We are so excited to be attending the marketing conference of the year for "Tomorrow's Marketers". Yes, we are talking about Marketo's annual conference, Marketing Nation Summit. The conference takes place May 9th through May 12th at the MGM in Las Vegas (baby!) and has keynotes from inspiring leaders Alison Levine and Gary Briggs. We'll also be "gettin' jiggy" with Will Smith and Rachel Platten. We cannot wait. The topics range from beginner to champion in just about every tactic or category of marketing. We have tried to narrow down the great list (hard to do) to our top 10 must see or attend:
- State of Marketing Automation
Speaker: Jay Famico, Practice Director, Technology and Services, SiriusDecisions
Date/Time: May 10th @ 2:00 pm, Room 318
Details: New to marketing automation and wanting to learn that state of affairs? Seasoned vet and looking for ways to take your marketing automation to the next level? This is the session for you! The presentation will include the current level of marketing automation sophistication and adoption, emerging trends in marketing automation and examples of marketing automation done right.
- Marketo Product Roadmap and Customer Love 2016
Speaker: Cheryl Chavez, VP Product Management & UX , Marketo
Date/Time: May 11th @ 9:30 am, Marquee Ballroom
Details: Customer love is all around us! Join your Marketo Product Management team to hear about the upcoming 2016 roadmap, including the launch of features that you’ve requested! We look forward to seeing you there.
- Full Funnel Marketing - Integrating Sales & Marketing to Increase Results & Success
Speaker: Matt Heinz, CEO, Heinz Marketing
Date/Time: May 12th @ 10:30 am, Room 313/316
Details: Marketing success today requires far more than delivering leads to sales – it requires a full-funnel approach that addresses every stage of the buying journey and sales process. This presentation will highlight specific best practices, habits and proven methods used by modern B2B marketers to increase the measurable impact of their work.
- How Companies Are Succeeding With Facebook: 7 Power Tips
Speaker: Mari Smith, Mari Smith International, Inc.
Date/Time: May 11th @ 2:00 pm, Room 313/316
Details: Millions of savvy businesses around the globe choose Facebook as their preferred channel for lead generation and sales. In this lively session, Mari Smith will share the exact process that successful companies use to maximize organic reach, generate authentic engagement, build loyal communities, create high-converting ads, and, as a result, substantially increase revenue. Illustrated with real world case studies, you’ll walk away with concrete tactics to implement in your own business for measurable results.
- EPIC Content Marketing
Speaker: Joe Pulizzi, Founder, Content Marketing Institute
Date/Time: May 11th @ 1:00 pm, Room 313/316
Details: In this session, Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute, quickly reviews the latest content marketing research, and then dives into five critical essentials for all marketers to follow in 2016. These include:
- Setting up the proper goals for content marketing
- Creating a content marketing mission statement to drive your business
- Focusing on subscribers over likes and fans.
- Developing an influencer program to drive your subscriptions
- Jumpstarting your content marketing program with partnerships
- Good Content vs Good Enough Content: A Fight for Sore Eyes
Speaker: Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs
Date/Time: May 10th @ 4:30 pm, Room 313/316
Details: Why can’t quantity and quality get along? Why can’t they be friends? (At least with respect to your Marketing Content.)
Guess what? They totally can!
Come to this fun session to hear Ann Handley counsel you on creating content that’s ridiculously engaging, because your audience demands it and your company or organization deserves it.
You’ll leave this session equipped to:
- Tell better (and braver!) stories, using stronger, more ripped writing and a unique point of view.
- Create “best of breed” content to attract the people you want (and repel the ones you don’t).
- Know when to be a little outrageous (and when to dial it back).
- Inspire the best work out of writers and content creators. The biggest missed opportunity in content marketing is playing it too safe. Let’s do this!
- The Secret Sauce for Outbound Marketing
Speaker: Jon Miller, CEO, Engagio
Date/Time: May 11th @ 10:30 am, Room 313/316
Details: Sometimes, you can't wait around for the right people from the right accounts to swim into your demand generation net – you need to reach out to these "big fish" directly. When you need more than Inbound, learn the new secret sauce for combining outbound marketing and sales development to build pipeline at target accounts, expand existing relationships, and connect with more decision makers.
- Hacking Marketing: Marketing Management in a Software World
Speaker: Scott Brinker, CTO, ion interactive & Editor, chiefmartec.com, ion interactive
Date/Time: May 10th @ 3:30 pm, Room 313/316
Details: Marketing is now entangled in the dynamics of software in everything it does. This session will show you a number of software-smart management frameworks and concepts that you can use — from agile marketing to bimodal marketing, from collaborative design to big testing — to tame the complexities of modern marketing and harness the real power of a digital world.
- [Champion Series] Building a Solid Foundation for Actionable Analytics
Speaker: Elliot Lowe
Date/Time: May 10th @ 3:30 pm, Room 319
Details: Choosing the most robust and scalable method for capturing metrics around source attribution, revenue cycle model performance, and even page visits can be elusive for many Marketo users. In this session we'll discuss key considerations for implementing a robust analytics architecture such as:
- The channel vs. content acquisition program dilemma
- Source attribution from anonymous lead to won opportunity
- Tracking recycled MQLs and SQLs
- Creating a Revenue Cycle Model dashboard in Salesforce
- Product Session: Web Personalization, How to Get Started
Speakers: Brian Glover, Senior Product Manager, Marketo & David Myers, Product Manager, Marketo
Date/Time: May 10th @ 3:30 pm, Room 309
Details: If you build it, they will come… and leave in a heartbeat if it’s not relevant. So how do you engage the 98% of visitors who leave your website without taking a desired action? You present the right content, messages and offers to the right person at the right time. Sound familiar? It’s time to take these best practices to the Web and increase conversions by up to 30%. Join this session hear real world examples and get practical tips for using Marketo Web Personalization to:
- Convert more anonymous visitors to known
- Guide known visitors through each stage of the buyer journey
- Get started quickly, adapt and grow
There are so many great sessions Marketo provides at the Summit, the above it just a taste. The full list of breakouts can be found here: 2016 Marketo Summit breakout sessions. Look for a follow up after the Summit on our POV and the best sessions we attended!
Going to be at the 2016 Summit? We’d love to hear which sessions you plan on attending, sign off in the comments below!