What we learnt from CIMC 2016
The dust is settling but the ideas are still flowing after the Canadian Internet Marketing Conference last week. This was definitely our most successful conference to date. Our exhibitor booth was consistently full of great conversation with engaged attendees. The Apple Watch giveaway for collecting stamps on the RTOWN Loyalty app was spreading the networking vibes throughout the room (congrats again to @emilyjeanbriggs, taking home the watch).
We were humbled by the attendance to the CIMC Campout at Howe Sound Brewing. The expectation was a modest meet-up with some craft beer. The reality: 200+ marketeers and local businesses came down to pack out a room with an excited buzz from the day. The beer flowed, the poutine hardly made it out of the kitchen, and the s’mores vanished.
Over the two days, a full range of digital marketing topics were covered from an A+ line up of speakers and panels. From landing pages and VR native advertising to authenticity and genuine public relations, I left with a ton of ideas to implement for our customers. Here is a roundup of the takeaways that are still resonating a week later.
Landing pages do have a winning formula
That’s right, it’s a science and by following a simple set of rules you can increase your odd’s of winning dramatically. I wholeheartedly believe cofounder of Unbounce, Oli Gardner (@oligardner), when he talks about having your forms 666px down on the page, using “Click Here to…” on buttons and being specific in your headlines. A great pro tip was to take advantage of Useabilityhub to 5 second test your pages and gain clarity on simple design decisions. I have already used it twice this week and think this tool is amazing.
@oligardner talking about ways to reverse engineering the perfect landing page #cimc2016
A photo posted by CIMC (@cimconference) on
Be Authentic
If there was one recurring theme throughout much of the conversation on and off stage, it was authenticity. In an era of record content volumes and ever shortening attention spans, the best way to make meaningful connections is to have genuine exchanges with real people. Yes, it takes more effort and labour, but if you put in the time, the value will present itself. How can you be more authentic with your audience? Engage, be honest, and treat them like humans, not email addresses.
Be smart with your ad dollars
Taking your advertising budget straight to an ad buyer and running a campaign is a quick way to set fire to some cash. Native Ads CEO, Jon Malach delivered honest truths around the lack of testing he sees in the marketplace. A simple solution: Start small with a microsite and listen to the data. If in doubt about your copy or creative, be sure to test it first.
Thank you to everyone who attended the conference this year (Can you believe it’s only the second year of CIMC? Talk about growth). I am already excited about next year knowing it will be bigger and better than ever. One final point of learning, never under estimate the marketing crowd’s love of good beer!
The RTOWN team Rocking CIMC 2016
