While we are getting into Autumn spirit in Poland, Los Angeles welcomed us with sun and summer vibes. 26 degrees in October – that’s really something! Besides the dreamy weather, we were thrilled to discover The Digital Summit’s outstanding location, just a few steps away from Universal Studios in Hollywood.

See quick summary of the sessions that grabbed our attention during these two days of Digital Summit Los Angeles 2022.

A successful marketing starts with our habits

Every marketer once struggled with lack of creativity. And with a dynamically growing marketing industry, there is always a desire for cutting-edge ideas, superb tactics and genius strategies.

But, have you ever thought that your day-to-day habits can influence your creativity? What if we told you that changing some of your routines can boost your imagination?

The first keynote speech, Building Creative Habits That Lead to Better Marketing, was held by Jenny Haggard, a Global Creative Strategist for Spotify.

Jenny Haggard, Building Creative Habits That Lead to Better Marketing

Jenny uncovered the four core sources of creativity in marketing, calling it the ‘AABCs of creative marketing’.

1. Anima

Most of the time, our creativity flows naturally. Nevertheless, we can easily get distracted by external noises. The more that happens around us, the harder it is to concentrate and perform well. But it is also our inner noise that distracts us.

Solution? Practice the habit of silence as it can reveal and nurture your creativity. Try to be silent every day, even for a short time. For a start, reduce your screen time. Begin with even 1 minute.

2. Audience 

Think about your audience as human beings – it doesn’t really matter what you call them. Since screen fatigue is real, try to focus on audio. Hearing is one of the 5 main senses and it accompanies us whatever we do. Audio communication is also less intrusive than video communication.

Do you know the famous McDonald’s jingle? Or a Coca-Cola theme song? People associate brands with sounds really quickly, and it’s an opportunity for you to be remembered. 

3. Brand

Merge Audience and Anima. Think about your brand identity, consider your strengths, unique qualities, and find the target audience that fits your image and offering.

4. Culture

Latest news from around the world, but also home and community, can be really inspirational, too. You don’t have to look far, sometimes it just takes to be mindful and curious.

How to create data-driven social content?

The next session that we took part in was Proven Strategies for Data-Driven Social Content by Ericka Kurtz, Head of Social Intelligence & Operations at Twitter. 

The key message of the speech was that one of the most viable ways to create effective strategy is using trends and data.

Ericka Kurtz, Proven Strategies for Data-Driven Social Content

Twitter holds a really wide range of content – from news, through sports games, travels, culture, ending with health and self care. The platform gathers people of very different interests, so it is important that we use it in our communication.

Ericka Kurtz, Proven Strategies for Data-Driven Social Content

What’s also interesting, some services (like, for example, BuzzFeed News) rely on Twitter and its content.

How to be successful on Twitter?

1. Remember about establishing content relevancy. It is critical that your posts are accurate.
2. Be aware. You don’t have to be spicy or funny. Keep your tweets short and to the point.
3. Follow the trends. People have different passions and interests. Try to refer to them.

Ericka Kurtz, Proven Strategies for Data-Driven Social Content

Note to self: Twitter is considered to be a no.1 channel for brand interaction. That’s why it is important that you analyze how, and how often your followers interact with your brand there. Try Sotrender to track your Twitter performance.

Steal your competitors’ traffic

There’s no marketing strategy without competitive benchmarking. How many times have you heard that? Well, there’s no harm in saying that again! 😉

5 Digital Hacks To Steal Your Competitor’s Traffic held by Joey Lowery from Media Shark was another highlight of the first conference day.

These are the three hints that seemed most interesting to us:

1. Use an external tool (like Similarweb) to back competitors. Focus on the sources that they get traffic from. Analyze their longest-running ad campaigns – most probably they are the most effective!
2. Do you know that only 9% of businesses are on YouTube? Steal YouTube traffic and start with a personal YouTube channel.
3. Incorporate QR codes in your ads. The truth is, we hardly ever leave our phones. Use context and make people want to interact!

Is the audio trend going to keep up?

The first day of Digital Summit was closed by Can You Hear Me Now? Incorporating Audio Into Your Marketing Plan by Ginger Shimp from SAP. This was another session that referred to the meaning of audio in marketing communication.

Audio communication is said to be less intrusive and more native. It also operates on some subconscious level. That’s why more and more marketers recognize its potential. Is audio marketing here to stay? We leave this question open.

The psychology of web content

Day 2 started off great with a substantive speech: The Psychology of Web Content: Mastering Cognitive Biases, Conversion Triggers and Modern SEO by Matthew Capala from Alphametic. By the way, it was nice to see a speaker of Polish origin overseas! 😉 

Matthew Capala, The Psychology of Web Content: Mastering Cognitive Biases, Conversion Triggers and Modern SEO

We gained a lot of useful tips from Matthew’s talk and we were presented the 6-step website psychology formula. Here’s a quick summary:

1. Establish trust. Are you an authority? Can people really trust you?

Note: Testimonials and reviews prove crucial to your credibility. Make them highly visible on your website.

2. Remove objections. Go for risk-free options, free trials, and give a possibility to resign from your product anytime.

3. Get small commitments. 

• Use progress bars so people are more likely to complete their activities.
• Gamify the conversion funnel & give rewards. Incentives drive people’s behavior.
• Attract with novelties. Present what’s new on the top. People are likely to try it.

4. Frame your offer. Your customers look for value, not the cheapest price!

5. Reassure with social proof. ‘Thank You’ page is as important as a great salesperson.

6. Build conversion funnels.

Tell me your (Insta)Story

As dedicated Instagram lovers, we were jazzed about Meredith Howard’s session named The Art of Insta-Storytelling. We found Meredith to be a charismatic lecturer and we really enjoyed her energetic speech. It provided us with many insights on how to create successful Stories on Instagram.

Meredith Howard, The Art of Insta-Storytelling

Here’s how to define a good Insta Story. Ideally, it is:

• Disruptive. Well, doesn’t sound really nice, but let’s face the truth: you want to grab people’s attention and make them stop doing what they are doing!
• Differentiated. Make your Stories stand out from the crowd. Plus, remember to use them solely on Instagram. Do not duplicate this content on other channels.
• Crowdsourced. Your audience should be able to interact with your content. Use stickers.
• Raw. People like authentic Stories. They should be done ‘in real time’.
• Incomplete. Your content should inspire people to take action. Forget a clear ending! 

How to create memorable social moments?

On day 2, we also attended the Take Risks and Stand Out on Social session by Michael Albanese. The eternal question: How to stand out on social media? became our main focus again.

Michael shared his thoughts on TikTok. Some people might consider this rapidly growing platform as an advertising space. But should brands really advertise on TikTok? Well, not really. At least, not now.

According to Michael, brands should aim for growing their ‘organic communities’. Building a strong community lays at the core of successful social media marketing, and this is something that everyone can do! Just a reminder: TikTok is to engage, not to sell.

Nitetoast knows how to do it well. They do not show off their app too much on TikTok, they rather take up some catchy topics like ‘4-day work week’. Their videos have nothing in common with fancy stuff, they are simple and unsophisticated. But they really work, don’t they?

Irobot does it pretty well, too. Creating engaging TikToks about robot vacuum might seem challenging, but not for them. In this TikTok they showed how to use their product for creative purposes. No one expected that, but people fell for it!

Final words about the LA Digital Summit

This was the first time that we attended the Digital Summit conference and we must say we enjoyed it very much. Great 2-day agenda packed with experts’ captivating speeches, with a large section of topics – from Customer Experience, through Data-driven Social Content, SEO, to Insta-Storytelling and Brand Voice. All in all, it was a great workation! 😉

Till the next time!