Driving Forward > Digital Marketing Blog

NEDMA’s 56th Annual Conference Recap

written by arine fereshetian June 7, 2018
Harry Gold Become a Marketing Engineer

NEDMA’s 56th Annual Conference was a day to remember this year! The theme around this year’s conference was “What’s New! What’s Now! What’s Next!”, and the speaker sessions certainly highlighted the latest and greatest marketing strategies without fail.

Overdrive sponsored the event with Japs-Olson Company and DMM, and CEO Harry Gold presented his informative session, “Becoming a Marketing Engineer”.

 

 

Thanks to the wonderful attendees, the event was also trending on Twitter!

Check out the speaker session summaries highlighted below as well as some popular social posts.

Speaker Sessions

Keynote Beth Negus Viveiros, Managing Editor of Chief Marketer, began the event by covering B2B marketing trends to watch in 2018. Her session taught us to showcase what your brand does better than anyone else. In addition, it’s important to focus on individuals and use personalization without being creepy. Her 5 key takeaways for B2B marketing is to:

  1. Get creative
  2. Work together
  3. Don’t get overwhelmed by tech
  4. Email marketing
  5. Personalization

 

Christine Inge, Founder and CEO of Thoughtlight, covered the importance of mobile marketing. Did you know that 78% of small businesses get at least a quarter of new customers through social media? Now, more than ever, your marketing strategy should be mobile-first, because that’s where half of your content will be consumed.

 

 

60% of consumers are more likely to click on a business whose images appear in search results, so it’s important for your images to stand out! Dan Greenwald, CEO, Chief Creative Officer of White Rhino, discussed how great design creates emotional connection during his session at the Annual Conference. It’s important to integrate these 5 elements into your design:

  1. Simplicity
  2. Focal Point
  3. Space
  4. Euphoria
  5. Story

 

 

Direct mail isn’t going anywhere. Dennis Kelly, CEO of Postalytics, covered the new tech that makes direct mail turn a digital channel in his session. We learned that direct mail automation syncs delivery and response stats for every mail piece into the CRM, working similarly to email.

 

 

You don’t need everything figured out in your data strategy, so relax! Mike Wilson, Director of Marketing Operations at Onduo, covered some quick tips to immediately improve data driven programs at NEDMA18. To get the ball rolling, be sure to involve all your stakeholders including IT, sales, and creative in your data programs. Doing so will help you hone in on the variables and insights that are most important for success.

 

 

What does it take to be a great marketer today? Harry Gold, CEO of Overdrive Interactive, answered this important question in his session. Marketers need to transform from a marketing professional to a marketing engineer by always asking “And Then What?”. Furthermore, we learned the 4 step approach to demand gen: Drive, Capture, Convert, and Optimize.

 

 

The benefits of tracking your mail go beyond delivery reporting! Kerry Hannify, Director of Quality and Operational Initiatives at Data-Mail, taught us how to keep up with the ever-changing world of USPS operations. Sometimes, post office operations can run into logistics issues, quality issues, or client mail filing issues. The key to keeping your customers happy is to have the visibility of seeing where their mail piece is.

 

 

Louis Gudema, President of revenue & associates, covered his approach “Bullseye Marketing”, a strategy that helps generate new leads and sales in the least expensive way possible. Similar to a bullseye figure, the approach works from the middle out to strategically bring new leads, opportunities, and sales.

 

 

Not so fun fact: cyber security has become the 3rd certainty in life. Brian S Chertok, EVP Strategy & Marketing at CyberScout, gave us a reality check on the dangers of cyber threats during midday keynote at the Annual Conference. Some important steps to take for business protection? Back up your data to avoid ransomware attacks, and download applications to update your passwords regularly.

 

https://twitter.com/JohnSissonUW/status/996803135262875649

 

The next portion of the conference had panel discussions with marketing experts and thought leaders in their fields. “How to Determine the Best Marketing Channel Mix through Creative, Data and Analysis”, covered best practices for utilizing cross channel data to target prospects in multiple channels. Panelists Shawna Parker, Director of Marketing, CAPA Global Education Network , Mike Gormley, Direct Marketing Expert, Chuck La Tournous, President, Cavooza, Steve Atlas, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Marketing, College of Business, University of Rhode Island and Moderator, Cory Funk, Account Executive, Japs-Olson Company, wowed us with the boxes of tricks they shared on leveraging data online, as well as offline.

 

 

Today’s consumers have adapted, which means your marketing efforts should adapt, too. Carol Bird, Content, Branding, and Digital Marketing Manager at MEDITECH, went over great content marketing that attracts customers. Some tips we took away from her session were to up-cycle content into post cards, sales email templates, guest blogging, and media outreach.

 

 

Did you know? Social media is the biggest revolution in communications since the printing press. Panelists Bob Cargill, Founder of Cargill Creative, Christine Perkett, Founder & CEO of PerkettPR, and Kate Porter taught us the importance of just being yourself on social media. Best practices for social marketing include tagging related poeple and companies in your content, and sharing sneak peaks and behind the scenes images.

 

 

Keynote Tom Cates, CEO & Chief Story Teller of salesEQUITY, inc., ended the event with his session on improving the customer experience. We learned that customer satisfaction is dead, and that there is value in measuring client motivation to invest in a relationship. Furthermore, to gain trust with your customers and create a trusted advisor relationship, you need to balance these 6 factors:

  1.  Integrity
  2.  Competancy
  3.  Recognition
  4.  Proativity
  5.  Savvy
  6.  Chemistry

 

https://twitter.com/tpf1970/status/996833386277822464

 

Thank to NEDMA for an extremely successful and insightful event! Hope to see you at next year’s Annual Conference.

 

 

Did you attend the Annual Conference? Join the ongoing conversation on social by using the hashtag #NEDMA18 with posting pictures from the day, session highlights, and more!

 

Get the Latest Industry Insights

Stay informed with expert insights and trends delivered directly to your inbox. Subscribe now to receive updates on the topics that matter most to your business.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Dev Tool:

Request: blog/nedmas-56th-annual-conference-recap
Matched Rewrite Rule: blog/([^/]+)/?$
Matched Rewrite Query: post_type=post&name=nedmas-56th-annual-conference-recap
Loaded Template: single.php