If you’re parading a series of high flyers to talk about digital marketing then the Imperial War Museum at Duxford, near Cambridge UK, provides an appropriate backdrop.

In the shadow of Concorde, The Chartered Institute of Marketing’s 5th Cambridge Digital Marketing Conference really took off.

Held on Bastille Day, aristocrats of the marketing world not only escaped with their heads – but those heads were full of some brilliant tips for communicating in the brave new world that social media has created.

The event was fully subscribed and registrations were received from across the UK and even Ghana. Terry Nicklin, chairman of CIM Cambridgeshire, said leveraging Twitter resulted in a surge of delegates.

While the importance of marketing over the internet rang crystal clear from  every one of the presentations, whether the social media wave was being optimised was open to question.

Marketers and their clients have a staggering choice of digital media channels through which to communicate with customers but many remain unsure where best to place budgets to secure maximum visibility and engagement.

Speakers covered best practice in digital marketing – right down to getting the tone, the look and the message of emails right for different target audiences.

Mark Ross-Innes from Softwerx helps customers build systems to support best practice customer engagement strategies, including social media strategy, and emphasised the need to capture more opportunities from web marketing by properly engaging with potential customers.

Tony Quested, CEO of Business Weekly addressed the hard yards marketers faced to bring their clients into the digital age. Elizabeth McMahon, marketing manager of PracticeWeb, showed how her company utilised a variety of traditional and new media to connect with the professional services market.

James Dening of Finesight stressed the importance of an attractive pricing structure to sell online in the face of torrid competition. He has over 15 years experience as a highly successful business leader, ranging from leading Cambridge-based startups and most recently running the Enterprise sales division at Amazon UK. He launched Finesight using his extensive experience to help companies to succeed in the online world.

Fran Brosan, chairman of Cambridge-based marketing consultancy Omobono, presented a survey which demonstrated the shift in marketing spend. Tink Taylor, director of dotMailer – the third largest and fastest growing email marketing platform in the UK gave a masterclass on effective emailing campaigns.

Andrew Firmin, affiliate manager of Argos, outlined the partnerships that allow Argos to spread its reach across the web.

Michael Nutley, former editor-in-chief of New Media Age, had set the scene superbly and stressed the need for relevance in every aspect of digital marketing.

Nigel Kwan, digital media strategist with Microsoft Advertising, specialises in content creation for the digital world and at Microsoft is striving to encourage brands to focus on great content campaigns to drive genuine conversations. Bing featured large in his presentation.

• All the presentations are being posted at www.marketingconference.co.uk

• Photograph by Alan Bennett / Media Imaging Solutions
www.mediaimagingsolutions.com