SEMrush is a tool used by thousands of digital marketing experts across the globe. We at Kovai.co make the best use out of this tool for both SEO and paid traffic analysis.
Year on year, the SEMrush team conducts a conference globally dedicated to discovering the best growth marketing strategies, learning the latest trends in SEO and Online Ads. This year the conference was held at Sheraton Grand, Bengaluru on 5th December.
I work at Kovai.co as a Digital Marketer for Serverless360 – One platform tool for Azure Serverless Monitoring and Management. As our management helps employees to learn industry trends, they ensure such events are attended by employees in the marketing team. That’s how I ended up in one of the biggest marketing show which happened in India. On 5th December 2019, #semrushconf2019 was trending on Twitter with loads of posts pouring in dedicated to the event.
Super excited to be at #semrushconf2019! Look forward to catching some awesome #DigitalMarketing sessions and of course, loads of networking! If you are also there at the venue, ping me and we can have a chat over a cup of coffee 🙂 @KovaiCo
— Sabarinathan (@Sabarinathan_r2) December 5, 2019
Focused agenda of the event
The agenda of the event was clearly partitioned in 3 stages;
- Growth Stage
- SEO Stage
- Online Ads Stage
Growth Stage
The growth stage was dedicated to predicting the future of digital marketing concerning various platforms like content marketing, product marketing, and video marketing.
SEO Stage
SEO stage was lit up by various speakers like Luis Rodriguez, Benu Aggarwal sharing their insights on how to apply Agile Marketing to SEO and other impactful SEO strategies. The cool factor was that I had the privilege of networking with the renowned International SEO Expert, Craig Campbell.
Online Ads Stage
The most interactive type of stage would certainly be the online ads stage with sessions focused on how to feature your PPC, increasing Quora Ad engagement, lead generation strategies to maximize revenue and much more.
Insights Gained at the event
The day started fresh with loads of energy to meet and learn from the experts. I was enthusiastic to interact with lots of experts leading marketing functions in their organizations to gain knowledge. Above all, I got a chance to witness some of the most popular brands and their strategies presented in the show including global giants like LinkedIn, Google, Microsoft, TCS, Zoho, Uber, Shopify, Hubspot, and SEMrush, etc. Their case studies and stories eventually helped me to improve my understanding of the Digital Marketing ecosystem in India.
As I am engaged in organizing paid marketing campaigns as one of my specializations, my focus was on the online ads stage to identify the trends and strategies revolving on the topic.
Here are some interesting facts from various sessions that I found to be an eye-opener!
1. Audiences, Ads, and AI: Top Tips for Future-Proofing Your PPC by Purna Virji, Microsoft
She presented an impressive session regarding using Ad customizers to save time and boost ROAS. Additionally, using the “IF” function in Google Ads helps to reach more targeted users for achieving higher ROI.
2. How to be successful on Quora as a business by Gautam Shewakramani
Gautham commented that every individual should develop some unique strategies that would act as a path breaker on the Quora Platform to drive more leads for businesses.
3. Turning clicks into customers – Unlocking the power of CRO by Shahina Meru
She spoke about her insights on how to understand the users from the marketers’ point of view. The session ended after a brief discussion on the conversion journey of “customer-to-lead”.
4. How to rock a small PPC budget by Lisa Raehsler
The stage was occupied by Lisa on how to lower the PPC budget. In this session, the following strategies were shared by her which proved to be helpful for every paid campaign specialist
- Use city level geo-target instead of region-level targeting, which will help to lower your budget for increasing conversions.
- Use business level Ad scheduling to lower the budget because 75% of the users will actively engage in their business hours that will help to reduce the CPC to increase the Ad performance.
- In terms of Display Ads, the most cost-effective way to reach the users are targeting custom intent audience that will lower the CPC with a high number in conversions.
The final session was presented by Nadeesh Ramachandran, Head of Performance Solutions, Google where he showcased a report on “User engagement with internet connectivity” for the year 2019.
These days, Kovai.co produces various in-house videos to promote our brand and products. The fact that video content covered 75% of the total data consumption was a vital point placed by Nadeesh.
Most probably, marketing 2020 will be more affiliated with videos and every marketer should be able to produce better user experience in terms of video marketing strategies.
Networking
With over 1500 attendees, the SEMrush conference ensured this was an ideal event to network with some fellow Digital Marketing experts. With sky-high energy levels, I took a stroll around the venue to have an informal chat with professionals from various parts of the country.
Around 40 world-renowned speakers on Digital Marketing including Craig Campbell, Luis Rodriguez, Ridhi Adlakha and many more cherished the event by sharing their insights on how Digital Marketing will shape the future of small-scale companies to big corporate organizations in the upcoming years.
Finally, my day was concluded most efficiently by getting a chance to interact with some speakers like Praval Singh – Head of Marketing, Zoho.com, Lisa Raehsler – SEM / PPC Strategy Consultant.
Conclusion
I had an awesome experience at the SEMrush Marketing event. I am pretty sure that my knowledge on how to deal effectively with SEO activities and Ad platforms has grown to a vast extent.
I hope to implement those strategies in each of my upcoming projects and marketing campaigns. The event organizers were also kind enough to share the participation certificate by the end of the event.
It's was a great experience attending at @semrush today. Also, thanks for the opportunity @KovaiCo #semrushconf2019 #DigitalMarketing #Conference pic.twitter.com/BBakNqS0s4
— Sabarinathan (@Sabarinathan_r2) December 5, 2019
Overall, SEMrush Conference helped me meet experts in Digital Marketing industry in India. I would like to share my gratitude to Kovai.co for believing in me and for making sure I enhance my digital marketing skills by sponsoring for the tickets.
See you all folks at SEMrush Conference 2020!
