While attending virtual events, webinars, Slack meetings, and social media discussions are crucial for the growth of any content marketer out there, nothing beats the good old-fashioned face-to-face interactions.
You get to find new solutions to some of your marketing problems, learn about your peers’ innovation, and build networks. As sponsors, you’ll be able to meet your customers and prospects in-person, which is great for creating long-lasting business relationships. Even better, everybody gets to have a little bit of fun while at it.
In the world of content marketing, a lot can change in a year. For instance, in 2018 alone, there have been many significant shifts that have changed content marketing for the better: the increase in voice searches, the integration of native advertisements, the rise of video marketing, among many more technologies.
The conferences will give you the opportunity to further learn about the best trends and emerging tools to incorporate in your content marketing strategy to boost your business’ online presence.
If you’re looking to attend a content marketing conference this year, here are some of the best annual marketing events in the country.
Which is the Best Content Marketing Conference to Attend?
One of the advantages of going to huge annual conferences is the fact that you’ll be able to meet and interact with all types of people in your industry.
However, since most of these events schedule hundreds of sessions, talks, and panels, many of them concurrently, you have to organize your time well in order to get the most out of the conference.
The most attended content marketing conferences this year, include:
1. Affiliate Summit West
When it comes to the global stage, few content marketing conferences can compare to the Affiliate Summit West. Launched in 2003, this annual event draws more than 6000 attendees per year.
To reach even more people, the Affiliate Summit introduced other versions of the conference, including the Affiliate Summit East held every August in New York, the Affiliate Summit Europe held in London, and the Affiliate Summit Asia in Singapore.
The conference is comprised of media owners, online publishers, advertisers, traffic sources, global technology brands, and other online agencies. All of these people are looking for innovative visions, new connections, state-of-the-art technologies, and how to leverage all these factors to improve their businesses.
With this huge number and diversity, you’re guaranteed to meet people working in your area and learn a lot of things from content marketers of varied backgrounds.
This three-day conference typically features:
- An agenda crafted by significant stakeholders in the affiliate marketing industry.
- Top influencers and marketers.
- Industry leaders packed with engaging talks, presentations, and panels covering the latest content marketing tips, trends, and challenges.
- Marketplace, which showcases the leading and upcoming advertisers. Marketplace contains vendors, merchants, digital agencies, technology providers, and other networks.
- Networking zone with a revamped bar. This relaxed environment encourages the exchange of open ideas and experiences.
2. Marketing Nation Summit
Content marketing may not be the first thing that springs to mind when you hear about Marketo’s Marketing Nation Summit. However, the depth and breadth of the sessions, workshops, and keynotes guarantee you valuable marketing information you can’t find anywhere else.
With an attendance of over 6000, this conference has come a long way since its humble beginnings as Marketo’s user conference.
Whether you’re looking to revamp your content marketing plan or just want to learn about content marketing, this conference has something for everyone. Before the conference, there’s usually a guide of the event that you can use to find the relevant sessions, vendors, and entertainment.
The packed schedule features a huge number of renowned speakers with vast knowledge and experience from different industries and backgrounds. This conference is the best place to soak up ideas and experience and get motivated to implement what you’ve learned in your B2C and B2B content marketing.
Marketing Nation Summit also features numerous marketers and influencers who have aced their space. This is a great opportunity to interact with them and build healthy business relationships.
It’ll be part of the Adobe Summit.
3. INBOUND
Hosted by HubSpot, the INBOUND conference is more than four days of inspiration and learning. It’s an event that allows you to step back from your day-to-day content marketing activities and think about ideas that can improve the process – hence, grow your business.
You’ll get the mental space to look at your challenges and opportunities from a new perspective. With more than 24,000 attendees, you’ll find a community of people passionate about content marketing, selling, and delighting customers.
Besides breakouts and keynotes, you’ll also meet with the HubSpot team. They’ll help you learn the inside scoop of their online marketing tools and introduce new HubSpot’s products.
For instance, in the Inbound 2018 conference, the HubSpot team launched the Service Hub. This product is a set of tools that can make it easier for you to connect with your customers, have conversations, and eventually build healthy relationships. If you’re new to Boston, you’ll also get recommendations to the best places to visit.
This is certainly the go-to content marketing event if you’re interested in HubSpot inbound marketing. INBOUND 2019 will be held in Boston between 3rd and 6th September. Don’t miss out!
4. Content Marketing World
The Content Marketing World conference is one of the most popular annual events for content marketers in the country. It allows you to learn from some of the brightest minds in the industry.
You’ll leave with the much-needed materials to take your content marketing plan to the next level, engage your target audience more effectively, and grow your business.
With over 4000 attendees from more than 50 countries, you’ll be presented with 120+ workshops and presentations led by top brand experts and marketers. They’ll cover things like content marketing strategies, ROI, tech, demand generation, storytelling, and many more new ideas that can draw more prospects.
Apart from the great content churned out by the industry leaders, the Content Marketing World provides you with a good opportunity to network with individuals with the same business and marketing goals. Don’t forget to exchange contacts!
This year’s Content Marketing World will take place in Cleveland, Ohio between 3rd and 6th September.
5. Search Marketing Expo (SMX)
The SMX is the largest content marketing conference for SEM and SEO professionals from all around the world. Started about a decade ago, it has helped thousands of content marketers improve conversion rates, increase sales, maximize brand awareness, and achieve overall business goals.
From this event, you’ll be able to grasp tactic-rich SEM and SEO sessions and learn from top marketers. You will get an opportunity to network with like-minded people. It’s also one of the most affordable options on the list. This means that you can take more team members to the conference.
How to Make the Most Out of a Content Marketing Conference
With the five best content marketing conferences in mind, you need to know how to prepare for one, especially if it’s your first time. Consider the following tips.
Create and Nurture Your Networks
Whether you’re independent or representing your company, it takes a lot of time to grow a business network. Attending marketing conferences and events is important for productive networking that can result in numerous valuable outcomes, including partner sourcing, recruiting, prospecting for new clients, vendor sourcing, and collecting competitive information.
Before you attend the conference, make a list of the type of contacts you want to make. Try to initiate conversations with qualified prospects, as well as reinforcing existing networks.
After the conference, ensure you follow your contacts on social media (especially on LinkedIn and Twitter). Don’t forget to share valuable content that is relevant to your interactions to build a healthy business relationship.
Be Attentive and Take Notes
One of the obvious benefits of attending these conferences is listening to presentations from industry experts. Pay attention to how the speakers deliver their presentations and observe how the audience responds.
If the attendees are scribbling notes and taking photos of the slides, then the speaker is connecting with his/her audience.
Apart from the content, you can also benefit from understanding how the information is delivered – from the format and sequence to the design of the presentation itself. You can leverage this information for your own benefits. Whether you’re communicating with your content marketing team or speaking at another conference.
Create Content from the Conference
The keynote presentations, workshops, and talks at the events provide you with a good opportunity to capture and create content.
For example, you could write an article about a particular session by a renowned industry leader, reach out to key speakers for an interview about their sessions, write and publish a day-to-day journal of the event, and if you’re a speaker, make sure you have someone from your team tracking and reposting your mentions (or your company’s) on social media platforms.
Share the Knowledge With Your Content Marketing Team
The goal of attending any content marketing conference is to know the latest industry trends and how to benefit from them. Therefore, collect actionable tips and other insights from the event and share it with your team for implementation. If some of your team members attended the event, the impact on your business would be even larger.
For effective knowledge transfer, it is important to create a plan for capturing, synthesizing, and distributing the content.
Don’t Overload
While conferences are loaded with valuable content marketing materials, you don’t have to take in everything. In fact, this is the best time to unwind from your day-to-day activities in front of your computer.
Most conferences have several sessions running concurrently so make a plan of the specific sessions you’re interested in and willing to attend. To make work easier for you, you may want to attend the conference with one of your team members.
Don’t Miss a Content Marketing Conference This Year!
The content marketing conferences above will certainly take your content marketing to higher heights. Use the tips above for optimizing the true value of conference attendance.
Ensure your top-most priority after the conference is resolving the problems you’ve been having in content marketing.
Don’t miss out on any event!
Do you have other exciting content marketing conferences in mind?
Share with us in the comment section below!
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