While I’ve visited many marketing conferences already, it was the first time I attended MatketEd.Live in Nottingham. With their agenda full of qualitative speakers, for only a small group of people, it was an inspirational day from which I took away 8 simple but effective tips.
1. Don’t underestimate the power of trust
BizPaul, organiser of MarketEd.Live, talked in his introduction about a study they conducted. The study showed that social media is best for awareness, but email is best for ROI. Because your database already knows you and therefore are more likely to trust you. Trust is a very important factor to make someone buy your product or service, so don’t underestimate it.
2. Don’t try to sell to people that don’t know your business
This one seems obvious, still lots of companies try to get sales immediately with only an awareness campaign. Thersa Heathwareing made a business funnel roadmap that she was more than happy to share with us, that helps you with the process to sell your product or service.
- At the lowest level, your goal is to get seen. You can do this with a blog, podcast, vlog, … (anything that fits your business).
- Secondly, you want to build an email database. You can do this with what she calls ‘lead magnets’: freebies, competitions, … (anything that attracts possible leads).
- Then it’s time to be more direct, in order to turn your leads into sales. There are 3 stages to do this, depending on the type of customer. Best to begin with a low-cost offer, a one-off sale, … The higher you get into the funnel, the higher the value gets. Not only from you but also from your customers.
- The ultimate goal is to turn those sales into fans and build a community.
3. Think about how your pages will look in search
Fili Wiese has worked at Google and shared with us some SEO wisdom. One of the things that stood by us, is that first impressions do count and therefore it’s important to think which url’s you want to expose as indexed urls and how will they look in search? Does it show what you can do for them and does it include a CTA? (rather than just telling who you are) More about this, you can find in this article he wrote for Search Engine Land: https://searchengineland.com/unique-selling-proposition-key-element-seo-success-289690
4. Don’t suck at advertising
Gavin Bell talked about why most ads suck and how you can create value for your customers. For each stage of the funnel:
1) Create Like & Know content: look at the most asked questions, the problems in your industry. What do they want to consume? Why should they care? Create that content! Add value without asking something in return. (For instance: beginner tips for guitar lessons)
2) Consideration content: show an offer related to the content they’ve consumed already. (For instance, discount on guitar lessons, shown to people who watched the beginner tips)
3) Conversion content: this is where many ads go wrong. It’s not enough to push a one-off sale; you need to build for the long term. Use ads that nurture deeper relationships (like premium offers, memberships, loyalty rewards) and focus on lifetime customer value, not just the immediate transaction. (For instance: a limited-time high-value package of advanced guitar lessons).
5. Stop forcing people to have a conversation, focus on what they need
Elizabeth Stokoe used examples from real interactions in talk and online, to show us that some of what we think we know about talk is wrong. She taught us 4 important lessons:
1) Remove burdens in conversations. Design interactions so people don’t feel they have to do all the work.
2) Stop forcing people into small talk. Focus instead on what they actually need or want to talk about.
3) Research real conversations. Don’t rely on role-play or assumptions; study authentic dialogue and learn from the patterns.
4) Change the script. Subtle tweaks in phrasing can have big impacts. For example, Stokoe’s research shows that using the verb “speak” instead of “talk” can reduce resistance, and asking “Are you willing to…” rather than “Are you interested in …” often leads to better engagement. By choosing words more carefully, you can open up more productive and positive interactions.
6. Turn feedback into (more) sales
I don’t think anyone would disagree with us if we would tell you that Rob Temple & Kennedy grabbed our attention from beginning to end. With a wonderful magic trick, they tried and succeeded in reading the minds of two people from the audience. To then tell us that you can’t read the minds of your clients, you have to ask them what they think. With a survey. But strip that survey into only 2 questions:
1) About what you just did for them: “How did we do?” (Bad / Good or 1-10)
2) If bad: “How can we do better?” / If good: “That’s awesome, what do you need help with next?”
And where possible, avoid those ‘essay’ questions and keep it down to multiple choice. So they can just click a few times and you don’t have to spit through every answer. Because open-ended questions aren’t actionable for you. More about this, you can find in this video they made: https://pg.responsesuite.com/ml19-video
7. Pay attention to diversity in advertising
Jordie Wildin talked about something that’s more relevant than ever. But she didn’t just show us that diversity in advertising is still a problem, she also showed us why we should pay attention to it:
- Recognise new growth opportunities (for instance: Chinese get paid the most, Ramadan spending worth more, black women spend more on their hair, …)
- Appeal to audiences on an authentic level (not only on camera, but also behind the screens). This made me think of a recent “incident” in Belgium: https://medium.com/@joppe.decampeneere/open-brief-die-diversiteitsvlag-zwaai-je-niet-zomaar-hoe-warm-de-bedoelingen-ook-zijn-ce538a52f0af (Dutch only)
8. Get on stage to grow your business, authority and trust
This final point perfectly circled back to the conference’s initial takeaway about the importance of trust. Standing on a stage instantly positions you as an authority and an expert in your field, which is a massive shortcut to building trust with potential customers. Beyond authority, speaking directly contributes to business growth by acting as a powerful tool for lead generation and networking.
The conference ended by directly challenging the audience: The next speaker could be someone from this room. They encouraged attendees to take the actionable step of applying to speak at the next MarketEd.Live. You don’t need decades of experience or a huge following. You simply need a valuable perspective and the willingness to share it.
So if you’re interested, don’t hesitate to apply!
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