BOSS run a sell-out Digital Marketing Conference on the afternoon of the BOSS Awards

This conference took place on the afternoon of the annual BOSS Awards dinner and at the same venue. BOSS CEO Philip Lawson's introduction pointed out to over 100 delegates that the topic is so current and core to businesses that in a few years it will just be called "marketing". It was vital, Lawson said, that the OP industry should be prepared now for an era in which the buyer - not the seller - is in control.

Chris Schofield from specialist digital marketing agency WSI, then covered the ubiquity of the mobile web: 66% of adults now used a smart phone, 71% children had access to a tablet, and less than half of web visits now come from a PC, which means that, as a priority, web sites must be easy to use: "Your customer has to have a good visit experience, no matter what device they are on." Schofield went on to encourage delegates to have a relevant digital strategy and to always be certain who their customers were and how they could be retained. "If you want to beat Amazon," he explained "don't take them on head-on, but find what your niche is and do what Amazon can't do."

Seminar Two featured Matt Trimmer, introduced by the Chartered Institute of Marketing as their "go-to expert" when it comes to understanding the power of Google Analytics. Analytics, Trimmer explained, was an 'evolutionary process' of understanding who our customers are and what they want, so that we can target them in the way that they want. He talked through a variety of tools useful for analysing online data, but warned that actions should be based on a lot of data, not a little and should "only make decisions using the last six months of data, as things change fast! He suggested recording and measure conversions from web visits and how increasing conversions results in profitability gains.

OP industry specialist Vida Barr-Jones from Focus7 International took Seminar Three, entitled "Data: Your Single Biggest Asset." Barr-Jones explained that "data never, ever sleeps", and that its number one role was enabling businesses to target and talk to customers: "Every business should have an idea of who their perfect customer is and how to target and talk to them," she warned "but if you are not talking to your customers regularly, someone else will be!"

Seminar Four focussed on advertising online, and was again hosted by Google specialist Matt Trimmer, who explained that Adwords were the next part of the "evolutionary process" that he had outlined earlier. He led the delegates through a number of other tips and hints to maximise the effectiveness of Google searches, including location options, radius targeting and 'remarketing' to previous site visitors. The latter, Trimmer explained, was also known as 'haunting', but achieved conversion rates that were seven times greater than those achievable with new site visitors. "Don't underestimate the power of remarketing," he warned, "it's a highly cost effective approach."

The final Seminar was by David Duncan from WSI, and centred on Social Selling. Duncan began by emphasising the importance of co-ordinated branding across all digital platforms. He also suggested that as corporate buying decisions now involve more people than ever before it was increasingly vital that any supplier should try to make contact with as many of them as possible. This is where social media - and especially LinkedIn - was so helpful, since buyers were increasingly using research to check on prospective suppliers and now tended to ignore cold calling. Besides, as Duncan pointed out, "If you have contact with a wide number of people in a company, it is not so catastrophic to your business if one of your contacts leaves that company". He then outlined 12 practical steps for developing an effective social media strategy that help businesses to engage with current and prospective customers.

Gordon Christiansen from The Highlands Group concluded the conference by thanking the speakers and organisers and applied a real time OP market perspective to what had been learned.

Asked afterwards how he felt the conference had gone, Lawson said: "BOSS will continue to look to provide business information to the office supplies industry on key areas like digital marketing which are essential to our future success. I'd like to thank all the speakers and delegates for making it a very worthwhile afternoon prior to our annual Awards"

For further information, contact Helen Dunn on 020 7915 8377 or [email protected]