My Key Takeaways from Philly’s Digital Summit – Debra Jean Mercer

By Debra Jean Mercer, Marketing Communications Manager

As Marketing Communications Manager, I work to ensure that I am overlooking nothing, thinking creatively and strategically, and considering every detail.

I’ve “cooked up” my key takeaways from Philly’s Digital Summit into a “recipe” for good marketing communications (pardon the references to food — I love to cook!).

Ingredient 1: Shareable content. Developing content that will garner meaningful interactions with your audience is key. Think of it in terms of a share versus a like on Facebook. A like is great — but if you can manage to compel your audience to share what you’ve done? You’ve knocked it out of the park!

Here are some points that will help you develop relevant, shareable (sometimes funny!) content:

• Faith in corporations and companies is at an all-time low. People want to hear from people — not corporations. Put a face to your product; consider influencer marketing as an effective way to get your message across.
• Don’t overthink your content and consider this quote that I heard at the summit: “You can paint the Sistine chapel, but a cat photo will still get more likes . . .”Have a group brainstorm around what your product is and what it is not, and don’t overlook the SIMPLE things you have to offer (like free shipping for example!). This can lead to some very interesting (even funny!) marketing content. Google Kmart’s recent “Ship my pants” commercial and I think you’ll get the idea!

Ingredient 2: Knowing your target audience. Taking the time get to know your audience and consider your strategy based on your learnings will be make or break. Another great quote I heard at the summit was “If everyone is your target, then no one is your target.”

Ingredient 3: Attentivenessto your audience. Once you begin promoting your product or program, how will you know who is engaging with it, and what will you do with that information? Thinking this through beforehand will save you a lot of time in the end when it comes to measuring success, and building on that success.

Here are some great things I heard:

• Make sure you continue to foster engagement among your smaller, already engaged groups. Don’t miss any opportunity to nurture the relationship with “early adopters” of your product or program — you want to keep them!
• Personalize your outreach based on actions taken by your audience — no matter how small the group. For example, if you put out some content to your audience for download, follow up with those who downloaded it, thank them, and offer them more!
• Identify demand signals from your audience: Has someone you thought you “lost” taken an action or engaged with your content for the first time in a long time? Reach out to say, “Hey, we’re so glad you’re back!” — and offer support.

I’m looking forward to putting this “recipe” into practice and seeing where Philly’s Digital Summit takes us next year!