#and the feedback on my latest piece featuring them was overwhelming

[slaymate]

Some basic character designs of my 1922 AU Hades and Persephone (or Alkiviades and Faní, respectively) hitting just the right aesthetic between “silent movie heartthrob” and “Anatolian gothic romance”.

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

She [3]

Warnings: non-consent sex (series)

This is dark! Steve and explicit. 18+ only.

Series Synopsis: Steve Rogers’ life is turned upside down by a reporter.

Chapter Summary: The reader finds herself at the center of even more unwanted attention

Note: This is a slow slow creep but that’s always the best kind. Thanks everyone who is reading this. The series is in full 10 chapters and they are all DONE! So we will have a smooth ride from here on out.

Thanks to everyone for their patience and feedback. :)

I really hope you enjoy. 💋

<3 Let me know what you think with a like or reblog or reply or an ask! Love ya!

Reader

The morning was more hectic than any before. There was a brief lull, right after the story drop. The long wait for the verdict. Was it a hit or a flop? You sat at your desk, typing away at your latest assignment. Nothing so glorious as the famous super soldier. Merely a fluff piece on a local foundation for children in need. The usual fare.

Then it began. The comment section on the article was overwhelming and the coverage of the printed article was just as fervent. The Google alerts on your phone threatened to drain the battery and the stationary phone on your desk began to flash. You answered.

“My office. Now.” Poppy’s demand was followed by a click.

You stood and tucked your cell up your blazer sleeve. You knocked on her transparent door and she waved you in as she remained sitting. One leg was crossed over the other as she leaned back and swiveled back and forth.

“Do you know what you’ve done?” She asked. Your eyes rounded. “You’ve set the world on fire. I have been on the phone all morning and who do you think I’ve been talking about?”

“I don’t--” You began.

“You. And Steve Rogers.” She trilled. “Even heroes must be mindful of the press.”

“What do you--?”

“Tell me haven’t been divulging in all that praise, hun,” She chimed. “What are you working on right now?”

“Um, well, I just went down the Centre for Advocacy and Assistance and I’m--”

“Drop it. Throw it on an intern’s desk,” She interrupted again. “You’ll be much too busy for that.”

“What do you mean?” You stood just behind the acrylic chair.

“Interviews!” She almost shouted. “Everyone wants to know what it was like to face down Captain America.”

“Interviews? No, no. It wasn’t like that.”

“You know what you wrote,” She jabbed a pointed nail in the air. “I think you might be as hot a commodity as he is.”

“I don’t want to be interviewed.” You said. “I’m a reporter. I don’t--”

“This is an opportunity,” She insisted. 

“It’s one article. I can’t just depend on that.” You said.

“Think about it.” She said. “Even so, clear out your desk. We’re moving you to the features department. I hope you know what that means.”

You nodded. That was a win at least.

“Long hours. Better pay.” She leaned an arm on her desk. “But it’s hard work. One wrong pitch and your back down to blurbs.”

“I know,” You assured her. “Thank you.”

“Thank me if you make it a year,” She adjusted her glasses. “And keep those eyes open. You might not want the attention, but you’re going to get it.”

🖋️

You headed out for your usual midweek lunch. As you stepped out the front doors, you were surprised by a lens. In your effort to find the card to collect stamps for your sandwiches, you stumbled and your bag fell to the pavement. You knelt to gather the scattered contents and quickly righted yourself.

You flitted past the photographer as he called after you. “Miss, miss, are you afraid of Steve Rogers?”

You rolled your eyes at the question and dipped into the sandwich shop. You got your usual turkey club on rye but not to go. Instead, you ate in, still on edge at your run-in. As a member of the press, it was startling to get a taste of the other side. You were determined in your work, but never the one to unnecessarily hound a subject.

You wiped your mouth and sat back as you checked the time. You wondered how bad it was for him. You had underestimated yourself; your article. You had ignored Poppy’s prediction that the article would be a best-seller and let your self-doubt get the best of you. And now, it was all a mess.

You hadn’t meant to villianize Steve Rogers, merely humanise him. To make him more than the man behind the perfect smile and golden hair. You thought a glimpse into his internal dilemma would be grounding, not ostracizing. You were wildly mistaken.

You tidied up and threw away your garbage. You set off back to work and passed another photographer, her curly hair barely contained under a wool cap.

“Miss, why did you smear Steve Rogers?” She asked as you tried your best to ignore her. “Can you confirm--”

You hurried through the front doors and tripped on your own foot as you entered the lobby. You cursed under your breath and caught the elevator before it could close. Your bag shook as your phone began to dance once more. You cringed and gripped the slender strap of your purse. You didn’t feel too sorry for yourself, you were sure it was much worse for him.

🖋️

The rest of your day dragged on. You were greeted by the same probing photographers but evaded them in the subway. The crowded train had you even more on edge than usual. You kept your eyes on the phone, your notifications muted but for your work e-mail. You played the little farming game as you waited for your stop.

The same walk as any other day. Short but it saw the sky greying by the time you reached your building. Your keys jingled with the overzealous keychains and attachments, an empty bottle of sanitizer clung to the mess.

You climbed up the stairs, one at a time. The wood was old and warped beneath the mats. Your door jammed and you fought the thick barrier until you forced your way inside. You flipped on the lights and locked the door behind you. You kicked off your shoes and dropped your purse. You wriggled out of your blazer and stretched as you looked around the cramped space.

You went to the buzzing refrigerator and pulled out your leftover shawarma plate from the night before and a can of sparkling water. You popped open the styrofoam and took out your phone. You leaned on the counter and at the chicken and rice cold and scraped up the last of the pickled turnip and cabbage.

Poppy wanted you in early the next morning. That couldn’t be good. Your junk box was quickly filling too as you redirected e-mails from your cohorts asking for statements and explanations. You didn’t feel the need or desire to justify what you wrote. It was the truth.

You thought of how quickly the meeting with Steve Rogers had turned tense. The mere mention of his old friend was enough to rile him but you had continued to poke. Well, that was your job. To follow the scent until you could latch onto the sinew of a story.

You tossed the container and went to the couch. You turned on the television and stretched out. You listened to the re-run of an early 00s sitcom and your eyes slowly closed. You were exhausted and expected to be more so after tomorrow. You only hoped the news cycle spat you out sooner than later.

You turned onto your side as the breeze rattled the fire escape outside your window. You switched the channel as the credits rolled and yawned against the pillow. As tired as you were, you knew you’d spend too much of your night on the couch; wakeless and watching episodes you’d seen a dozen times before.

🖋️

You knew something was off as you walked into the office. It was earlier than your usual start time but several others were already at their desks. You wondered if a few had even left the night before. You passed your old desk and looked at your vibrating phone.

‘Where are you?’ Poppy’s text popped up and you didn’t even stop to stare at the shell of your former workspace.

You continued onto her office and froze as you peered through her transparent wall. A man stood by her desk, his back to you and a bald head with a crooked thin strap around it. His long leather jacket hung to his knees and Poppy sat upright as she watched him tinker with the hummingbird ornament she kept on the corner.

You held back a gasp and continued forward. You raised your fist to knock but Poppy caught the movement with her seafoam eyes. She pushed her glasses up her nose and waved you in impatiently. The man turned to watch as you entered.

“Hey?” You said confused. “What’s--”

“Ma’am,” The man interjected and looked back at Poppy. “This is her?”

Poppy nodded as her lips formed a thin line.

“Hello, I’m--”

“Nick Fury.” You finished for him. “And I assume you know who I am already.”

“I know who everyone is.” He assured you and held out his hand. You shook it and felt a crushing strength in his grip. “And you know why I’m here?”

“About the article but I don’t know what you would want from me.” You said.

Poppy’s eyes widened. You’d never seen her so rattled. It was usually her doing the rattling.

“A conversation.” He said. “I understand you must be busy but I’m certain you can spare me a couple minutes.”

“I guess,” You shrugged.

“If you find yourself too busy, I can return with a subpoena.” He offered.

“A subpoena? Really?” You blinked at him. “I don’t think that’s necessary.”

“I would agree,” He put a hand on his hip and you spied the sidearm there. Was that intentional? “Is there somewhere private we might talk?”

“Take the conference room,” Poppy offered. “Just over there.” She pointed through the wall.

Fury nodded and you turned back to the door. He followed, his boots heavy on the floor behind you. You led him to the conference room and he closed the door swiftly. You didn’t sit as he began to pace around the long table. You stayed by the wall and hugged your purse.

“Look, I don’t know what you want. The article’s already out there and I didn’t write anything by the truth.” You said nervously. “I can’t control how people react to--”

“You have the recording still?” He asked as he stopped sharply. You nodded. “Good. Can I listen?”

It wasn’t really a question. He stared you down with his single eye and you took out your phone. You searched the files and hit play. You set the phone on the table as it began. You listened silently as your voice began and Steve replied. 

The conversation filled the airy conference and Fury crossed his arms as he listened. He wasn’t happy as Steve’s tone deepened and his words turned venomous. You felt a chill roll along your spine. You’d almost forgotten how hateful he’d sounded. You felt as if he was there now, his eyes boring into you as his lip curled.

As it ended, Fury nodded and rubbed his chin.

“Well,” He snatched your phone off the table. “Thank you.”

“What?” You neared the table as he tucked your cell in his pocket. “Wait, that’s my phone. I need that!”

“Your phone? Under the authority of… well, me, I am seizing it.” He declared. “For your security and every one else.”

“You can’t be serious.” You huffed.

“I can’t have this leaking.” He said. “I hear Best Buy’s having a promotion on iPhone’s. Looks like you need an upgrade anyways.”

You frowned and kept your lips sealed. He didn’t need to know about your cloud back-up. You’d have enough time to download the file before he could find it for himself. You rolled your eyes.

“Is that it?” You asked.

“I got what I wanted, like I always do,” He said. “But there is one more thing.”

You watched him. He was worse than any nosy photographer or internet troll.

“I don’t take these things lightly. You’ve sidelined one of my best men and compromised my team.” He hooked his thumb in his pants pocket. “But we’ve taken note of you and we are always vigilant of our enemies.”

“Enemies?” You shook your head.

“I suggest you steer clear of any public statements,” He warned. “Or I would consider some legal representation in the near future.”

You squinted at him in disbelief. You rubbed your forehead, tired and unprepared for your early morning interrogation. You still had a full day ahead of you. 

“Are we done?” You uttered. “I know my work isn’t as important as yours but I do have a job.”

“For now,” He said. “The public has a short attention span, miss, I suggest you find a new subject soon.”

With that he rounded the table and left you in the conference room. You sighed and grabbed the back of a chair. What the fuck were going to do without your phone?

🖋️

With your back-up done and a five minutes crash course in being a features writer from a new cohort, you felt entirely lost. You hid the flash drive in your purse and headed out on the guise of research. No one seemed to care very much, they all just thought you were off to search out a pitch to keep hold of your new position.

What you were truly off to do was sit in line for one of only three mobile associates at the electronics shop. When it was finally your turn, you asked for the most affordable yet reliable option. You brushed away the offer for the latest Apple shill and walked out with something a lot more comfortable next to your wallet.

You dreaded a return to the office. You were thankful for your sudden step-up as it meant a longer leash. You could check in once a week at most as long as you presented something to explain your absence. You weren’t so concerned about that anyway. 

You were more worried about getting this phone set-up. Oh, and creating new accounts because as it was, Fury and his people now had every drop of info on you. That meant, at some point, you would have to visit IT and get a new ID. For now, you forwarded all your messages to your new private e-mail and stopped by the coffee shop around the corner from your building.

You hated this new normal. Not only did you have to be aware of those who thought they could jump on your cloud, but those who would label you an enemy of the people. You were certain Fury would be keeping tabs on you and judging by the influx of bings from your phone, you were fairly certain the blow back was building by the second.

You didn’t bother delving into the chaos of the comments section. People arguing with each other over your exposure of the heroes versus those who felt it was a betrayal and misrepresentation. You had never expected the spotlight to include you but you were centre stage alongside the American hero. You only assumed it was much worse for him.

You thought on what Fury said. ‘Sidelined’. Did that mean Steve Rogers was no longer an Avenger? Had he stepped down or been forced out? Hmm… you were tempted to dive down that rabbit hole but did the flames need any more fuel? And yet, it was your job to prod and poke at the vague. 

However, it would be better to steer away from that and not rely on that one trick. Besides, you didn’t truly think there was anything particularly deceptive about Steve or his associates. They were secretive only because they had to be. They were doing their jobs as you did yours.

You sat by the window and picked at the curled lip of the paper cup. What would you pitch then? If you couldn’t grasp onto your momentary high, you might find the way down steep. You leaned your chin in your hand and watched the steam rise. The door chimed and you kept your eyes on the dark brew.

Maybe it was best to move along and sniff out your next bone. It would help you forget about the mess you had created while keeping your career alive. The only thing you could do was move forward and hope that this was all just buried by the next headline.

[megalony]

I’m ready

Another part to my latest series ‘Swimming’ with Ben Hardy as a single dad which I have gained a lot of truly amazing feedback for so thank you everyone who comments and reblogs my work it means a lot.

Mentions of abuse.

Taglist: @marshmallowmae  @likeit-or-leaveit  @they-call-me-peaches  @mcrmarvelloki  @bensrhapsody

Series masterlist

Enjoy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Why wouldn't the tears stop?

Droplets of salt water cascaded down his face, burning into the skin as if they were acid drops blistering a path down his features. His reddened eyes sore from the amount of water welling in them and perching on his lashes. Even when he snapped his eyes closed tightly like shutters closing for business the tears continued to escape.

A rapid-fire tapping started in his index and middle finger that were bandaged together. Hurridly tapping out a beat against the mattress he laid on, catching against the edge of the pillow every so often.

Ben didn't know how to sleep anymore. every time his eyes closed and his mind decided he was in need of sleep, the tv in his mind turned on and rattled off every incident he had stored. Sleep had been Ben's enemy since the news of his ex passing. His mind thought it would be funny or some sort of help to show him all of the times she had decided to turn against him. All of the times her fist barrelled into his body or her malicious words were whispered with intent in his ear.

Tonight had been one of the worst so far.

Sweat was covering every inch of his skin making him feel like he was laying on a pit of coals as his heart was hammering away against his ribs that were beginning to ache. Ben's right hand was pressing forcefully to his ribs, his index finger tracing over the bump surrounding two of his ribs that had been snapped like twigs under his exes feet. The memory of her hands digging into his skin had been so vivid Ben's body practically convulsed when he relived the moment he was forced into the bench that broke his bones. His hand flying to hold his side as he could feel the bones breaking all over again, the pain feeling so overwhelming even though the actor knew it wasn't really there.

His hand pressed just that little bit tighter to his chest, reassuring himself that the bones were intact and didn't have a gap between them where they had drifted apart from the clean break.

Even though he had relived the memories every night for the past two weeks, there was always something different about each one. The difference tonight made Ben's stomach churn and his heart miss a beat. His mind contorted the relief that Ben felt when he won the custody battle, his head twisting the story to fit the reality that his ex had wanted. Where she won the battle and successfully trapped Ben in her web of abuse and lies. She had her hold over him and had taken his girl away from him, the sole person he had done everything to protect.

It was taking every ounce of self-control Ben had not to get up and stumble down to Lola's room to make sure she was actually there. That his dream hadn't become a reality whilst his eyes were closed. Ben had woken in fright too many times to count, and each one left him breathless as he cried, making his way to Lola's room to check that he hadn't lost her. Each dream sent Ben into a spiral of paranoia that he had never been able to fight off, and every time he promised himself that he wouldn't rush to check his worries he knew were not real. But the temptation to check on her always became too overwhelming for Ben to even think about ignoring, and he found himself either looking over her cot just to make sure she was alright. Or taking her back to his room if she was awake too so he could calm down his rapid heart by having her there in his line of sight to protect.

Ben felt the bubble of air blocking itself in his throat as his stomach tensed and pulled inwards. His body moving like it was a coil reeling back in as he tried to breathe but it wasn't working. A small choke mixed with a cough left his parted lips as he tried to dislodge the air stopping his breathing. His fingers rapidly hammering against the mattress from anxiety that was overloading his system when he felt (Y/n) move behind him. Her arm slinging over his torso as her head pressed between his shoulder blades.

He couldn't do this. He couldn't face feeling like she was trapping him after the images that had flashed in front of his eyes. Ben knew (Y/n) didn't know what she was causing him to feel in this moment but it didn't seem to matter, he felt like he was suffocating and her touching him was sending his nerves into overdrive.

A flush of tears drenched his face as he was careful but quick to drag himself out of her hold. His bandaged hand pressing to his right shoulder as his right hand stayed over his ribs. Continuing to show himself that nothing was broken as his feet padded against the carpeted floor. Eyes half open half closed, his mind directing him out of the room and into the room on his right. The overwhelming urge to check on his daughter being too much for Ben to cope with like it always was.

Slowly pulling his hands away from his frame Ben rested them on the side of the crib, his eyes adjusting to the darkness of the room as he stared down at Lola's sleeping form. His chin resting on his folded arm as his heart started to resume its normal pace again. Knowing that his girl was safe right in front of him, nothing wrong with her and no one around to try and snatch her away from him.

"Have I done the right thing, baby?" His voice was a barely audible whisper, his damaged hand reaching down to gently glide his fingers along her cheek. Watching her sleeping form, no worries floating around in her mind like there were his.

Ben hadn't been able to find the courage to open the letter he had received last week. Opting to stuff the letter from hell into a draw in the bedroom and try his best to forget about it. Each nightmare that plagued his mind like a disease drew his attention to the draw that held the answer to the questions rattling around in his mind. But each night he could never bring himself to read what his abuser had written directly to him, fearing that she had added some form of malicious intent into a letter that he knew no reason why he had it. Ben didn't know if it was a letter for him because she was sorry for what she did, a letter saying why she had decided to commit suicide. Or even just a letter of malice that spoke words of venom towards him like he had been accustomed to when it came to his ex.

Nights were too hard to bear thinking of reading her words, and the in the day he put off reading the letter, thinking he would do so in an hour which turned into three and then nightfall which stopped him completely.

When Ben tore up Lola's letter his mind had been in a frenzy of sheer panic. He didn't want his daughter to grow up and have to learn his sordid past with the woman who had given Ben one good thing in his life which was his daughter. Lola didn't deserve to grow up thinking (Y/n) was her mother to then be told that was a lie she had been told since she was one.

But at the same time, Lola didn't deserve to grow up knowing her mother was dead and a malicious woman. To then have to read whatever words she had written before she died.

The contrasting thoughts put Ben in a compromising position. He wanted to do what was right for his daughter, and the only thing he could see that was right was to not give her the letter and let her have a mother in her life that loved and adored her just as (Y/n) did. Why should she bear the pain of knowing she had been abandoned by her mother and not loved, to then be faced with reading the only thing she had of her mother if it was going to bring her pain?

There was no possible way that Ben could ever bring himself to tell Lola in the future that he had been abused. No child deserved to hear that from a parent and he didn't want to be seen in that way from her. He wanted his daughter to see him as anything but a victim of that kind of crime. If he gave her the letter and it mentioned anything along the lines of what his ex did to him questions he couldn't answer would be asked. Ben would never be able to fully explain to Lola why he had to take full custody of her and why her mother was such a horrid person if he couldn't explain the abuse. 

Lola could grow up thinking he was selfish and didn't want her to know about her mother. She could think he was the reason she had died if he told her he fought for custody but couldn't tell her why.

"I did it to protect you." Yet more tears flushed his face as he took Lola's minuscule hand in his own, his thumb brushing over the back of her hand as he pleaded his case to her. Knowing she wasn't listening and that she wouldn't even be able to understand what he was saying if she did. But he still felt the need to tell her that he was doing everything for her. Every decision Ben had made since the moment he found out about her was to ensure her safety and love. He stayed with his ex for Lola, he bore her abuse for his daughter, he broke off the relationship for her. He went to custody and fought everything she ever threw at him so he could ensure his daughter's wellbeing.

Ben ripped the letter into pieces and tossed it in the bin to be forgotten about to ensure her happiness and the best childhood he could possibly give her. Nothing he did was ever for anyone but Lola and he needed her to know that even if she didn't understand just quite yet.

"You don't even know her, so you wouldn't want to read it, would you sweetheart?" If Ben stuck to this reality they had created and Lola grew up with (Y/n) as a mother, even if they split up she still thought (Y/n) was her real mother. Then there would be no reason for Ben to ever give her the letter if indeed he had kept it. He wouldn't need to hand it to her because she would just get confused.

"Ben?" A shudder ran down his spine as his head slowly turned to the right, glancing over his shoulder to lock his eyes onto his girlfriend's frame. Her body slumped against the doorframe as sleep clouded her features and her vision. What had he done to protect his daughter?

What wouldn't Lola want to read?

Frowning (Y/n) stood where she was, impatiently waiting for him to answer her as she just wanted to go to bed. When she woke up to find Ben had suddenly rushed out of the room there was no question in her mind as to why he had left. It was usual for (Y/n) to peek into Lola's room and find him watching over her like a guardian angel making sure she was safe and unharmed and actually still there. But the past few nights this had happened, (Y/n) hadn't found him taking to Lola as if he were asking for her forgiveness or for her to agree with him on something. Making her curious as to what was worrying him like this and what he was asking for.

"Are you talking about your letter?" (Y/n) kept her voice low as not to wake the sleeping toddler in the room. What else would he be referring to that Lola wouldn't want to read?

Straightening up to his full height Ben walked over to her, nodding to the bedroom not wanting to talk here and risk waking Lola when she was peacefully sleeping and had been for a few hours now. He had only come in here to calm his nerves and reassure himself that she was still there and perfectly unharmed as he had left her when she went to sleep.

"Why would Lola ever read the letter? Ben, what's wrong, talk to me." Folding her arms over her chest (Y/n) followed the actor into the bedroom, watching as he switched on the side lamp before sitting down on the edge of the bed. His hands rubbing over his knees as he tried to stop his body from shaking with nerves and the last rushes of adrenaline from his earlier panicked state. Moving over she sat down next to him, her face falling when he inched away so their legs weren't touching like they just had been. Not wanting any kind of body contact at all as he tensed like he was on string.

"T... there was another letter, for Lola. I tore it up and put it in the bin." The words rushed from his mouth as he sighed at his own actions. It had been a spur of the moment act and yet he couldn't find himself regretting what he had done. Maybe it would have been a better idea to keep the letter and hide it away, just to think about it and the future.

But Ben had been impulsive, his mind already made up leading him to know that Lola couldn't read that for her own good. The only thing he regretted was not reading it himself, but Ben knew her. He knew the moment she first set her eyes on Lola she didn't feel that motherly love she should have. She had no connection with his daughter, he felt like the mother because as soon as she was in his arms he was in tears. His heart reaching and yearning to keep her safe and protected when his ex didn't bat an eyelid at the new life they had created. Knowing that, Ben didn't want to read whatever she had addressed to his daughter because there wouldn't be love or compassion in that letter. It wasn't worth it.

Lifting a hand up (Y/n) pressed her hand to her temple as her jaw dropped open. "You... fuck, Ben! Why would you do that?" The words spilled from her lips before she had a chance to process them or the tone she was using. Her teeth clamping down on her lip when Ben flinched at the words, unsure whether to let his panic at her sudden tone or his anger at her words overtake his system.

That letter wasn't addressed to him, it was for Lola. Maybe she would want to know the truth when she was older, maybe she would want to know what her birth mother had to say to her. And quite possibly, maybe it wasn't Ben's choice to make. He was trying to protect her, but it was hers, she had a right to know if the truth ever came out into the open and now he had taken that away from her whether it was for her own good or not.

"What do you mean 'why would I do that?' She's my daughter I'm trying to protect her-"

"What from?" (Y/n) sighed, a pleading look on her face as her hands held out in front of her in question. Ben had nothing to fight off from Lola, there was no threat lurking around the corner to hurt her like there had been before. The letter couldn't pose harm to Lola because the monster who created it was already dead. "She's gone, Ben. She isn't here to hurt either of you and that letter was for Lola. What if you change your mind in the future and tell her about her past? She won't have anything to know her mother or anything that lets her know about her."

"Why are you doing this?" Pushing himself up from the bed he turned so he was standing a few paces in front of her. His hand running over his eyes that were watering like taps that couldn't be turned off.

Why was she going against him?

Ben had every right to make decisions for Lola because that was what he did, it was what he had done from the moment she had graced the Earth. He didn't tear up that letter because he was angry, he didn't throw it in the bin because he was selfish and wanted her out of his life. He did it because Lola wasn't going to know what a monster her mother really was because that knowledge had the power to destroy his daughter and he couldn't allow that to happen at any cost in the world.

"You're not listening to me. Lola is ours, I don't care about biology or any of that 'birth mother' shit. What would you think if your dad turned around one day and said your mother isn't actually your mother? That he was fucked up by his ex who just so happened to hate you and want to hurt both you and him? What if he told you she killed herself without asking if you were okay or if you were going to be cared for properly? My ex did nothing for Lola except giving birth to her, after that she was a menace to us. Go ahead and tell me with honesty that if you learnt all this shit you'd want to know what she had to say to you?"

"This isn't about me-"

"You didn't answer the question because you can't. Why would Lola want to know about that bitch who made me suicidal when my daughter was three months old? I nearly abandoned her because of what she did to me and you want me to let Lola know any of this? I protect her every day of my life and I did that when I tore up that fucking sick letter she shouldn't have written."

Ben had been pushed to the brink of suicide when he started the custody battle he was unsure he could cope with.

He didn't know how to live a life on his own taking care of his daughter because he wasn't used to that. He was abused to the point he knew no other life but what she did to him. Going it alone had been the best and worst decision of his life at the same time because he didn't know if he could do it and his mental state hadn't been at its best. Suicide had been something he contemplated but ultimately didn't go through with because of Lola. He loved the bones of her body and if he did that at that point in time she would be stuck living with his ex right now.

She saved him because he needed to save her.

"Stop shouting please, you'll wake her." (Y/n) sighed, running a hand over her face as she stood up. Slowly and cautiously moving so she was stood in front of Ben, relieved when he didn't back away like before. "I- I know you do everything for her, and I admire that so much. I'm just saying, one day you could- possibly, have a change of heart. That letter may have helped you cope as well as give Lola some answers."

Reaching over Ben gently pressed his hands either side of her face, resting his forehead to her own as he debated his next words.

"I know what you're saying, believe me, I do, but Lola can't know and that's it. She deserves you as a mother and knowing about my ex will fuck her up too, we are her parents, we can't do that to her it's up to us to protect her and I need you to help me do that. Please, sweetheart please, promise me you'll never tell her.” Ben's words were desperate and deathly quiet as he begged for her to agree with him on this. They were the only ones Lola had, they were her protectors even past the time she would be able to protect herself. They needed to make choices that would put up barriers around Lola so she would have the best life they could make for her with little damage or pain and this would break everything Ben had worked so hard to create around her.

"That's your choice to make, not mine. I would never tell her without your consent." As much as (Y/n) was now Lola's mother or thereabouts, she didn't hold the power to ever tell Lola or even indicate anything about the past in any way. Ben had been the one to get abused, he was the one to fight for Lola and he was her father overall. It would be the worst betrayal (Y/n) could ever commit to tell Lola about her real mother without Ben's consent.

"Thank you." His lips pressed to her own, conveying such a feeling of relief (Y/n) was overwhelmed. He had thought this over and he was trying his best, she was in no position to fight with him about this when it was his choice at the end of the day.

"Come on, let's go to sleep." (Y/n) sighed, reaching to take Ben's hand when he shook his head catching her attention.

"No, I... I have to do something first." (Y/n) didn't have a second to protest or to question what he was going to do when he was clearly sleep deprived and needed to go to bed. Her racing thoughts were answered when his hands reached out for the draw to his left, the exact one she knew he had stuffed the letter away in. The crumpled letter hidden beneath the summer clothing that he wouldn't be wearing in this weather so he had no reason to go into said draw.

His hands trembling as they held the letter that would give him the answers to the questions rattling around in his head like a bird fluttering around in a birdcage. For the past week, Ben didn't have the nerve or the need to read the letter, but tonight changed that. He wanted to know what she had said so he could tuck the letter away somewhere and forget about it for good. Ben needed to be able to move on because his life was never his own as long as her memory was hanging around every corner he passed. She had a hold over him even in death and Ben needed to change that before something happened.

"I'm ready."

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Evaluation

On the first of April we were tasked with Our Final major project also known as the FMP which will determine our overall grade. Faye Jackson went over all the options for each section of media for example: Video Production, Photography, Graphics and Games design/interactive. When first given the options I were stunned with the freedom I had at my fingertips and was overwhelmed with what to choose. When doing my first brainstorm I decided to have the first brainstorm a “get all the ideas out on paper even if they sound ridiculous” and this helped a lot. I got every little idea out onto paper to just get a rough idea on where my mind was planning on going. When creating the first brainstorm it was obvious that Video production or Photography were the wisest choices as I’m better at those two than any other. When looking at the sheet at first I thought “I’ll mix them!” but over further thought it was obvious that was not a wise decision as I struggle to make the deadline with just one media piece, so after that was decided I went with Video production that is a comedy short film just like my latest work we did which was green screen and I got a distinction in that so it was obviously the smarter choice. When I decided that film was the better choice I returned back to my best piece of video production work and I wanted to see what I did so well on it. When watching back on the green screen project I decided to do another one for my FMP but with larger detail and work on the improvements I were told to make if I ever did something similar. So it was sorted, I’ll be doing a short film which will involve green screen. When that was decided a started my schedule so I’d be on track straight away with no reason to fall behind. It was hard to plan out my weeks as I tend to finish some work early and fall behind on my work. Because I know that as one of my weaknesses I tried to make my schedule as flexible as possible which worked in my favour as I did fall behind on some work. My proposal was very clear on what I wanted to do as Marissa was all forward to the idea and agreed it was a smart idea to work off something that got a high grade. My proposal involved how long the Short film will be, how many actors/actresses will take place, how the set will look like and how the characters will be portrayed.

 Referring back to my Green screen was a very helpful part in my research as my FMP involved green screen and a news broadcast just like the green screen project. I used the old comments from Marissa, peers and myself to make sure I wouldn’t make the same mistakes, a common complaint about the green screen were that it was very fast pace and hard to follow along so when doing my FMP I made sure that didn’t repeat. I also referred back to positive feedback such as the news bar at the bottom of the screen, name tags, opening sequence, music, costumes and background. So I made sure to repeat that or at least adapt to it as that was what gave me a better mark as I went the extra length to get a better result. I also did research on other news and comedy related short films/projects which were a great help as I got one of my ideas from this school project from these two girls that involved a little segment in their project which was related to the rest of their topic but it was more comedy than the rest. I was determined to involve something like this in my work which I did by adding in a sandwich joke and cutting to someone eating a sandwich. After doing research on video examples I looked into books and what I can take from them. After doing research on them I knew how to do a treatment and that it was needed to express what will be said and how. Another book I looked through Motion picture and video lighting This helped with the idea with the lighting and how it should be set up. However, I didn’t understand the terminologies they used.

My target demographic were Local to Nottingham, due to the fact that the news broadcast is about a college in Nottingham and maybe other colleges across England may not have the same dilemmas and humour as the students in Nottingham college do. All religion as I do not see a reason why people of different religion cannot see my project as it doesn’t have any controversial topics. Age 15 and above as the college requirements are that you can join on at the age of 16 or higher which allows me to reach out to only college students and above because it involves mild bad language. All genders and sexuality can watch due to the fact that it doesn’t mock or target anyone individually. My target psychographic audience is, Student’s that go college, adults that have recently finished college, students almost going into college, anyone who is curious about a college environment. This is all due to the fact that I want my audience to watch my project and understand my humour and I personally think that only people who are involved with the college in some way will understand the humour that will take place in my FMP.

I produced my work on Adobe premiere by using the editing features for my short film. First I filmed my project with all my pre-production with me so I know what I had to say, where the lighting should be placed and where the actors should sit/stand. When finished recording I took the SD card and uploaded all the files to Adobe premiere and started editing. When editing I concentrated on the skeleton edit first and then planned where the effects where going to take place, how the music was going to transition into talking and the concentrated colour scheme. I messed with the colour bored in the edit to change the opening sequence and ending sequence, this was difficult as I kept on getting a blurry result and due to that I had to take multiple attempts until I got the result I wanted/needed. When done with the edit I then put an ongoing news board at the bottom of the screen with different news panning across the screen. I also added name tags as I didn’t see a problem with it. The pre-production I did were location recce sheets of the locations I were going to record at and the possible problems that may occur. I also did an action plan for organising what is needed before recording. And finally, performer/contributor release forms were also used for pre-production to allow me permission to record my peers. I experimented with only one thing and that was a camera angle, and the camera shot was an over the shoulder shot. This impacted very positively on my work as it widened the amount of shots I did and got the perspective from someone else. I used camera angles and editing to create my piece. My work pushed me to improve these skills further by challenging me on editing in a different style to keep the audience engaged and camera angles to maximise the viewers view on the matter.

I feel like the project overall was a bumpy ride. There were some very good moments and then there were some times I felt like changing everything. Many things didn’t go to plan such as the schedule as some things didn’t take as long as I expected and some did so it reduced how much I could do in each week. I also struggled with organising my Tumblr as I forgot to upload some things which changed the order of things such as 3 reflective journals one after the other. I overcame this by choosing a week to reorganise my Tumblr and add more information in things if needed. If I could do this project again I would change the amount of times I lacked in lesson and not ask help from teaches such as Faye or Marissa. I would have also have used more camera angles in the FMP just so I didn’t have too many shots that are medium shots. I found working independently very fun and calming as I didn’t have to depend on many people and I could choose who I could work with. I tried to keep to my schedule as much as possible. However, I did stick to my proposal throughout. I’m feeling positive towards my final piece and I think it’s up to expectations from my teachers.

I’m ecstatic about how many comments i got and i’m happy that majority of them are positive and enjoyed it whilst one didn't seem to like it most likely due to it not being their cup of tea. overall, i’m happy they enjoyed it and found the humour willing to laugh at.

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Episode 34: Robert Skrob, Owner @ Membership Services Inc. on the Value of Recurring Revenue Streams for Your Business

How do you create a successful monthly recurring revenue model? By joining your members in their transformation instead of selling them a list of features.

In this episode, Robert Skrob, President and Owner of Membership Services Inc., explains how he creates MRR models for billion-dollar companies. He tells us how to stop overwhelming prospects, the most important retention points during the member journey, and the ultimate red flag of unhappy customers.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN: How to know when it’s the right time to add a recurring revenue model to your business The common mistake businesses make when marketing their MRR model and how to avoid it Why the first 90 days of a member’s journey needs to be choreographed for increased retention The 3 key KPIs to track for MRR: member acquisition cost, 90-day retention rate, and lifetime customer value LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Robert’s WebsiteRobert on LinkedIn Retention Point: The Single Biggest Secret To Membership and Subscription Growth

Thanks so much for joining us this week. Want to subscribe to The DigitalMarketer Podcast? Have some feedback you’d like to share? Connect with us on iTunes and leave us a review!

iTunes not your thing? Find us on Spotify, Stitcher, or TuneIn.

(NOTE: Need a helping hand with your digital marketing efforts? Or maybe you just want proven, actionable marketing tools, tactics, and templates to implement in your business? Check out the latest deal from DigitalMarketer, and you will be on your way to helping your business grow.)

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Darren Clark:             This is Digital Marketing. This week it’s Robert Skrob. Robert is one of the foremost member retention specialists in the world, and this week we’re diving into the benefits of the subscription service as a business model.

Garrett Holmes:           Robert Skrob, thank you so much for joining us on the Digital Marketer podcast. How are you?

Robert Skrob:               I’m awesome. It’s my honor. I’ve been a friend of Ryan Deiss’s for many years. I remember meeting him at a Bill Glazer mastermind in I think 2004, so it’s an honor to be part of your program today.

Garrett Holmes:           Absolutely. Well, thanks again for joining us, and we’ll just dive right in. We’ve been seeing this over the past few years, but subscription businesses have been around for a long time, but recently it seems like the new norm for almost every business category out there. Everyone is looking for this recurring revenue. You’ve been around this for a long time. In your eyes, how has the subscription economy involved over the past 10 years?

Robert Skrob:               I think even in 2002, if you had suggested that somebody sign up for monthly payments for anything other than cable TV, they would have told you that it was against their religion do monthly payments. They would have vehemently been against it. There were some little thing-of-the-month clubs, a book-of-the-month club, or certainly BMG was big in terms of sending you the CDs. You probably got a few of those, and certainly AOL wasn’t shy about sending out CDs to try to get you to join their program.

Robert Skrob:               Beyond that, the idea of one of my new clients, a car wash, having a subscription program, or even Amazon now getting in the game not only with Prime but with Prime Subscriptions for products, to completely the music industry has changed. We thought that a few years ago, iTunes had a hammerlock on the entire music industry. Now Spotify has come in and really replaced that to a large extent, by giving you access to the entire catalog for 15 bucks a month.

Robert Skrob:               We’ve seen that consumers are ever more willing to subscribe to get access to a membership, whether it’s digital products or a community, or an information transformation for their own life, versus buying it. That today, really the membership is actually the choice that’s preferred, versus what it was a few years ago when it was just flatly rejected.

Garrett Holmes:           Yeah. I couldn’t agree more, and it’s amazing. You know, I just recently downloaded a tool to help me track all of my recurring payments out to businesses, and it’s just funny that that exists because of all of these businesses shifting. As more and more of these businesses do shift over and try to get a piece of this recurring revenue pie, how do you know as a business, if you’re not involved in a subscription or membership program? How do you know if it’s the right move to introduce subscription-based products or services into your mix?

Robert Skrob:               I heard it first from Bill Glazer back that same day that I met Ryan Deiss. He said, “Smart business owners get a transaction that sets up multiple transactions.” Rather than having an offer where you’re selling a one-off product or having an offer where you’re selling an event, instead make your offer to a series of subscription members, so that they’ve preapproved and authorized you to have an ongoing relationship with them. The way you know is really to ask your members what they want, what they’re looking for.

Robert Skrob:               When you start having customers that are coming back to you over and over again, and that are buying multiple things from you, then you really know that it’s time to roll out a membership, because your customers already have that membership activity with you. Now you may as well formalize that. Rather than having to try to get them back in or to try to get them to come to your website and have a second transaction, just set it up as a membership. It’s happening anyway. It’ll just happen more when you do it on purpose, rather than letting it kind of happen by itself now.

Garrett Holmes:           Totally. Well, let’s talk a little bit into the why behind that. Why is it so important for businesses to really start to incorporate memberships into their business, and really look towards this model as something for the long term? What are the benefits of making this change?

Robert Skrob:               Well, let’s start with the benefits first to your customers. You’d think that, “Oh, man, they’re going to have a commitment and they’re going to be reluctant to be part of it,” and it is important to recognize that members are looking at the commitment. You probably are either subscribed to magazines or have in the past, and with a magazine, the price itself is really pretty inexpensive. The thing is, you don’t really want the magazine to show up at your house if you’re not going to read it, because great as it is, you not only are making the commitment of the money, but it’s really even a bigger commitment that you’re going to spend the time.

Robert Skrob:               When you have a subscription with your customer, you’re showing your customer that you’re all in, that you’re committed to providing them the ongoing support they need in order to make the transformation that they have in their life. If you’re providing some sort of coaching or even material that may be self-improvement materials, it’s so much easier today to sell that as a membership than it is as a product. Because with a membership, one, the up-front cost is probably not quite as high as if you were making a product sale, but still, even if you’re selling a product for $1,000, selling it as a $500-a-month membership, maybe you’ll see just as much conversion because they see now that they have the ongoing support.

Robert Skrob:               They’re not going to be left in a lurch. It’s not something where you’re trying to dump it and haul butt, and not be part of their actual transformation. By offering a membership, where you’re going to join them in the transformation they’re making, whether you’re helping them cut expenses in their business or you’re helping them get more customers in their company, or you’re helping them provide some sort of product or services, by selling as a membership, they are more assured that you’re all in.

Robert Skrob:               For you, man, there is nothing nicer than having those continuity payments go through at the beginning of the month and knowing that the customers you get this month, you’ll be able to bill most of them again next month, and you’ll be able to bill most of those the following month, and that when you get new members this month and add to what you got last time, next month’s adds to this month, and so your revenue grows. It provides tremendous stability. It provides peace of mind, and when you do those product launches, they’re just as successful or even more so, because you have a group of members that are already dialed in and connected to you. The money you generate is on top of the monthly membership that you’re getting.

Robert Skrob:               I know a lot of businesses that have the recurring revenue set to pay their expenses, so it’s kind of like the first goal is to make that continuity revenue pay your monthly nut. That way it’s like, ah, you can rest assured that now you’re playing with house money for the rest of the month. You made your money back on day one, and then you’ve got the other 29 to 30 days in order to have profit. It’s so much easier to run a business on that basis.

Garrett Holmes:           That makes so much sense. It’s funny, that’s literally exactly how we’re looking at it here at Digital Marketer. For all the listeners out there, this may be a little bit of a peek behind the curtain, but we made a pretty big commitment to going all in on subscription this year and really focusing in on creating content and creating an experience for our subscribers, and weaning off of the launch/promotional model. It’s paid off tenfold for us, and it’s so cool to see how much more we’re able to create content for the community, for the people, based on what they want, based on what everyone’s asking. Just to echo the point that you just made, in reality, it’s something that we’re implementing here, and it works. It’s really, really cool to see.

Robert Skrob:               It really de-stresses the entire business, because when you have this launch mentality or you make all your money at your events or what have you, you’re biting nails. You’re worried because, oh my gosh, it absolutely has to be perfect. We have one or two big revenue spikes a year, and by golly if something goes wrong and there’s a snafu, then our revenue is cut and no way to get it back.

Robert Skrob:               Whereas with membership, instead of focused on yourself and your big home run payday, instead you’re focused on your member and helping them get what they need in their life, helping them be happy and successful. You’re really able to kind of get the money out of the way and instead be of service to the people that you want to be of service to. It’s just a so much better way to live.

Garrett Holmes:           Yeah, no doubt. Robert, you’re worked with a ton of subscription businesses, some valued upwards of $100 million. What are some common mistakes that businesses make with their subscription programs? I know we’ve run into a few. We’ve actually had conversations about some of those mistakes, so I’m curious to hear some points here.

Robert Skrob:               Well, I actually work with a couple of Fortune 500 companies …

Garrett Holmes:           Nice.

Robert Skrob:               … on membership, that they’re actually launching. We can’t talk about it yet because they haven’t come out, and then also billion-dollar companies that have a billion dollars’ worth of subscription revenue. One of the key things that I have seen just everywhere is … this is really the biggest mistake … is they make their offer all about what you get. It’s kind of like when the offer is this laundry list of stuff, “We’re going to send you this, and then you get this call and then you’re going to be able to get this session, and then you get access here,” it’s just this big laundry list of stuff.

Robert Skrob:               What I see that converts better instead is to talk about the transformation that your member will get in their life when they have access to this membership, how they’re going to feel about themselves after they’re a member of this community. Make your bullet list of what you’re delivering all about the transformation that those items are going to have for that member when they are using it in their business or in their life.

Robert Skrob:               What I find is that drastically improves conversion, because one of the biggest challenges … you know, I may as well make sure that it’s clear … the biggest problem with membership and the membership business is the cost to acquire a new customer is often more than a month, or two even, of membership. It can become difficult to scale membership and grow it because you’re spending … maybe you’re spending $100 to get a new member, but yet your membership is $50 and it takes you now two months to get that money back.

Robert Skrob:               If you spend $10,000 on ads today or this month, it will take you two months to get that $10,000 back, and that assumes that none of your new members quit. If you have a high churn rate over the first 60 days, it could take you four or five months. The biggest secret is to make that offer all about the experience that the member has when they join, rather than this laundry list of benefits.

Garrett Holmes:           Yeah. That speaks so much in line with, you know, we talk about the before-and-after grid here at Digital Marketer, and just talking about when you buy this product, when you buy this service, what is that after state that the person buying this is going to be in, and focusing in on that and marketing that. Not focusing on here’s all the features, you know. Nobody cares about the kind of metal that your iPhone’s made out of, but what does it actually make you feel?

Robert Skrob:               The crazy thing is that a lot of people understand that, but then when you go and look at their actual offer, it’s just a list of their benefits. Or they might have a great VSL that sells membership and the experience, and then you go to the order page and it’s, “You get one newsletter.” Nobody wants a dang newsletter. What they want is the transformation that that newsletter will get them. What they want is the connection to the community that you have built. What they want is the experience of you and what you’re going to be able to offer them on an ongoing basis.

Robert Skrob:               Nobody wants another newsletter or another email or another call or another anything. They’re already overwhelmed. There’s a billion hours on iTunes of podcasts every minute, and they don’t need it. What they want is connection. When you help them see that that’s what you’re all about from the beginning to the end, not just believe it in your head but actually communicate that in your sales message, in your order form and on your onboarding and connect back to that.

Robert Skrob:               Because that’s the second mistake, is even when they get it right for the sales process, then when they actually deliver the product it becomes, “Boom, here’s what you get. Boom, boom, boom. We gave you this, we gave you that.” It’s like this company had a checklist and they’re going down the list sending you what you got, and it becomes overwhelming. Or even better, if it’s multiple departments, you have like six different people emailing this one member. “Hey, you got this, make sure you do this, hey,” and they don’t know who these people are and where this is coming from, and it becomes very overwhelming.

Robert Skrob:               Instead, you want to make sure from the sales process all the way through at least 90 days, that’s choreographed, so that you can maximize member value. What we look at is certainly conversion and cost for acquisition, but also that 90-day retention and also 90-day customer value, if you’ve got any upsells that you want to incorporate into that onboarding process. Look at that number and maximize that 90-day customer value, and you’ll find that your lifetime value skyrockets, because I don’t know about with Digital Marketer, but for most membership programs, the most members drop out in the first 90 days. If you can focus only on the first 90 days and choreograph that, you’ll have a huge impact in the membership.

Robert Skrob:               Very often I’ll look at numbers … and very few membership marketers know how to pull numbers and pull reports and look at it. That’s probably a call for another day. I pull numbers, and very often it’s the first time they’ve ever seen any of this stuff. What I will often find is that the churn rate, the number of members that are quitting in the first three months, is very high and then it will level off, and then you might see a whole bunch of members that have been members for one, two, three or more years.

Robert Skrob:               What that tells me is that what they’re delivering on a monthly basis, people really like, once they start liking it. For some reason, the majority of people aren’t connecting and don’t have the opportunity to get to what I called in the book title the retention point. They don’t get to that retention point where people are really locked in until maybe many months. Not choreographing that first 90 days is the second mistake, and by doing that from start to finish, focusing on the outcome, it completely transforms the membership.

Garrett Holmes:           Yeah. Well, let’s talk about the negative side. We all hate this word called “churn.” Nobody likes to lose members, so aside from credit card issues … we’ll get to that in a second … what are some common churn red flags, if you will, that you’ve seen or encountered, and how do you go about fixing those?

Robert Skrob:               There’s two that are very, very common. Number one is to overwhelm. Your customer is already busy. Nobody that you’re selling to feels like they’ve got a bunch of free time and it’s like, “Man, every day I’ve got an hour, and I have no idea what to do with it. Let me find something to join so I’ve got something to look at for that hour.” No. There’s not a single customer has that. They all have way more than they can do. Very often when you are trying to onboard somebody, you really throw the kitchen sink at them. “We got this and we got that, we got this, and look at all this stuff that we have.”

Robert Skrob:               I kind of think of it like a library, and a lot of people actually even use the term. “We’ve got a whole library of resources that are available to you.” Really, each of us has a library in our town, and when was the last time you were there? You don’t go to the library. Really the whole idea of a library isn’t motivating to you or your customer. What you want to focus on instead is the transformation, and helping them on a journey that can help improve their life. Give them products that will have a fast, quick win for them, so that they feel great about that.

Robert Skrob:               We certainly get into that, and then let’s zoom ahead into a member that’s been around for a while and they kind of grow bored. Heck, you see this in coaching programs all the time where this person, they couldn’t find a website, much less create one, and now they’re creating great sites and shopping carts and creating copy, and boom. Now they feel like they don’t need you anymore and they quit, because they’ve become what Dan Kennedy called too smart for the room. I don’t know if you’ve experienced this, where members are like, “Oh, yeah, that’s so passe. I know all that. I don’t have to go to that conference anymore,” or, “I don’t have to go to that.”

Robert Skrob:               The key for that … and this is really an advanced strategy, because this goes beyond that first 90 days into kind of the beyond. Members go through three stages. They come in, they’re kind of lost. They’re not sure that this is really for them. They’re kind of feeling their way out, and what you have to do at that point is give them very tactical, simple things to do that help them build their confidence. After they start using it, they kind of feel good about themselves and they become aggressive into the membership. They can’t top telling people about it. They’re proclaiming the joys of you, and then the next step is they’re like bored and they’re ready to quit.

Robert Skrob:               Now, the way to get them from going to that bored, ready to quit, is to connect them with other members, and what happens is that your events and your communities and your board now become more about them sharing with each other and being part of a group of friends. Like the Digital Marketer event, there’s a thousand people or 3,000 people who are coming to that. They don’t care about the program. They don’t care if you had a single speaker. They’re coming because everybody else is going to be there, and they want to see their buddies.

Robert Skrob:               They’re talking about, as much as the session they saw … which are awesome sessions and certainly..

Read more: digitalmarketer.com

[forlawfirmsonlymarketing]

The MozCon Virtual 2020 Initial Agenda

Posted by cheryldraper It's the question that's been on plenty of people's minds: What's up with MozCon this year? We're happy to report that 2020's MozCon is on like Donkey Kong, and as you can tell from its brand-new name, the format this year is just a tad bit different. MozCon 2020 is now MozCon Virtual, an online conference experience delivering every ounce of digital marketing expertise you expect in-person with the safety and security of social distancing at home. Today, we're here to tell you all about it — changes, challenges, nitty-gritty details, who's speaking and what you'll learn, and more!

Here's the skinny on MozCon Virtual

MozCon Virtual will take place from the comfort of your at-home office space across July 14 & 15, 2020. Business on top, social distancing sweatpants on the bottom — you'll be cozier than ever while learning all the latest and greatest in the world of SEO. Twenty-two industry thought leaders will walk you through the hottest topics of 2020, covering everything from SEO automation to modern content promotion to strategies for handling keyword research in the midst of a crisis. You'll see fondly familiar faces and exciting new names to the MozCon stage, and you can rest assured that we're keeping the bar as high as it's ever been for content quality. Additionally, we know that budgets are tight right now. We want to do our part to help by making MozCon Virtual as accessible to everyone as we can. Tickets are now priced at $129. This also includes full access to the MozCon video bundle once it's released!

Save my spot at MozCon Virtual!

Changes, challenges, & nitty-gritty details

A note about transparency and making really hard decisions

We're not going to lie — organizing this year's MozCon was a challenge. As it became more and more clear that an in-person event was neither feasible nor responsible (not to mention illegal here in Washington state!), we had a relatively short window of time to pivot from a 1,600-attendee event that we ran year after year using a concrete, smooth-as-butter process, to the virtual unknown. (Pardon the pun.) There were many, many meetings. There was research and projections and debate, and more than one idea changed form three or four times before it took shape. In the end, it came down to what was best for our community. MozCon has never operated from a profit standpoint — most years we aim to break even — but even with the risk and cost associated with such a monumental change to the event, we knew the show must go on. SEO doesn't just stop. And right now, it's picking up speed: People are turning to the internet to solve their problems now more than ever before, and businesses of all stripes are depending on that online visibility to sustain them through hardship. SEOs and digital marketers still need access to cutting-edge thought leadership, techniques, and strategies, and MozCon can deliver — even if it means we only get to daydream about all the high fives, fist bumps, and Roger hugs.

Not your typical marketing couchference

It was important that we find ways to maintain that special MozCon magic that makes folks excited to wake up extra early on a Monday morning, don their conference badge, and skip happily to the Washington State Convention Center for a day full of educational goodness. We're gonna miss the snacks — that's just the truth. Doughnuts and coffee aside, we've energized our virtual conference with that snazzy MozCon spirit you look forward to every year:

The highest caliber speakers and topics in town: Twenty-two of digital marketing's top experts will share their very best advice, strategies, tactics, and research over two jam-packed days of learning. You'll have all their decks available for download, and the new choice of attending the talks that most interest you.

Friendly neighborhood Mozzers emceeing the event: MozCon stage superstars Cyrus Shepard and Britney Muller will keep the sparkle going between session.

Interactive Q&A with the experts: You'll be able to participate in live Q&A sessions with speakers to answer your most burning digital marketing questions and quandaries.

Virtual networking with Birds of a Feather breakout sessions: Birds of a Feather tables are a lunchtime hit every single year. And we've heard your feedback: networking is a huge part of the MozCon experience. That's why we're introducing Birds of a Feather virtual discussions — a special online experience where you'll be able to join expert-hosted events, connect with like-minded marketers, and forge professional relationships through the magic of the internet.

Charitable donations: Our belief in giving back hasn't changed just because we're going online. For every ticket sold we'll be making a donation, with more details to come as we draw closer to showtime.

Awesome partners: MozCon is fortunate to have the support of our fantastic sponsors who have stuck with us through all the changes this year. They'll be sharing their expertise in special hosted breakout groups. Curious about who our partners are? Check them out: 97th Floor, Base Search Marketing, CallRail, Crowd Content, Duda, GatherUp, and PAGES!

Two days chock full of conference goodness

We know it's tough to take a full three days away from your day job, so we're approaching MozCon Virtual with multi-track options to let attendees choose their own conference adventure — with full access to every talk via the MozCon video bundle once the conference is over.

A global experience at a more accessible price

We're streaming MozCon!

Every year we've heard our community ask: I can't make the trip. Will you be streaming MozCon? To our friends around the world, we're glad to be able to answer yes — this year, MozCon will be fully available to remote attendees. While those in particularly opposite timezones may be enjoying the show in your jammies, for the first time MozCon will serve you on your sofa. And you won't miss out on a single session — every ticket holder will have full access to the MozCon video bundle after the event, meaning you can re-watch your favorites and catch up on any you missed.

MozCon quality at a price more folks can afford: Tickets are now $129

We've lowered the price to attend this year's conference for a couple of reasons. One, while there are still some pretty significant costs to throwing a large virtual conference, those costs don't include some of our biggest-ticket items, such as a conference space and food & beverage. Delicious treats and comfy seats are a real investment! And two, times are really darn tough right now. We know agencies, brands, and freelancers are struggling in the midst of the economic downturn, and that it's more important than ever to hone skills and build new ones. We originally lowered ticket prices by about 40%. Then, based on community feedback and suggestions, we decided to forego the idea of shipping out swag and snacks and lowered them again — to the tune of $129. Every MozCon ticket purchased also includes full access to the MozCon video bundle, a $349 value. Our video bundles are professionally produced and fully shareable with your team, so you can keep the learning going throughout the rest of the year and revisit the talks that mattered most.

Register for MozCon Virtual

Initial agenda

Ready to explore what we've got planned for this year? Check out our current speakers and topics — and stay tuned for more information as the agenda evolves!

Alexis Sanders

Senior SEO Account Manager, Merkle The Science of Seeking Your Customer Users are at the core of everything we do in modern SEO. However, finding and understanding audiences can be daunting. Alexis will cover how to find your audience, share tools that are available for all price points, and show ways in which she’s found audience research to be useful as an SEO.

Andy Crestodina

Co-founder and CMO, Orbit Media Thought Leadership and SEO: The 3 Key Elements and Search Ranking Strategies Everyone wants to do it, but no one really knows what it is. So what is thought leadership? What isn’t it? And how does it affect search rankings? This presentation is a data-rich perspective on the oh-so-popular topic of thought leadership, filled with practical takeaways for becoming an authority. And it’s all about the relationship between thought leadership and SEO. We’ll see how the research answers the questions and informs the tactics: Can brands be thought leaders? Can it be outsourced? Do you need to publish research? Or strong opinion? And how does it attract links and authority, rankings, and qualified visitors? Learn how a personal brand combines with content to drive big wins in SEO.

Britney Muller

Senior SEO Scientist, Moz TBD Last year, Britney wowed the crowd with a bevy of new research, data, and actionable tactics for understanding and winning featured snippets. We're still piecing together all the intricate details of this year's talk, so keep an ear to the ground as we continue to evolve our agenda!

Brian Dean

Founder, Backlinko How to Promote Your Content Like a Boss Creating content is easy. But getting people to see your content? That's a different story. Brian Dean shares over a dozen practical strategies that you can use to spread the word about your latest blog post, podcast episode, or YouTube video.

Casie Gillette

Senior Director of Digital, KoMarketing Counterintuitive Content: How New Trends Have Disrupted Years of Bad Advice Content marketers don't have it easy. We're constantly adapting to our ever-shifting landscape and juggling an overwhelming amount of information and advice: Do we produce as much content as possible? Should we focus on quality, while still maintaining consistent schedules? And now, what about YouTube, voice search, and even TikTok? The fact is, there's no one way to do content marketing. Casie will showcase content in an entirely new light, with ideas and tips on how you can start creating content on your own terms.

Dana DiTomaso

President and partner, Kick Point TBD MozCon veterans know the value and vibrancy Dana brings to the stage, and this year will be no exception. Be on the lookout for juicy details about her 2020 talk — we can't wait to share.

David Sottimano

VP, Keyphraseology Everyday Automation for Marketers As a general rule, we shouldn't be doing things that a computer can do better. However, a lot of automation is achieved through programming expertise — and that expertise isn't usually a marketer's forte. In this session, you'll learn how to gather data, use machine learning, and automate everyday tasks for marketers using low-code or no-code solutions.

Flavilla Fongang

Brand Strategist, 3 Colours Rule How to Go Beyond Marketing for Clients: The Value of a Thriving Brand Ecosystem Too many marketers serve their clients the bare minimum of what's expected from an agency. To stand out among the crowd, cultivate real loyalty, and maximize the lifetime value of your clients, you have to go beyond mere marketing — developing a thriving brand ecosystem that aligns with the brand's ultimate goals. Flavilla Fongang shares her tried-and-true framework for optimizing the customer journey, improving acquisition and retention, and going beyond what's expected to serve your clients well.

Francine Rodriguez

Manager of Customer Success, WordStream Let It Go: How to Embrace Automation and Get Way More Done Let the robot uprising begin! We've all heard horror stories about the dangers of automating your tasks, but now is not the time to deny yourself extra help. Robots never sleep. They don't get tired or overwhelmed by their to-do lists, and they're ready to work round-the-clock to accomplish whatever task we set before them. In this talk, you'll explore all the areas were automation is kicking butt in PPC — and how you can harness the power of robots to make more time for other efforts.

Heather Physioc

Group Connections Director, Discoverability, VMLY&R Competitive Advantage in a Commoditized Industry SEO isn't dead — it’s commoditized. In a world where search companies are a dime a dozen and brands tout bland "unique selling propositions" that aren't unique at all, how can you avoid drowning in the sea of sameness? What are you doing that's any different from every other SEO firm? In this talk, you'll learn how to find, activate, and articulate your competitive advantage. Learn how to identify unique strengths and innovative offerings that equate to competitive advantage through these real, working examples so you can bring them to life in search. You'll leave with actionable tips and homework to help your search business stand out — and that you can use with clients to help them find their competitive edge, too.

Izzi Smith

Technical SEO Analyst, Ryte How to Be Ahead of the (CTR) Curve Let’s face it: Carrying out SEO magic is all in vain when you’re forgetting about how your brand and products are being surfaced in the SERPs. By not properly analyzing or enhancing our organic CTR, we're greatly limiting our potential. Izzi will help you create the perfect SERP engagement strategy by covering practical ways to uplift your significant CTR, such as remedying your critical keyword rankings that could soon be lost, leveraging brand-empowering entity features (and assessing the risks of doing so), more intelligent testing of rich & featured snippet optimizations, and a whole lot more. CTR-you-ready?? You better be!

Joy Hawkins

Owner, Sterling Sky Inc. Google My Business: Battling Bad Info & Safeguarding Your Search Strategy What's the harm in a little misinformation here and there? In the realm of local SEO, Joy Hawkins is here to outline exactly that. When it comes to local search and Google My Business, it can be make or break for your campaigns. Follow real data from a recent case study that illustrates why strategic decisions should be based on accurate information — and what can happen when that info is bad, wrong, or just plain incomplete.

Mike King

Managing Director, iPullRank TBD Mike redefined technical SEO and its importance in our industry back in 2016. In 2018, he taught us everything we didn't know about SEO. This year, he's back to share the hottest technical tactics to uplevel your efforts, plus the case studies and data that should be guiding your decisions.

Dr. Peter J. Meyers

Marketing Scientist, Moz Moving Targets: Keywords in Crisis Too often, we take a once-and-done approach to keyword research, but Google changes at the pace of information, and that pace speeds up even more during a crisis. How do we do keyword research in fast-paced industries and during world-changing moments? Dr. Pete provides concrete tactics for adaptive keyword research and spotting trends as they happen.

Phil Nottingham

Brand and Video Marketing Strategist, Phil Nottingham Ltd. How to Build a Global Brand Without a Global Budget As funnel-based marketing becomes less effective and harder to measure, "building a brand" is frequently touted as the panacea for all marketer's woes. But it's unclear how this can be achieved scalably and with a limited budget. Large enterprises resort to huge creative advertising campaigns that get their names out there by force of spend alone — but this isn't realistic for the smaller companies and the number of impressions is not the number of people impressed. In this session, Phil explains how modern brands are built through advocacy more than awareness alone, offering a deliverable method of brand marketing to radically shake up your content strategy.

Rob Ousbey

VP Product, Moz TBD Rob is no stranger to the MozCon stage — he's graced it in the past as emcee, and in 2019 he covered the intimidating topic of running your own SEO tests (and how to do it right.) While we're still nailing down the details of his 2020 talk, we're confident that this year's topic will be every bit as impressively daunting.

Robin Lord

Consultant, Distilled Whatever You Do, Put Billboards in Seattle – Getting Brand Awareness Data from Google How can you harness the vast power of Google data to gain special insight into city- and product-level brand awareness? Robin will lead us on a journey through his Google Trends methodology to use Adwords search volume data for better brand intelligence.

Ross Simmonds

CEO, Foundation Designing a Content Engine: Going from Ideation to Creation to Distribution What does it take to develop a content engine that drives results? In this presentation, Ross will share data around the power of having a content engine, tools & strategies for content ideation, tools and tactics for content creation, and frameworks that brands can use to ensure that their content is distributed effectively after hitting publish. This presentation will help you not only uncover content-market fit, but also capitalize on it.

Russ Jones

Principal Search Scientist, Moz I Wanna Be Rich: Making Your Consultancy Profitable How will your company weather the next update? How will you avoid layoffs and salary cuts? Being a master of SEO doesn't guarantee that your consultancy will succeed. After a decade and a half of experience, Russ Jones will outline the techniques that will keep your clients happy and your bottom line healthy.

Sarah Bird

CEO, Moz Welcome to MozCon Virtual + the State of the Industry Sarah has a storied history of kicking MozCon off with a bright, sparkly bang. The fearless leader of Moz will be welcoming each and every one of us to this year's virtual event, laying out all the pertinent details of the conference, and setting the tone for two jam-packed days of learning with a look at the State of the Industry.

Shannon McGuirk

Head of PR & Content, Aira Great Expectations: The Truth About Digital PR Campaigns In her talk, Shannon will challenge the desire for virality over consistency when it comes to digital PR and link building campaigns, while exploring the impact on the industry, team morale, and client expectations. By honestly sharing her own shortcomings, she'll push you to learn from your own campaign failures using tried and tested frameworks that’ll mean you can face any creative campaign or outreach struggle head-on.

Wil Reynolds

Founder & Vice President of Innovation, Seer InteractiveThe CMO Role Has Been Disrupted – Are You Ready for Your New Boss? CMOs have the shortest tenure in the c-suite, and the CMO role has been eliminated at some of the largest brands. CEOs are now asking tougher and tougher questions about the value of marketing — and oftentimes marketers are not prepared. Connecting your data and building your data flywheel is one way to support the swift answers CEOs expect from their CMOs. We need to get stronger at bridging our day-to-day work to the value it drives. And more than ever, “brand lift” isn’t enough to satisfy CEOs. This presentation will start at the top. How businesses are run, how CEOs talk, and how we as search marketers can use the data we have access to everyday in new ways to answer the questions of the c-suite and raise our visibility and value in organizations.

We hope to see your smiling faces online in July!

Thanks to each and every one of you for your patience as we hammered out the details of this year's conference, for the questions you've asked and the honest feedback you've given us. We're super excited to try out something new this year! Join us this July for our first MozCon Virtual and let's explore the future of digital marketing together:

Yes, I'm going to MozCon!

  Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

https://www.businesscreatorplus.com/the-mozcon-virtual-2020-initial-agenda/

[isearchgoood]

The MozCon Virtual 2020 Initial Agenda

Posted by cheryldraper

It's the question that's been on plenty of people's minds: What's up with MozCon this year?

We're happy to report that 2020's MozCon is on like Donkey Kong, and as you can tell from its brand-new name, the format this year is just a tad bit different. MozCon 2020 is now MozCon Virtual, an online conference experience delivering every ounce of digital marketing expertise you expect in-person with the safety and security of social distancing at home.

Today, we're here to tell you all about it — changes, challenges, nitty-gritty details, who's speaking and what you'll learn, and more!

Here's the skinny on MozCon Virtual

MozCon Virtual will take place from the comfort of your at-home office space across July 14 & 15, 2020. Business on top, social distancing sweatpants on the bottom — you'll be cozier than ever while learning all the latest and greatest in the world of SEO.

Twenty-two industry thought leaders will walk you through the hottest topics of 2020, covering everything from SEO automation to modern content promotion to strategies for handling keyword research in the midst of a crisis. You'll see fondly familiar faces and exciting new names to the MozCon stage, and you can rest assured that we're keeping the bar as high as it's ever been for content quality.

Additionally, we know that budgets are tight right now. We want to do our part to help by making MozCon Virtual as accessible to everyone as we can. Tickets are now priced at $129. This also includes full access to the MozCon video bundle once it's released!

Save my spot at MozCon Virtual!

Changes, challenges, & nitty-gritty details

A note about transparency and making really hard decisions

We're not going to lie — organizing this year's MozCon was a challenge. As it became more and more clear that an in-person event was neither feasible nor responsible (not to mention illegal here in Washington state!), we had a relatively short window of time to pivot from a 1,600-attendee event that we ran year after year using a concrete, smooth-as-butter process, to the virtual unknown. (Pardon the pun.)

There were many, many meetings. There was research and projections and debate, and more than one idea changed form three or four times before it took shape.

In the end, it came down to what was best for our community. MozCon has never operated from a profit standpoint — most years we aim to break even — but even with the risk and cost associated with such a monumental change to the event, we knew the show must go on. SEO doesn't just stop. And right now, it's picking up speed: People are turning to the internet to solve their problems now more than ever before, and businesses of all stripes are depending on that online visibility to sustain them through hardship. SEOs and digital marketers still need access to cutting-edge thought leadership, techniques, and strategies, and MozCon can deliver — even if it means we only get to daydream about all the high fives, fist bumps, and Roger hugs.

Not your typical marketing couchference

It was important that we find ways to maintain that special MozCon magic that makes folks excited to wake up extra early on a Monday morning, don their conference badge, and skip happily to the Washington State Convention Center for a day full of educational goodness.

We're gonna miss the snacks — that's just the truth. Doughnuts and coffee aside, we've energized our virtual conference with that snazzy MozCon spirit you look forward to every year:

The highest caliber speakers and topics in town: Twenty-two of digital marketing's top experts will share their very best advice, strategies, tactics, and research over two jam-packed days of learning. You'll have all their decks available for download, and the new choice of attending the talks that most interest you.

Friendly neighborhood Mozzers emceeing the event: MozCon stage superstars Cyrus Shepard and Britney Muller will keep the sparkle going between session.

Interactive Q&A with the experts: You'll be able to participate in live Q&A sessions with speakers to answer your most burning digital marketing questions and quandaries.

Virtual networking with Birds of a Feather breakout sessions: Birds of a Feather tables are a lunchtime hit every single year. And we've heard your feedback: networking is a huge part of the MozCon experience. That's why we're introducing Birds of a Feather virtual discussions — a special online experience where you'll be able to join expert-hosted events, connect with like-minded marketers, and forge professional relationships through the magic of the internet.

Charitable donations: Our belief in giving back hasn't changed just because we're going online. For every ticket sold we'll be making a donation, with more details to come as we draw closer to showtime.

Awesome partners: MozCon is fortunate to have the support of our fantastic sponsors who have stuck with us through all the changes this year. They'll be sharing their expertise in special hosted breakout groups. Curious about who our partners are? Check them out: 97th Floor, Base Search Marketing, CallRail, Crowd Content, Duda, GatherUp, and PAGES!

Two days chock full of conference goodness

We know it's tough to take a full three days away from your day job, so we're approaching MozCon Virtual with multi-track options to let attendees choose their own conference adventure — with full access to every talk via the MozCon video bundle once the conference is over.

A global experience at a more accessible price

We're streaming MozCon!

Every year we've heard our community ask: I can't make the trip. Will you be streaming MozCon? To our friends around the world, we're glad to be able to answer yes — this year, MozCon will be fully available to remote attendees. While those in particularly opposite timezones may be enjoying the show in your jammies, for the first time MozCon will serve you on your sofa. And you won't miss out on a single session — every ticket holder will have full access to the MozCon video bundle after the event, meaning you can re-watch your favorites and catch up on any you missed.

MozCon quality at a price more folks can afford: Tickets are now $129

We've lowered the price to attend this year's conference for a couple of reasons.

One, while there are still some pretty significant costs to throwing a large virtual conference, those costs don't include some of our biggest-ticket items, such as a conference space and food & beverage. Delicious treats and comfy seats are a real investment!

And two, times are really darn tough right now. We know agencies, brands, and freelancers are struggling in the midst of the economic downturn, and that it's more important than ever to hone skills and build new ones. We originally lowered ticket prices by about 40%. Then, based on community feedback and suggestions, we decided to forego the idea of shipping out swag and snacks and lowered them again — to the tune of $129.

Every MozCon ticket purchased also includes full access to the MozCon video bundle, a $349 value. Our video bundles are professionally produced and fully shareable with your team, so you can keep the learning going throughout the rest of the year and revisit the talks that mattered most.

Register for MozCon Virtual

Initial agenda

Ready to explore what we've got planned for this year? Check out our current speakers and topics — and stay tuned for more information as the agenda evolves!

Alexis Sanders

Senior SEO Account Manager, Merkle The Science of Seeking Your Customer

Users are at the core of everything we do in modern SEO. However, finding and understanding audiences can be daunting. Alexis will cover how to find your audience, share tools that are available for all price points, and show ways in which she’s found audience research to be useful as an SEO.

Andy Crestodina

Co-founder and CMO, Orbit Media Thought Leadership and SEO: The 3 Key Elements and Search Ranking Strategies

Everyone wants to do it, but no one really knows what it is. So what is thought leadership? What isn’t it? And how does it affect search rankings?

This presentation is a data-rich perspective on the oh-so-popular topic of thought leadership, filled with practical takeaways for becoming an authority. And it’s all about the relationship between thought leadership and SEO. We’ll see how the research answers the questions and informs the tactics: Can brands be thought leaders? Can it be outsourced? Do you need to publish research? Or strong opinion? And how does it attract links and authority, rankings, and qualified visitors? Learn how a personal brand combines with content to drive big wins in SEO.

Britney Muller

Senior SEO Scientist, Moz TBD

Last year, Britney wowed the crowd with a bevy of new research, data, and actionable tactics for understanding and winning featured snippets. We're still piecing together all the intricate details of this year's talk, so keep an ear to the ground as we continue to evolve our agenda!

Brian Dean

Founder, Backlinko How to Promote Your Content Like a Boss

Creating content is easy. But getting people to see your content? That's a different story. Brian Dean shares over a dozen practical strategies that you can use to spread the word about your latest blog post, podcast episode, or YouTube video.

Casie Gillette

Senior Director of Digital, KoMarketing Counterintuitive Content: How New Trends Have Disrupted Years of Bad Advice

Content marketers don't have it easy. We're constantly adapting to our ever-shifting landscape and juggling an overwhelming amount of information and advice: Do we produce as much content as possible? Should we focus on quality, while still maintaining consistent schedules? And now, what about YouTube, voice search, and even TikTok?

The fact is, there's no one way to do content marketing. Casie will showcase content in an entirely new light, with ideas and tips on how you can start creating content on your own terms.

Dana DiTomaso

President and partner, Kick Point TBD

MozCon veterans know the value and vibrancy Dana brings to the stage, and this year will be no exception. Be on the lookout for juicy details about her 2020 talk — we can't wait to share.

David Sottimano

VP, Keyphraseology Everyday Automation for Marketers

As a general rule, we shouldn't be doing things that a computer can do better. However, a lot of automation is achieved through programming expertise — and that expertise isn't usually a marketer's forte. In this session, you'll learn how to gather data, use machine learning, and automate everyday tasks for marketers using low-code or no-code solutions.

Flavilla Fongang

Brand Strategist, 3 Colours Rule How to Go Beyond Marketing for Clients: The Value of a Thriving Brand Ecosystem

Too many marketers serve their clients the bare minimum of what's expected from an agency. To stand out among the crowd, cultivate real loyalty, and maximize the lifetime value of your clients, you have to go beyond mere marketing — developing a thriving brand ecosystem that aligns with the brand's ultimate goals. Flavilla Fongang shares her tried-and-true framework for optimizing the customer journey, improving acquisition and retention, and going beyond what's expected to serve your clients well.

Francine Rodriguez

Manager of Customer Success, WordStream Let It Go: How to Embrace Automation and Get Way More Done

Let the robot uprising begin! We've all heard horror stories about the dangers of automating your tasks, but now is not the time to deny yourself extra help. Robots never sleep. They don't get tired or overwhelmed by their to-do lists, and they're ready to work round-the-clock to accomplish whatever task we set before them. In this talk, you'll explore all the areas were automation is kicking butt in PPC — and how you can harness the power of robots to make more time for other efforts.

Heather Physioc

Group Connections Director, Discoverability, VMLY&R Competitive Advantage in a Commoditized Industry

SEO isn't dead — it’s commoditized. In a world where search companies are a dime a dozen and brands tout bland "unique selling propositions" that aren't unique at all, how can you avoid drowning in the sea of sameness? What are you doing that's any different from every other SEO firm? In this talk, you'll learn how to find, activate, and articulate your competitive advantage. Learn how to identify unique strengths and innovative offerings that equate to competitive advantage through these real, working examples so you can bring them to life in search. You'll leave with actionable tips and homework to help your search business stand out — and that you can use with clients to help them find their competitive edge, too.

Izzi Smith

Technical SEO Analyst, Ryte How to Be Ahead of the (CTR) Curve

Let’s face it: Carrying out SEO magic is all in vain when you’re forgetting about how your brand and products are being surfaced in the SERPs. By not properly analyzing or enhancing our organic CTR, we're greatly limiting our potential. Izzi will help you create the perfect SERP engagement strategy by covering practical ways to uplift your significant CTR, such as remedying your critical keyword rankings that could soon be lost, leveraging brand-empowering entity features (and assessing the risks of doing so), more intelligent testing of rich & featured snippet optimizations, and a whole lot more. CTR-you-ready?? You better be!

Joy Hawkins

Owner, Sterling Sky Inc. Google My Business: Battling Bad Info & Safeguarding Your Search Strategy

What's the harm in a little misinformation here and there? In the realm of local SEO, Joy Hawkins is here to outline exactly that. When it comes to local search and Google My Business, it can be make or break for your campaigns. Follow real data from a recent case study that illustrates why strategic decisions should be based on accurate information — and what can happen when that info is bad, wrong, or just plain incomplete.

Mike King

Managing Director, iPullRank TBD

Mike redefined technical SEO and its importance in our industry back in 2016. In 2018, he taught us everything we didn't know about SEO. This year, he's back to share the hottest technical tactics to uplevel your efforts, plus the case studies and data that should be guiding your decisions.

Dr. Peter J. Meyers

Marketing Scientist, Moz Moving Targets: Keywords in Crisis

Too often, we take a once-and-done approach to keyword research, but Google changes at the pace of information, and that pace speeds up even more during a crisis. How do we do keyword research in fast-paced industries and during world-changing moments? Dr. Pete provides concrete tactics for adaptive keyword research and spotting trends as they happen.

Phil Nottingham

Brand and Video Marketing Strategist, Phil Nottingham Ltd. How to Build a Global Brand Without a Global Budget

As funnel-based marketing becomes less effective and harder to measure, "building a brand" is frequently touted as the panacea for all marketer's woes. But it's unclear how this can be achieved scalably and with a limited budget. Large enterprises resort to huge creative advertising campaigns that get their names out there by force of spend alone — but this isn't realistic for the smaller companies and the number of impressions is not the number of people impressed. In this session, Phil explains how modern brands are built through advocacy more than awareness alone, offering a deliverable method of brand marketing to radically shake up your content strategy.

Rob Ousbey

VP Product, Moz TBD

Rob is no stranger to the MozCon stage — he's graced it in the past as emcee, and in 2019 he covered the intimidating topic of running your own SEO tests (and how to do it right.) While we're still nailing down the details of his 2020 talk, we're confident that this year's topic will be every bit as impressively daunting.

Robin Lord

Consultant, Distilled Whatever You Do, Put Billboards in Seattle – Getting Brand Awareness Data from Google

How can you harness the vast power of Google data to gain special insight into city- and product-level brand awareness? Robin will lead us on a journey through his Google Trends methodology to use Adwords search volume data for better brand intelligence.

Ross Simmonds

CEO, Foundation Designing a Content Engine: Going from Ideation to Creation to Distribution

What does it take to develop a content engine that drives results? In this presentation, Ross will share data around the power of having a content engine, tools & strategies for content ideation, tools and tactics for content creation, and frameworks that brands can use to ensure that their content is distributed effectively after hitting publish. This presentation will help you not only uncover content-market fit, but also capitalize on it.

Russ Jones

Principal Search Scientist, Moz I Wanna Be Rich: Making Your Consultancy Profitable

How will your company weather the next update? How will you avoid layoffs and salary cuts? Being a master of SEO doesn't guarantee that your consultancy will succeed. After a decade and a half of experience, Russ Jones will outline the techniques that will keep your clients happy and your bottom line healthy.

Sarah Bird

CEO, Moz Welcome to MozCon Virtual + the State of the Industry

Sarah has a storied history of kicking MozCon off with a bright, sparkly bang. The fearless leader of Moz will be welcoming each and every one of us to this year's virtual event, laying out all the pertinent details of the conference, and setting the tone for two jam-packed days of learning with a look at the State of the Industry.

Shannon McGuirk

Head of PR & Content, Aira Great Expectations: The Truth About Digital PR Campaigns

In her talk, Shannon will challenge the desire for virality over consistency when it comes to digital PR and link building campaigns, while exploring the impact on the industry, team morale, and client expectations. By honestly sharing her own shortcomings, she'll push you to learn from your own campaign failures using tried and tested frameworks that’ll mean you can face any creative campaign or outreach struggle head-on.

Wil Reynolds

Founder & Vice President of Innovation, Seer InteractiveThe CMO Role Has Been Disrupted – Are You Ready for Your New Boss?

CMOs have the shortest tenure in the c-suite, and the CMO role has been eliminated at some of the largest brands. CEOs are now asking tougher and tougher questions about the value of marketing — and oftentimes marketers are not prepared.

Connecting your data and building your data flywheel is one way to support the swift answers CEOs expect from their CMOs. We need to get stronger at bridging our day-to-day work to the value it drives. And more than ever, “brand lift” isn’t enough to satisfy CEOs.

This presentation will start at the top. How businesses are run, how CEOs talk, and how we as search marketers can use the data we have access to everyday in new ways to answer the questions of the c-suite and raise our visibility and value in organizations.

We hope to see your smiling faces online in July!

Thanks to each and every one of you for your patience as we hammered out the details of this year's conference, for the questions you've asked and the honest feedback you've given us. We're super excited to try out something new this year! Join us this July for our first MozCon Virtual and let's explore the future of digital marketing together:

Yes, I'm going to MozCon!

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

via Blogger https://ift.tt/2WQpWCQ #blogger #bloggingtips #bloggerlife #bloggersgetsocial #ontheblog #writersofinstagram #writingprompt #instapoetry #writerscommunity #writersofig #writersblock #writerlife #writtenword #instawriters #spilledink #wordgasm #creativewriting #poetsofinstagram #blackoutpoetry #poetsofig

[theinjectlikes2]

The MozCon Virtual 2020 Initial Agenda

Posted by cheryldraper

It's the question that's been on plenty of people's minds: What's up with MozCon this year?

We're happy to report that 2020's MozCon is on like Donkey Kong, and as you can tell from its brand-new name, the format this year is just a tad bit different. MozCon 2020 is now MozCon Virtual, an online conference experience delivering every ounce of digital marketing expertise you expect in-person with the safety and security of social distancing at home.

Today, we're here to tell you all about it — changes, challenges, nitty-gritty details, who's speaking and what you'll learn, and more!

Here's the skinny on MozCon Virtual

MozCon Virtual will take place from the comfort of your at-home office space across July 14 & 15, 2020. Business on top, social distancing sweatpants on the bottom — you'll be cozier than ever while learning all the latest and greatest in the world of SEO.

Twenty-two industry thought leaders will walk you through the hottest topics of 2020, covering everything from SEO automation to modern content promotion to strategies for handling keyword research in the midst of a crisis. You'll see fondly familiar faces and exciting new names to the MozCon stage, and you can rest assured that we're keeping the bar as high as it's ever been for content quality.

Additionally, we know that budgets are tight right now. We want to do our part to help by making MozCon Virtual as accessible to everyone as we can. Tickets are now priced at $129. This also includes full access to the MozCon video bundle once it's released!

Save my spot at MozCon Virtual!

Changes, challenges, & nitty-gritty details

A note about transparency and making really hard decisions

We're not going to lie — organizing this year's MozCon was a challenge. As it became more and more clear that an in-person event was neither feasible nor responsible (not to mention illegal here in Washington state!), we had a relatively short window of time to pivot from a 1,600-attendee event that we ran year after year using a concrete, smooth-as-butter process, to the virtual unknown. (Pardon the pun.)

There were many, many meetings. There was research and projections and debate, and more than one idea changed form three or four times before it took shape.

In the end, it came down to what was best for our community. MozCon has never operated from a profit standpoint — most years we aim to break even — but even with the risk and cost associated with such a monumental change to the event, we knew the show must go on. SEO doesn't just stop. And right now, it's picking up speed: People are turning to the internet to solve their problems now more than ever before, and businesses of all stripes are depending on that online visibility to sustain them through hardship. SEOs and digital marketers still need access to cutting-edge thought leadership, techniques, and strategies, and MozCon can deliver — even if it means we only get to daydream about all the high fives, fist bumps, and Roger hugs.

Not your typical marketing couchference

It was important that we find ways to maintain that special MozCon magic that makes folks excited to wake up extra early on a Monday morning, don their conference badge, and skip happily to the Washington State Convention Center for a day full of educational goodness.

We're gonna miss the snacks — that's just the truth. Doughnuts and coffee aside, we've energized our virtual conference with that snazzy MozCon spirit you look forward to every year:

The highest caliber speakers and topics in town: Twenty-two of digital marketing's top experts will share their very best advice, strategies, tactics, and research over two jam-packed days of learning. You'll have all their decks available for download, and the new choice of attending the talks that most interest you.

Friendly neighborhood Mozzers emceeing the event: MozCon stage superstars Cyrus Shepard and Britney Muller will keep the sparkle going between session.

Interactive Q&A with the experts: You'll be able to participate in live Q&A sessions with speakers to answer your most burning digital marketing questions and quandaries.

Virtual networking with Birds of a Feather breakout sessions: Birds of a Feather tables are a lunchtime hit every single year. And we've heard your feedback: networking is a huge part of the MozCon experience. That's why we're introducing Birds of a Feather virtual discussions — a special online experience where you'll be able to join expert-hosted events, connect with like-minded marketers, and forge professional relationships through the magic of the internet.

Charitable donations: Our belief in giving back hasn't changed just because we're going online. For every ticket sold we'll be making a donation, with more details to come as we draw closer to showtime.

Awesome partners: MozCon is fortunate to have the support of our fantastic sponsors who have stuck with us through all the changes this year. They'll be sharing their expertise in special hosted breakout groups. Curious about who our partners are? Check them out: 97th Floor, Base Search Marketing, CallRail, Crowd Content, Duda, GatherUp, and PAGES!

Two days chock full of conference goodness

We know it's tough to take a full three days away from your day job, so we're approaching MozCon Virtual with multi-track options to let attendees choose their own conference adventure — with full access to every talk via the MozCon video bundle once the conference is over.

A global experience at a more accessible price

We're streaming MozCon!

Every year we've heard our community ask: I can't make the trip. Will you be streaming MozCon? To our friends around the world, we're glad to be able to answer yes — this year, MozCon will be fully available to remote attendees. While those in particularly opposite timezones may be enjoying the show in your jammies, for the first time MozCon will serve you on your sofa. And you won't miss out on a single session — every ticket holder will have full access to the MozCon video bundle after the event, meaning you can re-watch your favorites and catch up on any you missed.

MozCon quality at a price more folks can afford: Tickets are now $129

We've lowered the price to attend this year's conference for a couple of reasons.

One, while there are still some pretty significant costs to throwing a large virtual conference, those costs don't include some of our biggest-ticket items, such as a conference space and food & beverage. Delicious treats and comfy seats are a real investment!

And two, times are really darn tough right now. We know agencies, brands, and freelancers are struggling in the midst of the economic downturn, and that it's more important than ever to hone skills and build new ones. We originally lowered ticket prices by about 40%. Then, based on community feedback and suggestions, we decided to forego the idea of shipping out swag and snacks and lowered them again — to the tune of $129.

Every MozCon ticket purchased also includes full access to the MozCon video bundle, a $349 value. Our video bundles are professionally produced and fully shareable with your team, so you can keep the learning going throughout the rest of the year and revisit the talks that mattered most.

Register for MozCon Virtual

Initial agenda

Ready to explore what we've got planned for this year? Check out our current speakers and topics — and stay tuned for more information as the agenda evolves!

Alexis Sanders

Senior SEO Account Manager, Merkle The Science of Seeking Your Customer

Users are at the core of everything we do in modern SEO. However, finding and understanding audiences can be daunting. Alexis will cover how to find your audience, share tools that are available for all price points, and show ways in which she’s found audience research to be useful as an SEO.

Andy Crestodina

Co-founder and CMO, Orbit Media Thought Leadership and SEO: The 3 Key Elements and Search Ranking Strategies

Everyone wants to do it, but no one really knows what it is. So what is thought leadership? What isn’t it? And how does it affect search rankings?

This presentation is a data-rich perspective on the oh-so-popular topic of thought leadership, filled with practical takeaways for becoming an authority. And it’s all about the relationship between thought leadership and SEO. We’ll see how the research answers the questions and informs the tactics: Can brands be thought leaders? Can it be outsourced? Do you need to publish research? Or strong opinion? And how does it attract links and authority, rankings, and qualified visitors? Learn how a personal brand combines with content to drive big wins in SEO.

Britney Muller

Senior SEO Scientist, Moz TBD

Last year, Britney wowed the crowd with a bevy of new research, data, and actionable tactics for understanding and winning featured snippets. We're still piecing together all the intricate details of this year's talk, so keep an ear to the ground as we continue to evolve our agenda!

Brian Dean

Founder, Backlinko How to Promote Your Content Like a Boss

Creating content is easy. But getting people to see your content? That's a different story. Brian Dean shares over a dozen practical strategies that you can use to spread the word about your latest blog post, podcast episode, or YouTube video.

Casie Gillette

Senior Director of Digital, KoMarketing Counterintuitive Content: How New Trends Have Disrupted Years of Bad Advice

Content marketers don't have it easy. We're constantly adapting to our ever-shifting landscape and juggling an overwhelming amount of information and advice: Do we produce as much content as possible? Should we focus on quality, while still maintaining consistent schedules? And now, what about YouTube, voice search, and even TikTok?

The fact is, there's no one way to do content marketing. Casie will showcase content in an entirely new light, with ideas and tips on how you can start creating content on your own terms.

Dana DiTomaso

President and partner, Kick Point TBD

MozCon veterans know the value and vibrancy Dana brings to the stage, and this year will be no exception. Be on the lookout for juicy details about her 2020 talk — we can't wait to share.

David Sottimano

VP, Keyphraseology Everyday Automation for Marketers

As a general rule, we shouldn't be doing things that a computer can do better. However, a lot of automation is achieved through programming expertise — and that expertise isn't usually a marketer's forte. In this session, you'll learn how to gather data, use machine learning, and automate everyday tasks for marketers using low-code or no-code solutions.

Flavilla Fongang

Brand Strategist, 3 Colours Rule How to Go Beyond Marketing for Clients: The Value of a Thriving Brand Ecosystem

Too many marketers serve their clients the bare minimum of what's expected from an agency. To stand out among the crowd, cultivate real loyalty, and maximize the lifetime value of your clients, you have to go beyond mere marketing — developing a thriving brand ecosystem that aligns with the brand's ultimate goals. Flavilla Fongang shares her tried-and-true framework for optimizing the customer journey, improving acquisition and retention, and going beyond what's expected to serve your clients well.

Francine Rodriguez

Manager of Customer Success, WordStream Let It Go: How to Embrace Automation and Get Way More Done

Let the robot uprising begin! We've all heard horror stories about the dangers of automating your tasks, but now is not the time to deny yourself extra help. Robots never sleep. They don't get tired or overwhelmed by their to-do lists, and they're ready to work round-the-clock to accomplish whatever task we set before them. In this talk, you'll explore all the areas were automation is kicking butt in PPC — and how you can harness the power of robots to make more time for other efforts.

Heather Physioc

Group Connections Director, Discoverability, VMLY&R Competitive Advantage in a Commoditized Industry

SEO isn't dead — it’s commoditized. In a world where search companies are a dime a dozen and brands tout bland "unique selling propositions" that aren't unique at all, how can you avoid drowning in the sea of sameness? What are you doing that's any different from every other SEO firm? In this talk, you'll learn how to find, activate, and articulate your competitive advantage. Learn how to identify unique strengths and innovative offerings that equate to competitive advantage through these real, working examples so you can bring them to life in search. You'll leave with actionable tips and homework to help your search business stand out — and that you can use with clients to help them find their competitive edge, too.

Izzi Smith

Technical SEO Analyst, Ryte How to Be Ahead of the (CTR) Curve

Let’s face it: Carrying out SEO magic is all in vain when you’re forgetting about how your brand and products are being surfaced in the SERPs. By not properly analyzing or enhancing our organic CTR, we're greatly limiting our potential. Izzi will help you create the perfect SERP engagement strategy by covering practical ways to uplift your significant CTR, such as remedying your critical keyword rankings that could soon be lost, leveraging brand-empowering entity features (and assessing the risks of doing so), more intelligent testing of rich & featured snippet optimizations, and a whole lot more. CTR-you-ready?? You better be!

Joy Hawkins

Owner, Sterling Sky Inc. Google My Business: Battling Bad Info & Safeguarding Your Search Strategy

What's the harm in a little misinformation here and there? In the realm of local SEO, Joy Hawkins is here to outline exactly that. When it comes to local search and Google My Business, it can be make or break for your campaigns. Follow real data from a recent case study that illustrates why strategic decisions should be based on accurate information — and what can happen when that info is bad, wrong, or just plain incomplete.

Mike King

Managing Director, iPullRank TBD

Mike redefined technical SEO and its importance in our industry back in 2016. In 2018, he taught us everything we didn't know about SEO. This year, he's back to share the hottest technical tactics to uplevel your efforts, plus the case studies and data that should be guiding your decisions.

Dr. Peter J. Meyers

Marketing Scientist, Moz Moving Targets: Keywords in Crisis

Too often, we take a once-and-done approach to keyword research, but Google changes at the pace of information, and that pace speeds up even more during a crisis. How do we do keyword research in fast-paced industries and during world-changing moments? Dr. Pete provides concrete tactics for adaptive keyword research and spotting trends as they happen.

Phil Nottingham

Brand and Video Marketing Strategist, Phil Nottingham Ltd. How to Build a Global Brand Without a Global Budget

As funnel-based marketing becomes less effective and harder to measure, "building a brand" is frequently touted as the panacea for all marketer's woes. But it's unclear how this can be achieved scalably and with a limited budget. Large enterprises resort to huge creative advertising campaigns that get their names out there by force of spend alone — but this isn't realistic for the smaller companies and the number of impressions is not the number of people impressed. In this session, Phil explains how modern brands are built through advocacy more than awareness alone, offering a deliverable method of brand marketing to radically shake up your content strategy.

Rob Ousbey

VP Product, Moz TBD

Rob is no stranger to the MozCon stage — he's graced it in the past as emcee, and in 2019 he covered the intimidating topic of running your own SEO tests (and how to do it right.) While we're still nailing down the details of his 2020 talk, we're confident that this year's topic will be every bit as impressively daunting.

Robin Lord

Consultant, Distilled Whatever You Do, Put Billboards in Seattle – Getting Brand Awareness Data from Google

How can you harness the vast power of Google data to gain special insight into city- and product-level brand awareness? Robin will lead us on a journey through his Google Trends methodology to use Adwords search volume data for better brand intelligence.

Ross Simmonds

CEO, Foundation Designing a Content Engine: Going from Ideation to Creation to Distribution

What does it take to develop a content engine that drives results? In this presentation, Ross will share data around the power of having a content engine, tools & strategies for content ideation, tools and tactics for content creation, and frameworks that brands can use to ensure that their content is distributed effectively after hitting publish. This presentation will help you not only uncover content-market fit, but also capitalize on it.

Russ Jones

Principal Search Scientist, Moz I Wanna Be Rich: Making Your Consultancy Profitable

How will your company weather the next update? How will you avoid layoffs and salary cuts? Being a master of SEO doesn't guarantee that your consultancy will succeed. After a decade and a half of experience, Russ Jones will outline the techniques that will keep your clients happy and your bottom line healthy.

Sarah Bird

CEO, Moz Welcome to MozCon Virtual + the State of the Industry

Sarah has a storied history of kicking MozCon off with a bright, sparkly bang. The fearless leader of Moz will be welcoming each and every one of us to this year's virtual event, laying out all the pertinent details of the conference, and setting the tone for two jam-packed days of learning with a look at the State of the Industry.

Shannon McGuirk

Head of PR & Content, Aira Great Expectations: The Truth About Digital PR Campaigns

In her talk, Shannon will challenge the desire for virality over consistency when it comes to digital PR and link building campaigns, while exploring the impact on the industry, team morale, and client expectations. By honestly sharing her own shortcomings, she'll push you to learn from your own campaign failures using tried and tested frameworks that’ll mean you can face any creative campaign or outreach struggle head-on.

Wil Reynolds

Founder & Vice President of Innovation, Seer InteractiveThe CMO Role Has Been Disrupted – Are You Ready for Your New Boss?

CMOs have the shortest tenure in the c-suite, and the CMO role has been eliminated at some of the largest brands. CEOs are now asking tougher and tougher questions about the value of marketing — and oftentimes marketers are not prepared.

Connecting your data and building your data flywheel is one way to support the swift answers CEOs expect from their CMOs. We need to get stronger at bridging our day-to-day work to the value it drives. And more than ever, “brand lift” isn’t enough to satisfy CEOs.

This presentation will start at the top. How businesses are run, how CEOs talk, and how we as search marketers can use the data we have access to everyday in new ways to answer the questions of the c-suite and raise our visibility and value in organizations.

We hope to see your smiling faces online in July!

Thanks to each and every one of you for your patience as we hammered out the details of this year's conference, for the questions you've asked and the honest feedback you've given us. We're super excited to try out something new this year! Join us this July for our first MozCon Virtual and let's explore the future of digital marketing together:

Yes, I'm going to MozCon!

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

from The Moz Blog https://ift.tt/36oWeIu via IFTTT

[thanhtuandoan89]

The MozCon Virtual 2020 Initial Agenda

Posted by cheryldraper

It's the question that's been on plenty of people's minds: What's up with MozCon this year?

We're happy to report that 2020's MozCon is on like Donkey Kong, and as you can tell from its brand-new name, the format this year is just a tad bit different. MozCon 2020 is now MozCon Virtual, an online conference experience delivering every ounce of digital marketing expertise you expect in-person with the safety and security of social distancing at home.

Today, we're here to tell you all about it — changes, challenges, nitty-gritty details, who's speaking and what you'll learn, and more!

Here's the skinny on MozCon Virtual

MozCon Virtual will take place from the comfort of your at-home office space across July 14 & 15, 2020. Business on top, social distancing sweatpants on the bottom — you'll be cozier than ever while learning all the latest and greatest in the world of SEO.

Twenty-two industry thought leaders will walk you through the hottest topics of 2020, covering everything from SEO automation to modern content promotion to strategies for handling keyword research in the midst of a crisis. You'll see fondly familiar faces and exciting new names to the MozCon stage, and you can rest assured that we're keeping the bar as high as it's ever been for content quality.

Additionally, we know that budgets are tight right now. We want to do our part to help by making MozCon Virtual as accessible to everyone as we can. Tickets are now priced at $129. This also includes full access to the MozCon video bundle once it's released!

Save my spot at MozCon Virtual!

Changes, challenges, & nitty-gritty details

A note about transparency and making really hard decisions

We're not going to lie — organizing this year's MozCon was a challenge. As it became more and more clear that an in-person event was neither feasible nor responsible (not to mention illegal here in Washington state!), we had a relatively short window of time to pivot from a 1,600-attendee event that we ran year after year using a concrete, smooth-as-butter process, to the virtual unknown. (Pardon the pun.)

There were many, many meetings. There was research and projections and debate, and more than one idea changed form three or four times before it took shape.

In the end, it came down to what was best for our community. MozCon has never operated from a profit standpoint — most years we aim to break even — but even with the risk and cost associated with such a monumental change to the event, we knew the show must go on. SEO doesn't just stop. And right now, it's picking up speed: People are turning to the internet to solve their problems now more than ever before, and businesses of all stripes are depending on that online visibility to sustain them through hardship. SEOs and digital marketers still need access to cutting-edge thought leadership, techniques, and strategies, and MozCon can deliver — even if it means we only get to daydream about all the high fives, fist bumps, and Roger hugs.

Not your typical marketing couchference

It was important that we find ways to maintain that special MozCon magic that makes folks excited to wake up extra early on a Monday morning, don their conference badge, and skip happily to the Washington State Convention Center for a day full of educational goodness.

We're gonna miss the snacks — that's just the truth. Doughnuts and coffee aside, we've energized our virtual conference with that snazzy MozCon spirit you look forward to every year:

The highest caliber speakers and topics in town: Twenty-two of digital marketing's top experts will share their very best advice, strategies, tactics, and research over two jam-packed days of learning. You'll have all their decks available for download, and the new choice of attending the talks that most interest you.

Friendly neighborhood Mozzers emceeing the event: MozCon stage superstars Cyrus Shepard and Britney Muller will keep the sparkle going between session.

Interactive Q&A with the experts: You'll be able to participate in live Q&A sessions with speakers to answer your most burning digital marketing questions and quandaries.

Virtual networking with Birds of a Feather breakout sessions: Birds of a Feather tables are a lunchtime hit every single year. And we've heard your feedback: networking is a huge part of the MozCon experience. That's why we're introducing Birds of a Feather virtual discussions — a special online experience where you'll be able to join expert-hosted events, connect with like-minded marketers, and forge professional relationships through the magic of the internet.

Charitable donations: Our belief in giving back hasn't changed just because we're going online. For every ticket sold we'll be making a donation, with more details to come as we draw closer to showtime.

Awesome partners: MozCon is fortunate to have the support of our fantastic sponsors who have stuck with us through all the changes this year. They'll be sharing their expertise in special hosted breakout groups. Curious about who our partners are? Check them out: 97th Floor, Base Search Marketing, CallRail, Crowd Content, Duda, GatherUp, and PAGES!

Two days chock full of conference goodness

We know it's tough to take a full three days away from your day job, so we're approaching MozCon Virtual with multi-track options to let attendees choose their own conference adventure — with full access to every talk via the MozCon video bundle once the conference is over.

A global experience at a more accessible price

We're streaming MozCon!

Every year we've heard our community ask: I can't make the trip. Will you be streaming MozCon? To our friends around the world, we're glad to be able to answer yes — this year, MozCon will be fully available to remote attendees. While those in particularly opposite timezones may be enjoying the show in your jammies, for the first time MozCon will serve you on your sofa. And you won't miss out on a single session — every ticket holder will have full access to the MozCon video bundle after the event, meaning you can re-watch your favorites and catch up on any you missed.

MozCon quality at a price more folks can afford: Tickets are now $129

We've lowered the price to attend this year's conference for a couple of reasons.

One, while there are still some pretty significant costs to throwing a large virtual conference, those costs don't include some of our biggest-ticket items, such as a conference space and food & beverage. Delicious treats and comfy seats are a real investment!

And two, times are really darn tough right now. We know agencies, brands, and freelancers are struggling in the midst of the economic downturn, and that it's more important than ever to hone skills and build new ones. We originally lowered ticket prices by about 40%. Then, based on community feedback and suggestions, we decided to forego the idea of shipping out swag and snacks and lowered them again — to the tune of $129.

Every MozCon ticket purchased also includes full access to the MozCon video bundle, a $349 value. Our video bundles are professionally produced and fully shareable with your team, so you can keep the learning going throughout the rest of the year and revisit the talks that mattered most.

Register for MozCon Virtual

Initial agenda

Ready to explore what we've got planned for this year? Check out our current speakers and topics — and stay tuned for more information as the agenda evolves!

Alexis Sanders

Senior SEO Account Manager, Merkle The Science of Seeking Your Customer

Users are at the core of everything we do in modern SEO. However, finding and understanding audiences can be daunting. Alexis will cover how to find your audience, share tools that are available for all price points, and show ways in which she’s found audience research to be useful as an SEO.

Andy Crestodina

Co-founder and CMO, Orbit Media Thought Leadership and SEO: The 3 Key Elements and Search Ranking Strategies

Everyone wants to do it, but no one really knows what it is. So what is thought leadership? What isn’t it? And how does it affect search rankings?

This presentation is a data-rich perspective on the oh-so-popular topic of thought leadership, filled with practical takeaways for becoming an authority. And it’s all about the relationship between thought leadership and SEO. We’ll see how the research answers the questions and informs the tactics: Can brands be thought leaders? Can it be outsourced? Do you need to publish research? Or strong opinion? And how does it attract links and authority, rankings, and qualified visitors? Learn how a personal brand combines with content to drive big wins in SEO.

Britney Muller

Senior SEO Scientist, Moz TBD

Last year, Britney wowed the crowd with a bevy of new research, data, and actionable tactics for understanding and winning featured snippets. We're still piecing together all the intricate details of this year's talk, so keep an ear to the ground as we continue to evolve our agenda!

Brian Dean

Founder, Backlinko How to Promote Your Content Like a Boss

Creating content is easy. But getting people to see your content? That's a different story. Brian Dean shares over a dozen practical strategies that you can use to spread the word about your latest blog post, podcast episode, or YouTube video.

Casie Gillette

Senior Director of Digital, KoMarketing Counterintuitive Content: How New Trends Have Disrupted Years of Bad Advice

Content marketers don't have it easy. We're constantly adapting to our ever-shifting landscape and juggling an overwhelming amount of information and advice: Do we produce as much content as possible? Should we focus on quality, while still maintaining consistent schedules? And now, what about YouTube, voice search, and even TikTok?

The fact is, there's no one way to do content marketing. Casie will showcase content in an entirely new light, with ideas and tips on how you can start creating content on your own terms.

Dana DiTomaso

President and partner, Kick Point TBD

MozCon veterans know the value and vibrancy Dana brings to the stage, and this year will be no exception. Be on the lookout for juicy details about her 2020 talk — we can't wait to share.

David Sottimano

VP, Keyphraseology Everyday Automation for Marketers

As a general rule, we shouldn't be doing things that a computer can do better. However, a lot of automation is achieved through programming expertise — and that expertise isn't usually a marketer's forte. In this session, you'll learn how to gather data, use machine learning, and automate everyday tasks for marketers using low-code or no-code solutions.

Flavilla Fongang

Brand Strategist, 3 Colours Rule How to Go Beyond Marketing for Clients: The Value of a Thriving Brand Ecosystem

Too many marketers serve their clients the bare minimum of what's expected from an agency. To stand out among the crowd, cultivate real loyalty, and maximize the lifetime value of your clients, you have to go beyond mere marketing — developing a thriving brand ecosystem that aligns with the brand's ultimate goals. Flavilla Fongang shares her tried-and-true framework for optimizing the customer journey, improving acquisition and retention, and going beyond what's expected to serve your clients well.

Francine Rodriguez

Manager of Customer Success, WordStream Let It Go: How to Embrace Automation and Get Way More Done

Let the robot uprising begin! We've all heard horror stories about the dangers of automating your tasks, but now is not the time to deny yourself extra help. Robots never sleep. They don't get tired or overwhelmed by their to-do lists, and they're ready to work round-the-clock to accomplish whatever task we set before them. In this talk, you'll explore all the areas were automation is kicking butt in PPC — and how you can harness the power of robots to make more time for other efforts.

Heather Physioc

Group Connections Director, Discoverability, VMLY&R Competitive Advantage in a Commoditized Industry

SEO isn't dead — it’s commoditized. In a world where search companies are a dime a dozen and brands tout bland "unique selling propositions" that aren't unique at all, how can you avoid drowning in the sea of sameness? What are you doing that's any different from every other SEO firm? In this talk, you'll learn how to find, activate, and articulate your competitive advantage. Learn how to identify unique strengths and innovative offerings that equate to competitive advantage through these real, working examples so you can bring them to life in search. You'll leave with actionable tips and homework to help your search business stand out — and that you can use with clients to help them find their competitive edge, too.

Izzi Smith

Technical SEO Analyst, Ryte How to Be Ahead of the (CTR) Curve

Let’s face it: Carrying out SEO magic is all in vain when you’re forgetting about how your brand and products are being surfaced in the SERPs. By not properly analyzing or enhancing our organic CTR, we're greatly limiting our potential. Izzi will help you create the perfect SERP engagement strategy by covering practical ways to uplift your significant CTR, such as remedying your critical keyword rankings that could soon be lost, leveraging brand-empowering entity features (and assessing the risks of doing so), more intelligent testing of rich & featured snippet optimizations, and a whole lot more. CTR-you-ready?? You better be!

Joy Hawkins

Owner, Sterling Sky Inc. Google My Business: Battling Bad Info & Safeguarding Your Search Strategy

What's the harm in a little misinformation here and there? In the realm of local SEO, Joy Hawkins is here to outline exactly that. When it comes to local search and Google My Business, it can be make or break for your campaigns. Follow real data from a recent case study that illustrates why strategic decisions should be based on accurate information — and what can happen when that info is bad, wrong, or just plain incomplete.

Mike King

Managing Director, iPullRank TBD

Mike redefined technical SEO and its importance in our industry back in 2016. In 2018, he taught us everything we didn't know about SEO. This year, he's back to share the hottest technical tactics to uplevel your efforts, plus the case studies and data that should be guiding your decisions.

Dr. Peter J. Meyers

Marketing Scientist, Moz Moving Targets: Keywords in Crisis

Too often, we take a once-and-done approach to keyword research, but Google changes at the pace of information, and that pace speeds up even more during a crisis. How do we do keyword research in fast-paced industries and during world-changing moments? Dr. Pete provides concrete tactics for adaptive keyword research and spotting trends as they happen.

Phil Nottingham

Brand and Video Marketing Strategist, Phil Nottingham Ltd. How to Build a Global Brand Without a Global Budget

As funnel-based marketing becomes less effective and harder to measure, "building a brand" is frequently touted as the panacea for all marketer's woes. But it's unclear how this can be achieved scalably and with a limited budget. Large enterprises resort to huge creative advertising campaigns that get their names out there by force of spend alone — but this isn't realistic for the smaller companies and the number of impressions is not the number of people impressed. In this session, Phil explains how modern brands are built through advocacy more than awareness alone, offering a deliverable method of brand marketing to radically shake up your content strategy.

Rob Ousbey

VP Product, Moz TBD

Rob is no stranger to the MozCon stage — he's graced it in the past as emcee, and in 2019 he covered the intimidating topic of running your own SEO tests (and how to do it right.) While we're still nailing down the details of his 2020 talk, we're confident that this year's topic will be every bit as impressively daunting.

Robin Lord

Consultant, Distilled Whatever You Do, Put Billboards in Seattle – Getting Brand Awareness Data from Google

How can you harness the vast power of Google data to gain special insight into city- and product-level brand awareness? Robin will lead us on a journey through his Google Trends methodology to use Adwords search volume data for better brand intelligence.

Ross Simmonds

CEO, Foundation Designing a Content Engine: Going from Ideation to Creation to Distribution

What does it take to develop a content engine that drives results? In this presentation, Ross will share data around the power of having a content engine, tools & strategies for content ideation, tools and tactics for content creation, and frameworks that brands can use to ensure that their content is distributed effectively after hitting publish. This presentation will help you not only uncover content-market fit, but also capitalize on it.

Russ Jones

Principal Search Scientist, Moz I Wanna Be Rich: Making Your Consultancy Profitable

How will your company weather the next update? How will you avoid layoffs and salary cuts? Being a master of SEO doesn't guarantee that your consultancy will succeed. After a decade and a half of experience, Russ Jones will outline the techniques that will keep your clients happy and your bottom line healthy.

Sarah Bird

CEO, Moz Welcome to MozCon Virtual + the State of the Industry

Sarah has a storied history of kicking MozCon off with a bright, sparkly bang. The fearless leader of Moz will be welcoming each and every one of us to this year's virtual event, laying out all the pertinent details of the conference, and setting the tone for two jam-packed days of learning with a look at the State of the Industry.

Shannon McGuirk

Head of PR & Content, Aira Great Expectations: The Truth About Digital PR Campaigns

In her talk, Shannon will challenge the desire for virality over consistency when it comes to digital PR and link building campaigns, while exploring the impact on the industry, team morale, and client expectations. By honestly sharing her own shortcomings, she'll push you to learn from your own campaign failures using tried and tested frameworks that’ll mean you can face any creative campaign or outreach struggle head-on.

Wil Reynolds

Founder & Vice President of Innovation, Seer InteractiveThe CMO Role Has Been Disrupted – Are You Ready for Your New Boss?

CMOs have the shortest tenure in the c-suite, and the CMO role has been eliminated at some of the largest brands. CEOs are now asking tougher and tougher questions about the value of marketing — and oftentimes marketers are not prepared.

Connecting your data and building your data flywheel is one way to support the swift answers CEOs expect from their CMOs. We need to get stronger at bridging our day-to-day work to the value it drives. And more than ever, “brand lift” isn’t enough to satisfy CEOs.

This presentation will start at the top. How businesses are run, how CEOs talk, and how we as search marketers can use the data we have access to everyday in new ways to answer the questions of the c-suite and raise our visibility and value in organizations.

We hope to see your smiling faces online in July!

Thanks to each and every one of you for your patience as we hammered out the details of this year's conference, for the questions you've asked and the honest feedback you've given us. We're super excited to try out something new this year! Join us this July for our first MozCon Virtual and let's explore the future of digital marketing together:

Yes, I'm going to MozCon!

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[whitelabelseoreseller]

The MozCon Virtual 2020 Initial Agenda

Posted by cheryldraper

It's the question that's been on plenty of people's minds: What's up with MozCon this year?

We're happy to report that 2020's MozCon is on like Donkey Kong, and as you can tell from its brand-new name, the format this year is just a tad bit different. MozCon 2020 is now MozCon Virtual, an online conference experience delivering every ounce of digital marketing expertise you expect in-person with the safety and security of social distancing at home.

Today, we're here to tell you all about it — changes, challenges, nitty-gritty details, who's speaking and what you'll learn, and more!

Here's the skinny on MozCon Virtual

MozCon Virtual will take place from the comfort of your at-home office space across July 14 & 15, 2020. Business on top, social distancing sweatpants on the bottom — you'll be cozier than ever while learning all the latest and greatest in the world of SEO.

Twenty-two industry thought leaders will walk you through the hottest topics of 2020, covering everything from SEO automation to modern content promotion to strategies for handling keyword research in the midst of a crisis. You'll see fondly familiar faces and exciting new names to the MozCon stage, and you can rest assured that we're keeping the bar as high as it's ever been for content quality.

Additionally, we know that budgets are tight right now. We want to do our part to help by making MozCon Virtual as accessible to everyone as we can. Tickets are now priced at $129. This also includes full access to the MozCon video bundle once it's released!

Save my spot at MozCon Virtual!

Changes, challenges, & nitty-gritty details

A note about transparency and making really hard decisions

We're not going to lie — organizing this year's MozCon was a challenge. As it became more and more clear that an in-person event was neither feasible nor responsible (not to mention illegal here in Washington state!), we had a relatively short window of time to pivot from a 1,600-attendee event that we ran year after year using a concrete, smooth-as-butter process, to the virtual unknown. (Pardon the pun.)

There were many, many meetings. There was research and projections and debate, and more than one idea changed form three or four times before it took shape.

In the end, it came down to what was best for our community. MozCon has never operated from a profit standpoint — most years we aim to break even — but even with the risk and cost associated with such a monumental change to the event, we knew the show must go on. SEO doesn't just stop. And right now, it's picking up speed: People are turning to the internet to solve their problems now more than ever before, and businesses of all stripes are depending on that online visibility to sustain them through hardship. SEOs and digital marketers still need access to cutting-edge thought leadership, techniques, and strategies, and MozCon can deliver — even if it means we only get to daydream about all the high fives, fist bumps, and Roger hugs.

Not your typical marketing couchference

It was important that we find ways to maintain that special MozCon magic that makes folks excited to wake up extra early on a Monday morning, don their conference badge, and skip happily to the Washington State Convention Center for a day full of educational goodness.

We're gonna miss the snacks — that's just the truth. Doughnuts and coffee aside, we've energized our virtual conference with that snazzy MozCon spirit you look forward to every year:

The highest caliber speakers and topics in town: Twenty-two of digital marketing's top experts will share their very best advice, strategies, tactics, and research over two jam-packed days of learning. You'll have all their decks available for download, and the new choice of attending the talks that most interest you.

Friendly neighborhood Mozzers emceeing the event: MozCon stage superstars Cyrus Shepard and Britney Muller will keep the sparkle going between session.

Interactive Q&A with the experts: You'll be able to participate in live Q&A sessions with speakers to answer your most burning digital marketing questions and quandaries.

Virtual networking with Birds of a Feather breakout sessions: Birds of a Feather tables are a lunchtime hit every single year. And we've heard your feedback: networking is a huge part of the MozCon experience. That's why we're introducing Birds of a Feather virtual discussions — a special online experience where you'll be able to join expert-hosted events, connect with like-minded marketers, and forge professional relationships through the magic of the internet.

Charitable donations: Our belief in giving back hasn't changed just because we're going online. For every ticket sold we'll be making a donation, with more details to come as we draw closer to showtime.

Awesome partners: MozCon is fortunate to have the support of our fantastic sponsors who have stuck with us through all the changes this year. They'll be sharing their expertise in special hosted breakout groups. Curious about who our partners are? Check them out: 97th Floor, Base Search Marketing, CallRail, Crowd Content, Duda, GatherUp, and PAGES!

Two days chock full of conference goodness

We know it's tough to take a full three days away from your day job, so we're approaching MozCon Virtual with multi-track options to let attendees choose their own conference adventure — with full access to every talk via the MozCon video bundle once the conference is over.

A global experience at a more accessible price

We're streaming MozCon!

Every year we've heard our community ask: I can't make the trip. Will you be streaming MozCon? To our friends around the world, we're glad to be able to answer yes — this year, MozCon will be fully available to remote attendees. While those in particularly opposite timezones may be enjoying the show in your jammies, for the first time MozCon will serve you on your sofa. And you won't miss out on a single session — every ticket holder will have full access to the MozCon video bundle after the event, meaning you can re-watch your favorites and catch up on any you missed.

MozCon quality at a price more folks can afford: Tickets are now $129

We've lowered the price to attend this year's conference for a couple of reasons.

One, while there are still some pretty significant costs to throwing a large virtual conference, those costs don't include some of our biggest-ticket items, such as a conference space and food & beverage. Delicious treats and comfy seats are a real investment!

And two, times are really darn tough right now. We know agencies, brands, and freelancers are struggling in the midst of the economic downturn, and that it's more important than ever to hone skills and build new ones. We originally lowered ticket prices by about 40%. Then, based on community feedback and suggestions, we decided to forego the idea of shipping out swag and snacks and lowered them again — to the tune of $129.

Every MozCon ticket purchased also includes full access to the MozCon video bundle, a $349 value. Our video bundles are professionally produced and fully shareable with your team, so you can keep the learning going throughout the rest of the year and revisit the talks that mattered most.

Register for MozCon Virtual

Initial agenda

Ready to explore what we've got planned for this year? Check out our current speakers and topics — and stay tuned for more information as the agenda evolves!

Alexis Sanders

Senior SEO Account Manager, Merkle The Science of Seeking Your Customer

Users are at the core of everything we do in modern SEO. However, finding and understanding audiences can be daunting. Alexis will cover how to find your audience, share tools that are available for all price points, and show ways in which she’s found audience research to be useful as an SEO.

Andy Crestodina

Co-founder and CMO, Orbit Media Thought Leadership and SEO: The 3 Key Elements and Search Ranking Strategies

Everyone wants to do it, but no one really knows what it is. So what is thought leadership? What isn’t it? And how does it affect search rankings?

This presentation is a data-rich perspective on the oh-so-popular topic of thought leadership, filled with practical takeaways for becoming an authority. And it’s all about the relationship between thought leadership and SEO. We’ll see how the research answers the questions and informs the tactics: Can brands be thought leaders? Can it be outsourced? Do you need to publish research? Or strong opinion? And how does it attract links and authority, rankings, and qualified visitors? Learn how a personal brand combines with content to drive big wins in SEO.

Britney Muller

Senior SEO Scientist, Moz TBD

Last year, Britney wowed the crowd with a bevy of new research, data, and actionable tactics for understanding and winning featured snippets. We're still piecing together all the intricate details of this year's talk, so keep an ear to the ground as we continue to evolve our agenda!

Brian Dean

Founder, Backlinko How to Promote Your Content Like a Boss

Creating content is easy. But getting people to see your content? That's a different story. Brian Dean shares over a dozen practical strategies that you can use to spread the word about your latest blog post, podcast episode, or YouTube video.

Casie Gillette

Senior Director of Digital, KoMarketing Counterintuitive Content: How New Trends Have Disrupted Years of Bad Advice

Content marketers don't have it easy. We're constantly adapting to our ever-shifting landscape and juggling an overwhelming amount of information and advice: Do we produce as much content as possible? Should we focus on quality, while still maintaining consistent schedules? And now, what about YouTube, voice search, and even TikTok?

The fact is, there's no one way to do content marketing. Casie will showcase content in an entirely new light, with ideas and tips on how you can start creating content on your own terms.

Dana DiTomaso

President and partner, Kick Point TBD

MozCon veterans know the value and vibrancy Dana brings to the stage, and this year will be no exception. Be on the lookout for juicy details about her 2020 talk — we can't wait to share.

David Sottimano

VP, Keyphraseology Everyday Automation for Marketers

As a general rule, we shouldn't be doing things that a computer can do better. However, a lot of automation is achieved through programming expertise — and that expertise isn't usually a marketer's forte. In this session, you'll learn how to gather data, use machine learning, and automate everyday tasks for marketers using low-code or no-code solutions.

Flavilla Fongang

Brand Strategist, 3 Colours Rule How to Go Beyond Marketing for Clients: The Value of a Thriving Brand Ecosystem

Too many marketers serve their clients the bare minimum of what's expected from an agency. To stand out among the crowd, cultivate real loyalty, and maximize the lifetime value of your clients, you have to go beyond mere marketing — developing a thriving brand ecosystem that aligns with the brand's ultimate goals. Flavilla Fongang shares her tried-and-true framework for optimizing the customer journey, improving acquisition and retention, and going beyond what's expected to serve your clients well.

Francine Rodriguez

Manager of Customer Success, WordStream Let It Go: How to Embrace Automation and Get Way More Done

Let the robot uprising begin! We've all heard horror stories about the dangers of automating your tasks, but now is not the time to deny yourself extra help. Robots never sleep. They don't get tired or overwhelmed by their to-do lists, and they're ready to work round-the-clock to accomplish whatever task we set before them. In this talk, you'll explore all the areas were automation is kicking butt in PPC — and how you can harness the power of robots to make more time for other efforts.

Heather Physioc

Group Connections Director, Discoverability, VMLY&R Competitive Advantage in a Commoditized Industry

SEO isn't dead — it’s commoditized. In a world where search companies are a dime a dozen and brands tout bland "unique selling propositions" that aren't unique at all, how can you avoid drowning in the sea of sameness? What are you doing that's any different from every other SEO firm? In this talk, you'll learn how to find, activate, and articulate your competitive advantage. Learn how to identify unique strengths and innovative offerings that equate to competitive advantage through these real, working examples so you can bring them to life in search. You'll leave with actionable tips and homework to help your search business stand out — and that you can use with clients to help them find their competitive edge, too.

Izzi Smith

Technical SEO Analyst, Ryte How to Be Ahead of the (CTR) Curve

Let’s face it: Carrying out SEO magic is all in vain when you’re forgetting about how your brand and products are being surfaced in the SERPs. By not properly analyzing or enhancing our organic CTR, we're greatly limiting our potential. Izzi will help you create the perfect SERP engagement strategy by covering practical ways to uplift your significant CTR, such as remedying your critical keyword rankings that could soon be lost, leveraging brand-empowering entity features (and assessing the risks of doing so), more intelligent testing of rich & featured snippet optimizations, and a whole lot more. CTR-you-ready?? You better be!

Joy Hawkins

Owner, Sterling Sky Inc. Google My Business: Battling Bad Info & Safeguarding Your Search Strategy

What's the harm in a little misinformation here and there? In the realm of local SEO, Joy Hawkins is here to outline exactly that. When it comes to local search and Google My Business, it can be make or break for your campaigns. Follow real data from a recent case study that illustrates why strategic decisions should be based on accurate information — and what can happen when that info is bad, wrong, or just plain incomplete.

Mike King

Managing Director, iPullRank TBD

Mike redefined technical SEO and its importance in our industry back in 2016. In 2018, he taught us everything we didn't know about SEO. This year, he's back to share the hottest technical tactics to uplevel your efforts, plus the case studies and data that should be guiding your decisions.

Dr. Peter J. Meyers

Marketing Scientist, Moz Moving Targets: Keywords in Crisis

Too often, we take a once-and-done approach to keyword research, but Google changes at the pace of information, and that pace speeds up even more during a crisis. How do we do keyword research in fast-paced industries and during world-changing moments? Dr. Pete provides concrete tactics for adaptive keyword research and spotting trends as they happen.

Phil Nottingham

Brand and Video Marketing Strategist, Phil Nottingham Ltd. How to Build a Global Brand Without a Global Budget

As funnel-based marketing becomes less effective and harder to measure, "building a brand" is frequently touted as the panacea for all marketer's woes. But it's unclear how this can be achieved scalably and with a limited budget. Large enterprises resort to huge creative advertising campaigns that get their names out there by force of spend alone — but this isn't realistic for the smaller companies and the number of impressions is not the number of people impressed. In this session, Phil explains how modern brands are built through advocacy more than awareness alone, offering a deliverable method of brand marketing to radically shake up your content strategy.

Rob Ousbey

VP Product, Moz TBD

Rob is no stranger to the MozCon stage — he's graced it in the past as emcee, and in 2019 he covered the intimidating topic of running your own SEO tests (and how to do it right.) While we're still nailing down the details of his 2020 talk, we're confident that this year's topic will be every bit as impressively daunting.

Robin Lord

Consultant, Distilled Whatever You Do, Put Billboards in Seattle – Getting Brand Awareness Data from Google

How can you harness the vast power of Google data to gain special insight into city- and product-level brand awareness? Robin will lead us on a journey through his Google Trends methodology to use Adwords search volume data for better brand intelligence.

Ross Simmonds

CEO, Foundation Designing a Content Engine: Going from Ideation to Creation to Distribution

What does it take to develop a content engine that drives results? In this presentation, Ross will share data around the power of having a content engine, tools & strategies for content ideation, tools and tactics for content creation, and frameworks that brands can use to ensure that their content is distributed effectively after hitting publish. This presentation will help you not only uncover content-market fit, but also capitalize on it.

Russ Jones

Principal Search Scientist, Moz I Wanna Be Rich: Making Your Consultancy Profitable

How will your company weather the next update? How will you avoid layoffs and salary cuts? Being a master of SEO doesn't guarantee that your consultancy will succeed. After a decade and a half of experience, Russ Jones will outline the techniques that will keep your clients happy and your bottom line healthy.

Sarah Bird

CEO, Moz Welcome to MozCon Virtual + the State of the Industry

Sarah has a storied history of kicking MozCon off with a bright, sparkly bang. The fearless leader of Moz will be welcoming each and every one of us to this year's virtual event, laying out all the pertinent details of the conference, and setting the tone for two jam-packed days of learning with a look at the State of the Industry.

Shannon McGuirk

Head of PR & Content, Aira Great Expectations: The Truth About Digital PR Campaigns

In her talk, Shannon will challenge the desire for virality over consistency when it comes to digital PR and link building campaigns, while exploring the impact on the industry, team morale, and client expectations. By honestly sharing her own shortcomings, she'll push you to learn from your own campaign failures using tried and tested frameworks that’ll mean you can face any creative campaign or outreach struggle head-on.

Wil Reynolds

Founder & Vice President of Innovation, Seer InteractiveThe CMO Role Has Been Disrupted – Are You Ready for Your New Boss?

CMOs have the shortest tenure in the c-suite, and the CMO role has been eliminated at some of the largest brands. CEOs are now asking tougher and tougher questions about the value of marketing — and oftentimes marketers are not prepared.

Connecting your data and building your data flywheel is one way to support the swift answers CEOs expect from their CMOs. We need to get stronger at bridging our day-to-day work to the value it drives. And more than ever, “brand lift” isn’t enough to satisfy CEOs.

This presentation will start at the top. How businesses are run, how CEOs talk, and how we as search marketers can use the data we have access to everyday in new ways to answer the questions of the c-suite and raise our visibility and value in organizations.

We hope to see your smiling faces online in July!

Thanks to each and every one of you for your patience as we hammered out the details of this year's conference, for the questions you've asked and the honest feedback you've given us. We're super excited to try out something new this year! Join us this July for our first MozCon Virtual and let's explore the future of digital marketing together:

Yes, I'm going to MozCon!

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

from The Moz Blog http://tracking.feedpress.it/link/9375/13562012

[drummcarpentry]

The MozCon Virtual 2020 Initial Agenda

Posted by cheryldraper

It's the question that's been on plenty of people's minds: What's up with MozCon this year?

We're happy to report that 2020's MozCon is on like Donkey Kong, and as you can tell from its brand-new name, the format this year is just a tad bit different. MozCon 2020 is now MozCon Virtual, an online conference experience delivering every ounce of digital marketing expertise you expect in-person with the safety and security of social distancing at home.

Today, we're here to tell you all about it — changes, challenges, nitty-gritty details, who's speaking and what you'll learn, and more!

Here's the skinny on MozCon Virtual

MozCon Virtual will take place from the comfort of your at-home office space across July 14 & 15, 2020. Business on top, social distancing sweatpants on the bottom — you'll be cozier than ever while learning all the latest and greatest in the world of SEO.

Twenty-two industry thought leaders will walk you through the hottest topics of 2020, covering everything from SEO automation to modern content promotion to strategies for handling keyword research in the midst of a crisis. You'll see fondly familiar faces and exciting new names to the MozCon stage, and you can rest assured that we're keeping the bar as high as it's ever been for content quality.

Additionally, we know that budgets are tight right now. We want to do our part to help by making MozCon Virtual as accessible to everyone as we can. Tickets are now priced at $129. This also includes full access to the MozCon video bundle once it's released!

Save my spot at MozCon Virtual!

Changes, challenges, & nitty-gritty details

A note about transparency and making really hard decisions

We're not going to lie — organizing this year's MozCon was a challenge. As it became more and more clear that an in-person event was neither feasible nor responsible (not to mention illegal here in Washington state!), we had a relatively short window of time to pivot from a 1,600-attendee event that we ran year after year using a concrete, smooth-as-butter process, to the virtual unknown. (Pardon the pun.)

There were many, many meetings. There was research and projections and debate, and more than one idea changed form three or four times before it took shape.

In the end, it came down to what was best for our community. MozCon has never operated from a profit standpoint — most years we aim to break even — but even with the risk and cost associated with such a monumental change to the event, we knew the show must go on. SEO doesn't just stop. And right now, it's picking up speed: People are turning to the internet to solve their problems now more than ever before, and businesses of all stripes are depending on that online visibility to sustain them through hardship. SEOs and digital marketers still need access to cutting-edge thought leadership, techniques, and strategies, and MozCon can deliver — even if it means we only get to daydream about all the high fives, fist bumps, and Roger hugs.

Not your typical marketing couchference

It was important that we find ways to maintain that special MozCon magic that makes folks excited to wake up extra early on a Monday morning, don their conference badge, and skip happily to the Washington State Convention Center for a day full of educational goodness.

We're gonna miss the snacks — that's just the truth. Doughnuts and coffee aside, we've energized our virtual conference with that snazzy MozCon spirit you look forward to every year:

The highest caliber speakers and topics in town: Twenty-two of digital marketing's top experts will share their very best advice, strategies, tactics, and research over two jam-packed days of learning. You'll have all their decks available for download, and the new choice of attending the talks that most interest you.

Friendly neighborhood Mozzers emceeing the event: MozCon stage superstars Cyrus Shepard and Britney Muller will keep the sparkle going between session.

Interactive Q&A with the experts: You'll be able to participate in live Q&A sessions with speakers to answer your most burning digital marketing questions and quandaries.

Virtual networking with Birds of a Feather breakout sessions: Birds of a Feather tables are a lunchtime hit every single year. And we've heard your feedback: networking is a huge part of the MozCon experience. That's why we're introducing Birds of a Feather virtual discussions — a special online experience where you'll be able to join expert-hosted events, connect with like-minded marketers, and forge professional relationships through the magic of the internet.

Charitable donations: Our belief in giving back hasn't changed just because we're going online. For every ticket sold we'll be making a donation, with more details to come as we draw closer to showtime.

Awesome partners: MozCon is fortunate to have the support of our fantastic sponsors who have stuck with us through all the changes this year. They'll be sharing their expertise in special hosted breakout groups. Curious about who our partners are? Check them out: 97th Floor, Base Search Marketing, CallRail, Crowd Content, Duda, GatherUp, and PAGES!

Two days chock full of conference goodness

We know it's tough to take a full three days away from your day job, so we're approaching MozCon Virtual with multi-track options to let attendees choose their own conference adventure — with full access to every talk via the MozCon video bundle once the conference is over.

A global experience at a more accessible price

We're streaming MozCon!

Every year we've heard our community ask: I can't make the trip. Will you be streaming MozCon? To our friends around the world, we're glad to be able to answer yes — this year, MozCon will be fully available to remote attendees. While those in particularly opposite timezones may be enjoying the show in your jammies, for the first time MozCon will serve you on your sofa. And you won't miss out on a single session — every ticket holder will have full access to the MozCon video bundle after the event, meaning you can re-watch your favorites and catch up on any you missed.

MozCon quality at a price more folks can afford: Tickets are now $129

We've lowered the price to attend this year's conference for a couple of reasons.

One, while there are still some pretty significant costs to throwing a large virtual conference, those costs don't include some of our biggest-ticket items, such as a conference space and food & beverage. Delicious treats and comfy seats are a real investment!

And two, times are really darn tough right now. We know agencies, brands, and freelancers are struggling in the midst of the economic downturn, and that it's more important than ever to hone skills and build new ones. We originally lowered ticket prices by about 40%. Then, based on community feedback and suggestions, we decided to forego the idea of shipping out swag and snacks and lowered them again — to the tune of $129.

Every MozCon ticket purchased also includes full access to the MozCon video bundle, a $349 value. Our video bundles are professionally produced and fully shareable with your team, so you can keep the learning going throughout the rest of the year and revisit the talks that mattered most.

Register for MozCon Virtual

Initial agenda

Ready to explore what we've got planned for this year? Check out our current speakers and topics — and stay tuned for more information as the agenda evolves!

Alexis Sanders

Senior SEO Account Manager, Merkle The Science of Seeking Your Customer

Users are at the core of everything we do in modern SEO. However, finding and understanding audiences can be daunting. Alexis will cover how to find your audience, share tools that are available for all price points, and show ways in which she’s found audience research to be useful as an SEO.

Andy Crestodina

Co-founder and CMO, Orbit Media Thought Leadership and SEO: The 3 Key Elements and Search Ranking Strategies

Everyone wants to do it, but no one really knows what it is. So what is thought leadership? What isn’t it? And how does it affect search rankings?

This presentation is a data-rich perspective on the oh-so-popular topic of thought leadership, filled with practical takeaways for becoming an authority. And it’s all about the relationship between thought leadership and SEO. We’ll see how the research answers the questions and informs the tactics: Can brands be thought leaders? Can it be outsourced? Do you need to publish research? Or strong opinion? And how does it attract links and authority, rankings, and qualified visitors? Learn how a personal brand combines with content to drive big wins in SEO.

Britney Muller

Senior SEO Scientist, Moz TBD

Last year, Britney wowed the crowd with a bevy of new research, data, and actionable tactics for understanding and winning featured snippets. We're still piecing together all the intricate details of this year's talk, so keep an ear to the ground as we continue to evolve our agenda!

Brian Dean

Founder, Backlinko How to Promote Your Content Like a Boss

Creating content is easy. But getting people to see your content? That's a different story. Brian Dean shares over a dozen practical strategies that you can use to spread the word about your latest blog post, podcast episode, or YouTube video.

Casie Gillette

Senior Director of Digital, KoMarketing Counterintuitive Content: How New Trends Have Disrupted Years of Bad Advice

Content marketers don't have it easy. We're constantly adapting to our ever-shifting landscape and juggling an overwhelming amount of information and advice: Do we produce as much content as possible? Should we focus on quality, while still maintaining consistent schedules? And now, what about YouTube, voice search, and even TikTok?

The fact is, there's no one way to do content marketing. Casie will showcase content in an entirely new light, with ideas and tips on how you can start creating content on your own terms.

Dana DiTomaso

President and partner, Kick Point TBD

MozCon veterans know the value and vibrancy Dana brings to the stage, and this year will be no exception. Be on the lookout for juicy details about her 2020 talk — we can't wait to share.

David Sottimano

VP, Keyphraseology Everyday Automation for Marketers

As a general rule, we shouldn't be doing things that a computer can do better. However, a lot of automation is achieved through programming expertise — and that expertise isn't usually a marketer's forte. In this session, you'll learn how to gather data, use machine learning, and automate everyday tasks for marketers using low-code or no-code solutions.

Flavilla Fongang

Brand Strategist, 3 Colours Rule How to Go Beyond Marketing for Clients: The Value of a Thriving Brand Ecosystem

Too many marketers serve their clients the bare minimum of what's expected from an agency. To stand out among the crowd, cultivate real loyalty, and maximize the lifetime value of your clients, you have to go beyond mere marketing — developing a thriving brand ecosystem that aligns with the brand's ultimate goals. Flavilla Fongang shares her tried-and-true framework for optimizing the customer journey, improving acquisition and retention, and going beyond what's expected to serve your clients well.

Francine Rodriguez

Manager of Customer Success, WordStream Let It Go: How to Embrace Automation and Get Way More Done

Let the robot uprising begin! We've all heard horror stories about the dangers of automating your tasks, but now is not the time to deny yourself extra help. Robots never sleep. They don't get tired or overwhelmed by their to-do lists, and they're ready to work round-the-clock to accomplish whatever task we set before them. In this talk, you'll explore all the areas were automation is kicking butt in PPC — and how you can harness the power of robots to make more time for other efforts.

Heather Physioc

Group Connections Director, Discoverability, VMLY&R Competitive Advantage in a Commoditized Industry

SEO isn't dead — it’s commoditized. In a world where search companies are a dime a dozen and brands tout bland "unique selling propositions" that aren't unique at all, how can you avoid drowning in the sea of sameness? What are you doing that's any different from every other SEO firm? In this talk, you'll learn how to find, activate, and articulate your competitive advantage. Learn how to identify unique strengths and innovative offerings that equate to competitive advantage through these real, working examples so you can bring them to life in search. You'll leave with actionable tips and homework to help your search business stand out — and that you can use with clients to help them find their competitive edge, too.

Izzi Smith

Technical SEO Analyst, Ryte How to Be Ahead of the (CTR) Curve

Let’s face it: Carrying out SEO magic is all in vain when you’re forgetting about how your brand and products are being surfaced in the SERPs. By not properly analyzing or enhancing our organic CTR, we're greatly limiting our potential. Izzi will help you create the perfect SERP engagement strategy by covering practical ways to uplift your significant CTR, such as remedying your critical keyword rankings that could soon be lost, leveraging brand-empowering entity features (and assessing the risks of doing so), more intelligent testing of rich & featured snippet optimizations, and a whole lot more. CTR-you-ready?? You better be!

Joy Hawkins

Owner, Sterling Sky Inc. Google My Business: Battling Bad Info & Safeguarding Your Search Strategy

What's the harm in a little misinformation here and there? In the realm of local SEO, Joy Hawkins is here to outline exactly that. When it comes to local search and Google My Business, it can be make or break for your campaigns. Follow real data from a recent case study that illustrates why strategic decisions should be based on accurate information — and what can happen when that info is bad, wrong, or just plain incomplete.

Mike King

Managing Director, iPullRank TBD

Mike redefined technical SEO and its importance in our industry back in 2016. In 2018, he taught us everything we didn't know about SEO. This year, he's back to share the hottest technical tactics to uplevel your efforts, plus the case studies and data that should be guiding your decisions.

Dr. Peter J. Meyers

Marketing Scientist, Moz Moving Targets: Keywords in Crisis

Too often, we take a once-and-done approach to keyword research, but Google changes at the pace of information, and that pace speeds up even more during a crisis. How do we do keyword research in fast-paced industries and during world-changing moments? Dr. Pete provides concrete tactics for adaptive keyword research and spotting trends as they happen.

Phil Nottingham

Brand and Video Marketing Strategist, Phil Nottingham Ltd. How to Build a Global Brand Without a Global Budget

As funnel-based marketing becomes less effective and harder to measure, "building a brand" is frequently touted as the panacea for all marketer's woes. But it's unclear how this can be achieved scalably and with a limited budget. Large enterprises resort to huge creative advertising campaigns that get their names out there by force of spend alone — but this isn't realistic for the smaller companies and the number of impressions is not the number of people impressed. In this session, Phil explains how modern brands are built through advocacy more than awareness alone, offering a deliverable method of brand marketing to radically shake up your content strategy.

Rob Ousbey

VP Product, Moz TBD

Rob is no stranger to the MozCon stage — he's graced it in the past as emcee, and in 2019 he covered the intimidating topic of running your own SEO tests (and how to do it right.) While we're still nailing down the details of his 2020 talk, we're confident that this year's topic will be every bit as impressively daunting.

Robin Lord

Consultant, Distilled Whatever You Do, Put Billboards in Seattle – Getting Brand Awareness Data from Google

How can you harness the vast power of Google data to gain special insight into city- and product-level brand awareness? Robin will lead us on a journey through his Google Trends methodology to use Adwords search volume data for better brand intelligence.

Ross Simmonds

CEO, Foundation Designing a Content Engine: Going from Ideation to Creation to Distribution

What does it take to develop a content engine that drives results? In this presentation, Ross will share data around the power of having a content engine, tools & strategies for content ideation, tools and tactics for content creation, and frameworks that brands can use to ensure that their content is distributed effectively after hitting publish. This presentation will help you not only uncover content-market fit, but also capitalize on it.

Russ Jones

Principal Search Scientist, Moz I Wanna Be Rich: Making Your Consultancy Profitable

How will your company weather the next update? How will you avoid layoffs and salary cuts? Being a master of SEO doesn't guarantee that your consultancy will succeed. After a decade and a half of experience, Russ Jones will outline the techniques that will keep your clients happy and your bottom line healthy.

Sarah Bird

CEO, Moz Welcome to MozCon Virtual + the State of the Industry

Sarah has a storied history of kicking MozCon off with a bright, sparkly bang. The fearless leader of Moz will be welcoming each and every one of us to this year's virtual event, laying out all the pertinent details of the conference, and setting the tone for two jam-packed days of learning with a look at the State of the Industry.

Shannon McGuirk

Head of PR & Content, Aira Great Expectations: The Truth About Digital PR Campaigns

In her talk, Shannon will challenge the desire for virality over consistency when it comes to digital PR and link building campaigns, while exploring the impact on the industry, team morale, and client expectations. By honestly sharing her own shortcomings, she'll push you to learn from your own campaign failures using tried and tested frameworks that’ll mean you can face any creative campaign or outreach struggle head-on.

Wil Reynolds

Founder & Vice President of Innovation, Seer InteractiveThe CMO Role Has Been Disrupted – Are You Ready for Your New Boss?

CMOs have the shortest tenure in the c-suite, and the CMO role has been eliminated at some of the largest brands. CEOs are now asking tougher and tougher questions about the value of marketing — and oftentimes marketers are not prepared.

Connecting your data and building your data flywheel is one way to support the swift answers CEOs expect from their CMOs. We need to get stronger at bridging our day-to-day work to the value it drives. And more than ever, “brand lift” isn’t enough to satisfy CEOs.

This presentation will start at the top. How businesses are run, how CEOs talk, and how we as search marketers can use the data we have access to everyday in new ways to answer the questions of the c-suite and raise our visibility and value in organizations.

We hope to see your smiling faces online in July!

Thanks to each and every one of you for your patience as we hammered out the details of this year's conference, for the questions you've asked and the honest feedback you've given us. We're super excited to try out something new this year! Join us this July for our first MozCon Virtual and let's explore the future of digital marketing together:

Yes, I'm going to MozCon!

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

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The MozCon Virtual 2020 Initial Agenda

Posted by cheryldraper

It's the question that's been on plenty of people's minds: What's up with MozCon this year?

We're happy to report that 2020's MozCon is on like Donkey Kong, and as you can tell from its brand-new name, the format this year is just a tad bit different. MozCon 2020 is now MozCon Virtual, an online conference experience delivering every ounce of digital marketing expertise you expect in-person with the safety and security of social distancing at home.

Today, we're here to tell you all about it — changes, challenges, nitty-gritty details, who's speaking and what you'll learn, and more!

Here's the skinny on MozCon Virtual

MozCon Virtual will take place from the comfort of your at-home office space across July 14 & 15, 2020. Business on top, social distancing sweatpants on the bottom — you'll be cozier than ever while learning all the latest and greatest in the world of SEO.

Twenty-two industry thought leaders will walk you through the hottest topics of 2020, covering everything from SEO automation to modern content promotion to strategies for handling keyword research in the midst of a crisis. You'll see fondly familiar faces and exciting new names to the MozCon stage, and you can rest assured that we're keeping the bar as high as it's ever been for content quality.

Additionally, we know that budgets are tight right now. We want to do our part to help by making MozCon Virtual as accessible to everyone as we can. Tickets are now priced at $129. This also includes full access to the MozCon video bundle once it's released!

Save my spot at MozCon Virtual!

Changes, challenges, & nitty-gritty details

A note about transparency and making really hard decisions

We're not going to lie — organizing this year's MozCon was a challenge. As it became more and more clear that an in-person event was neither feasible nor responsible (not to mention illegal here in Washington state!), we had a relatively short window of time to pivot from a 1,600-attendee event that we ran year after year using a concrete, smooth-as-butter process, to the virtual unknown. (Pardon the pun.)

There were many, many meetings. There was research and projections and debate, and more than one idea changed form three or four times before it took shape.

In the end, it came down to what was best for our community. MozCon has never operated from a profit standpoint — most years we aim to break even — but even with the risk and cost associated with such a monumental change to the event, we knew the show must go on. SEO doesn't just stop. And right now, it's picking up speed: People are turning to the internet to solve their problems now more than ever before, and businesses of all stripes are depending on that online visibility to sustain them through hardship. SEOs and digital marketers still need access to cutting-edge thought leadership, techniques, and strategies, and MozCon can deliver — even if it means we only get to daydream about all the high fives, fist bumps, and Roger hugs.

Not your typical marketing couchference

It was important that we find ways to maintain that special MozCon magic that makes folks excited to wake up extra early on a Monday morning, don their conference badge, and skip happily to the Washington State Convention Center for a day full of educational goodness.

We're gonna miss the snacks — that's just the truth. Doughnuts and coffee aside, we've energized our virtual conference with that snazzy MozCon spirit you look forward to every year:

The highest caliber speakers and topics in town: Twenty-two of digital marketing's top experts will share their very best advice, strategies, tactics, and research over two jam-packed days of learning. You'll have all their decks available for download, and the new choice of attending the talks that most interest you.

Friendly neighborhood Mozzers emceeing the event: MozCon stage superstars Cyrus Shepard and Britney Muller will keep the sparkle going between session.

Interactive Q&A with the experts: You'll be able to participate in live Q&A sessions with speakers to answer your most burning digital marketing questions and quandaries.

Virtual networking with Birds of a Feather breakout sessions: Birds of a Feather tables are a lunchtime hit every single year. And we've heard your feedback: networking is a huge part of the MozCon experience. That's why we're introducing Birds of a Feather virtual discussions — a special online experience where you'll be able to join expert-hosted events, connect with like-minded marketers, and forge professional relationships through the magic of the internet.

Charitable donations: Our belief in giving back hasn't changed just because we're going online. For every ticket sold we'll be making a donation, with more details to come as we draw closer to showtime.

Awesome partners: MozCon is fortunate to have the support of our fantastic sponsors who have stuck with us through all the changes this year. They'll be sharing their expertise in special hosted breakout groups. Curious about who our partners are? Check them out: 97th Floor, Base Search Marketing, CallRail, Crowd Content, Duda, GatherUp, and PAGES!

Two days chock full of conference goodness

We know it's tough to take a full three days away from your day job, so we're approaching MozCon Virtual with multi-track options to let attendees choose their own conference adventure — with full access to every talk via the MozCon video bundle once the conference is over.

A global experience at a more accessible price

We're streaming MozCon!

Every year we've heard our community ask: I can't make the trip. Will you be streaming MozCon? To our friends around the world, we're glad to be able to answer yes — this year, MozCon will be fully available to remote attendees. While those in particularly opposite timezones may be enjoying the show in your jammies, for the first time MozCon will serve you on your sofa. And you won't miss out on a single session — every ticket holder will have full access to the MozCon video bundle after the event, meaning you can re-watch your favorites and catch up on any you missed.

MozCon quality at a price more folks can afford: Tickets are now $129

We've lowered the price to attend this year's conference for a couple of reasons.

One, while there are still some pretty significant costs to throwing a large virtual conference, those costs don't include some of our biggest-ticket items, such as a conference space and food & beverage. Delicious treats and comfy seats are a real investment!

And two, times are really darn tough right now. We know agencies, brands, and freelancers are struggling in the midst of the economic downturn, and that it's more important than ever to hone skills and build new ones. We originally lowered ticket prices by about 40%. Then, based on community feedback and suggestions, we decided to forego the idea of shipping out swag and snacks and lowered them again — to the tune of $129.

Every MozCon ticket purchased also includes full access to the MozCon video bundle, a $349 value. Our video bundles are professionally produced and fully shareable with your team, so you can keep the learning going throughout the rest of the year and revisit the talks that mattered most.

Register for MozCon Virtual

Initial agenda

Ready to explore what we've got planned for this year? Check out our current speakers and topics — and stay tuned for more information as the agenda evolves!

Alexis Sanders

Senior SEO Account Manager, Merkle The Science of Seeking Your Customer

Users are at the core of everything we do in modern SEO. However, finding and understanding audiences can be daunting. Alexis will cover how to find your audience, share tools that are available for all price points, and show ways in which she’s found audience research to be useful as an SEO.

Andy Crestodina

Co-founder and CMO, Orbit Media Thought Leadership and SEO: The 3 Key Elements and Search Ranking Strategies

Everyone wants to do it, but no one really knows what it is. So what is thought leadership? What isn’t it? And how does it affect search rankings?

This presentation is a data-rich perspective on the oh-so-popular topic of thought leadership, filled with practical takeaways for becoming an authority. And it’s all about the relationship between thought leadership and SEO. We’ll see how the research answers the questions and informs the tactics: Can brands be thought leaders? Can it be outsourced? Do you need to publish research? Or strong opinion? And how does it attract links and authority, rankings, and qualified visitors? Learn how a personal brand combines with content to drive big wins in SEO.

Britney Muller

Senior SEO Scientist, Moz TBD

Last year, Britney wowed the crowd with a bevy of new research, data, and actionable tactics for understanding and winning featured snippets. We're still piecing together all the intricate details of this year's talk, so keep an ear to the ground as we continue to evolve our agenda!

Brian Dean

Founder, Backlinko How to Promote Your Content Like a Boss

Creating content is easy. But getting people to see your content? That's a different story. Brian Dean shares over a dozen practical strategies that you can use to spread the word about your latest blog post, podcast episode, or YouTube video.

Casie Gillette

Senior Director of Digital, KoMarketing Counterintuitive Content: How New Trends Have Disrupted Years of Bad Advice

Content marketers don't have it easy. We're constantly adapting to our ever-shifting landscape and juggling an overwhelming amount of information and advice: Do we produce as much content as possible? Should we focus on quality, while still maintaining consistent schedules? And now, what about YouTube, voice search, and even TikTok?

The fact is, there's no one way to do content marketing. Casie will showcase content in an entirely new light, with ideas and tips on how you can start creating content on your own terms.

Dana DiTomaso

President and partner, Kick Point TBD

MozCon veterans know the value and vibrancy Dana brings to the stage, and this year will be no exception. Be on the lookout for juicy details about her 2020 talk — we can't wait to share.

David Sottimano

VP, Keyphraseology Everyday Automation for Marketers

As a general rule, we shouldn't be doing things that a computer can do better. However, a lot of automation is achieved through programming expertise — and that expertise isn't usually a marketer's forte. In this session, you'll learn how to gather data, use machine learning, and automate everyday tasks for marketers using low-code or no-code solutions.

Flavilla Fongang

Brand Strategist, 3 Colours Rule How to Go Beyond Marketing for Clients: The Value of a Thriving Brand Ecosystem

Too many marketers serve their clients the bare minimum of what's expected from an agency. To stand out among the crowd, cultivate real loyalty, and maximize the lifetime value of your clients, you have to go beyond mere marketing — developing a thriving brand ecosystem that aligns with the brand's ultimate goals. Flavilla Fongang shares her tried-and-true framework for optimizing the customer journey, improving acquisition and retention, and going beyond what's expected to serve your clients well.

Francine Rodriguez

Manager of Customer Success, WordStream Let It Go: How to Embrace Automation and Get Way More Done

Let the robot uprising begin! We've all heard horror stories about the dangers of automating your tasks, but now is not the time to deny yourself extra help. Robots never sleep. They don't get tired or overwhelmed by their to-do lists, and they're ready to work round-the-clock to accomplish whatever task we set before them. In this talk, you'll explore all the areas were automation is kicking butt in PPC — and how you can harness the power of robots to make more time for other efforts.

Heather Physioc

Group Connections Director, Discoverability, VMLY&R Competitive Advantage in a Commoditized Industry

SEO isn't dead — it’s commoditized. In a world where search companies are a dime a dozen and brands tout bland "unique selling propositions" that aren't unique at all, how can you avoid drowning in the sea of sameness? What are you doing that's any different from every other SEO firm? In this talk, you'll learn how to find, activate, and articulate your competitive advantage. Learn how to identify unique strengths and innovative offerings that equate to competitive advantage through these real, working examples so you can bring them to life in search. You'll leave with actionable tips and homework to help your search business stand out — and that you can use with clients to help them find their competitive edge, too.

Izzi Smith

Technical SEO Analyst, Ryte How to Be Ahead of the (CTR) Curve

Let’s face it: Carrying out SEO magic is all in vain when you’re forgetting about how your brand and products are being surfaced in the SERPs. By not properly analyzing or enhancing our organic CTR, we're greatly limiting our potential. Izzi will help you create the perfect SERP engagement strategy by covering practical ways to uplift your significant CTR, such as remedying your critical keyword rankings that could soon be lost, leveraging brand-empowering entity features (and assessing the risks of doing so), more intelligent testing of rich & featured snippet optimizations, and a whole lot more. CTR-you-ready?? You better be!

Joy Hawkins

Owner, Sterling Sky Inc. Google My Business: Battling Bad Info & Safeguarding Your Search Strategy

What's the harm in a little misinformation here and there? In the realm of local SEO, Joy Hawkins is here to outline exactly that. When it comes to local search and Google My Business, it can be make or break for your campaigns. Follow real data from a recent case study that illustrates why strategic decisions should be based on accurate information — and what can happen when that info is bad, wrong, or just plain incomplete.

Mike King

Managing Director, iPullRank TBD

Mike redefined technical SEO and its importance in our industry back in 2016. In 2018, he taught us everything we didn't know about SEO. This year, he's back to share the hottest technical tactics to uplevel your efforts, plus the case studies and data that should be guiding your decisions.

Dr. Peter J. Meyers

Marketing Scientist, Moz Moving Targets: Keywords in Crisis

Too often, we take a once-and-done approach to keyword research, but Google changes at the pace of information, and that pace speeds up even more during a crisis. How do we do keyword research in fast-paced industries and during world-changing moments? Dr. Pete provides concrete tactics for adaptive keyword research and spotting trends as they happen.

Phil Nottingham

Brand and Video Marketing Strategist, Phil Nottingham Ltd. How to Build a Global Brand Without a Global Budget

As funnel-based marketing becomes less effective and harder to measure, "building a brand" is frequently touted as the panacea for all marketer's woes. But it's unclear how this can be achieved scalably and with a limited budget. Large enterprises resort to huge creative advertising campaigns that get their names out there by force of spend alone — but this isn't realistic for the smaller companies and the number of impressions is not the number of people impressed. In this session, Phil explains how modern brands are built through advocacy more than awareness alone, offering a deliverable method of brand marketing to radically shake up your content strategy.

Rob Ousbey

VP Product, Moz TBD

Rob is no stranger to the MozCon stage — he's graced it in the past as emcee, and in 2019 he covered the intimidating topic of running your own SEO tests (and how to do it right.) While we're still nailing down the details of his 2020 talk, we're confident that this year's topic will be every bit as impressively daunting.

Robin Lord

Consultant, Distilled Whatever You Do, Put Billboards in Seattle – Getting Brand Awareness Data from Google

How can you harness the vast power of Google data to gain special insight into city- and product-level brand awareness? Robin will lead us on a journey through his Google Trends methodology to use Adwords search volume data for better brand intelligence.

Ross Simmonds

CEO, Foundation Designing a Content Engine: Going from Ideation to Creation to Distribution

What does it take to develop a content engine that drives results? In this presentation, Ross will share data around the power of having a content engine, tools & strategies for content ideation, tools and tactics for content creation, and frameworks that brands can use to ensure that their content is distributed effectively after hitting publish. This presentation will help you not only uncover content-market fit, but also capitalize on it.

Russ Jones

Principal Search Scientist, Moz I Wanna Be Rich: Making Your Consultancy Profitable

How will your company weather the next update? How will you avoid layoffs and salary cuts? Being a master of SEO doesn't guarantee that your consultancy will succeed. After a decade and a half of experience, Russ Jones will outline the techniques that will keep your clients happy and your bottom line healthy.

Sarah Bird

CEO, Moz Welcome to MozCon Virtual + the State of the Industry

Sarah has a storied history of kicking MozCon off with a bright, sparkly bang. The fearless leader of Moz will be welcoming each and every one of us to this year's virtual event, laying out all the pertinent details of the conference, and setting the tone for two jam-packed days of learning with a look at the State of the Industry.

Shannon McGuirk

Head of PR & Content, Aira Great Expectations: The Truth About Digital PR Campaigns

In her talk, Shannon will challenge the desire for virality over consistency when it comes to digital PR and link building campaigns, while exploring the impact on the industry, team morale, and client expectations. By honestly sharing her own shortcomings, she'll push you to learn from your own campaign failures using tried and tested frameworks that’ll mean you can face any creative campaign or outreach struggle head-on.

Wil Reynolds

Founder & Vice President of Innovation, Seer InteractiveThe CMO Role Has Been Disrupted – Are You Ready for Your New Boss?

CMOs have the shortest tenure in the c-suite, and the CMO role has been eliminated at some of the largest brands. CEOs are now asking tougher and tougher questions about the value of marketing — and oftentimes marketers are not prepared.

Connecting your data and building your data flywheel is one way to support the swift answers CEOs expect from their CMOs. We need to get stronger at bridging our day-to-day work to the value it drives. And more than ever, “brand lift” isn’t enough to satisfy CEOs.

This presentation will start at the top. How businesses are run, how CEOs talk, and how we as search marketers can use the data we have access to everyday in new ways to answer the questions of the c-suite and raise our visibility and value in organizations.

We hope to see your smiling faces online in July!

Thanks to each and every one of you for your patience as we hammered out the details of this year's conference, for the questions you've asked and the honest feedback you've given us. We're super excited to try out something new this year! Join us this July for our first MozCon Virtual and let's explore the future of digital marketing together:

Yes, I'm going to MozCon!

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[noithatotoaz]

The MozCon Virtual 2020 Initial Agenda

Posted by cheryldraper

It's the question that's been on plenty of people's minds: What's up with MozCon this year?

We're happy to report that 2020's MozCon is on like Donkey Kong, and as you can tell from its brand-new name, the format this year is just a tad bit different. MozCon 2020 is now MozCon Virtual, an online conference experience delivering every ounce of digital marketing expertise you expect in-person with the safety and security of social distancing at home.

Today, we're here to tell you all about it — changes, challenges, nitty-gritty details, who's speaking and what you'll learn, and more!

Here's the skinny on MozCon Virtual

MozCon Virtual will take place from the comfort of your at-home office space across July 14 & 15, 2020. Business on top, social distancing sweatpants on the bottom — you'll be cozier than ever while learning all the latest and greatest in the world of SEO.

Twenty-two industry thought leaders will walk you through the hottest topics of 2020, covering everything from SEO automation to modern content promotion to strategies for handling keyword research in the midst of a crisis. You'll see fondly familiar faces and exciting new names to the MozCon stage, and you can rest assured that we're keeping the bar as high as it's ever been for content quality.

Additionally, we know that budgets are tight right now. We want to do our part to help by making MozCon Virtual as accessible to everyone as we can. Tickets are now priced at $129. This also includes full access to the MozCon video bundle once it's released!

Save my spot at MozCon Virtual!

Changes, challenges, & nitty-gritty details

A note about transparency and making really hard decisions

We're not going to lie — organizing this year's MozCon was a challenge. As it became more and more clear that an in-person event was neither feasible nor responsible (not to mention illegal here in Washington state!), we had a relatively short window of time to pivot from a 1,600-attendee event that we ran year after year using a concrete, smooth-as-butter process, to the virtual unknown. (Pardon the pun.)

There were many, many meetings. There was research and projections and debate, and more than one idea changed form three or four times before it took shape.

In the end, it came down to what was best for our community. MozCon has never operated from a profit standpoint — most years we aim to break even — but even with the risk and cost associated with such a monumental change to the event, we knew the show must go on. SEO doesn't just stop. And right now, it's picking up speed: People are turning to the internet to solve their problems now more than ever before, and businesses of all stripes are depending on that online visibility to sustain them through hardship. SEOs and digital marketers still need access to cutting-edge thought leadership, techniques, and strategies, and MozCon can deliver — even if it means we only get to daydream about all the high fives, fist bumps, and Roger hugs.

Not your typical marketing couchference

It was important that we find ways to maintain that special MozCon magic that makes folks excited to wake up extra early on a Monday morning, don their conference badge, and skip happily to the Washington State Convention Center for a day full of educational goodness.

We're gonna miss the snacks — that's just the truth. Doughnuts and coffee aside, we've energized our virtual conference with that snazzy MozCon spirit you look forward to every year:

The highest caliber speakers and topics in town: Twenty-two of digital marketing's top experts will share their very best advice, strategies, tactics, and research over two jam-packed days of learning. You'll have all their decks available for download, and the new choice of attending the talks that most interest you.

Friendly neighborhood Mozzers emceeing the event: MozCon stage superstars Cyrus Shepard and Britney Muller will keep the sparkle going between session.

Interactive Q&A with the experts: You'll be able to participate in live Q&A sessions with speakers to answer your most burning digital marketing questions and quandaries.

Virtual networking with Birds of a Feather breakout sessions: Birds of a Feather tables are a lunchtime hit every single year. And we've heard your feedback: networking is a huge part of the MozCon experience. That's why we're introducing Birds of a Feather virtual discussions — a special online experience where you'll be able to join expert-hosted events, connect with like-minded marketers, and forge professional relationships through the magic of the internet.

Charitable donations: Our belief in giving back hasn't changed just because we're going online. For every ticket sold we'll be making a donation, with more details to come as we draw closer to showtime.

Awesome partners: MozCon is fortunate to have the support of our fantastic sponsors who have stuck with us through all the changes this year. They'll be sharing their expertise in special hosted breakout groups. Curious about who our partners are? Check them out: 97th Floor, Base Search Marketing, CallRail, Crowd Content, Duda, GatherUp, and PAGES!

Two days chock full of conference goodness

We know it's tough to take a full three days away from your day job, so we're approaching MozCon Virtual with multi-track options to let attendees choose their own conference adventure — with full access to every talk via the MozCon video bundle once the conference is over.

A global experience at a more accessible price

We're streaming MozCon!

Every year we've heard our community ask: I can't make the trip. Will you be streaming MozCon? To our friends around the world, we're glad to be able to answer yes — this year, MozCon will be fully available to remote attendees. While those in particularly opposite timezones may be enjoying the show in your jammies, for the first time MozCon will serve you on your sofa. And you won't miss out on a single session — every ticket holder will have full access to the MozCon video bundle after the event, meaning you can re-watch your favorites and catch up on any you missed.

MozCon quality at a price more folks can afford: Tickets are now $129

We've lowered the price to attend this year's conference for a couple of reasons.

One, while there are still some pretty significant costs to throwing a large virtual conference, those costs don't include some of our biggest-ticket items, such as a conference space and food & beverage. Delicious treats and comfy seats are a real investment!

And two, times are really darn tough right now. We know agencies, brands, and freelancers are struggling in the midst of the economic downturn, and that it's more important than ever to hone skills and build new ones. We originally lowered ticket prices by about 40%. Then, based on community feedback and suggestions, we decided to forego the idea of shipping out swag and snacks and lowered them again — to the tune of $129.

Every MozCon ticket purchased also includes full access to the MozCon video bundle, a $349 value. Our video bundles are professionally produced and fully shareable with your team, so you can keep the learning going throughout the rest of the year and revisit the talks that mattered most.

Register for MozCon Virtual

Initial agenda

Ready to explore what we've got planned for this year? Check out our current speakers and topics — and stay tuned for more information as the agenda evolves!

Alexis Sanders

Senior SEO Account Manager, Merkle The Science of Seeking Your Customer

Users are at the core of everything we do in modern SEO. However, finding and understanding audiences can be daunting. Alexis will cover how to find your audience, share tools that are available for all price points, and show ways in which she’s found audience research to be useful as an SEO.

Andy Crestodina

Co-founder and CMO, Orbit Media Thought Leadership and SEO: The 3 Key Elements and Search Ranking Strategies

Everyone wants to do it, but no one really knows what it is. So what is thought leadership? What isn’t it? And how does it affect search rankings?

This presentation is a data-rich perspective on the oh-so-popular topic of thought leadership, filled with practical takeaways for becoming an authority. And it’s all about the relationship between thought leadership and SEO. We’ll see how the research answers the questions and informs the tactics: Can brands be thought leaders? Can it be outsourced? Do you need to publish research? Or strong opinion? And how does it attract links and authority, rankings, and qualified visitors? Learn how a personal brand combines with content to drive big wins in SEO.

Britney Muller

Senior SEO Scientist, Moz TBD

Last year, Britney wowed the crowd with a bevy of new research, data, and actionable tactics for understanding and winning featured snippets. We're still piecing together all the intricate details of this year's talk, so keep an ear to the ground as we continue to evolve our agenda!

Brian Dean

Founder, Backlinko How to Promote Your Content Like a Boss

Creating content is easy. But getting people to see your content? That's a different story. Brian Dean shares over a dozen practical strategies that you can use to spread the word about your latest blog post, podcast episode, or YouTube video.

Casie Gillette

Senior Director of Digital, KoMarketing Counterintuitive Content: How New Trends Have Disrupted Years of Bad Advice

Content marketers don't have it easy. We're constantly adapting to our ever-shifting landscape and juggling an overwhelming amount of information and advice: Do we produce as much content as possible? Should we focus on quality, while still maintaining consistent schedules? And now, what about YouTube, voice search, and even TikTok?

The fact is, there's no one way to do content marketing. Casie will showcase content in an entirely new light, with ideas and tips on how you can start creating content on your own terms.

Dana DiTomaso

President and partner, Kick Point TBD

MozCon veterans know the value and vibrancy Dana brings to the stage, and this year will be no exception. Be on the lookout for juicy details about her 2020 talk — we can't wait to share.

David Sottimano

VP, Keyphraseology Everyday Automation for Marketers

As a general rule, we shouldn't be doing things that a computer can do better. However, a lot of automation is achieved through programming expertise — and that expertise isn't usually a marketer's forte. In this session, you'll learn how to gather data, use machine learning, and automate everyday tasks for marketers using low-code or no-code solutions.

Flavilla Fongang

Brand Strategist, 3 Colours Rule How to Go Beyond Marketing for Clients: The Value of a Thriving Brand Ecosystem

Too many marketers serve their clients the bare minimum of what's expected from an agency. To stand out among the crowd, cultivate real loyalty, and maximize the lifetime value of your clients, you have to go beyond mere marketing — developing a thriving brand ecosystem that aligns with the brand's ultimate goals. Flavilla Fongang shares her tried-and-true framework for optimizing the customer journey, improving acquisition and retention, and going beyond what's expected to serve your clients well.

Francine Rodriguez

Manager of Customer Success, WordStream Let It Go: How to Embrace Automation and Get Way More Done

Let the robot uprising begin! We've all heard horror stories about the dangers of automating your tasks, but now is not the time to deny yourself extra help. Robots never sleep. They don't get tired or overwhelmed by their to-do lists, and they're ready to work round-the-clock to accomplish whatever task we set before them. In this talk, you'll explore all the areas were automation is kicking butt in PPC — and how you can harness the power of robots to make more time for other efforts.

Heather Physioc

Group Connections Director, Discoverability, VMLY&R Competitive Advantage in a Commoditized Industry

SEO isn't dead — it’s commoditized. In a world where search companies are a dime a dozen and brands tout bland "unique selling propositions" that aren't unique at all, how can you avoid drowning in the sea of sameness? What are you doing that's any different from every other SEO firm? In this talk, you'll learn how to find, activate, and articulate your competitive advantage. Learn how to identify unique strengths and innovative offerings that equate to competitive advantage through these real, working examples so you can bring them to life in search. You'll leave with actionable tips and homework to help your search business stand out — and that you can use with clients to help them find their competitive edge, too.

Izzi Smith

Technical SEO Analyst, Ryte How to Be Ahead of the (CTR) Curve

Let’s face it: Carrying out SEO magic is all in vain when you’re forgetting about how your brand and products are being surfaced in the SERPs. By not properly analyzing or enhancing our organic CTR, we're greatly limiting our potential. Izzi will help you create the perfect SERP engagement strategy by covering practical ways to uplift your significant CTR, such as remedying your critical keyword rankings that could soon be lost, leveraging brand-empowering entity features (and assessing the risks of doing so), more intelligent testing of rich & featured snippet optimizations, and a whole lot more. CTR-you-ready?? You better be!

Joy Hawkins

Owner, Sterling Sky Inc. Google My Business: Battling Bad Info & Safeguarding Your Search Strategy

What's the harm in a little misinformation here and there? In the realm of local SEO, Joy Hawkins is here to outline exactly that. When it comes to local search and Google My Business, it can be make or break for your campaigns. Follow real data from a recent case study that illustrates why strategic decisions should be based on accurate information — and what can happen when that info is bad, wrong, or just plain incomplete.

Mike King

Managing Director, iPullRank TBD

Mike redefined technical SEO and its importance in our industry back in 2016. In 2018, he taught us everything we didn't know about SEO. This year, he's back to share the hottest technical tactics to uplevel your efforts, plus the case studies and data that should be guiding your decisions.

Dr. Peter J. Meyers

Marketing Scientist, Moz Moving Targets: Keywords in Crisis

Too often, we take a once-and-done approach to keyword research, but Google changes at the pace of information, and that pace speeds up even more during a crisis. How do we do keyword research in fast-paced industries and during world-changing moments? Dr. Pete provides concrete tactics for adaptive keyword research and spotting trends as they happen.

Phil Nottingham

Brand and Video Marketing Strategist, Phil Nottingham Ltd. How to Build a Global Brand Without a Global Budget

As funnel-based marketing becomes less effective and harder to measure, "building a brand" is frequently touted as the panacea for all marketer's woes. But it's unclear how this can be achieved scalably and with a limited budget. Large enterprises resort to huge creative advertising campaigns that get their names out there by force of spend alone — but this isn't realistic for the smaller companies and the number of impressions is not the number of people impressed. In this session, Phil explains how modern brands are built through advocacy more than awareness alone, offering a deliverable method of brand marketing to radically shake up your content strategy.

Rob Ousbey

VP Product, Moz TBD

Rob is no stranger to the MozCon stage — he's graced it in the past as emcee, and in 2019 he covered the intimidating topic of running your own SEO tests (and how to do it right.) While we're still nailing down the details of his 2020 talk, we're confident that this year's topic will be every bit as impressively daunting.

Robin Lord

Consultant, Distilled Whatever You Do, Put Billboards in Seattle – Getting Brand Awareness Data from Google

How can you harness the vast power of Google data to gain special insight into city- and product-level brand awareness? Robin will lead us on a journey through his Google Trends methodology to use Adwords search volume data for better brand intelligence.

Ross Simmonds

CEO, Foundation Designing a Content Engine: Going from Ideation to Creation to Distribution

What does it take to develop a content engine that drives results? In this presentation, Ross will share data around the power of having a content engine, tools & strategies for content ideation, tools and tactics for content creation, and frameworks that brands can use to ensure that their content is distributed effectively after hitting publish. This presentation will help you not only uncover content-market fit, but also capitalize on it.

Russ Jones

Principal Search Scientist, Moz I Wanna Be Rich: Making Your Consultancy Profitable

How will your company weather the next update? How will you avoid layoffs and salary cuts? Being a master of SEO doesn't guarantee that your consultancy will succeed. After a decade and a half of experience, Russ Jones will outline the techniques that will keep your clients happy and your bottom line healthy.

Sarah Bird

CEO, Moz Welcome to MozCon Virtual + the State of the Industry

Sarah has a storied history of kicking MozCon off with a bright, sparkly bang. The fearless leader of Moz will be welcoming each and every one of us to this year's virtual event, laying out all the pertinent details of the conference, and setting the tone for two jam-packed days of learning with a look at the State of the Industry.

Shannon McGuirk

Head of PR & Content, Aira Great Expectations: The Truth About Digital PR Campaigns

In her talk, Shannon will challenge the desire for virality over consistency when it comes to digital PR and link building campaigns, while exploring the impact on the industry, team morale, and client expectations. By honestly sharing her own shortcomings, she'll push you to learn from your own campaign failures using tried and tested frameworks that’ll mean you can face any creative campaign or outreach struggle head-on.

Wil Reynolds

Founder & Vice President of Innovation, Seer InteractiveThe CMO Role Has Been Disrupted – Are You Ready for Your New Boss?

CMOs have the shortest tenure in the c-suite, and the CMO role has been eliminated at some of the largest brands. CEOs are now asking tougher and tougher questions about the value of marketing — and oftentimes marketers are not prepared.

Connecting your data and building your data flywheel is one way to support the swift answers CEOs expect from their CMOs. We need to get stronger at bridging our day-to-day work to the value it drives. And more than ever, “brand lift” isn’t enough to satisfy CEOs.

This presentation will start at the top. How businesses are run, how CEOs talk, and how we as search marketers can use the data we have access to everyday in new ways to answer the questions of the c-suite and raise our visibility and value in organizations.

We hope to see your smiling faces online in July!

Thanks to each and every one of you for your patience as we hammered out the details of this year's conference, for the questions you've asked and the honest feedback you've given us. We're super excited to try out something new this year! Join us this July for our first MozCon Virtual and let's explore the future of digital marketing together:

Yes, I'm going to MozCon!

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[bfxenon]

The MozCon Virtual 2020 Initial Agenda

Posted by cheryldraper

It's the question that's been on plenty of people's minds: What's up with MozCon this year?

We're happy to report that 2020's MozCon is on like Donkey Kong, and as you can tell from its brand-new name, the format this year is just a tad bit different. MozCon 2020 is now MozCon Virtual, an online conference experience delivering every ounce of digital marketing expertise you expect in-person with the safety and security of social distancing at home.

Today, we're here to tell you all about it — changes, challenges, nitty-gritty details, who's speaking and what you'll learn, and more!

Here's the skinny on MozCon Virtual

MozCon Virtual will take place from the comfort of your at-home office space across July 14 & 15, 2020. Business on top, social distancing sweatpants on the bottom — you'll be cozier than ever while learning all the latest and greatest in the world of SEO.

Twenty-two industry thought leaders will walk you through the hottest topics of 2020, covering everything from SEO automation to modern content promotion to strategies for handling keyword research in the midst of a crisis. You'll see fondly familiar faces and exciting new names to the MozCon stage, and you can rest assured that we're keeping the bar as high as it's ever been for content quality.

Additionally, we know that budgets are tight right now. We want to do our part to help by making MozCon Virtual as accessible to everyone as we can. Tickets are now priced at $129. This also includes full access to the MozCon video bundle once it's released!

Save my spot at MozCon Virtual!

Changes, challenges, & nitty-gritty details

A note about transparency and making really hard decisions

We're not going to lie — organizing this year's MozCon was a challenge. As it became more and more clear that an in-person event was neither feasible nor responsible (not to mention illegal here in Washington state!), we had a relatively short window of time to pivot from a 1,600-attendee event that we ran year after year using a concrete, smooth-as-butter process, to the virtual unknown. (Pardon the pun.)

There were many, many meetings. There was research and projections and debate, and more than one idea changed form three or four times before it took shape.

In the end, it came down to what was best for our community. MozCon has never operated from a profit standpoint — most years we aim to break even — but even with the risk and cost associated with such a monumental change to the event, we knew the show must go on. SEO doesn't just stop. And right now, it's picking up speed: People are turning to the internet to solve their problems now more than ever before, and businesses of all stripes are depending on that online visibility to sustain them through hardship. SEOs and digital marketers still need access to cutting-edge thought leadership, techniques, and strategies, and MozCon can deliver — even if it means we only get to daydream about all the high fives, fist bumps, and Roger hugs.

Not your typical marketing couchference

It was important that we find ways to maintain that special MozCon magic that makes folks excited to wake up extra early on a Monday morning, don their conference badge, and skip happily to the Washington State Convention Center for a day full of educational goodness.

We're gonna miss the snacks — that's just the truth. Doughnuts and coffee aside, we've energized our virtual conference with that snazzy MozCon spirit you look forward to every year:

The highest caliber speakers and topics in town: Twenty-two of digital marketing's top experts will share their very best advice, strategies, tactics, and research over two jam-packed days of learning. You'll have all their decks available for download, and the new choice of attending the talks that most interest you.

Friendly neighborhood Mozzers emceeing the event: MozCon stage superstars Cyrus Shepard and Britney Muller will keep the sparkle going between session.

Interactive Q&A with the experts: You'll be able to participate in live Q&A sessions with speakers to answer your most burning digital marketing questions and quandaries.

Virtual networking with Birds of a Feather breakout sessions: Birds of a Feather tables are a lunchtime hit every single year. And we've heard your feedback: networking is a huge part of the MozCon experience. That's why we're introducing Birds of a Feather virtual discussions — a special online experience where you'll be able to join expert-hosted events, connect with like-minded marketers, and forge professional relationships through the magic of the internet.

Charitable donations: Our belief in giving back hasn't changed just because we're going online. For every ticket sold we'll be making a donation, with more details to come as we draw closer to showtime.

Awesome partners: MozCon is fortunate to have the support of our fantastic sponsors who have stuck with us through all the changes this year. They'll be sharing their expertise in special hosted breakout groups. Curious about who our partners are? Check them out: 97th Floor, Base Search Marketing, CallRail, Crowd Content, Duda, GatherUp, and PAGES!

Two days chock full of conference goodness

We know it's tough to take a full three days away from your day job, so we're approaching MozCon Virtual with multi-track options to let attendees choose their own conference adventure — with full access to every talk via the MozCon video bundle once the conference is over.

A global experience at a more accessible price

We're streaming MozCon!

Every year we've heard our community ask: I can't make the trip. Will you be streaming MozCon? To our friends around the world, we're glad to be able to answer yes — this year, MozCon will be fully available to remote attendees. While those in particularly opposite timezones may be enjoying the show in your jammies, for the first time MozCon will serve you on your sofa. And you won't miss out on a single session — every ticket holder will have full access to the MozCon video bundle after the event, meaning you can re-watch your favorites and catch up on any you missed.

MozCon quality at a price more folks can afford: Tickets are now $129

We've lowered the price to attend this year's conference for a couple of reasons.

One, while there are still some pretty significant costs to throwing a large virtual conference, those costs don't include some of our biggest-ticket items, such as a conference space and food & beverage. Delicious treats and comfy seats are a real investment!

And two, times are really darn tough right now. We know agencies, brands, and freelancers are struggling in the midst of the economic downturn, and that it's more important than ever to hone skills and build new ones. We originally lowered ticket prices by about 40%. Then, based on community feedback and suggestions, we decided to forego the idea of shipping out swag and snacks and lowered them again — to the tune of $129.

Every MozCon ticket purchased also includes full access to the MozCon video bundle, a $349 value. Our video bundles are professionally produced and fully shareable with your team, so you can keep the learning going throughout the rest of the year and revisit the talks that mattered most.

Register for MozCon Virtual

Initial agenda

Ready to explore what we've got planned for this year? Check out our current speakers and topics — and stay tuned for more information as the agenda evolves!

Alexis Sanders

Senior SEO Account Manager, Merkle The Science of Seeking Your Customer

Users are at the core of everything we do in modern SEO. However, finding and understanding audiences can be daunting. Alexis will cover how to find your audience, share tools that are available for all price points, and show ways in which she’s found audience research to be useful as an SEO.

Andy Crestodina

Co-founder and CMO, Orbit Media Thought Leadership and SEO: The 3 Key Elements and Search Ranking Strategies

Everyone wants to do it, but no one really knows what it is. So what is thought leadership? What isn’t it? And how does it affect search rankings?

This presentation is a data-rich perspective on the oh-so-popular topic of thought leadership, filled with practical takeaways for becoming an authority. And it’s all about the relationship between thought leadership and SEO. We’ll see how the research answers the questions and informs the tactics: Can brands be thought leaders? Can it be outsourced? Do you need to publish research? Or strong opinion? And how does it attract links and authority, rankings, and qualified visitors? Learn how a personal brand combines with content to drive big wins in SEO.

Britney Muller

Senior SEO Scientist, Moz TBD

Last year, Britney wowed the crowd with a bevy of new research, data, and actionable tactics for understanding and winning featured snippets. We're still piecing together all the intricate details of this year's talk, so keep an ear to the ground as we continue to evolve our agenda!

Brian Dean

Founder, Backlinko How to Promote Your Content Like a Boss

Creating content is easy. But getting people to see your content? That's a different story. Brian Dean shares over a dozen practical strategies that you can use to spread the word about your latest blog post, podcast episode, or YouTube video.

Casie Gillette

Senior Director of Digital, KoMarketing Counterintuitive Content: How New Trends Have Disrupted Years of Bad Advice

Content marketers don't have it easy. We're constantly adapting to our ever-shifting landscape and juggling an overwhelming amount of information and advice: Do we produce as much content as possible? Should we focus on quality, while still maintaining consistent schedules? And now, what about YouTube, voice search, and even TikTok?

The fact is, there's no one way to do content marketing. Casie will showcase content in an entirely new light, with ideas and tips on how you can start creating content on your own terms.

Dana DiTomaso

President and partner, Kick Point TBD

MozCon veterans know the value and vibrancy Dana brings to the stage, and this year will be no exception. Be on the lookout for juicy details about her 2020 talk — we can't wait to share.

David Sottimano

VP, Keyphraseology Everyday Automation for Marketers

As a general rule, we shouldn't be doing things that a computer can do better. However, a lot of automation is achieved through programming expertise — and that expertise isn't usually a marketer's forte. In this session, you'll learn how to gather data, use machine learning, and automate everyday tasks for marketers using low-code or no-code solutions.

Flavilla Fongang

Brand Strategist, 3 Colours Rule How to Go Beyond Marketing for Clients: The Value of a Thriving Brand Ecosystem

Too many marketers serve their clients the bare minimum of what's expected from an agency. To stand out among the crowd, cultivate real loyalty, and maximize the lifetime value of your clients, you have to go beyond mere marketing — developing a thriving brand ecosystem that aligns with the brand's ultimate goals. Flavilla Fongang shares her tried-and-true framework for optimizing the customer journey, improving acquisition and retention, and going beyond what's expected to serve your clients well.

Francine Rodriguez

Manager of Customer Success, WordStream Let It Go: How to Embrace Automation and Get Way More Done

Let the robot uprising begin! We've all heard horror stories about the dangers of automating your tasks, but now is not the time to deny yourself extra help. Robots never sleep. They don't get tired or overwhelmed by their to-do lists, and they're ready to work round-the-clock to accomplish whatever task we set before them. In this talk, you'll explore all the areas were automation is kicking butt in PPC — and how you can harness the power of robots to make more time for other efforts.

Heather Physioc

Group Connections Director, Discoverability, VMLY&R Competitive Advantage in a Commoditized Industry

SEO isn't dead — it’s commoditized. In a world where search companies are a dime a dozen and brands tout bland "unique selling propositions" that aren't unique at all, how can you avoid drowning in the sea of sameness? What are you doing that's any different from every other SEO firm? In this talk, you'll learn how to find, activate, and articulate your competitive advantage. Learn how to identify unique strengths and innovative offerings that equate to competitive advantage through these real, working examples so you can bring them to life in search. You'll leave with actionable tips and homework to help your search business stand out — and that you can use with clients to help them find their competitive edge, too.

Izzi Smith

Technical SEO Analyst, Ryte How to Be Ahead of the (CTR) Curve

Let’s face it: Carrying out SEO magic is all in vain when you’re forgetting about how your brand and products are being surfaced in the SERPs. By not properly analyzing or enhancing our organic CTR, we're greatly limiting our potential. Izzi will help you create the perfect SERP engagement strategy by covering practical ways to uplift your significant CTR, such as remedying your critical keyword rankings that could soon be lost, leveraging brand-empowering entity features (and assessing the risks of doing so), more intelligent testing of rich & featured snippet optimizations, and a whole lot more. CTR-you-ready?? You better be!

Joy Hawkins

Owner, Sterling Sky Inc. Google My Business: Battling Bad Info & Safeguarding Your Search Strategy

What's the harm in a little misinformation here and there? In the realm of local SEO, Joy Hawkins is here to outline exactly that. When it comes to local search and Google My Business, it can be make or break for your campaigns. Follow real data from a recent case study that illustrates why strategic decisions should be based on accurate information — and what can happen when that info is bad, wrong, or just plain incomplete.

Mike King

Managing Director, iPullRank TBD

Mike redefined technical SEO and its importance in our industry back in 2016. In 2018, he taught us everything we didn't know about SEO. This year, he's back to share the hottest technical tactics to uplevel your efforts, plus the case studies and data that should be guiding your decisions.

Dr. Peter J. Meyers

Marketing Scientist, Moz Moving Targets: Keywords in Crisis

Too often, we take a once-and-done approach to keyword research, but Google changes at the pace of information, and that pace speeds up even more during a crisis. How do we do keyword research in fast-paced industries and during world-changing moments? Dr. Pete provides concrete tactics for adaptive keyword research and spotting trends as they happen.

Phil Nottingham

Brand and Video Marketing Strategist, Phil Nottingham Ltd. How to Build a Global Brand Without a Global Budget

As funnel-based marketing becomes less effective and harder to measure, "building a brand" is frequently touted as the panacea for all marketer's woes. But it's unclear how this can be achieved scalably and with a limited budget. Large enterprises resort to huge creative advertising campaigns that get their names out there by force of spend alone — but this isn't realistic for the smaller companies and the number of impressions is not the number of people impressed. In this session, Phil explains how modern brands are built through advocacy more than awareness alone, offering a deliverable method of brand marketing to radically shake up your content strategy.

Rob Ousbey

VP Product, Moz TBD

Rob is no stranger to the MozCon stage — he's graced it in the past as emcee, and in 2019 he covered the intimidating topic of running your own SEO tests (and how to do it right.) While we're still nailing down the details of his 2020 talk, we're confident that this year's topic will be every bit as impressively daunting.

Robin Lord

Consultant, Distilled Whatever You Do, Put Billboards in Seattle – Getting Brand Awareness Data from Google

How can you harness the vast power of Google data to gain special insight into city- and product-level brand awareness? Robin will lead us on a journey through his Google Trends methodology to use Adwords search volume data for better brand intelligence.

Ross Simmonds

CEO, Foundation Designing a Content Engine: Going from Ideation to Creation to Distribution

What does it take to develop a content engine that drives results? In this presentation, Ross will share data around the power of having a content engine, tools & strategies for content ideation, tools and tactics for content creation, and frameworks that brands can use to ensure that their content is distributed effectively after hitting publish. This presentation will help you not only uncover content-market fit, but also capitalize on it.

Russ Jones

Principal Search Scientist, Moz I Wanna Be Rich: Making Your Consultancy Profitable

How will your company weather the next update? How will you avoid layoffs and salary cuts? Being a master of SEO doesn't guarantee that your consultancy will succeed. After a decade and a half of experience, Russ Jones will outline the techniques that will keep your clients happy and your bottom line healthy.

Sarah Bird

CEO, Moz Welcome to MozCon Virtual + the State of the Industry

Sarah has a storied history of kicking MozCon off with a bright, sparkly bang. The fearless leader of Moz will be welcoming each and every one of us to this year's virtual event, laying out all the pertinent details of the conference, and setting the tone for two jam-packed days of learning with a look at the State of the Industry.

Shannon McGuirk

Head of PR & Content, Aira Great Expectations: The Truth About Digital PR Campaigns

In her talk, Shannon will challenge the desire for virality over consistency when it comes to digital PR and link building campaigns, while exploring the impact on the industry, team morale, and client expectations. By honestly sharing her own shortcomings, she'll push you to learn from your own campaign failures using tried and tested frameworks that’ll mean you can face any creative campaign or outreach struggle head-on.

Wil Reynolds

Founder & Vice President of Innovation, Seer InteractiveThe CMO Role Has Been Disrupted – Are You Ready for Your New Boss?

CMOs have the shortest tenure in the c-suite, and the CMO role has been eliminated at some of the largest brands. CEOs are now asking tougher and tougher questions about the value of marketing — and oftentimes marketers are not prepared.

Connecting your data and building your data flywheel is one way to support the swift answers CEOs expect from their CMOs. We need to get stronger at bridging our day-to-day work to the value it drives. And more than ever, “brand lift” isn’t enough to satisfy CEOs.

This presentation will start at the top. How businesses are run, how CEOs talk, and how we as search marketers can use the data we have access to everyday in new ways to answer the questions of the c-suite and raise our visibility and value in organizations.

We hope to see your smiling faces online in July!

Thanks to each and every one of you for your patience as we hammered out the details of this year's conference, for the questions you've asked and the honest feedback you've given us. We're super excited to try out something new this year! Join us this July for our first MozCon Virtual and let's explore the future of digital marketing together:

Yes, I'm going to MozCon!

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