CIM: Digital Marketing Conference, July 2007

Yesterday I spent the day at Robinson College in Cambridge at the CIM Digital Marketing Conference and happily I get to report that it was interesting, enjoyable and mostly useful. The thrust of the talks was how to use different online channels to reach customers.

Michael Nutley of New Media Age set the scene nicely highlighting the shifting dynamic of the internet with the movement into a more accessible online environment thanks to fast broadband connections and easy to use online tools. This helps people get online and create their own content and share their views through sites like blogger.com, Myspace, youtube and facebook. Online users are becoming more and more discerning so in an effort to reach them content must be targeted and relevant if it doesn't want to be overlooked.

Other speakers such as Mike Weston, Tink Taylor (read about the case study Tink gave us on Aquaplastics), Rachel Harker and Dave Chaffey outlined the way this targeted content can be delivered through various channels. Cue different case studies: email marketing (well targeted) can be very powerful as long as it doesn't become too intrusive; mobile content delivery (clever hypertag!); online advertising; interaction with and building of social networks and blogging helps access customers with specific interests.

The magic formula is therefore to find out where your customers are online, then use the right online and offline channels holistically to deliver relevant and targeted content. Get online marketing integrated into your marketing strategy early and budget it in so as to get that message across to acquire and retain customers.


Easy.


I'm off to integrate and target.

CIM: Digital Marketing Conference

I find myself in the unusual position today of being able to spend time on MY business rather than other people's. Quite refreshing.

So I've booked myself on to the Chartered Institute of Marketing's (CIM) Digital Marketing Conference. http://www.marketingconference.co.uk/

Note the seminar named: "Is Blogging good for business?". You may see a shift in emphasis in my blogging patterns as of the 7th July...!

I am intrigued by their bold statement: "Cambridge is the UK’s e-hub, so it’s natural that this should be the location of the leading e-conference"

Oh yeah? Since when? Is this because it's the birthplace of PIPEX or the home of the Cambridge Network? I've just looked up a definition of an 'e-hub' on the web and am more confused. Well I'm happy to be corrected but it seems like that statement is nonsense to me. I'll try and pin someone down on this next week :-)

Looking forward to the venue! I love conferences in the colleges... :-)