Network Marketing were at the Royal College of Nursing on Wednesday 14th as lead sponsor of “Supercharging Your Agency Brand” alongside the on the Edge Media Group. Approximately 100 delegates attended what promised to be a really inspiring morning. We heard from leaders in data, commerce, social media and the psychology of sales. The day kicked off with a bang, Per Caroe from SilverPop talked about "How Agencies can leverage Technology to cover the full Customer Journey". Per gave a great overview of information tracking and how data points can be used to drive purchase and conversion. Key learning for Network Marketing… Agencies have traditionally had the creative team coming up with the ideas. In the current market the ideas need to be led by the numbers.

This led nicely into the 2nd speaker for the day, Luis Vareta of DigitasLBi. He talked us through “How Agencies Differentiate themselves with their Data Insight”. Luis discussed how data can feed the creative process and how agencies should embrace the data shift. What we took from this… Agencies need to adopt more of a management consultancy approach to use insight to underpin creativity.

Our 3rd speaker for the day was the vibrant Clodagh Higgins from Hubspot. Along with her fluorescent leggings, her talk was based around “Inbound Marketing – Your Secret Weapon”. Interestingly 70% of leads that HubSpot generate are from created from inbound marketing activity such as blogging. Of the 70 different companies that attend the event only ½ had an easily identifiable blog & only 20% of those added a new post in a month. Maybe a lesson to us all?

What we learnt… Inbound marketing attracts individuals to your brands. We should create value and give customers experiences that they will love. “Attract, convert, close and delight through content”. Our final speaker for the day was Ringo

Moss from Positive. He talked to us about “Behavioural Tricks for New Business Persuasion”. Ringo delivered an upbeat insight into psychological approaches to business development. Our favourite tips…

• Never end meetings on bad news – talk about price in the middle.
• Send gifts to clients at Easter instead of Christmas - typically the start of new financial budget and no one usually sends anything.

Overall an inspiring morning hearing from true industry leaders offering real super thought!