So we headed down to the coast last week to attend one of the biggest SEO & digital marketing conferences in the UK – BrightonSEO
Key Takeaways
Much of the information from a content perspective was not anything that we weren’t already;
- Doing
- Aware of
But there are always things to pick out as key takeaways and for me these were:
- Pitching an idea not a format – Hannah Smith: Distilled
- Re-enforcement of what your target audience wants to know & interests them – Paul Jackson – Reload Digital
- 20 – 30% of content strategy is data led – Simon Penson: Zazzle Media
Favourite speaker of the day
My favourite speaker at the conference was Hannah Smith from Distilled ‘How to Develop & Pitch Creative Ideas’
Not only was the presentation brilliantly executed (as always) but it struck a chord with what we’ve experienced when trying to identify a good idea and being confident to go ahead with it for our clients.
Hannah used great examples of how one piece of content can get better results than expected, yet a similar piece can flop – something I’m sure we’ve all experienced first hand.
Finally, the great thing about this is ensuring you know what you and your clients expect to get from a piece of content as there can be a huge difference in the amount of links vs. social interactions from one piece to another.
Summarising Brighton in 5 words
Interesting, inspiring – definitely not boring!
Quote of the Day
For me it had to be from Hannah (again), which was regarding the ‘idea not format’.
It’s easy to get excited by a new format, like infographics and interactive quizzes, before a viable idea is even discussed.
Round up of the Best Talks
Paul Jackson’s talk on ‘Content Strategy vs. Content Clutter ‘was really interesting. Using his experience of choosing a wedding photographer, he demonstrated how content influenced his decision and how powerful the wrong content can be to using a service or choosing a product.
Steve Morgan’s ‘Co-ordinating a ‘Content Blitz’ Campaign on the Cheap‘ was a key talk as it re-enforced the necessity of preparation and planning ahead for any deadline.
Steve used the example of his parent’s recruitment agency and a milestone of the business’s 25th birthday. How he divided the strategy from a local perspective was interesting and something I’ll be looking to adopt for our range of local campaigns.
All in all, it turned out to be a fantastic day seeing some familiar faces with the sun shining.