The key lessons from CIM Wales’ Digital Marketing Forum

With digital technologies adapting at a rapid pace, it was the perfect time for CIM Wales to host its Digital Marketing Forum on 15th November at Cardiff City Stadium.

Illustrate Digital sponsored the in-person event, which was attended by almost 100 marketers and communications specialists from across Wales and the UK. 
 
Since the pandemic, it has become increasingly necessary for industries to incorporate digital adaptations and focuses into their wider marketing strategies to accommodate such growth in the sector. The power of AI and digital marketing across Wales was represented by the variety of industries present and eager to learn more at the event, from housing associations, marketing agencies, public sector organisations and private sector businesses.

Set against the backdrop of the iconic Cardiff City stadium, attendees were granted insider access to seven presentations from experts across a range of disciplines along with the opportunity to network with others looking to learn more about the power of digital marketing. 
 
Strategic Marketer, Jade Tambini, also known as B2B Jade on TikTok, kickstarted the forum with an in-depth discussion of how to best use social media to both speak to your current audience and keep their attention and attract new audiences in the process. Signposting to resources, discussing social media strategies and the power of “dark socials”, Jade certainly piqued the rooms’ interest on how they could use social media better. 
 
Download Jade’s slides - Why B2B social media is not working, and how to fix it
 
Next up was Illustrate Digital’s CEO Scott Jones, who intrigued the room with talks of web heuristics (intuitive shortcuts). Delving into the seven key areas, Scott covered how to optimise and best use navigation, trust and persuasion, forms, layout and design, content, interactions and search to improve a user’s digital experience of your website; better engaged users means better conversions, after all! 

Slides to follow
 
Once the room rejoined after a well-deserved coffee break, they were met by RVU’s Sayantika Mukherjee who discussed how to best use paid search as part of a digital marketing strategy. With her expansive industry knowledge, Sayantika covered how to figure out your audience, budget, end goal and more; she certainly left everyone with a lot to think about. 
 
Download Sayantika’s slides: Paid search and its role in digital marketing strategy
 
Anwer Jan of Marketing Logic then went on to present how understanding revenue attribution modelling will benefit any digital marketing plan. Attendees learnt that implementing attribution leads to increased conversion rates and reduced customer acquisition costs, alongside a whole host of other benefits for businesses. 
 
Download Anwer’s slides: Revenue Attribution Modelling: A Marketer’s Guide 
 
After a much-needed lunch, Jonathan Gabay gave a very topical and relevant presentation on artificial intelligence (AI). The room was filled with discussions of the ethics of AI, how to get the most out of AI programs and software, as well as reassuring that AI will not steal our jobs unless we let it! 
 
Download Jonathan’s slides - The only way is ethics
 
Jonathan was followed by Louis Halton Davies from Web Marketer who ran through how he and his team utilise Google Analytics 4 (GA4) for their clients’ digital marketing campaigns.

Attendees were reminded of the importance of recognising GA4 as a valuable data resource with the ability to continuously track and explore data. 
 
Download Louis’ slides: How Google Analytics Led to 35,000 Leads in a Year (and 5 actionable tips) 
 
Simon Douglas of Curated Digital finished up the day with a talk on how to implement a search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy. After previously working at Google for nearly a decade and now running his own digital marketing consultancy, it was a real treat for attendees to hear about Simon’s experience and knowledge on the power of SEO in a marketing strategy. 
 
Download Simon’s slides - Maximising ROI from your content & SEO strategy
 
CIM Wales are very grateful for the excitement and positive engagement around this event and are pleased to see that the day’s speakers inspired attendees to further consider their digital marketing strategy. 
 
Written by Lois Ferns, Junior Campaign Manager at Millrace Marketing