14 lessons from our content marketing conference

content marketing conference

content marketing conference

I have attended a lot of content marketing conferences and I finally got to see one from the inside out.

Last week, the Convince & Convert team teamed up with our friends at Uberflip to produce and host CONEX: The Content Experience .

750 content marketers have joined us in Toronto, including many Convince & Convert readers, customers and fans. Thank you!

It was a great experience and I can’t wait for the next version of CONEX: Content Experience (will be August 20-22, 2019)

I learned a lot about hosting and co-producing a content marketing conference, as well as some new ideas from our amazing team of speakers. But rather than just scrolling through my own recollections and notes, I thought it would be more interesting to provide my favorite tweets from CONEX, so you can see what the attendees really thought of each. Speakers. Tweets are presented in chronological order.

IMPORTANT NOTES : You can watch the event’s livestream here: https://contentexperience.uberflip.com/live-stream-2018/

No more random content behavior

Karine Bengualid picked this one from ourselves Anna Hrach (a strategist at C&C) who ran an excellent pre-conference workshop on how to create a final editorial calendar. (note: We will be offering this as an online course this fall).

Content success is about content remix

The theme of the CONEX content marketing conference was “Remix” and several speakers talked about repackaging content and selling it better to content consumers. This trend was started by Uberflip CMO and its co-founder Randy Frisch in his opening speech. Kevin Webb tweeted the concept from Randy’s talk.

Viral doesn’t mean anything

My old friend Scott Stratten area Give some thunder to the opening keynote and show the whole concept of trying to go viral with content marketing and social media. Yvonne Tsui tweeted one of the many quotable Stratten-isms. (listen to Scott on the Social Pros podcast)

The Best Content Marketing Experience Has 4 Components

related presentation from Nate Skinner of Pardot is next on the agenda. I haven’t heard this framework from Nate before, and I really like his structure. Also Alex Fasken who also took a photo of the accompanying slide.

Behavior change starts with awareness

Tamsen Webster burning. A content trainer and idea whisperer, the Red Thread system is being used by more and more executives and professional speakers to add clarity to their messages. (disclosure: she worked with me) Tamsen also brought her ideas to the stage at CONEX and had a great impact on Madison Harbin and many other attendees.

Content matters at all stages

As I mentioned in my introduction to him (I am the curator at CONEX: Content Experience ) Carlos Abler of 3M is possibly the smartest bald guy I know. Or maybe he’s the smart one with the least hair. Either way, he knows A LOT about stuff. He brought a lot to the stage at the event, especially his ideas for content at every stage of the customer journey. Stephanie Totty tweeted about it.

Honest and transparent content creates customers

This could be the quintessential quote from a Presentation by Marcus Sheridan . Marcus preached the good news of bs-free content at CONEX and got the audience to pass the word as usual. How to use .gif well here from Katrina Couto ! (Listen to Marcus on the Social Pros podcast)

Time to play The Feud

One of the highlights of our particular content marketing conference is The Content Feud, which will close on day one. Inspired by Family Feud, we pit content marketing strategists against content marketing practitioners in a five-round quiz show, with me hosting the show. In a duel to the final question, the strategists (captains Ann Handley ) retained their title.

Customer retention is the new way of marketing

As expected, a hugely important Monday opening keynote from Joey Coleman , whose book “Never lose a customer again” is possibly my favorite business book so far this year. Joey also co-hosts this Amazing Experience! shows that we used to produce through Convince & Convert Media. Thinking through content based on retention resonates with Melanie Persaud . (Listen to Joey on the Social Pros podcast)

Social video is not TV

Exciting Caitlin Angeloff global social media operator at Docusign and brought a social video strategy and presentation, especially Facebook Live, to the CONEX event. Need Gene Report tweeted one of Caitlin’s key points about the real-time interactivity of social video. (Listen to Caitlin on the Social Pros podcast)

Engage buyers on their Terms, not yours

Laura Ramos from Forrester offers helpful advice rooted in new research. Her talk focuses on empathetic content: focusing on the prospect/buyer instead of focusing on the company. Brandi Smith took this photo and tweeted.

C writes more content without actually creating more content

Corinne Sklar is the super smart CMO of Bluewolf, and shared his “Chicken Slaughter” concept at CONEX. What she meant was that if you have a piece of content, if you keep cutting, you can create several iterations and other versions of that content, enhancing the effectiveness of the content. We call it “atomization” here at C&C, but I also like a good chicken metaphor. Deirdre Buckingham (who won the return trip to CONEX next year in this event).

Don’t be smart. Can get hurt

I wore a Buzz Lightyear costume for the introduction Matthew Luhn a legendary Pixar storyteller.

With that less than usual lead, Matthew took to the CONEX stage and blew us away with his heart and poignancy. His advice that content marketers are trying to be too cute has been heeded. His talk really resonated, even with Function 1 who captured this amazing photo in their tweet.

Skipping video is 2018’s powered handshake

Amy Landino brought a warm, story-driven approach to her presentation on the importance of video content. She highlights video’s ability to build communities and also shares her own recipe for creating prestige videos. Super helpful! Dionne Mischler captured this photo from the balcony at the Royal Conservatory of Music, in Toronto. (Listen to Amy on the Social Pros podcast)

Bridging the curiosity gap for content success

Legendary Andrew Davis delivered a fun and important keynote presenting curiosity and delayed gratification, punching holes in the “overwhelmed audience” excuse for poor content performance. Watch this on live stream : you’ll be glad you did! Mo Waja was there to capture this tweet.

Mobile is not for content delivery, it is for Gadgets

Bonin Bough is the former chief digital officer of Pepsico and the former head of global digital and communications at Mondelez. Bonin closed Conex: The Content Experience with a keynote that reminded attendees that mobile devices can (and should) do more than they do now, in most cases. Maya Chendke was very attentive!

It’s a wrap. 14 lessons from our content marketing conference. You may have your own caveats. Watch the on-demand live stream and witness it first-hand. All free!

A big thank you to everyone at Convince & Convert and Uberflip for their work on this event. And a big thank you to all the speakers, sponsors and attendees.

By Nguyen Manh Cuong

Nguyen Manh Cuong is the author and founder of the nguyendiep blog. With over 14 years of experience in Online Marketing, he now runs a number of successful websites, and occasionally shares his experience & knowledge on this blog.

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