Last week we kicked off our DialogTech Digital Summit in Chicago: Empowering Conversations In a Digital Landscape. At Venue SIX10 on Michigan Avenue, overlooking the stunning Lake Michigan, we spent the afternoon with leading digital marketers discussing why conversations are so important in today’s evolving digital landscape.
Here are a few sound bites we thought were especially insightful:
“You can’t hold back revolutions, but you can be ready.”
In his introduction to the DialogTech Digital Summit, Irv Shapiro, CEO of DialogTech, discussed a number of technology revolutions that have occurred over time. He argues that for too long technology has been designed to connect us, but marketers believe these connections should only occur online. This assumption is stealing our humanity when all consumers want is to talk to a real person.
What’s our current revolution? Embracing conversations in a digital marketing. And the businesses that will win are the ones that are ready for this revolution.
“We’ve heard for 5 years that “this is the year of mobile” – I think we’re getting pretty tired of that.”
Ryan Kluever, Media Manager at iCrossing, voiced what every digital marketer has been thinking. Marketers today understand that mobile is here, it’s here to stay, and it will continue to grow in the months and years to come. It’s our job to go out and take advantage of that and understand how people convert from their mobile devices. Kluever discussed a few tips and tools we can use to get credit for every mobile conversion – including customer calls.
“Calls are a conversion type, the same as online forms are a conversion type.”
BIA/Kelsey reports that US businesses will receive 73 billion calls from mobile search alone. In her presentation, DialogTech Digital Marketing Lead, Kelley Schultz, emphasized that our customers are searching on their mobile devices, and they’re raising their hands by calling because they want to talk to your business.
Kelley left us with the ambition to be the kind of brand that is there for our customers, the one that caters our message to how people want to engage on their mobile devices.
“We knew calls were happening, but we didn’t actually know how many or what quality.”
As part of our panel highlighting brands who optimized their marketing by embracing conversations, Dan Cardamone, Manager of Search Marketing at CDW, recounted how they knew they were driving a lot of call activity, they just didn’t know from where. Through implementing call attribution software, CDW finally understands the full value their marketing was generating all along that they didn’t even know.
“We realized just how important mobile was.”
Olivia Hawkins, Media Manager at agency Search Discovery, conveyed how eye-opening it was to see the impact that mobile had on their client Comfort Keepers’ marketing. They learned that the most efficient clicks and most qualified traffic was coming from mobile for Comfort Keepers – but previous call attribution providers were only using vanity numbers, not dynamic number insertion (DNI).
“We’ve been able to prove not only the power of digital, but really that [Search Discovery] has some of the most efficient conversion channels for Comfort Keepers.”
“We can proactively reach out and provide recommendations based on insights from our conversations.”
Seth Lueck, Senior Online and SEM Manager at Sylvan Learning, spoke about how Conversation Insight technology has benefited the relationship between franchise owners and the corporate office. They analyze phone calls to certain store locations to understand what was actually said on the call. If a specific location is struggling, is it because too many calls are going to voicemail? Are they not promoting a national offer? This helps Sylvan support their franchisees and optimize the caller experience.
“Stories are a better way to do marketing, because they’re a better way to communicate.”
Not only are stories a better way to communicate, keynote speaker Shane Snow, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Contently, argues they’re a better way to build relationships that are human in nature. “It’s about human nature, how a story changed a product or saved a product. It’s about how stories get people to care.”
Snow spoke about how the ideal for building a relationship over time with this sense of human communication is to blend familiarity and novelty – where over time you increase the novelty as the relationship builds. For marketers, this means that the stories you tell in the beginning of your relationship with customers should focus on the values you share with them. You can then slowly tell stories about the people behind your brand and product to increase the novelty of how your business will benefit them.
We capped our event off with a happy hour and can’t wait until the next DialogTech Digital Summit – we’ll see you there!
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