The journey from Prague to Olomouc passed surprisingly quickly, and by just before nine o’clock we were already checking in at the reception of the modern building housing the Faculty of Science at Palacký University. The beautifully designed name badges suggested that we were in for a great event.
Morning lecture session
Jindra Fáborský gave the opening lecture, summarising the first year of the JsmeMarketing project. I think Jindra is satisfied, and the rest of us are looking forward to what the coming year will bring.
Adam Zbiejczuk (@zbiejczuk)
Social media – The revolution has already happened and we haven’t noticed it
In his introduction, Adam pointed out that almost everyone is already on Facebook; the only gaps are among older people. Using the examples of the Kooperativa and Květinářství Žaneta pages, he showed that what matters isn’t the number of fans, but their engagement. He outlined three basic types of successful communication on Facebook. I was particularly struck by the third option: being completely personal. Not even Jaromír Jágr’s page would have caused such a stir (in a good way) if the content had been created by an administrator rather than written by the world-famous ice hockey player himself. Interestingly, even in this case, it is essential to post regularly. If there is a long gap between posts, engagement will drop. Adam
then went on to discuss the Edgerank algorithm and its impact on how posts are displayed to users. This was followed by examples of other successful pages, an explanation of why this is the case, and finally, a few useful tips for more effective communication.
If you’re interested in these tips or anything else from this or other talks, visit SlideShare, where you’ll find all the presentations on the JsmeMarketing profile.
Robert Vlach (@robertvlach)
Intellectual marketing
Robert Vlach is known for his meticulous preparation for talks, and this occasion was no exception. Tweets comparing the presentation to a university lecture appeared on Twitter under the hashtag #mkt2013. The audience took two opposing stances on this lecture; one group was enthusiastic, whilst the other did not particularly enjoy it. It would be hard to find a middle ground. Given that the lecture took place at Palacký University, the comparison that I once again ‘felt like I was back in the school classroom’ might seem a bit off the mark, but that’s exactly how it was. We were given handouts during the lecture. I would probably have preferred them to be handed out at the end; as it was, they were a bit of a distraction. I could also imagine the presentation being more engaging to better support the ideas presented. To sum up, Robert Vlach’s lecture was of a very high standard, but as I said to Mark, in my opinion it didn’t quite fit in with this conference, and I’m convinced that a different audience would have appreciated it much more.
Miroslav Rojek (@roykinen)
What does SEO mean today? The
final talk in the morning session was delivered by Miroslav Rojek from Centrum Holdings. In his introduction, Miroslav briefly outlined how SEO used to be done and how it is done today. He then focused more on the future, mentioning some of the key pillars important for successful search engine optimisation. Just as it is today, content will remain king in the future. It will be important to know who we are writing for, and to use text, video and photographs. This was followed by practical demonstrations of how things work at Centrum Holdings, for example when creating content for aktualne.cz. Through this, Miroslav highlighted the main message of the presentation: that SEO is by no means for everyone. It requires the involvement of a large number of people, ranging from a marketing specialist and a copywriter to an SEO specialist or PR officer. Therefore, SEO will be only for large companies; small businesses will not have sufficient funds and should therefore focus on PPC advertising. Once again, I recommend visiting the aforementioned JsmeMarketing profile on SlideShare and viewing the presentation.
Lunch
For lunch, we could have stayed at the faculty, where pizza was available on one of the upper floors of the building, or we could have eaten somewhere in town. We chose the second option, and it must be said that we didn’t make the right choice. The first complications arose as soon as we stepped outside; a friend wanted to navigate us using Apple Maps, but apparently that isn’t the best idea. So we just followed our noses until we reached the restaurant at Hubert’s. We were greeted in a rather unconventional way; instead of the daily papers, diners could read Playboy over lunch. It put us off a bit, but we didn’t have time to spare. So we ordered and hoped that appearances were deceiving. They weren’t. I’d sum up the food with the phrase ‘a lot of money for very little value’.
Afternoon lecture session
Jan Tichý (@jantichy)
Shaky metrics in Google Analytics
Unfortunately, the fact that the food was nothing to write home about wasn’t the worst part of our lunch outing. We were running quite late and, sadly, missed Jan Tichý’s talk. According to the buzz on Twitter, it was one of the best. So I have no choice but to look forward to the video recording of the whole conference so I can catch a glimpse of Honza. The video will be available in a few weeks; follow @jsmemarketing on Twitter and you’ll certainly be informed in good time.
Luboš Louženský (@lubos)
2013 and the future
Luboš Louženský spoke about trends and the future of online marketing. Here, I would again recommend watching the presentation and the video recording. In the presentation, take a look at what Luboš thinks lies ahead for us in 2013; in the video, pay attention to Luboš’s speech itself. It’s one of the best. I’d like
to mention some information that Marek jotted down and which, I don’t think, you’ll find in the presentation. The first concerns traffic to e-shops from mobile devices, which stands at a 70:30 ratio in favour of Android. However, when it comes to purchases made via mobile phones, Apple has improved its position, with the ratio now at 50:50. Another interesting piece of information relates to PPC campaigns, where the ‘magic formula of Free Delivery’ increases the campaign’s click-through rate by 40%.
Jan Ambrož (@JanAmbroz)
You know a copywriter when you
need one Jan Ambrož spoke on the topic of copywriting and, above all, sought to educate the audience on when and how to involve a copywriter in a project. In his introduction, he pointed out that content is usually created on the fly; during website development, the focus is primarily on the design, and the content itself is often neglected. Data shows that in 70% of cases, a copywriter is only brought in once the website is finished and text needs to be written or edited. 20% of projects involve a copywriter during website development, and only 10% as early as the planning stage. And that is a mistake. Several examples are provided, and the table below explains why a copywriter should be involved right from the website planning stage.
In conclusion, Jan offers some useful tips on how to create content strategically and how to find a suitable copywriter.
Petra Větrovská (@vetrovka)
Nine tips on how to acquire customers more cost-effectively
Petra Větrovská had prepared nine useful tips on how to acquire customers more effectively. It was the final talk, and despite my excessive coffee consumption, fatigue was slowly setting in; yet I had no trouble whatsoever keeping my attention throughout. Petra’s talk was definitely the most practical of them all, and I don’t know if that was the organisers’ intention or just a coincidence; in any case, scheduling such a talk to round off the event was a good move.
Although the title of the talk mentions nine tips, I’ll just list them and focus more on the tenth. 🙂
- Monitor search queries
- Increase your click-through rate with formal text adjustments
- Improve the quality of the landing page
- Experiment with price
- Focus on timing in remarketing
- Use negative remarketing
- Offer performance-based pricing at different times
- Maximise sitelinks
- Advertise your full, up-to-date product range (product listing ads)
Finally, Petra discussed the latest development in PPC campaigns and their management: expanded campaigns. These offer some useful features, such as bid variations based on time, location or device, and the context in which the user finds themselves. We can show a different ad to a user searching on a mobile phone who is standing 300 metres from our restaurant, and a different ad to a user searching from home. As this is a brand-new feature that caught Petra off guard whilst preparing for the presentation, the talk only covered the basics; further details are gradually appearing online, including on Petra’s personal website.
Conclusion of the event and the day
The conclusion of the whole event was a success; after the final talk, all the speakers gathered on stage to answer questions from the audience. The whole panel discussion took place in a very relaxed atmosphere – perhaps a bit too relaxed, according to Marek – but in any case, it was a nice change of pace and a fitting end to the day. Petr Pouchlý (@jezevci) and Martin Šinkovský (@masinko), who led the afternoon workshops, were primarily responsible for the light-hearted atmosphere. Unfortunately, I didn’t attend them, but according to the feedback, they were well worth it.
This discussion was followed by an after-party at the nearby U-Club, but Marek and I had to check into our accommodation and have dinner first; after all, we didn’t want our memories of Olomouc’s cuisine to be limited to just lunch. The Caesar restaurant, however, certainly improved our impressions. And then we were ready to head to the after-party to expand our network of contacts. The task set by Petr Pouchlý was clear: to get to know at least five people we hadn’t met before. We managed it.
Written by David Ptáček (@DaveLipi) with the generous support of Marek Mencl (@mmencl).
Interesting links
Photo: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.470531276329649.96666.296415597074552&type;=3
Participants’ presentations: http://www.slideshare.net/JsmeMarketing
Reactions on Twitter: https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=#mkt2013&src;=typd