The LaunchTN communications team attended a day at the DigiMarCon Mid-South 2023.
We learned a lot and are still digesting, but these are the top 7 takeaways after a jam-packed day.
1. Keep it simple.
Whether you’re trying to get people to buy tickets to an event like our 3686 festival or you’re an e-commerce business selling handmade items — the process needs to be simple.
“The secret of delivering simplicity: you’re never going to be able to deliver a simple experience to customers, if you’re not delivering the same experience to employees.” — Matt Lyles, Simple Brand
2. Businesses and marketers should probably be on TikTok.
It’s not just a social media platform.
“Nearly 40% of GenXZ prefers using TikTok and Instagram for search over google.” — SVP, Google, Prabhakar Raghavan
3. When you do strategic planning with your team, ask the boss to be quiet — at least for part of the time.
Steve Krull, from Be Found Online, said bosses sometimes tend to speak up too much, which may prevent employees from throwing out new ideas.
4. AI and Chat GPT are here. It’s probably better to figure out how to live with it, or better yet — use it for good in your business or organization.
Think about how you can use it to make your life easier and your products better. For example, use AI to create unique photos that can replace the tired stock photos that are obviously staged.
5. Take time to play (especially when you’re learning).
Matt Erickson, marketing director at National Positions taught us how to use the AI platform, Midjourney. He said he’s heard from people who have tested it and decide it doesn’t work after 15 minutes. After walking through the platform with him, it’s clear there’s endless potential, but it’s all new so it takes playing around. One specific piece of advice about asking AI to draw photos — for descriptions, start basic and then get specific.
6. Minimize barriers.
Find out the questions that customers are asking you and how can you proactively answer those questions with content, such as FAQs, blog posts, social posts.
7. Lose the jargon.
Chloé here. I’m the LaunchTN Comms Director.
Before I came into this role, I was a business reporter, and I saw countless company websites with jargon that just was not clear.
Now that I’m working for LaunchTN, I’ve already noticed myself saying things like, “We support commercialization by helping with SBIR/STTR applications.” The layman may not know exactly what commercialization is, and I’m sure most people don’t know those acronyms.
So, it’s important to remember that customers don’t have the knowledge we have. We are so ingrained with our industry that we know the language. If it’s obvious to us. It’s not always obvious to our customers.
When you use plain language, you’re not “dumbing it down,” you’re making it easier for them to understand your message much quicker.
