DC’s Digital Capital Week: Search Marketing for Startups

Digital Capital Week, billed as a Washington tech convention, kicked off this past Friday night.  While I won’t be able to attend nearly as many sessions or gatherings as I’d like, I am encouraged by what I am hearing about the conference.  Over 5000 registered attendees, sold out sessions and interesting networking events are just a few snippets I’ve seen and heard.

In a post just last week, Mike Zirngibl of Ringio (a client of Right Source Marketing) bemoaned the typical DC technology events, which are usually marked by government-focused topics, conservative thinking, and the lack of true technology evangelists.  While Digital Capital Week cannot escape some of these elements, it seems that the folks at iStrategyLabs and Shiny Heart Ventures have made every effort to make this a diverse event, offering something for everyone.

One example of Digital Capital Week’s attempt to “break the mold” is Friday’s Digital Garage day, which features some practical sessions for commercial entities, and in particular a few startup-oriented sessions.  I will be participating in the Search for Startups session as a panelist, along with Chad Hill (your moderator and search marketer extraordinaire) of HubShout, Daavi Zain of Measured Path, and Zach Girod of Legal River.  Based on some of our pre-session prep, this promises to be a session that will be full of energy, different viewpoints and concrete takeaways for the audience.  Some of the areas we’ll likely cover include:

• Search Marketing Myths and Realities
• PPC vs. SEO for Startup and Launch
• Search Marketing Measurement and Analysis
• Prioritization of Search Marketing Initiatives
• Outsourcing vs. Insourcing Search Marketing

While the session is designed for startups, most of the material will be applicable to organizations in various stages of the business life cycle.  We look forward to interacting with a lively audience – attend if you can.

Since we work with and educate startups on not just search marketing but how various marketing tactics fit together, let me end this with a few of our most popular startup-oriented posts:

• Startup Marketing: 10 Things To Do In Your First 90 Days
• Startup Marketing Requires Constant Expertise
• A Startup SEO Lesson
• Choose Your Marketing Firm Like a Venture Capitalist Chooses Investments
• Marketing Your Startup: Do it Yourself or Done for You?

Look forward to seeing everyone on Friday.