Super thrilled that we’re able to announce this year’s community speakers for MozCon, July 13-15th in Seattle!
Wow. Each year I feel that I say the pool keeps getting more and more talented, but it’s the truth! We had more quality pitches this year than in the past, and quantity-wise, there were 241, around 100 more entries than years previously. Let me tell you, many of the review committee members filled our email thread with amazement at this.
And even though we had an unprecedented six slots, the choices seemed even tougher!
241 pitches
Let that number sink in for a little while.
Because we get numerous questions about what makes a great pitch, I wanted to share both information about the speakers and their great pitches—with some details removed for spoilers. (We’re still working with each speaker to polish and finalize their topic.) I’ve also included my or Matt Roney‘s own notes on each one from when we read them without knowing who the authors were.
Please congratulate our MozCon 2015 community speakers!
Adrian Vender
Adrian is the Director of Analytics at IMI and a general enthusiast of coding and digital marketing. He’s also a life-long drummer and lover of music. Follow him at @adrianvender.
Adrian’s pitch:
Content Tracking with Google Tag Manager
While marketers have matured in the use of web analytics tools, our ability to measure how users interact with our sites’ content needs improvement. Users are interacting with dynamic content that just aren’t captured in a pageview. While there are JavaScript tricks to help track these details, working with IT to place new code is usually the major hurdle that stops us.
Finally, Google Tag Manager is that bridge to advanced content analysis. GTM may appear technical, but it can easily be used by any digital marketer to track almost any action on a site. My goal is to make ALL attendees users of GTM.
My talk will cover the following GTM concepts:
[Adrian lists 8 highly-actionable tactics he’ll cover.]I’ll share a client example of tracking content interaction in GA. I’ll also share a link to a GTM container file that can help people pre-load the above tag templates into their own GTM.
Matt’s notes: Could be good. I know a lot of people have questions about Tag Manager, and the ubiquity of GA should help it be pretty well-received.
Chris Dayley
Chris is a digital marketing expert and owner of Dayley Conversion. His company provides full-service A/B testing for businesses, including design, development, and test execution. Follow him at @chrisdayley.
Chris’ pitch:
I would like to present a super actionable 15 minute presentation focused on the first two major steps businesses should take to start A/B testing:
1. Radical Redesign Testing
2. Iterative Testing (Test EVERYTHING)
I am one of the few CROs out there that recommends businesses to start with a radical redesign test. My reasoning for doing so is that most businesses have done absolutely no testing on their current website, so the current landing page/website really isn’t a “best practice” design yet.
I will show several case studies where clients saw more than a 50% lift in conversion rates just from this first step of radical redesign testing, and will offer several tips for how to create a radical redesign test. Some of the tips include:
[Chris lists three direct and interesting tips he’ll share.]Next I suggest moving into the iterative phase.
I will show several case studies of how to move through iterative testing so you eventually test every element on your page.
Erica’s notes: Direct, interesting, and with promise of multiple case studies.
Duane Brown
Duane is a digital marketer with 10 years’ experience having lived and worked in five cities across three continents. He’s currently at Unbounce. When not working, you can find Duane traveling to some far-flung location around the world to eat food and soak up the culture. Follow him at @DuaneBrown.
Duane’s pitch:
What Is Delightful Remarketing & How You Can Do It Too
A lot of people find remarketing creepy and weird. They don’t get why they are seeing those ads around the internet…. let alone how to make them stop showing.
This talk will focus on the different between remarketing & creating delightful remarketing that can help grow the revenue & profit at a company and not piss customers off. 50% of US marketers don’t use remarketing according to eMarketer (2013).
– [Duane’s direct how-to for e-commerce customers.] Over 60% of customers abandon a shopping cart each year: http://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate (3 minute)
– Cover a SaaS company using retargeting to [Duane’s actionable item]. This remarketing helps show your products sticky features while showing off your benefits (3 minute)
– The Dos: [Duane’s actionable tip], a variety of creative & a dedicated landing page creates delightful remarketing that grows revenue (3 minute)
– Wrap up and review main points. (2 minutes)
Matt’s notes: Well-detailed, an area in which there’s a lot of room for improvement.
Gianluca Fiorelli
Moz Associate, official blogger for StateofDigital.com and known international SEO and inbound strategist, Gianluca works in the digital marketing industry, but he still believes that he just know that he knows nothing. Follow him at @gfiorelli1.
Gianluca’s pitch:
Unusual Sources for Keyword and Topical Research
A big percentage of SEOs equal Keyword and Topical Research to using Keyword Planner and Google Suggest.
However, using only them, we cannot achieve a real deep knowledge of the interests, psychology and language of our target.
In this talk, I will present unusual sources and unnoticed features of very well-known tools, and offer a final example based on a true story.
Arguments touched in the speech (not necessarily in this order):
[Gianluca lists seven how-tos and one unique case study.]Erica’s notes: Theme of Google not giving good keyword info. Lots of unique actionable points and resources. Will work in 15 minute time limit.
Ruth Burr Reedy
Ruth is the head of on-site SEO for BigWing Interactive, a full-service digital marketing agency in Oklahoma City, OK. At BigWing, she manages a team doing on-site, technical, and local SEO. Ruth has been working in SEO since 2006. Follow her at @ruthburr.
Ruth’s pitch:
Get Hired to Do SEO
This talk will go way beyond “just build your own website” and talk about specific ways SEOs can build evidence of their skills across the web, including:
[Ruth lists 7 how-tos with actionable examples.]All in a funny, actionable, beautiful, easy-to-understand get-hired masterpiece.
Erica’s notes: Great takeaways. Wanted to do a session about building your resume as a marketer for a while.
Stephanie Wallace
Stephanie is director of SEO at Nebo, a digital agency in Atlanta. She helps clients navigate the ever-changing world of SEO by understanding their audience and helping them create a digital experience that both the user and Google appreciates. Follow her at @SWallaceSEO.
Stephanie’s pitch:
Everyone knows PPC and SEO complement one another – increased visibility in search results help increase perceived authority and drive more clickthroughs to your site overall. But are you actively leveraging the wealth of PPC data available to build on your existing SEO strategy? The key to effectively using this information lies in understanding how to test SEO tactics and how to apply the results to your on-page strategies. This session will delve into actionable strategies for using PPC campaign insights to influence on-page SEO and content strategies. Key takeaways include:
[Stephanie lists four how-tos.]Erica’s notes: Nice and actionable. Like this a lot.
As mentioned, we had 241 entries, and many of them were stage quality. Notable runners up included AJ Wilcox, Ed Reese, and Daylan Pearce, and a big pat on the back to all those who tossed their hat in.
Also, a huge thank you to my fellow selection committee members for 2015: Charlene Inoncillo, Cyrus Shepard, Danie Launders, Jen Lopez, Matt Roney, Rand Fishkin, Renea Nielsen, and Trevor Klein.
