Conference season is in full swing, and marketers are looking to soak up every last piece of advice they can as 2019 planning kicks in. Measuring yearly performance, hitting KPIs, proving ROI – you name it, the C-suite is asking for it.
As we begin wrapping up a busy 2018, PAN is eager to attend MarketingProfs’ yearly forum in the backyard of our San Francisco office. But, with a conference that hosts nearly 1,000 marketers each year, it’s easy to get overwhelmed.
Here’s a list of this year’s topics and the speaker sessions we look forward to attending:
Content Marketing
This year’s forum pays well-deserved attention to the ubiquitous “content marketing” topic, bringing in industry vets, startups and influencers alike to give their unique perspective on the most highly talked about area of marketing. After attending Lee Odden’s “Confluence” session, you’ll learn what all the buzz around content and influencer marketing is all about.
The Confluence Equation: How Content & Influencers Drive B2B Marketing Success
Who: Lee Odden | CEO | TopRankMarketing
Dr. Konstanze Alex | Head of Corporate Influencer Relations | Dell
Amisha Gandhi | Vice President, Influencer Marketing | SAP Ariba
Luciana Moran | Senior Vice President, Content & Creative | Dun & Bradstreet
Date & Time: Thursday, November 15th, 11:15am-12:00pm
Why: Moderated by marketing and PR strategist, author and consultant, Lee Odden, this session promises to leave you with a greater understanding of how to plan, implement and measure influencer content to better optimize the relationships you’re building with your influencer community. Lee will be joined by panelists from SAP Ariba, Dell and Dun & Bradstreet for a discussion around how B2B marketers can move from influencer marketing engagements to customer conversions.
Want more on content? Check out another great session: How to Personalize Content Experiences at Scale.
Demand Generation
To put it in layman’s terms, demand gen programs are what keep your company’s product or service top of mind. They “generate” buzz and help you re-engage with prospects you may have lost touch with along the buyer journey. But what types of programs will truly help you build relationships and boost conversions to impact your bottom line? According to Mark Borstein’s upcoming session, a webinar can be a powerful tool.
Keys to Engagement-Driven Webinars
Who: Mark Bornstein | VP, Content Marketing | On24
Date & Time: Wednesday, November 14th, 3:30pm-4:15pm
Why: Navigating the world of webinars is daunting. Let’s say you’ve determined your topic, created content to support it, and hit your goal of registered attendees. You’re probably thinking, “I’m well on my way to hosting a great webinar.” And you’re not wrong, but you’ve yet to accomplish the most important part of producing a webinar: making sure your audience is engaged. In this session, Mark Borstein will walk you through how to optimize your webinar interactivity so that you can find the best leads for your brand.
Bonus: Find another great demand gen session: How To Deliver Better Demand Generation Results by Creating Less Content.
Personalization & Emotional Marketing
Traditional email blasts and generic templates are no longer resonating with buyers. Brands are learning the hard way that they must be personal with their engagements, or customers will quickly drop off. What is Matt Wright’s answer to finding ways to be more personal? Touch on your customers’ emotions.
How to Win Over (and Retain) Your Buyers with Emotionally Relevant Experiences
Who: Matt Wright | UX Research Manager | WiderFunnel
Date & Time: Thursday, November 15th, 11:15am-12pm
Why: The market for customer experience is expected to grow to nearly $17 billion by 2022, how are you responding? Saying you want to deliver top notch experiences isn’t enough – you need to do something about it. Listen in on Matt Wright’s session and learn how to apply a proven cognitive psychology framework to your marketing efforts so that you can better understand the core emotional drivers of your customers.
Find out more ways to enhance your customers’ experiences at another great session: B2B Tech Marketers Create Experiences That Convince Customers to Stay.
Measurement & Analytics
Are you tired of hearing about data yet? I hope not, because marketers have barely scratched the surface on what data can do for us. With data comes the need for measuring – measuring content performance, social analytics, engagement across all your channels. You not only need to measure across all channels, but you should be measuring all of your audiences too, according to Tish Millsap.
Marketing Measurement for ALL of Your Audiences
Who: Tish Millsap | CEO and Senior Strategist | Revenate Marketing
Date & Time: Friday, November 16th, 8:30am-9:15am
Why: As a marketer, reporting campaign results is a top priority. If you can’t measure results, then you can’t justify the dollars you’ve spent. During this session, Tish Millsap will outline the different tools available for reporting and help you implement them based on the maturity of your marketing team. Be sure to check this session out if you’re not sure how to leverage the data in front of you.
Looking for a full day of measurement? Check out the digital marketing analytics workshop.
Those are just a few highlights of what’s to come at this year’s event. Whether you’re attending MarketingProfs for the first time or the fifth, you’re guaranteed to find plenty of sessions that touch on relevant pain points for your brand.
Stay in touch during the conference by tweeting @PANcomm.
