Stefan
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Couple of weeks ago I was fortunate enough to leave the foggy, cold, windy place called City by the Bay in search for something better: true summer! And I found it – in Minnesota. What brought me there you ask? Well, I was invited to speak at the Minneapolis Search Summit 2016. Now there are a couple of things here that I want to get out of the way: this assignment was an assignment through my employment at Google, but I wanted to share some personal thoughts on the event, so the below post isn’t meant to reflect my professional involvement as it relates to my employment / employer, but really my personal views an opinions.
With that disclaimer out of the way, how did I like it? I LOVED it. Well, easy to imagine: Austrian country boy meets midwest summer in the Twin City known for its lakes and parks. Doesn’t get any better than that. So, while I stayed only briefly, I did love the clean layout, the fact that people took time for their lunch, the downtown look-and-feel, and the parks that seem to be set for anyone to sit and enjoy. Don’t get me wrong, I am a big fan of the bay area parks and recreational spaces, which are – undoubtedly – some of the best in the world. But this constant fog and chill gets to me eventually, and it was nice to stroll around the city, knowing that the intense summer heat will just stay until late.
Now let’s come to the main event, the reason why I was in MN in the first place: speaking at the MN Search Summit. Really loved the event. With a keynote / breakout format, the event really followed the trend many such events have followed in the recent past. Providing high-caliber keynote sessions, interesting to the whole audience, and then break out into tracks where participants can narrow their focus. With the schedule available way ahead of the event, participants can really tailor their experience at the event to their needs, making it easier to get out of the sessions what they want to get out of them – for themselves, their companies, their teams etc. Once session was particularly interesting: The afternoon keynote was facilitated in a town-hall style debate format. I loved this type of format, and here is why:
- The participants Rand Fishkin & Wil Reynolds were just perfect in their roles. They knew each other before this event for many years, even had swapped CEO roles for a while with their respective companies.
- The audience was amazing in their participation. The questions asked were great, and the way that the audience tuned into the format was just fun and invigorating. No one seemed to mind that the whole value of this session was also relying on the audiences participation, and quality of questions. Not something every audience in every country would be ok to handle in my experience.
- The moderator did a great job guiding the session and debate. It took a little while until the session got its momentum going, and the moderator made sure the questions submitted were curated and ordered in a way that it formed a coherent storyline.
My session as in the afternoon, just before drinks, which typically is a tough slot to fill. My topic of marketing measurement wasn’t exactly at the core of search marketing, but with more and more pressure on even search budgets, the idea of tying together search spend and conversions is creeping into peoples heads more and more. While I tried to make the session as exciting as I could, if I would do it again I might
- Reduce the content down, and then reduce it even more. Marketing attribution is a broad field, there is loads to say, but the key is to make it relevant for the audience.
- Pace myself. I rushed it a little, something I keep doing when I get little response from the audience. Fight or flight is the worst response to little response.
- Understand better what matters to the core of my audiences. They are search marketers, often charged with attribution as a side-show. Understanding the key use-cases, i.e. is it bidding, is is measurement, is it financial reporting, etc. is key. I did some of this work, obviously, but I could bake it more into my presentation and narrative.
Thankfully the audience was patient with me, asked great questions in the Q&A session, and seemed genuinely engaged with the topic of marketing attribution. Thanks to everyone who helped make the session useful!
Minneapolis, till we meet again!
