Of Mice and Monkey Brains… My Pubcon 2020 Marketing Conference Review

One of my favorite things about my work as a freelance copywriter and marketing consultant is the travel…

Not only do I have the freedom to travel the country and the world— working on my laptop as I go. I also have the extreme privilege of traveling to meet face-to-face with peers, clients, and mentors throughout the country.

That’s exactly what happened this past week. A very generous client of mine invited me to attend a marketing conference in Austin, TX called Pubcon.

Pubcon is a nationwide organization with several events held in various locations across our country each year. The largest of which is a behemoth of an event held in Las Vegas each year.

Wait, we’re in TEXAS, right?

Our particular conference was a much smaller regional event held in the not-quite-warm-enough city of Austin, TX. We arrived on a blustery Wednesday to temperatures that felt much more like my home state of New Jersey than something you’d feel in Texas.

I think “Texas” heard me complaining because the sky dumped snow on us that evening. SNOW… in TEXAS!

The day of Pubcon dawned at a balmy 32 degrees and we wandered into the conference hall to begin a day long marathon of keynote speakers with multiple break-out session covering topics in organic SEO, email marketing, content marketing, SEM, PPC, paid media, and the latest developments directly from representatives of Google and Bing.

Our team of three decided to divide and conquer and I found myself going solo into many of the sessions to learn from some of the brightest minds in marketing.

Now, a small event like this has some major perks. First off, you have a lot more elbow room to navigate the coffee station and grab the delicious snacks the hosts provided.

On a more serious level, you have much easier access to the speakers and I was able to go up to several of the presenters to introduce myself and ask follow-up questions.

Here are some of my biggest take-aways from Pubcon 2020:

1. Remove friction in your marketing.

My favorite presentation of the day was from Keynote speaker Roger Dooley, author of Friction: The Untapped Force That Can Be Your Most Powerful Advantage.

He talked about how any unnecessary effort needed by your customer or client can make a very real difference in your bottom line.

For instance, back in the late 1990s, Amazon and Barnes and Nobles were the two giants competing for the business of book buyers online. Jeff Bezos created an easier way for his customers to make their purchases.

I’m talking, of course, about the “1-Click” shopping feature. He believed so strongly that this method would make the difference that he patented it and went after Barnes and Noble when they tried to follow suit.

By 2019, Amazon has grown into a giant among online shopping options with loyal customers. Their market shares are up and they are enjoying a huge boost in sales.

Meanwhile, Barnes and Nobles is floundering and fading away.

This ‘friction-less’ marketing feature makes it so easy for shoppers to make purchases that Steve Jobs paid Bezos $1 million for the use of the patented feature. Since then, a 1-click purchase on iTunes has become the norm.

I have not had the chance to read Dooley’s book yet, but you’d better believe I’m going to buy it soon. (Probably using 1-click on Amazon.)

2. It may be time to do some content pruning on your website.

Now, this is something I’ve already encountered with one of my clients. We had to strategically sort through outdated and thin material on a site in order to strengthen the overall authority of the site.

But still, I enjoyed this presentation because it outlined clear strategies to evaluate your website and decide if material should be kept, enhanced, or deleted altogether.

By removing weak content or consolidating duplicate topic pages you can concentrate your website’s authority and allow search engines to crawl through your site more efficiently and quickly.

After an initial decrease in traffic, properly done content pruning can boost your keyword rankings. Even if your site is smaller, a critical look at content now, can help you avoid having a problem with weak or duplicate content down the line.

3. Google ad copy doesn’t need to be boring!

One of the next sessions I attended talked about my favorite subject, copywriting!

The presenter was Joe Martinez of Clix Marketing and he did an excellent job of explaining how exact match keywords used in the H1 of a Google ad will NOT help your ad convert.

Instead he recommends you use unique ways to set your ad copy apart from the competition. Customize the ad to appeal to particular segments of your audience, use google data feeds to add unique elements like product models, savings, or build urgency with deadlines.

4. Get creative with your SEO link building.

Adam Riemer of Adam Reimer Marketing talked about several ways you can get creative with link building in your particular industry. He suggested offering sponsorships, contest entries, or quizzes.

One of my favorite stories he told was of a local event his client hosted where members of the community (including members of law enforcement and the fire department) were available to answer citizens’ questions. The organizations represented at the event all came along with nice happy .edu and .gov websites where links to the main event were posted to help publicize. These links from high quality sites were beneficial for his client.

(Okay, that’s a lie… my favorite story was where he talked about dressing up in drag at a costume party, but that’s not super relevant here.)

5. The sales funnel may be dead.

Then, there was the session that applied most to MY work with lead magnets.

I enjoyed listening to speaker Bill Rice of Kaleidico Digital Marketing talk about the best ways to optimize a lead generation budget.

He surprised me when he said that the “sales funnel” concept needed to be retired. Instead, he proposed a “sales cyclone” model with a series of tornado like models showing the stages of customer awareness, interest, disengagement, re-engagement, desire, and conversion.

He highlighted the idea that not all customers travel a linear path through your sales funnel. In fact, it is very likely that they will completely fall out of your funnel at times and then need to be drawn back in with your marketing.

Rice then went on to list detailed ways to address each of these stages written above. My ears lit up when he talked about the interest system where email marketing can be used with prospects who have shown a certain level of buyer’s intent.

A well crafted welcome sequence of 2-3 emails will help your prospect understand your selling process, deliver the coveted lead magnet, take them towards the next step in their buyer’s journey, and then start engaging your prospect with email responses.

Then, a lead nurture sequence can be used after the welcome sequence to provide more value. Send regularly and your prospect will have an open doorway back into your sales cyclone if and when they are ready to buy.

But What About the Monkey Brains?

So, I gotta say, by this point in the day my brain was absolutely turning into mush. Each of the sessions was one hour long and we attended nine sessions throughout the day. A midday break featured a delicious buffet style luncheon provided with our cost of admission.

But no… the monkey brain was not MY brain.

After leaving the last session, I went to a sushi restaurant with my client. We were happily scanning the menu trying to decide what to order, when… there it was… right on the menu…

“Monkey brains – $9.95”

“Ew… what!?. .. seriously… gross… oh wait…”

After my initial moment of horror — including flashbacks to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom — we realized this was just a creative name for a sushi role filled with regular ol’ fish.

Phew!

My trip to Austin was capped off in spectacular fashion when I got to meet up with some of the absolute brightest minds in copywriting and marketing… I’m speaking of a group of my Copy Chief friends who were in town for another event. We enjoyed live music and I even got to try karaoke for the very first time.

Overall, Pubcon 2020 was an excellent event! Thanks to all who made it possible.

No monkeys were harmed in the writing of this blog…

Let’s Hear From You!

Do you have any recommendations for excellent marketing events you’ve attended? I’d love to hear your ideas. Drop me an email or comment below and thank you for the tips!