q4 holiday shopping, that they are more dedicated then ever to local businesses. However, consumers still want the level of digital and online access and ease they are used to with larger businesses. Small to mid size businesses need to adapt to this "new normal" by quickly evolving into the hybrid models their large-scale competitors have modeled. This session will highlight the shift in consumer behavior along with tips and tricks on how small business with small budgets can capitalize on free or low-cost digital efforts for their online local seo and advertising.

Situations and circumstances that change frequently are not conducive to anyone trying to write a marketing plan. If 2020 taught us anything, it was that the unexpected can throw a pandemic-sized curveball that can disrupt anything we had scheduled.From the impact of COVID-19 to the killing of George Floyd, the hospitalization of world leaders and the election of others, how an organization responds is judged by the audience it serves. We've seen many examples of misreading the room and sounding tone deaf.So, is there any point in now planning anything? Will marketing strategies and content plans be a waste of time when we're unsure what's happening next?In this session, we'll look at why traditional planning methods are unhelpful right now and how brands need to keep their ear to the ground before making any decisions - decisions that need to be taken quickly. We'll see examples that didn't quite meet the audience where they were and some where quick thinking and strong brand values made a positive impact on the audience feeling towards the business. You'll learn how to be more flexible in your planning approach, what's important and what isn't, where to pay attention and how to feed current affairs into any content or brand strategy using digital methods that will maximize your relevancy.

Learn how to increase and improve the lifetime value of your current customers with cross selling, upselling, obtaining referrals, and improving retention rates. How do you turn your customers into advocates so they constantly introduce you to potential leads without being asked? Where do testimonials and reviews really matter online?

You've evaluated, selected, and built an amazing CRM including everything that marketing, sales, and service need. The workload was heavy, the thinking was intense, and you are proud. But...why are they not using it? A huge amount of work has gone nowhere, you're irritated with the sales team and they are irritated with you. Now what? Does this sound familiar? This common experience highlights the significant gap between building a CRM and adopting a CRM. Successful CRM implementation is a notable accomplishment. In this session, Joel will share how to combine the technical build with a process that leads to successful adoption by your sales team.

After working 12 years in digital with 350+ clients and teaching marketing at different universities, I realized you can't tell people what to do. At the end of the day, decisions are based on one's unique brand, data, where their business is at and a lot more.Having made plenty of mistakes in SEM, SEO, Social media, Content Marketing, CRO and Web Development/Design, I learned a few things that every marketer should avoid. These mistakes save money, time and effort.From overspend to analytics, to structure, to planning and more, I will go over 7 mistakes that I saw professionals, consultants, CMOs and students do. We will look at how to avoid these mistakes as well as the recommended best practices.

This simple question, "What caused it?" is asked frequently in organizations around the world. It is not an unfair question for senior executives to ask. Your ability to sort out the effects of different marketing projects positions you to answer this important question in a credible and reliable way. Your inability to answer this question opens the door to let others answer it for you. Most marketing projects are linked to business measures such as revenue, new accounts, customer complaints, and market share. While marketing measures may improve after a marketing initiative, unless the marketing team take steps to isolate the effects of the various initiatives on that improvement, they have no credible claim to the improvement–leaving stakeholders to wonder, "What caused it?" Isolating the effects of marketing is not just about isolating marketing projects from other influencing activities going on in the organization. Far from it. In fact, by isolating the effects of your marketing projects, you're positioning yourself as a better business partner. You can credibly explain how you know the investments in creating marketing campaigns are driving the results you claim and are caused by those programs. Isolating the effects of a program is a key step in providing evidence that marketing drives improvement in business measures. Knowing how to connect programs to results is a must if marketing professionals are to demonstrate the impact and ROI of their projects. This session describes techniques that can answer the question: What caused it?

The need for a focus on customer experience, strategic mental models for understanding how to think about site optimization and also how to deal with data.