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Internet Summit Review & Wrap Up

 

1200x630 Banner 03From time to time, I’ll venture out into the world and go to an internet marketing conference or event. Most recently, I traveled to Internet Summit in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Over two full days, I spent time learning more about search, social media, email marketing and more. Hearing from speakers with a wide range of experiences and talent was great, as it’s easy to get pigeon-holed learning only about the topics I’m most comfortable with.

On the first day, I spent the morning listening to Mike King’s in-depth session that spanned dozens of topics and concepts. Mike is famous for his in-depth blog posts, and hearing him speak isn’t any different. Between his content marketing creation tips and his a review of common digital marketing mistakes he sees with SEO, it was great to pick up some tips from Mike.

Keynote Talks, Sessions & Sponsors

Across the two days, there were several keynote talks. First up was Jason Miller from LinkedIn who offered up a framework for both big-goal content marketing (called a big rock) and also reusing content that’s been created already to create more leads. Jason tied in funny rock music references and was overall a very good speaker.  Throughout the day, I attended several different sessions all focused on SEO mostly, with a few on email marketing that I picked up helpful tips and tricks on. To bookend day one was Rand Fishkin of Moz. Rand’s presentation was fantastic and the best one that I attended during the event. It was engaging, funny, well-composed and shared some interesting concepts about how SEO may work in the future.


More Sessions, Oh My!

After hearing from Rand, we wrapped up day one and moved onto day two. The next day started earlier and was packed with all types of sessions. Throughout the day, I decided to focus on going to different sessions than the normal SEO/PPC ones I normally attend. My favorites of day two were UX Insights From A Drunk Guy, which shared hilarious insight into how people view your websites and make decisions based on that information. My next presentation was How To Make Email Awesome by Justine Jordan of Litmus. Here, I learned about the limitations of email design from an HTML and CSS perspective and also dug into how to make emails better (subject lines, preview text and even from emails). Bookending the day for me was the keynote from Chris Brogan Owner Media Group. Despite Chris having technical issues with his slides, his thoughts on customer service and brand experience were eye-opening for me.

Networking With Digital Marketers

Due to where I live, there are only a few people in my industry that I see on a regular basis either through my main gig or through my consulting work that I was able to spend time with in Raleigh. First up, I went to several sessions with Kristopher from Seaside Digital Marketing. Kristopher is a professional photographer (and is kind enough to take my profile photos) and made the trip up to Raleigh from his home base in Wilmington to pick up new tips and tricks for his online marketing. If you’re looking for photography advice or marketing advice, check out Kris’s work.

I also spent time attending sessions with Matt Morin, a co-worker and (according to his website) all around good guy. Matt’s spent the most time around email marketing during his career, so sitting with him on several of the email marketing sessions was especially helpful to guide me through learning as much as I can about that process. Improving every email we send is possible and I feel we both picked up some great tips for our email marketing strategies moving forward.

Next Year?

Due to the fact that Internet Summit is so close (while almost no other marketing conferences are), it seems likely that I will return next year. The cost is reasonable, and the speakers are helpful for me to learn as much as I can about how I can improve the marketing of my clients and drive them more business. If you’re interested in going and live the South Carolina/North Carolina area, check out the schedule when it is released for next year in 2016. I think you’ll find it’s worth the investment of time and money to travel to Internet Summit.

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