Awesome Digital Marketing Conferences You Should Attend in 2018

In this week’s video, we share our annual list of the best digital marketing conferences you should consider attending this year. We know that a lot of you handle the SEO and PPC for your dealership, or your group, so we always release our list of suggested conferences at the beginning of every year.

We know that most of you will attend at least one automotive conference every year, but if you’re involved with digital marketing at your dealership, you definitely need to get to at least one conference every year that’s 100% dedicated to digital marketing. You’ll hone your skills, learn new tactics, and come back the dealership with new tools to help boost visibility.

Here’s a list of the conferences mentioned in the video, in chronological order:

• Pubcon Austin – February 21 in Austin, TX
• Engage – March 8 in Portland, OR
• SMX West – March 13-15 in San Jose, CA
• SearchLove San Diego – March 26-27 in San Diego, CA
• Pubcon Florida – April 10-12 in Ft. Lauderdale, FL
• Hero Conf – April 16-18 in Austin, TX
• SearchLove Boston – June 7-8 in Boston, MA
• SMX Advanced – June 11-13 in Seattle, WA
• Mozcon – July 9-11 in Seattle, WA
• State of Search – early October in Dallas, TX
• Pubcon – October 15-19 in Las Vegas, NV

And, if you want to hit an awesome international conference:

• SMX Munich – March 20-12 in Munich, Germany
• Brighton SEO – April 27 in Brighton, UK
• UnGagged – June 11-13 in London, UK
• Brighton SEO – September 28 in Brighton, UK
• SearchLove London – October 15-16 in London, UK

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Welcome back to another Wednesday Workshop from DealerOn. This week, we’re sharing our annual list of digital marketing conferences to attend. We know most of you will hit an automotive conference like NADA or Digital Dealer, but if you’re in charge of digital marketing for your dealership or your group, you really need to head to a conference that’s dedicated to digital marketing.

Every year, we share a list of the best conferences, and this year’s list is longer than ever before. I wanted to share a really comprehensive list of awesome conferences, and I’ve expanded a bit to hopefully share some that might be more locally accessible to all of you, wherever it is that you live.

So – if you’re into SEO or PPC, here’s this year’s list of awesome digital marketing conferences to attend:

Pubcon is throwing an awesome one-day event in Austin on February 21st. Head to pubcon.com for details.

There’s an another amazing one-day conference in Portland on March 8th called Engage. I’ve never been to this one (hey Engage guys, if you need a speaker for next year, I might know a guy), but I’ve heard amazing things about it. Head to sempdx.com/engage for details.

SMX West happens right after that, from March 13th through March 15th in San Jose, California. I’ve been going to this one for years, and it’s always awesome. Plus, the last few years they’ve had an awesome party at Google headquarters, which is a cool bonus. You can get more details at marketinglandevents.com/smx/west

SearchLove is a really killer single-track conference series, and they’re kicking off 2018 with a conference in San Diego on March 26th and 27th. The lineup is insane – if you can make it, I guarantee it’ll be amazing. Head over to distilled.net/events/searchlove-sandiego for details.

Pubcon’s also doing a conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on April 10th through 12th – it’s the same exact days as Digital Dealer 24, which might make it tougher to get to… But if you can make it, our Director of SEO Kevin Doory and our SEO Manager Steve Shackelford are both speaking there. You can get more info at pubcon.com

If you’re on the east coast, SearchLove Boston is June 7th and 8th. They haven’t announced the lineup yet, but chances are pretty good that you’ll see yours truly speaking there. Head over to distilled.net/events/searchlove-boston for details

If you’re at the top of your game, you definitely don’t want to miss SMX Advanced June 11th through 13th in Seattle.It’s the conference that all the experts attend to learn new things. Go to marketinglandevents.com/smx/advanced for details.

If you can make it up to Seattle from July 9th through the 11th, you definitely need to get to the grand poobah of conferences – Mozcon.
It’s a huge single track conference with always a ridiculous lineup of speakers, and the organization and conference experience are so amazing, it’ll ruin you for other conferences. If you want more info, get over to moz.com/mozcon

This fall, Pubcon Vegas is the conference you definitely want to try to hit – it’s from October 15th through the 19th, so it’s exactly the same time as Digital Dealer 25. If you’re heading to Digital Dealer, you might want to stick around for a few extra days to hit the end of Pubcon, cause it’s always awesome. Head over to pubcon.com for more details.

State of Search is an awesome smaller conference in Dallas, and it’ll happen sometime in October. They don’t have the date locked down yet, so keep an eye on stateofsearch.org for updates.

If you’re into PPC, you don’t want to miss Hero Conf, the biggest PPC-only conference. It’s April 16th through 18th in Austin. Heroconf.com has all the details.

And, for those of you who are international (or those of you who just want to use a conference as an excuse to get overseas), here are a few of the best choices:

SMX Munich is March 20th and 21st – this will be a tough one to get to if you’re going to NADA, cause it’s just a few days before, but it’s one of the biggest digital marketing conferences in Europe. Plus, the opening keynote is gonna be ridiculously awesome this year…

Brighton SEO happens twice a year in the south of the UK – the first one is April 27th, and the later one is September 28th. I’ll be at both, and if you’re into Local SEO, I’ll be leading the all-day Local SEO training course the day before at each conference.

UnGagged London is happening from June 11th through 13th – this conference series is awesome because there’s no recording of sessions, and typically no social media – so speakers will talk about things they don’t usually talk about.

And if you’re in London in the fall, don’t miss SearchLove London on October 15th and 16th.

So that’s the end of this year’s huge list of awesome digital marketing conferences to attend. If you’re doing the digital marketing for your dealership, it’s going to be huge for you if you can make it to one or two of these events. You’ll learn a ton and you’ll come back with new tools and ideas to help you get your dealership more visibility, more leads, and more sales.

That’s all the time we have for today. As always, if you’ve got questions or comments, leave ‘em down below and we’ll get back to you shortly. Thanks for watching, and don’t forget to come back next week for another Wednesday Workshop from DealerOn.