Five Key Takeaways from the 16th Annual CIM Digital Marketing Conference

The 16th annual Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) digital marketing conference, held in early July at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, was a landmark event for marketing professionals.  The stunning backdrop set the stage for an insightful day filled with an exceptional line-up of expert speakers who shared invaluable insights and practical tips with over 100 marketing professionals from the length and breadth of the country.

Here are my five top tips for you from attending the conference. Some of these I have already begun to integrate into my marketing tactics, and have seen excellent early results.

1. Exploring Alternative Search Engines

A major insight from the conference was the importance of considering alternative search engines. Understanding where your users spend their time is crucial. While Google dominates the search market, as of July 2023, Bing accounted for 10.51% of the global desktop search market, and Yahoo held a 2.67% share. With much less competition for advertising on these alternative platforms, they present an opportunity to target otherwise neglected users at a low or no cost.

Additionally, platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, and Pinterest are becoming increasingly vital parts of the discovery process, as this is where users spend a significant amount of time. Meaning that these are becoming important places to display inspiring content for users at the beginning of their user journey.

2. Mastering the LinkedIn Algorithm

With a decline in Twitter/ X users of 30%, LinkedIn has seen a surge in users of around 20% from May 2022 to January 2023. Therefore, the session titled ‘How to play the LinkedIn algorithm- and win’, led by Luke Brynley-Jones, Managing Director of OST, was of topical importance. This half-hour presentation provided many actionable strategies which I put into practice immediately and yielded great results.

To maximise engagement on LinkedIn, it's essential to create high-quality, relevant posts with a compelling opening line. Encouraging, comments and interactions is vital, and the first 30 minutes are crucial for engagement, so tagging experts and engaging promptly can make a significant difference. Posts should be easy to read, avoiding external links, and varying in format, to boost interaction. After the presentation I set about implementing this strategy, I uploaded my first PDF-style LinkedIn post and saw a remarkable 300% increase in engagement.

3. Leveraging TikTok to Build Your Brand

TikTok's influence is growing rapidly, with projections indicating 15 million UK users by 2025. This makes it a crucial tool to reach audiences deeply engaged with the platform, spending an average of 49 hours per month on the app.

To succeed on TikTok, explore trending sounds, search terms, products, and hashtags to implement into your TikTok strategy. The in-app creative centre is a great starting point for this.

The platform's users value authenticity, making it crucial to create genuine and engaging content that is original and entertaining. Alternative strategies to try include: experimenting with various content formats, including voiceovers, speaking directly to the camera, short and long videos, product tagging, hashtags, and varying post quality and quantity. Going live can also positively impact results.

4. Integrating Generative AI to Enhance Efficiency and Creativity

Integrating generative AI into marketing practices was another hot topic of the day. While generative AI offers numerous opportunities, maintaining a human touch remains essential. It is imperative to learn how to use generative AI platforms effectively, providing accurate prompts that will help to frame your desired tone, structure and brand voice is a great way to do this. Above all, it goes without saying, the importance of tweaking and updating copy generated from systems to give it that personal touch before publishing to any digital platforms.

Our team has already started leveraging AI to help enhance efficiency, idea generation and to help with proofreading. One way in which we find it to be most useful is creating a basis for email campaigns and headings, and structure for news and blog articles.

Read Sophie's Mastering the Art of Prompt Engineering CIM article for the hottest tips on how to get the most our of Generative AI platforms.

5. Reducing Your Carbon Footprint

Reducing the carbon footprint of marketing was emphasised in a session led by Sue Keogh of Sookio. Practical steps include auditing websites and channels to remove duplicate, unnecessary or outdated files, optimising images and videos to reduce file sizes and posting during off-peak times to reduce energy consumption.

Communication and education is also key. As marketers, we are well placed to highlight good practice of quality over quantity to other departments within our companies through issuing internal communication guidelines.

Not only do all these steps help to reduce your digital carbon footprint but can help to improve the user experience, leading to quicker load times, easy navigation, and mobile optimisation.

Conclusion

While there was much to learn on the day including mastering new and old digital platforms and tools, it was reassuring to gain further insights and reassurance into the practices we are doing right. In a rapidly changing and developing marketing landscape, it remains so important to remain focused on the core principles of marketing and identify, foresee and meet the needs of our customers whether that be using new, or old technology or better yet a combination of both.

Sophie Wetherall
Marketing Coordinator

Sophie Wetherall brings four years of experience in the marketing industry to her role as Marketing Coordinator. As an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), she is dedicated to her professional growth and is actively working towards completing two years of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) to achieve her Chartered Marketer qualification.

She has a background in journalism, with published works for several leading digital and print publications. Her current role focuses on digital marketing, PR, and communications, where she excels in crafting compelling narratives and strategic campaigns.