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I was excited to have an opportunity to attend the Colorado Digital Marketing Summit in Colorado Springs last week. The event was located at the Antlers Hotel in downtown Colorado Springs last Thursday and hosted by SocialSEO and Google. The event had an incredible lineup of speakers and industry experts discussing a variety of digital marketing topics such as website traffic, SEO, social media, PPC, and setting smarter digital marketing budgets. There were five speakers at the event and each had really great information to share that captivated both business owners and other industry experts. Here are some of the highlights from each speaker.

  1. Tong Yang: Head of Agency Development at Google

Tong was the keynote speaker and he went over where Google will be heading in the future. He discussed some unique Google features like the knowledge graph and an android feature called “on tap.” Both Google features are designed to act as a knowledgeable friend and try to predict what the user is searching for, or any additional questions they may have during a search.  Google plans on keeping this conversational approach to their searches in the future.

  1. Greg Walthour: Chief Executive Officer at SocialSEO

I was shocked at how much information Greg could fit into his presentation. He spoke about the importance of prominence online. He talked about the importance of being unique and authentic and grabbing the attention of a user within 5 seconds. He discussed leveraging video in SEO, Social and PPC campaigns. Greg also stressed the importance of creating fresh content for SEO. Greg went on to examine the importance of reviews and building a reputation online. This presentation was very valuable to business owners and I could tell they were very engaged and ready to get to work with their online marketing strategies.

  1. Shail Choksi: Agency Account Strategist at Google

Shail discussed how to manage search engine marketing. He discussed the importance of using ad extensions, value propositions and shopping ads in PPC campaigns. Shail also pointed out that timing can help manage your campaigns. It is valuable to take advantage of peak seasons and times when users search for your product or service. Shail highlighted getting the right message to the right person at the right time as the key to success in search engine marketing.

  1. Eric Geibel: Agency Development Manager at Google

Eric’s presentation was extremely valuable because it was focused on today’s mobile first world. He began with some shocking statistics about internet users and their phones. He pointed out that over half of searches are done on a mobile device. Stressing the importance of mobile to both business owners and agencies since Google announced they have begun experimenting using their mobile index first.

  1. Rick Stark: Chief Operating Officer at SocialSEO

Rick discussed the concept of profit engineering and how this relates to creating a marketing budget. He stressed the importance of lead attribution and responding to leads and how important that is when combined with a marketing strategy. Rick even went through some example financial statements to really hone in on what matters to business owners – their bottom line.

I would say the Digital Marketing Summit was a success. One of the best aspects about working in digital marketing is that no matter where you go, you can always learn something new about the industry.