Note from Jennifer: It can be nerve-wracking or even scary to attend a conference, and I’ve nearly chickened out of them a few times myself. (You can read about that here.) The thing is, once you get past the initial jitters, you can learn so much, and make contacts that can totally change your business and even your life. Ashley Albaugh is in the process of ramping up her content marketing business, and decided to geek out (her words) at a big marketing conference to test whether she was on the right path. Read her story below,a nd follow her on Twitter.

By Ashley Albaugh

I recently returned from my first Digital Summit in Minneapolis. Full disclosure – this was my very first marketing summit/conference of any kind.

I bounced around between four auditoriums for two days listening to industry speakers – leaders and experts in the field – share their knowledge, life lessons and best practices. Topics included brand building, email strategy, SEO, content marketing, lead generation and everything in between.

To be quite honest, it was information overload. And I LOVED it!

I was afraid I’d feel like a fraud stepping into a conference with people I was certain had been doing this much longer. I was afraid I’d sit through sessions without truly comprehending the topics – creating list after list of things to research later.

Fortunately, my self-doubt was for naught! I kept up and knew more than I thought! I was able to empathize and relate. Until recently, I really wasn’t sure where my career was headed. My abilities and strengths were validated and I feel confident my dive into marketing is the right career path for me.

The things I didn’t know, I had no real interest in beyond the most basic level of understanding (at least for now). I did note upcoming trends to try out and new tools to play with – check out nachoanalytics.com, I don’t understand quite how it’s legal, but I can’t wait to dive in.

Content marketing is my strength, so naturally I was most excited for the content marketing sessions (weird, right?). Lucky for me, there were lots to choose from.

It turns out that content marketing was THE trending topic of the 2018 Digital Summit Minneapolis. Thirteen of the 51 sessions were related to content or storytelling and countless others touched on content creation. There were times I forced myself into less comfortable sessions – like SEO, lead generation and email campaigns – just to make sure I was soaking up as much information as possible.

The single most important element of quality content, according to pretty much everyone who even mentioned the topic, was authenticity. It was like these marketers were speaking to my soul! I’ve been preaching for two years that content, whether social or technical, needs to speak to humans, needs to be written for humans. Here were my people, speaking my language, armed with statistics I could take back and say, “See? I told you.”

I’m sure all reading this blog know this. It was something I knew. Genuine, authentic, conversational, content written for humans is all anyone really wants. Google and Facebook now rank higher based on your humanness, your ability to connect with other humans. But trying to apply this to traditional companies or industries, especially in the B2B world, can often feel like talking to a brick wall. “We can’t use trendy terms because we’re professional.” WHAT?! It’s Facebook!

Did you know (I’m sure you do) Google doesn’t scan for keywords, but rather key phrases? People aren’t searching for cars, people are searching for red 4-door Toyota in Des Moines, Iowa. People ask questions of Google, so our marketing has to think in terms of the questions our audience is going to ask. People are having entire conversations with their search engines. We need to plan ahead and answer those questions in our content before they’re asked then be prepared to pick up our half of the conversation if we want to be relevant.

But even more important, in order to be relevant to the Google algorithm we have to be authentic and genuine. We have to care about the things our customers care about. Brand loyalty is less important (many at the conference argued that brand loyalty is completely irrelevant – I’m not sure I agree with that 100% but it’s something to consider). It’s about brands building relationships and communicating with their customers. Customers are gravitating towards brands that speak their language and share their values. Eric Thomas of Saga Marketing in Detroit said it best during his session titled Make Your Brand Human: Developing Your Voice for Digital: “Keep it people, people.” I clapped – loudly!

The highlight of the conference for me came during a brief conversation with keynote speaker, Scott Dikker (a la The Onion). After I thanked him for his time and the hour long, comedic brain break he provided (mid-west nice in full effect), he told me that “all anyone should aspire to is a job they love – otherwise, what’s the point?” I think I’m finally on the right path to finding my job love and the Digital Summit really reinforced that for me.

It was refreshing to spend two days around others who understood my daily marketing struggles and my nerdy marketing moments.

Although my brain is still pretty tired from all the information it took in, all in all, I thought the Digital Summit was fantastic. I highly recommend attending one in a city near you.

Does Ashley’s story remind you of your first conference? What’s your favorite marketing conference or event?