Two of our team members, Kristen Torgerson and Chris Bingham, attended the 2017 Rocks Digital Conference in Addison, TX on Friday and gained valuable insights on how they can better their digital marketing skills.

At Atomic, we want to stay on top of the game because when we’re at our best, our clients will benefit. We attend and sponsor monthly meetings like Social Media Breakfast Dallas, and DFWSEM to learn from marketing leaders from across the country. Check out what Kristen and Chris learned this year.

Erik Solan—Director of Amplified Content at Vertical Measure—tipped off the morning conference schedule by amplifying his own content. In a major way. Not only did he cover tons of great points with the group, but he came ready with an interactive workbook to create your own content amplification plan. It was a full-fledged course on content marketing from start to finish, but here’s what really stood out.

Once you finish creating your content; that is where your real work begins. Because your content is only as powerful as what you do with it. That being said, one of the most important ways you can strategize and create useful content is to answer your customer’s most common questions along the funnel. And finally, why is it so important to keep amplifying your content, and doing it in different ways and formats? It takes on average 7 contacts for a customer to get a response.

Dan Thies of Marketer’s Braintrust really enjoys his PPC. We got super nerdy into the inner-workings of AdWords, and the many strategies and tactics which he has put to the test. Demystifying a lot of the myths and trends—it was a little like getting a peek behind the curtain at Oz. Our PPC wizard for the afternoon passed along so much great knowledge that it won’t fit here, but here are some useful tips and takeaways from the session.

With all the complicated algorithms and bid strategies, the best, and usually free way to increase your traffic at the same cost is to focus on increasing your CTR. Why?  Because WIFG?  (What’s in it for Google?) The simple math is that Google makes more money if your ad gets clicked more often, regardless of any other variables. It’s also smart to data mine and segment your reports by days and hours of the week.  You may have two ads that perform well only on certain days. No sense trying to win the whole week with just 1 ad, when you can win more easily using two. And when it comes to the AdWords settings, don’t use the default—pretty much ever. Just don’t.

Working non-stop in Facebook and Facebook Ads lately, I’ve had some thoughts about the current system. Joe Youngblood of Winner Winner Chicken Dinner Agency confirmed my biggest fear—“Facebook doesn’t like people.” The largest social network aimed at connecting people is tricky at best, but not impossible if you play by the rules. Here are some tips.

There is only a 2% chance of your followers seeing your organic post. You must have an ad budget and a plan to boost what’s most important so it gets seen. Always post at least once a day. Joe failed to post occasionally and saw the immediate penalty each time in both reach and engagement. The good and the bad part about Facebook constantly changing is that we’re less limited in our ad strategy. The 20% rule is easier to get around with video and other new formats being introduced. Keep your head up and pay attention to what’s new, and keep your posts coming.

John Nosal – @JNosal – taught a course on the How-Tos of a Digital Marketing Audit. In this interactive class, he showed us how to use powerful tools like Screaming Frog webiste crawling software and the SEOQuake tool to analyze a website for potential trouble areas or opportunities. What he stressed, and we certainly stress here at Atomic Design & Consulting, is the first impression of our brand from your customer.

When you visit your website, what are your first impressions? Can you identify what you do is 5 sec? #rocksdigital

— John J Nosal (@jnosal) June 30, 2017

Whatever platform your customers engage you with, it needs to have a consistent brand because that will be credibility in the customer’s mind. They need to see that the logo you use on Facebook is the same one that you have on your website. Does the voice of your brand carry through your website into your email marketing? These are all things Atomic is capable of helping you with.

Search value can be gained from a properly named image vs DSC34576 – have some fun and Google camera image names @jnosal #RocksDigital

— Bingham (@BinghamForReal) June 30, 2017

Search Analytics in Search Console is a valuable resource for finding blog material #digitalmarketing @jnosal #rocksdigital

— Bingham (@BinghamForReal) June 30, 2017

Dan Thies – @DanThies – blew my mind with his intricate knowledge of Google Ads and Shopping Ads. What I took away was that in a hyper local environment, your ads should utilize exact match phrases paired with regional targeting. If your small business only serves a particular area you shouldn’t be trying to serve ads on “dentists” but should focus on “Plano dentists”. Delivering the right ad to your customer base is vital to your success.

Find the weaknesses in your competition ads for avenues to your success @danthies #RocksDigital #DigitalMarketing

— Bingham (@BinghamForReal) June 30, 2017

Segments help you pick the actual ad winners. Time/Day & others hel make best decisions. @danthies #RocksDigital

— Bingham (@BinghamForReal) June 30, 2017

Bill Hartzer – @BHartzer – taught a very in-depth and informative course about On and Off-Page SEO tactics. He stressed the importance of links, but made sure to mention that On-Page SEO with markup and design are starting to have just as much weight as actual links. The biggest takeaway about link is: just act naturally. Link placement and text should appear naturally in a website that is linking to you. Trust factors like an SSL or Privacy Policy statements can play an important role in building credibility with your website’s viewers. We’ve seen that SSLs are becoming ranking factors for Google when 2 sites with similar content exist.

At Atomic, we strive to build websites that are not only beautiful and functional, but will set you up for success with SEO strategies in the future. Our talented team can help you from laying the groundwork for your site, to executing strategies that will drive business through your doors or calls to your phone. Get started today with a free website audit!

Perform periodic reviews of your links to ensure you’re getting the right links and right value @bhartzer #RocksDigital

— Bingham (@BinghamForReal) June 30, 2017

Page freshness can cause pages to rank higher for a time and traffic will sustain, but page will resettle in ranking @bhartzer #RocksDigital

— Bingham (@BinghamForReal) June 30, 2017