There is less than one week till we kick off Share15, and we are looking forward to hearing presentations from some of the biggest names in the industry, like Google, Salesforce, Marriott, Hilton, Adobe, Tableau, Open Table and 5 dozen more — right in the heart of San Francisco. Last year our conference brought together a wide range of digital thought leaders and practitioners for a fantastic two-day conference that left people feeling invigorated and ready to rise above the noise in the competitive digital landscape. The brand-driven conference promises to again reset the standard in industry conference information and opportunity.

“I am really looking forward to “talking shop” with other marketers at Share15, sharing insights and implementing new strategies on my return from the conference,” said Jesse Farley from Cabela’s and a Share15 session speaker.

This year Share will be even bigger. We have more people, more tracks, more sessions, more formats and a larger event space, and we are ready to dive into the heart of search and content and digital marketing.

“It’s confirmed my decision on pushing my company in this direction and inspired me to deliver performance for my company,” said Thomson Reuters after Share14 last year.

With a multitude of people expected to attend and some excellent activities for learning, networking and peer-to-peer conversations, we are confident that Share15 will exceed attendee expectations. As we work on the finishing touches on an already-packed conference, we wanted to share with you some of the latest details about the event.

Our tracks

We will have three central themes to help us cover the major building blocks of marketing:

1. Search marketing
2. Content marketing
3. Digital marketing

With 6 different sessions and 20 speakers dedicated to each track, participants can find the specific presentations and speakers that will help them grow as a professional and deliver results to their employers. The sessions within each track promise to provide fantastic case studies, practical takeaways, and enlightening discoveries. We look for participants to feel challenged and encouraged as they learn better ways to grow in marketing and seize the opportunities of the latest techniques and technology.

Unprecedented List of Session Speakers – Brands, Brands, Brands

We have been working since last fall to develop a speaker list that brings together the leaders in the field – with over 65 speakers this year, Share15 is a must-attend industry event. You will hear from people like Matt Lawson, the Director of Performance Ads Marketing for Google. As a core evangelist for digital marketing best practices, the insights he has to offer about finding your target audience online will be unparalleled. Woodson Martin, the SVP of Marketing Cloud Operations for Salesforce will provide a noteworthy presentation, as will Roger Lee, General Partner of Battery Ventures and Clay Stobaugh, EVP Chief Marketing Officer of Wiley. We also have a great panel with the founder of Ustream - John Ham, CEO of Performics – Michael Kahn, and the CEO of Zuora – Tien Tzuo. BrightEdge’s own CEO and Founder Jim Yu and CTO and Founder Lemuel Park will present the latest product breakthroughs for the community. Our speakers come from a wide range of B2B and B2C businesses, from Marriott International, The Home Depot, Tableau Software, Monster Energy, VMWare, Oracle, Western Union, Maxim, Time Inc, Epicor Software, and dozens more.   

Each speaker brings with them the insight, knowledge, and context that will make this conference outrageously interesting and useful. We are proud to welcome more than 65 brand speakers. For a full list of speakers, sessions, and topics, please see our Share15 site.

New Learning Labs – Hands-On Learning

Of course, the speakers are only one key component to a fantastic conference experience. This year at Share15 we will also be offering learning labs. We believe that this incredible opportunity to internalize the latest market tips and techniques will make it even easier for participants to gain additional value from their conference participation. The labs will be 75 minutes long and will help participants take the valuable insights and translate them into exercises and real-world experience. These innovative labs will give you the chance to work on your laptops in smaller groups with other Share participants. Each one is free and an alternative during breakfast and the the session breakouts, and will roughly follow the three tracks of Search, Content and Digital Marketing. This will not be a conference that helps you catch up to the rest of the industry– this will be where ideas, skills and connection are developed that let you jump out in front.

“The passion of the speakers plus the great networking conversations brings value you’re hard-pressed to find at some of the broader industry conferences,” said Lauren MacPhail, the Director of SEO and Organic Content for Macys.com, after the Share14 conference.

We are gearing up for an exciting September conference, and we hope that you are ready to join us. Check back regularly with us for updates as we get ready for two days of marketing, networking and fantastic conversations. No matter how you like to get value out of your investment in a conference, you will be able to at Share15. Register now! Reserve your spot ASAP! Event Details September 21-23, 2015 Westin St. Francis, Union Square, San Francisco We hope to see you here! 

Business Analysis and Data Technology as a Concept The Content Battleground is a tough place to be right now. With so many brands creating content at hyper-speed, only those that focus on performance will find success in the coming years. We asked Jung Suh, VP of Digital Channels at SAP, where she thinks the industry will go for content marketing in 2016.

Here are her predictions for content marketing in 2016:

Content marketing has officially defied the hype. Instead of fading from the conversation after exploding onto the scene like so many other buzzworthy trends, branded content has cemented itself as a powerful way to drive results. In fact, just this spring, companies like LinkedIn are seeing 40 percent of ad revenue from content marketing. But “content is here to stay” doesn’t translate to “stagnant.” I’ve had the chance to witness the evolution of content from a creative marketing add-on to a legitimate business driver in its own right. Here are four key trends — some new, some ongoing — that I predict will set the tone for content marketing in 2016.

1. Content isn't king, performance is

When content marketing emerged, every brand sought to become a publisher. It was all about creativity and creating value for customers in a largely qualitative way. The volume of branded content soared and brought with it the rise of content management systems aimed at making workflows more efficient and effective. And now that we’ve fulfilled that desire, we’ve reached the next, much-needed, step: content quality. The focus has shifted away from “content for content’s sake” to achieving performance through a closed loop of targeting demand, optimizing content to meet that demand and measuring results to continue improving in future cycles. Using data to achieve content performance isn’t novel. The shift to content performance marketing has occurred over the past two years, but I predict this mindset will win out as the only path to true content success within the year. Those not on board will be left behind.

2. Content gets competitive

Not only will the role of data continue to grow, but the actual type of data we use will shift as well. Many marketing solutions today have a myopic focus on their own data: What topics and keywords are most popular within my content? Which content is lowest-performing on my site? These are all good questions for optimization, but you’re missing out on a massive — and I mean massive — wealth of insights by not tapping into competitive data. The sheer amount of content out there today is staggering — over five exabytes of content are created and 27 million pieces shared every day. Content marketers are fighting for attention on a verifiable content battleground. You need to understand how your competitors’ content is performing in order to fine tune your strategy. It may seem that we’ve been talking about big data ad infinitum, but the truth is we’re still in the learning phase, and we’ve barely scratched the surface of how web-wide data can inform content strategy. Over the next year, our own data will become more of a given. Simultaneously, the use of competitive data to improve content strategy and optimization will increase in a major way.

3. Mobile comes first

Marketers are not only up against Google, Bing, and other search engines’ tightened stance on mobile-friendliness, but consumers are also upping their standards. Unlike the former practice of building out desktop first and retrofitting to mobile, it’s increasingly important today to think about mobile display and content quality first. Consumers are scanning through more sites and content than ever before and that will only grow, according to content performance expert and BrightEdge CEO Jim Yu. He shared that in their latest mobile report, “we found that smartphones and tablets accounted for 35 percent — yes, a full third — of the organic search market in 2014. And this year, smartphone share is going to balloon by at least another 50 percent. The bottom line is, mobile is no longer an afterthought for consumers, therefore it can no longer be an afterthought for marketers.”

4. The rise of the content analyst

I believe the push toward content performance above all else will lead to the emergence of a new, permanent role at organizations: the content analyst. They will be tasked with ensuring their organizations are using deep web-wide data intelligence to meet demand. Content marketing as a practice is only growing, and especially for complex enterprise companies, it will be necessary to create a position that’s specifically focused on how to apply data insights to content. The only way to scale content performance across the sheer number of products, countries, and topics that a given enterprise organization can encompass is to combine sophisticated machine learning with human intuition. Ultimately, content is here to stay. It gives us more and better opportunities to meet our customers where they are, provide value and impact the bottom line. Each of these predictions are about trimming the fat. Gone are the days of guesswork. It’s time for smarter, leaner, more-targeted content. 

The Evolution of Digital Marketing at the Enterprise Level

Large, traditional organizations can lack the agility to quickly adapt to the changes that digital marketers face. Wiley is a good example of a 208-year old organization that is working hard to keep, if not set, the pace. In fact, Wiley recently won the 2015 gold medal for “Best Learning Program Supporting a Change Transformation Business Strategy” by Brandon Hall—a preeminent research and analyst organization that specializes in corporate organizational performance.

This fits in perfectly with our Session at Share this year: The Hybrid Digital Marketer – Talent Management. Dan Mooney, Director of Digital Analytics at Wiley, will be presenting in that session. We recently caught up with Dan and discussed how Wiley is keeping current with the skills and tools required to compete. This is a follow-up interview we had with Clay Stobaugh from Wiley about their transition from being a traditional publisher to digital content excellence.  

BE: Congratulations on the Brandon Hall Aawrd! It sounds like Wiley puts a lot of effort into keeping current with a wide range of marketing skills. What can you tell us about how Wiley accomplished this?

DM: Thank you. We were obviously very excited to win this award. Wiley is a global provider of knowledge and knowledge-enabled services that improve outcomes in the areas of research, professional training and practice, and education. So training and education is something we think about every day. We have needs of our own, so we put together a series of on-demand certifications for marketing disciplines. I don’t want to give away too much, but I’ll be covering this in depth in my presentation on September 23.

BE: Tell us about your role at Wiley. How does digital analytics fit in with the bigger digital marketing group at Wiley?

DM: Well, my title is Director of Digital Analytics. My team works on analytics, SEO, paid search and A/B testing; we also work closely with colleagues on user research and segmentation, social marketing, among other areas. That’s a big part of why I like digital marketing so much. There’s always something new to learn and work on. Wiley is a global provider of knowledge services and my day-to-day is really making sure colleagues have the right tool sets and strategies to be successful. It’s a lot of fun. I’m lucky to work with a lot of very smart people. We’ve also been fortunate to have leading, enterprise tools to do our jobs.

BE: That’s a pretty broad range of tools and skills to roll out. How does Wiley manage that?

DM: We’ve combined a top-down and bottom-up approach. We think of all colleagues as marketers, and we’ve provided the tool sets, and training necessary for success. A big piece of this are our certifications for SEO, Digital Analytics, Social Marketing, Customer Experience and other marketing disciplines. Our executive leadership is also actively involved. We provide them with executive-level dashboards that show how each of our businesses is doing, and relate them directly to marketing so we can prove ROI. As a result, our colleagues have access to leading enterprise-level toolsets, like BrightEdge. Our leaders understand how important marketing disciplines like SEO are. When we launch new products or sites, we think “How are we going to do this according to best practices? What are our KPIs, and how will we measure them?” and most importantly “Do we have the funding and resources necessary for success?”

The Digital Marketing Landscape Requires Best Practices

BE: What has been one of the biggest changes in digital marketing for Wiley over the last year?

DM: We’ve been very focused on our customer engagement framework. That’s a process that ensures marketing best practices are followed at every step. Seems simple enough, but when you go through and ask “are we doing that and how are we measuring results?” you’ll quickly find some gaps to fill in. We started this a couple of years ago. This past year, we formed centers of excellence (COE) for customer experience, search marketing, social marketing and communities, content marketing, and analytics and optimization. We already had COEs for marketing automation and CRM.

BE: What has had the biggest impact for you and your company?

DM: Forming the Centers of Excellence easily had the biggest impact. Prior, we had many different teams, using multiple platforms with varying ways to engage with customers and measure results. That’s hard enough, but we also have hundreds of colleagues around the world in various roles, (e.g. marketing, editorial, technology, management, etc.) so coordination was tricky. This is much easier now that we have COEs with common mindset, skill sets and tool sets. Whether you’re building a site, writing an article, executing a social campaign or meeting with the Board to discuss goals and budgets, we’re all marketers.

The Content Performance Marketing Shift

BE: How critical is measurement of content in your organization?

DM: Measurement is a big factor, of course. We can’t be successful if we don’t first define what success is, and then go ahead and measure ourselves to see if we’ve achieved success. So, sure, post-launch measurement is important. But I really think that measurement before we build content is even more important. Any organization that is serious about content marketing needs to understand who their customers are and what they care about. This is where BrightEdge has really played a role. The content research and backlink gap analysis available through BrightEdge are priceless. Once we’ve launched, the Share of Voice report is a great starting point to find out how to further our success.

BE: Tell me more about your view on the convergence of content and digital marketing.

DM: I believe it all has to start with research. “Does anyone care about what we’re selling or how we’re selling it?” The good news is that with the technology available, we can assess demand before we begin. The convergence of content and digital marketing is all about being able to optimize everything. You can optimize your content as well as optimize the time you spent working on projects. This means that your content will meet a real demand that can be measured all within a set timeframe.

About Your Session at Share15 – Building Buy-In for Best Practices

BE: Tell me more about your session? - Overview of the topic and 'teasers' with regard to content you aim to present (but don't give the game away).

DM: My presentation is about getting buy-in from everyone; from executives, to the front-line marketers and everyone in between. Everyone needs to be ‘on board’. You also won’t get too far without the right tool sets. You’ll also face challenges if your colleagues don’t use those tools to their fullest ability. Nothing surprising there; but doing this at a large, global organization can be very challenging. We’ve done a few things at Wiley that will show others how to speed up the process. That’s what I’m going to show in my presentation. Again, this is where BrightEdge is critical. Start out using it as a platform for research to inform your strategy. Then measure your performance once you launch and look for ways to improve.

Your Partnership with BrightEdge

BE: What do you love about BrightEdge?

DM: The technology and data are the best in the industry. I’m constantly discovering new ways to use Data Cube for research and measurement. Again, the technology is great, but the culture is what really sets BrightEdge apart. I’ve worked with a lot of partners who say they put the customer first, but none come close to BrightEdge’s commitment to my success. My Client Services Manager is always checking in to see if there’s anything he can help with and constantly educating me on the platform. I’ve also worked with the Professional Services team on a few projects and they’re an incredibly smart, inquisitive group who really wants to understand my business and challenges. Throughout, I never feel like I’m being sold to. It really is a partnership.

About Share – Hands-On Labs, Networking and Takeaways

BE: Why Share – why do you attend?

DM: This will be my second year at Share. Last year I really got a lot out of the networking and hearing what other people are doing. I’m always interested in spending time with like-minded people who are all solving the same problems I face.

BE: What are you most looking forward to?

DM: I’m very interested in the hands-on labs and the Level Two BrightEdge Certification. I’ve spent a lot of the last year at more of a strategic level. I know there have been a lot of great features added to the platform. And there will probably be a few more to announce at Share. I really want to make sure I know how to use them all. Once I get a better handle on the new features, I need to bring this all back to Wiley and make sure everyone gets the most out of the platform.

The digital world has become increasingly competitive. According to IBM, roughly 90 percent of the information on the Internet today has been produced in just the past two years. To answer the need of businesses trying to compete in this saturated space, BrightEdge has developed Share of Voice to help you see exactly how much of the market share on a topic is controlled by your brand, rather than having to guess at the relevance of your pages. This innovation can provide you with more insight than just learning about your competitors, however. You can also use the positioning information to learn about potential partners.

There are several different types of partnerships you can leverage to improve your brand reach and reputation, particularly blog partners, affiliate partners, and channel partners. The essential component in all three types of collaboration for SEO management is finding professionals who have a strong readership among your intended demographic.

Use the Share of Voice technology to find potential partners and measure important factors, such as their ranking for certain keywords and keyword groups, their page profiles, backlinks and search volume. This can help you identify the optimal partners in each category for share of voice.

Blog partners for Share of Voice

Blog partners can help you by providing you access to your ideal audience and offering you a platform to exchange blog posts. When you publish a guest post on a blog that is read by your intended audience, you have the opportunity to extend your brand reach and interact with parts of your consumer base that you might not have otherwise met. The blog partner will be vouching for you by allowing you to post on their blog, which helps you to establish authority in the eyes of the readers. Links to your main site in the body or in your signature can help bring some of this targeted demographic back to your site, where they can learn more about you and what you can do for them.

You can also find blog partners that would be willing to make a guest post on your blog. If your blog partner is a respected member of the industry, then a post can add an extra degree of authority to your blog. You can also ask the partner to link from their site to your blog for the post to increase readership and drive relationships. Blog partners can also be great sources of backlinks. In addition to the thought leadership and brand reach benefits of guest posts, writing informative pieces for other sites can be a great way to boost your backlink profile and therefore your search ranking.

Affiliate partners for Share of Voice

Affiliates are rewarded for every customer they bring your business. You can track sites that have a strong reach within your intended consumer base and ask them to join your affiliate program and help you get the message about your brand into the hands of your customers. You might have an arrangement to display ads on their sites or you might ask them to promote a product or service through their own original content. The key to finding good affiliate partners is tracking sites that run quality sites with quality pages themselves. Google has been cracking down on affiliate sites that exist solely for the purpose of capturing and redirecting traffic towards other pages. For you to correctly use this tactic for your advantage, you need to find site owners that have a strong, natural audience for a particular keyword or keyword group. They will continue to serve their own audience while also providing you with an affiliate service, such as displaying ads.

Channel partners for Share of Voice

Channel partners are other brands who would like to work with you to market your goods and services. They might go through a certification course of some kind to master your offerings and then market it to their own customers. It is an excellent way to leverage your network to work for you, particularly on a local level. This type of relationship requires you to be in constant communication with your partners to make sure that they are up-to-date on the latest products and services. It is a mutually beneficial relationship where they grow when you grow, so they are looking for ways to help you achieve your goals. Finding the right channel partners, however, requires tracking down professionals and businesses that already have a strong grasp and expertise in your intended market. Channel partners that can best help your brand to grow will have the industry insight needed to be effective.

The Share of Voice technology can be a fantastic resource for learning about competitors and how you measure up for your targeted keywords, but it also can help you build the partnerships that will move your brand forward. The insights can help you identify key blog, affiliate and channel partners that will help you grow and leverage your network by gauging market research and traffic. Recognize the value of collaboration in your growth and take advantage of all that BrightEdge Share of Voice has to offer.