Middle-of-the-Funnel Marketing Innovations:
Nurture and Convert More Qualified Leads
By any measure, the technology landscape for marketing continues to evolve at a ever-increasing pace. The successful marketer has to not only keep track of the end-to-end customer journey and marketing mix, but increasingly be savvy about how technology can improve execution and feedback loops at each stage. In this event, the SDAMA invites you to take a deeper dive into the strategy and technology landscape for “middle of the funnel” marketing activities.
In this 60 minute session, hear from top marketing tech experts including Sean Shoffstall, VP at Blue Hornet, and Katie Fellenz, VP at NextLeft. Join us early, and stay late, for an opportunity to network with your peers and our experts before and after the event.
- Content marketing, email, and other digital strategies and technologies that speed prospects through the funnel.
- Marketing’s role in supporting the digital salesperson.
- Case studies of clients/brands that are successfully moving prospects along the funnel.
Speakers
Sean Shoffstall
Vice President, Marketing, BlueHornet
A digital marketing executive, Sean works with top global brands providing leadership, strategy and execution in both B2C and B2B settings. He has a keen ability to successfully execute multi-channel marketing in his unique way. His innovative thinking makes him a desired board member and strategist for companies trying to break through crowded market spaces or enter brand new industries.
Over Sean’s 20-year career, he has been a founder, board member, executive and strategist. From starting up a successful practice management software company to growing a digital marketing agency to double its revenue before acquisition, he is driven with the eye of a business leader and the mind of a marketer. The breadth of his experience allows him connect the needs of executives with the passion of the marketers and the insight of a consumer. He knows how to lead teams and drive business in times of growth and change.
His unique insight into marketing trends has made him a desired speaker at industry events such as AdTech, Argyle Executive Forums and DMA. His philosophy around Quantifiable Creativity has been published in articles and featured in webcasts for CMOCouncil, MarketingProfs, B2BOnline and more. In 2013, Sean was recognized as a runner up for the Marketer of the Year (MarketingProfs).
Katie Fellenz
Vice President, NextLeft
Katie Fellenz has nearly a decade of digital marketing experience driving online acquisition, customer engagement and client retention for both brands and agencies alike. Currently, Mrs. Fellenz and her team help national brands like Fiskars, UniGroup, Hallmark eCards and others grow their organic traffic through Earned Media. When she’s not living the agency life, Katie spends her time traveling with her husband and playing frisbee with their 3 year old furbaby, Jack Bauer.
VENUE
UC San Diego Extension
6256 Greenwich Dr,
San Diego, CA 92122
The event will take place on the first floor of UCSD Extension, rooms 116-118.
PARKING
Free, ample parking in on-site parking garage.
Recap
We continued our 2016 Signature Series trip through the funnel, with BlueHornet’s Sean Shoffstall and NextLeft’s Katie Fellenz sharing cutting-edge insights with 40 local marketers.
Sean led off, focusing on data and technology:
- We have more data at our disposal than ever, so we should use it to determine when our messages are working and when we’re over-communicating.
- Data can guide our decisions around
- Content and the time and location of delivery – and how we take advantage of new channels like application push notifications and SMS
- Competitive insights – where are prospects coming from?
- Whether we’re speaking to shoppers or buyers, and how we adjust our messaging accordingly
- You should always start developing your campaigns around your data. For example:
- The search terms by which visitors are landing on your site should inform the content you develop
- The referral sources of your traffic tell you what channels to invest in
- Nurturing doesn’t end at conversion. It’s also about relationship building. The goal is to nurture the relationship all the way from “hello” to lifetime loyalty and advocacy.
Katie then talked content strategy:
- As a brand, how do you capitalize on “micromoments” all those little parts of the buyer’s journey that are driven by mobile technology? The key is to
- Be there – People use mobile more for search than PCs
- Be useful – 80% of Google searches are “how to”; more than 50% of buyers will change from an initial brand selection based on content usefulness. Example: Realtor.com has a nurturing path built around the process of moving to a new home.
- Be relevant – 78% of consumers expect personalized content. Example: Through its “Hosted Walks”, Airbnb’s hosts illuminate points of interests along a walking journey.
- Google is responding to micromoments in four ways:
- Localized search results (the 3-pack)
- Rich Snippets/Article Cards
- Knowledge Cards/Answer Boxes
- Video results
- A presence on YouTube is vital, not just because videos are showing up in Google search results, but because people are now using YouTube as a search engine in itself.
Special thanks to Sean and Katie for an enriching session, and to our event sponsor, BlueHornet. Join us for the final event in our 2016 Content Marketing Signature series, Top of the Funnel: Awareness Strategies and Technologies, October 11 at DowntownWorks.
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