3 Key Takeaways From the 2021 Rocks Digital Marketing Conference

The Rocks Digital Marketing Conference has been bringing together some of the greatest minds in Digital Marketing since 2014. The Dallas-based conference is held on June 30th every year for National Social Media Day. This year, the conference was held virtually, and the entrance fee was waived in lieu of a donation to charity. During the 2021 Rocks Digital Marketing Conference, attendees heard from 17 expert speakers, including Rise Local’s own John O’Grady. Mike Stewart, Rise Local\’s Co-Founder was also active at the conference and answered questions about digital marketing throughout the day. 

John shared an engaging presentation about the importance of local hosting services and why you don\’t want Big Hosting Companies holding you back. Other speakers gave fantastic speeches about SEO, Domain names, hosting, video production, local listings, the importance of LinkedIn, and more! Below, we’ll dig into John’s presentation, and talk about some of our key takeaways from the day. 

Rocks Digital Speaker: John O’Grady, Rise Local (Co-Founder)

“Why Localized Hosting is the Best Option”

John took the time to speak about the importance of local hosting. A lot of people don’t put much thought into this. Instead, they go for a simple and cheap solution. This means they host with companies like GoDaddy or HostGator, and it’s more difficult to get good customer service. More importantly, sites hosted by these companies tend to run slower because they are not engineered for site speed and performance and don’t hold up when there’s a lot of traffic on your website at one time. 

John encouraged attendees to start hosting their own clients because it puts them in the best position to provide great service. After all, no client wants to pour thousands into a paid ad campaign, just to find out their website can’t handle a lot of traffic or that forms are not working and delivering properly. The Rise Local servers are configured to better suit local clients. While this may not suit international business, the point is your stack should cater to those you intend to support. Ours just happens to be the perfect hosting solution for local SMBs and service-based companies. 

Takeaway #1: Your Business Needs to be Listed on Apple Maps

Everyone has a go-to navigation app. Most times, that app is Google maps or Waze because they’re highly developed and user-friendly. However, Apple maps is still a contender. It is the default on all Apple iOS devices and carplay. Not to mention, about ⅓ of the adult U.S. population uses it. 

There’s a chance you may already have an Apple maps listing, but you still need to claim it. You need to complete and fully optimize your business listing, or you’re going to miss out on a huge market! 

Take Away #2: Take an Active Approach to Reputation Management and Market Yourself

When you’re proactive about responding to reviews you can use it as an opportunity to promote yourself. Customers who find a company via referrals are usually ready to commit to a product or service. Fortunately, most people listen to online testimonials just as much as they listen to friends and family. Use that to your advantage. By taking control of your online presence you can generate more reviews, rank higher in organic SERP pages, conduct market research, and most importantly– attract new customers.  

Take Away #3: Your Content Will Be More Effective If You Understand Your Clients

There’s no denying that content is essential to any marketing strategy. This is especially true if you’re trying to drive organic traffic to your website. However, one key factor people often overlook is that it needs to be relevant. You need to use the right language, messaging, and tone if you want your content to resonate with your target market. So take the time to understand your clients and craft content that will resonate with them. Then, monitor analytics to ensure it’s working. If you’re not seeing an ROI, chances are you’ve been assuming you know what customers want instead of asking or researching. When this happens you need to adjust your content. If you’re seeing great results, then lean in, and keep generating similar content. 

Rise Local\’s Impact at the Rocks Digital Marketing Conference

We could go on and on about all of the things we learned at the Rocks Digital Marketing Conference. However, we know you’re busy so we wanted to keep things brief. At Rise Local, we champion local SEO, hosting solutions, online presence management, and local listings. That’s why these were our key takeaways from the day. If you’re interested in applying any of these key tips to your business contact the local search experts at Rise Local. We are a full-service digital marketing agency with years of combined experience. Our team is at the ready and wants to help you maximize your digital presence.