The Big SMX London Preview – A Virtual Tour Of What To Expect

Search Engine Land’s SMX London search marketing conference is returning to the UK on May 13-14, 2014. We’ve got a revamped, updated agenda, and have already confirmed dozens of world-class speakers. SMX London is a can’t-miss event for all serious marketers, whether you’re the CMO or working to implement your key campaigns on a tactical […]

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SMX London Search Engine Land’s SMX London search marketing conference is returning to the UK on May 13-14, 2014. We’ve got a revamped, updated agenda, and have already confirmed dozens of world-class speakers. SMX London is a can’t-miss event for all serious marketers, whether you’re the CMO or working to implement your key campaigns on a tactical level.

As always, you can expect the great content, keynotes, networking activities and meals for which SMX events are famous. With all of the rapid changes that have been occurring with search marketing, we’ve also developed a ton of new content for the show, to help you keep up to speed with cutting-edge knowledge, tools and techniques.

While the primary focus of SMX London is on search marketing, there’s ample content for web designers and developers, social media practitioners, public relations people, traditional marketers—anyone who’s part of the team responsible for attracting and satisfying customers through online activities. We’re also introducing our new Marketing Land Digital Marketing Summit, which adds a new strategic “big picture” dimension to the SMX experience. More on this exciting new addition below.

Here’s a virtual tour of the show, highlighting the top reasons you should attend.

SMX London: Something For Everyone

Search has become such a crucial marketing medium that you should maintain an ongoing education about it. And increasingly, as organizations integrate online and offline marketing, it’s crucial to understand how search fits in with the “big picture,” not only contributing to enhanced brand exposure but in many cases paying for itself via measurably improved ROI.

SMX London gives you that education, no matter who you are. The show is big enough that we can offer multiple tracks filled with sessions that cover all interests and experience levels. Beginner, intermediate or advanced — focused on paid search, SEO, social media marketing — we’ve got plenty planned for you.

Our Agenda-At-A-Glance provides an overview of everything that’s going on. This year, we have sessions that are focused toward search engine optimization (working with “free” listings), PPC (paid search ads), and social media marketing).

Keynote: Ajit Sivadasan, Vice President and General Manager, Lenovo Corporation

Ajit_SivadasanAjit Sivadasan manages a team spanning 10 countries worldwide, focusing on driving online and digital demand generation and brand campaigns integrated with social media, SEO/SEM, retargeting, advanced segmentation and affiliate marketing strategies. He also spearheads several marketing optimization strategies using advanced analytics and big data concepts.

In his keynote address, “Will Data Save Marketing?” Ajit will discuss a key issue facing all marketers: In a world that is increasingly digital, shelf lives of marketers will be tied to their ability to constantly experiment and measure effectiveness. The advances in technology (big data, mobile, data management platforms, etc.) coupled with the digital footprint left by customers will help marketers facilitate a deeper understanding and consequently lead to more effective marketing campaigns.

Back To Basics With SMX Boot Camp

Search boot camp has been a fundamental offering of SMX shows from the beginning. Designed for newcomers to search marketing, SMX Search Boot camp covers all the fundamentals:

  • Keyword Research & Copywriting For Search Success
  • Link Building Fundamentals
  • Paid Search Fundamentals
  • Search Engine Friendly Web Design

To encourage new people to learn about search, we offer all these sessions through a low-cost SMX Search Boot Camp ticket. You can upgrade to a full pass, should you want to attend more sessions on the second and third day of the show.

Surviving and Thriving In The Brave New World Of SEO

It’s no secret that SEOs live in a world of constant change, and need to keep up with search engine algorithm changes and new features, the loss of critical data such as referrer keywords, as well as cope with new techniques used by others to maintain top organic search engine visibility. That’s why we’ve got a full day of sessions covering SEO at SMX London. You’ll hear in-depth analysis of recent developments, and how to work in the new environment to maintain and sustain your competitive advantage. In the SEO Tracks, you’ll hear top SEOs (and survivors) discuss:

And be sure to bring your questions to the two PowerPoint-free sessions where you can interact directly with the experts:

Paid Search For Fun & Profit

Are you focused on paid search? Don’t worry, all that talk about SEO above doesn’t mean you’re left out. In addition to paid search-related sessions throughout the conference, we also have two full days focusing on some of the key areas search advertisers need to maintain an edge.

Google’s Enhanced Campaigns forced all advertisers to reshape their AdWords accounts, specifically with huge changes to mobile and desktop device targeting. In New PPC Best Practices In An Enhanced Campaign World, you’ll hear from early adopters about their results and experiences with Enhanced Campaigns and look at the new generation of optimization strategies and best practices for account structures, reporting, bidding, budgeting, and ad testing.

Going beyond basic ads, extensions are used to spice up your ads for Bing and Google with images, locations, phone numbers, and more. Additionally, Google uses extensions to calculate your ad’s position. Speakers on the Improve Your PPC Results With Call, Images & Other Ad Extensions will demonstrate how to use extensions for each device and search engine to acquire more customers from your PPC campaigns.

Creating & Perfecting Killer Paid Search Ads gets into the crucial details of how to make your search advertising as effective as it possibly can be. And you won’t want to miss Breathing New Life Into A Tired Paid Search Campaign and Pro-level Tips For Succeeding At Retargeting to round out the day of expert tips and advice from our paid search speakers.

Search & Social

All marketers now recognize the importance of social media for engaging with your customers and marketing your brand. But are you really getting the most traction and impact for your efforts? Sure, you can follow the rules and best practices of social media – consistently posting content, engaging with fans, but still not move the needle. How can you take the next step and win more fans and boost engagement with them?

During the Search & Social track at SMX London, our speakers explore the intersection of search and social. Twitter and Facebook are two of the most powerful social platforms, enabling a wide array of earned/owned social media tactics: customer service, community engagement, direct sales, broadcast news and brand updates. During Supercharging Twitter & Facebook Engagement you’ll discover new ways to develop your audience organically and build a more engaged community on both platforms.

Integrating your search and social media efforts can dramatically improve your marketing results, but where do you start? Speakers in the Top Social Tactics For The Search Marketer session will share their favorite authority-building social tips for search, including using Facebook, Google+, Twitter and other social media platforms such as Pinterest, Vine and more.

YouTube is the second largest search engine, so you definitely need to have search-optimized videos. But beyond video SEO, there are many other opportunities available to marketers who want to reach customers via online video. You Tube Success Stories offers case studies, tips and tactics for easy ways leverage your online video assets.

SMX Advanced Track

Our annually sold-out SMX Advanced conference is where we feature cutting edge sessions for experienced search marketers. At SMX London, we’re bringing some of the best of these sessions to the show, including:

Quality Programming

All the SMX sessions I’ve described above are what we call editorial sessions. People are speaking on them because we feel they have great information to offer. No one bought their way onto a panel.

Each session is developed by a “session coordinator” who reviews speaking pitches and reaches out to knowledgeable people to assemble a panel. The session coordinator works with the speakers to create a session where presentations support each other, rather than overlap. In most cases, the session coordinator is also the session moderator.

Formats also vary. Sometimes we have panels with multiple people. Sometimes we have only one or two speakers. Some panels are all Q&A. Some feature presentations. We don’t lock ourselves into one particular format, because different topics require different approaches. Instead, we focus on creating a great overall experience.

The entire editorial portion of the show is overseen by me and my co-chair Danny Sullivan. We’ve been organizing search conferences longer than anyone in the industry – more than 15 years and counting!

The attention to programming is part of what we call the SMX Content Difference.

Don’t Miss: The Expo Hall

Of course, our many SMX London sponsors & exhibitors do have great information to share with SMX attendees. The Expo Hall runs for both days of the show. In it, you can get information from exhibitors and sponsors about the many products and services available to search marketers.

You can visit the Expo Hall and attend the keynote with an inexpensive one or two day Networking Pass.

Organized Networking

At the end of the first day, the SMX Expo Hall Reception offers another chance to mingle. During the show, we have our London SEO After Dark party. It’s another easy way to meet people.

Good Food & WiFi

A good SMX experience means no boxed lunches at our shows. You’ll get a great meal, on a real plate, and you’ll want to go back for more. You’ll also get refreshments and snacks during the day. People take pictures of the food we serve at our events, they’re so amazed and pleased. Honest!

We’ll also keep you connected, providing free WiFi in the conference rooms.

Join Us In London!

I hope you’ve found this preview useful and are ready to attend. You’ll find more details on the SMX London web site, including the Agenda-At-A-Glance. You can register online. Questions about registration? Contact us at: [email protected] Do it today!

See you in London!


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Chris Sherman
Contributor
Chris Sherman (@CJSherman) is a Founding editor of Search Engine Land and is now retired.

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