We try to show our faces at the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce Expo every year, whether it’s exhibiting like we did in 2016, or collaborating on a stand with another business, like we did in 2017 with Hewett Recruitment.
The breakfast was brilliant, and we caught up with old colleagues, business associates and friends, but the best thing about the breakfast was the talk given by Callum Gill, Head of Insight and Innovation at DRP. Callum’s educates organisations about the future of communication and technology.
The key message that came out of Callum’s talk was that if we are to succeed as successful businesses we need to seize the new technology. We can all offer excuses like no budget, not the right demographic or just ‘not there yet’, but the truth is if we don’t use digital marketing we aren’t going to be around for much longer. Generation Z, people born after 1996, are our future clients and have never known life without a smart phone, a touch screen or messaging. So, if we are going to communicate with them we need to use the new media.
After breakfast we visited as many stalls as possible. EBC’s stall was excellent with it’s Virtual Reality theme. We had worked with Amros Golf Event Management ahead of the Expo to edit a video for them to use on the stand showcasing the highlights of 2017 ahead of their programme of golf days and luncheon clubs in 2018.
We heard from Mark Wright, winner of The Apprentice 2014. He talked to us about his early life in Oz, working with Lord Sugar and his digital marketing businesses Climb Online and Make More Noise (based in Malvern).
During his talk, he shared with us his top tips on how to succeed in digital marketing. He told us that the number one change he can see happening in 2018 is the continued rise of video content and by the end of 2019, 80% of traffic online will be video traffic.
In Mark’s words ‘If your business is not creating video traffic now and in 2019, you’re screwed because it takes a while to produce, storyboard, shot list and edit the video and to get it out there’.
He gave us loads of takeaways, too many to mention but one that stuck in our minds was that by using the word video in an email boosts the open rate by 19% and click through rate by 65%.
You can have your videos made by a production company like ourselves, but you can also go down the DIY route and shoot the video on your smartphone. The key message is get making videos!
He also gave us 3 tips drawn from his experiences about successful business people he worked and who weren’t geniuses: ‘If you take risks, work extremely hard and stay in the game long enough you will be very successful’.
Thanks to Mark, Callum and of course the Hereford and Worcester Chamber of Commerce for making this year’s March Expo the most entertaining, educational and enjoyable Expo so far.
Back to the coal face.