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Five Can’t-Miss Sessions from Virtual Pubcon 2020

Joshua Nite
Joshua Nite on Oct 13th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Marketing PR Conferences, Pubcon

Lee Odden Speaking at Pubcon

The one silver lining in our current reality is the “virtual event.” Sure, we’re all stuck at home, but at least we can have several entire marketing conferences beamed directly to our laptops. 

Granted, there’s a distinct lack of cocktails and networking opportunities. You have to supply your own drinks and try to convince your own pets to follow you on LinkedIn (currently mine are still mulling it over). 

Two dogs, one white, one ginger colored

“Sorry, we only have Facebark.”

The latest conference to go virtual is industry stalwart Pubcon, celebrating its 20th year. This search-centered event never fails to round up fascinating speakers with a ton of experience in search and content marketing.

Here are my top five can’t miss sessions for Pubcon’s Virtual 2020 Conference.


Five Can’t-Miss Sessions from Virtual Pubcon 2020

Pubcon Pro 2018 Search Marketing Conference Wrap-up

Chris Boggs, Barry Schwartz, Lee Odden, Brett Tabke, and Lane R. Ellis at Pubcon Las Vegas 2018

For those in the know and that go beyond clickbait headlines, Search Marketing delivers an incredible punch to a marketing mix. But it takes work, especially when you consider the hundreds of factors that go into ranking decisions for every one of the billion plus queries that Google tries to answer each month.

Part of that work is staying on top of search engine optimization and advertising best practices. For that, several members of the TopRank Marketing team recently attended the Pubcon Pro conference in Las Vegas.

After essentially getting my start in public speaking as a marketer at Pubcon many years ago, I have returned to the search marketing industry with my third speaking appearance in a row at a Pubcon event in the past 12 months.


Pubcon Pro 2018 Search Marketing Conference Wrap-up

You Have 8 Seconds – GO! Brand Messaging Secrets With Debra Jasper at #Pubcon 2018

Debra Jasper Pubcon Las Vegas 2018 Keynote Photo By Lane R. Ellis

Debra Jasper, founder of Mindset Digital, practices what she preaches when it comes to delivering engaging messages in eight seconds or less, as she demonstrated during an energetic mile-a-minute “You Have 8 Seconds – GO! “ Pubcon Pro Las Vegas 2018 keynote address.

Before Debra took the stage, Pubcon founder Brett Tabke told the audience how one of her previous keynotes holds the record as the conference’s highest-rated, and her latest presentation showed no sign of letting go of that title.

Walking The Walk With 367 Slides

Debra’s keynote explored how to effectively get your message out in a world where today’s professional has just an eight-second attention span, and she hit the ground running, flying through some 367 visually interesting slides, nearly all featuring motion or video.


You Have 8 Seconds – GO! Brand Messaging Secrets With Debra Jasper at #Pubcon 2018

Top Brand Personalization Secrets From Scott Monty at #Pubcon 2018

Scott Monty Speaking at Pubcon Photo by Lane R. Ellis
Scott Monty brought his nuanced and precisely-paced neoclassical style of marketing to Pubcon Pro Las Vegas 2018, leading off with a Longfellow poem — a refreshing non-technical respite from the buzzwords otherwise pouring forth from most presenters at the tech-savvy conference, as he delivered a mainstage address about social media, trust, and personalization.

Scott, who was a classics major, began by noting that much of human nature is constant all around the world, with people holding the same shared motivations, including many great human truths behind what we do that still apply today — perhaps more than ever.

We’re faced with a huge trust deficit, however, as confidence among us in general has plummeted, which Scott sees as a primary gap to be filled.


Top Brand Personalization Secrets From Scott Monty at #Pubcon 2018

4 Reasons to Get AMP’d Up About Google AMP with Google’s Ben Morss

Tiffani Allen
Tiffani Allen
Pubcon, SEO

What’s up with Google AMP? That’s what a room full of marketers were determined to find out on Thursday’s Pubcon Pro session with Google’s Developer Advocate, Ben Morss. In his session, Ben outlined the current state of Google AMP, why marketers should care, and how it can work along with PWAs (progressive web apps) to deliver a seamless, fast and immersive experience.

Below are four top takeaways from Ben’s session:

 1. Speed = Money
There are real world consequences for bad user experience on your website. Some of the stats Ben included to illustrate exactly how include:

  • 53% of users abandon a site if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load according to a Doubleclick study of Google Analytics Data.

4 Reasons to Get AMP’d Up About Google AMP with Google’s Ben Morss

Reduce Friction, Increase Loyalty: Key Insights from Roger Dooley at #Pubcon Pro

Did you know, only 5% of our brain’s decision making is conscious? Leaving 95% for decisions made on a nonconscious level. As marketers, charged with increasing the quality and quantity of conversions (i.e. decisions), how do we address the 95%?

Roger Dooley, speaker and author of Brainfluence: 100 Ways to Persuade and Convince Consumers with Neuromarketing, the popular blog Neuromarketing, and Brainy Marketing at Forbes, addressed this in his session at Pubcon pro.

Here are the top three takeaways to help you increase your conversions without much more than common sense — and a little user data.

1. Friction changes behavior
Momentum is what causes us to keep moving, like sliding down a slide. Friction is what stops us from completing that motion. When it comes to your digital properties, like your website, you likely have specific actions you want prospects and visitors to take.


Reduce Friction, Increase Loyalty: Key Insights from Roger Dooley at #Pubcon Pro

How to Optimize Customer Experience with AI – Top Tips from Microsoft’s Purna Virji

Microsoft's Purna Virji at Pubcon Las Vegas 2018 Photo by Lane R. Ellis

Purna Virji, senior manager of global engagement at Microsoft, has spoken at the Pubcon conference several times over the years, but the main stage presentation she gave yesterday in Las Vegas was her first time taking a deep look at the ever-evolving artificial intelligence landscape and how it can bolster customer experience.

“When it comes to optimizing the customer experience, design for conversation from the start. Remember, the most important thing for the user is convenience,” Purna recently told our CEO Lee Odden in his Pubcon preview highlighting nine top speakers at the event.

Is Voice Search Living Up To The Hype?

Purna began by asking the gathered audience whether they thought that voice search was generally overrated and not living up to all the hype it has increasingly attracted as more AI-assisted devices are in our homes, cars, offices, and lives in general.


How to Optimize Customer Experience with AI – Top Tips from Microsoft’s Purna Virji

5 Secrets for Growing Influence in Marketing: Key Takeaways from Lee Odden at #Pubcon Pro

Tiffani Allen
Tiffani Allen
Content Marketing, Pubcon

Lee Odden speaking at Pubcon Pro Las Vegas 2018 Photo by Lane R. Ellis

Research has shown: consumers don’t trust the companies they buy from. They don’t trust ads. And they definitely don’t trust marketers.  Trust in marketing is on a decline – between internal stakeholders and customers. In fact, according to a study by Fournaise Group, 80% of CEOs simply don’t trust marketers at all.

Trust is the gateway to influence.

Influence plays a major role in the marketing that moves customers to make purchases. That’s why Lee Odden (our fearless leader and CEO of TopRank Marketing) is challenging marketers to take a step back from the day-to-day of marketing and recognize the trend of reduced trust and influence in marketing.

Marketing Influence Pubcon


5 Secrets for Growing Influence in Marketing: Key Takeaways from Lee Odden at #Pubcon Pro

Joe Pulizzi Shares What it Takes to be a Content Brand at #Pubcon Pro

Tiffani Allen
Tiffani Allen
Content Marketing, Pubcon

Joe Pulizzi at Pubcon 2018 Photo by Lane R. Ellis

When it comes to any trade, the best practice is to learn from the best. So, who better to learn about content marketing from than Joe Pulizzi — the Founder of Content Marketing Institute — when it comes to turning your content into revenue?

Joe’s keynote presentation at Pubcon Pro in Las Vegas today focused on becoming a content brand and all that it entails.

Nine Content Brand Takeaways from the Godfather of Content Marketing:

1. Find a niche where you can be the leading expert in the world

This is what Joe calls ‘The Sweet Spot.’ It’s located at the intersection between knowledge or a skill area that you have and your key customer’s pain point. He used the example of John Deere, where they created content around agriculture and technology specifically for farmer’s trying to improve their operation.


Joe Pulizzi Shares What it Takes to be a Content Brand at #Pubcon Pro

Prepping for #Pubcon Pro Las Vegas 2018: 11 Presentations We’re Looking Forward to Most

Pubcon Pro

Pubcon Pro Las Vegas 2018 — the search marketing industry’s longest-running conference under the same name — will soon be upon us, and TopRank Marketing will be there speaking and giving you a diverse selection of live-blogging and social media coverage throughout the October 17 – 18 event.

Our chief executive Lee Odden will be a featured main-stage speaker on Wednesday, October 17 from 3:55 – 4:50 p.m., while senior account manager Tiffani Allen and I will be covering the event by liveblogging sessions and sharing useful tips through our social networks.

You can read all about Lee’s much-anticipated presentation in our “Learn to Grow Influence and Trust in Marketing with Lee Odden at #Pubcon Pro 2018” piece, and then dig in and get the inside scoop on 10 of the top speakers who’ll be presenting at Pubcon, in Lee’s “Stop Gambling with Your Marketing and Go Pro with Tips from Ten Pubcon Pro Speakers” conference preview and guide.


Prepping for #Pubcon Pro Las Vegas 2018: 11 Presentations We’re Looking Forward to Most

Stop Gambling with Your Marketing and Go Pro with Tips from Ten Pubcon Pro Speakers

Pubcon Pro

In the fast paced world of search and digital marketing, what separates amateurs from professionals often comes down one simple distinction: marketing as a gamble or marketing as a planned, measured and iteratively optimized discipline.

There are far too many marketing campaigns being implemented simply because “that’s how we’ve always done it”, as a reaction to the competition and as a limitation of the in-house team tasked with execution. Professional marketers go beyond wishful thinking and hopes of “better luck next time”.

So, what does it mean to be a “professional”?

Being a professional in any industry represents a combination of characteristics including:

  • Specialized knowledge
  • Competency
  • Honesty and Integrity
  • AccountabilitySelf-Regulation

Marketing professionals represent these things and more:

  • Creativity

Stop Gambling with Your Marketing and Go Pro with Tips from Ten Pubcon Pro Speakers

Viva Las Vegas Pubcon 2010

Las Vegas I’ve been attending WebmasterWorld’s Pubcon conference in Las Vegas for at least 6 years although I didn’t liveblog that first one for some reason. In fact I first interviewed Pubcon founder, Brett Tabke, in 2005.  By no means am I an “old timer” since the show has been running for a lot longer than I’ve been attending but I do have some history with it.

When people ask me about great conference options to learn practical SEO and PPC, Pubcon is always included in my recommendations.  Being held in Las Vegas lends a certain flavor to the event, as in there are plenty of after-event networking opportunities.  Sessions are great, but its the in person connections you make and develop that yield tips, tactics that aren’t always forthcoming during the day.


Viva Las Vegas Pubcon 2010