Digital Elite Day 2019

We are always trying to improve our services and skills which is why we ventured out of the office and into the big wide world for Digital Elite Day in London to see what insights we could gain from industry experts and peers.

Digital Elite Day aims to provide advanced learning opportunities in CRO and Search through workshops and talks from leaders in the fields. The team had decided to cover both days of the event, beginning with a day-long workshop with Karl Gilis and then attending a number of talks the following day from different companies and experts in the field of Marketing, Search and CRO.

After being well-fed at the breakfast buffet we headed into Karl’s workshop for Day 1 of the event. For those that don’t know, Karl is considered the 3^rd most influential Conversion Rate Optimisation expert in the world and has been hired by companies such as Tui, Suzuki and Thomas Cook to help improve their websites and drive conversions. Knowing that Karl is held in such high regard for what he does, we were very excited to get stuck in! The workshop was an intensive training day for those wanting to learn how to create ads, pages and websites that make your customers click and buy. Karl did not disappoint and gave us invaluable insights into how we could improve our websites and copy in order to increase conversions for both ourselves and our clients. The workshop focused largely on UX (User Experience) and how changing your approach, layout or wording can in some cases boost sales by as much as 80%+. We definitely came away with a greater sense of understanding and appreciation of the user experience and will certainly be implementing much of what we learned here ourselves.

Day 2 was full to the brim with talks from industry experts and peers. The day was split into two tracks; Conversion and Search. After a full day of learning Conversion strategies from Karl and being members of a Search team, naturally, most time was spent in the Search track.

The day was jam-packed with talks, which were varied in subject and incredibly interesting. Topics included looking at The Nature of Intent: How to Nurture and Measure Throughout the Customer Journey with Jill Quick and Aiden Carroll. This was followed by Merging SEO, CRO & UX to Build Beautiful Onsite Experiences with Izzi Smith and Nils Kattau, who were not only very funny and entertaining but gave us really helpful advice on how to approach the ever-increasing struggle of creating incredible content that also works for your marketing and SEO campaigns.  There was also The Truth about SEO Data and How to Get Predictable Results by Francois Goube that delved deeply into using data to create and aid SEO strategies. We particularly enjoyed Operationalising SEO for 2019 – An Open Q&A Session with Jono Alderson and Nick Wilsdon which allowed attendees to ask questions, discuss their own experiences and gain feedback on how to counteract difficulties and implement new ideas.

The day then wrapped up with a Keynote speech from our previous day’s teacher, Karl Gilis. Despite having spent the previous day with Karl, there was still a lot more to learn, and we thoroughly enjoyed his talk.

Overall, we had a fantastic time and most importantly learned a lot that we can apply to our own work and of course, pass on to our clients!