Last week, DIG SOUTH Virtual Tech Summit brought together the best in emerging tech, business, and digital marketing. DIG SOUTH Virtual Tech Summit is an interactive experience powered by DIG SOUTH, a membership-based tech media company headquartered in Charleston, SC. The Summit connected DIG NATION members and other attendees to leading global brands and national tech execs, entrepreneurs, founders, investors, and other forward-focused experts.

While typically a spring event held in South Carolina, the conference, like many other 2020 industry events, switched to a virtual format as a COVID-19 precaution. Powered by Bizzabo, the event hosted various session formats which allowed for audience Q&A and the option to rewatch sessions after they went live. 

Some of our favorite sessions included: 

California Born, But Not California Based: How to Grow a Company Outside of Your Target Market: How do you strategically grow your company into a nationally recognizable name? Rich “Raz” Razgaitis, CEO & Co-Founder of FloWater, provided insights and tips on how to find an initial target market to test your product, improve your product, and then iterate accordingly to expand beyond that specific market. While FloWater's 5,000+ Refill Stations are in nearly all 50 states, the company's national presence started eight years ago in one market. Raz shared his story and lessons learned in transforming FloWater into a national brand.

Takeaways: 

1. Cast a wide net with verticals early on. 

2. Stay focused on what you know works, but continue to explore new opportunities.

3. Rebuild your annual plan by looking at what you need to break (undo, fix, let go of) to level up the next year.

4. Hire slow. Fire fast. Develop a rigorous hiring methodology that your organization can follow. 

Beyond Recognition: Why Brand Affinity Marketing is the Future: Marketing is evolving and brands need to change with it to keep up with consumers’ expectations. What does it take to ensure your audiences will not only remember your brand, but truly love and rave about your brand? Chris Savage, Co-Founder and CEO of Wistia, shared why brand affinity marketing goes beyond brand recognition to keep consumers engaged longer. Chris broke down the steps for building brand affinity marketing: find a niche audience, create binge-worthy content, market like a media company, and measure resonance over reach by tracking key metrics. In his session, Chris leveraged the Brand Affinity Marketing Playbook created by Wistia—check it out for yourself at wi.st/BAMplaybook. 

Takeaways: 

1. Learn from media companies in how they create owned audiences. 

2. Create a direct connection, give your super fans more and measure the impact. 

3. Audiences compound over time. 

Loyalty is Not About Loyalty: What You Didn’t Know About Rewards Programs: Customer loyalty is important, right? Maybe not. Ed Nevraumont, Author of Marketing BS and former CRO/CMO at General Assembly, drew from his experience overseeing Customer Loyalty and CRM at Expedia to explain that loyalty programs do not function in the way that many marketers believe they do. After repositioning the idea of what a loyalty program really is, Ed shared strategic ways to quantitatively evaluate the impact of a loyalty program. He emphasized the importance of evaluating the customer’s motivation for joining the program, shared ideas that yield positive results, and demonstrated why industries with (1) a buyer/payer divide and (2) low variable costs benefit most from loyalty programs. At the end of his session, Ed suggested readers check out the Status as a Service blog for more insights into the nature of status in social networks. 

Takeaways: 

1. Acquiring customers is expensive and difficult, but it's the most important part of your business—don't get distracted by anything else.

2. Just because marketing says loyalty, it doesn't guarantee loyalty. 

3. If you can focus on getting more customers, you can get loyalty for free. 

Building a Unicorn from Used Goods: A Fireside Chat with Nick Huzar, CEO and Co-Founder, OfferUp: When Nick Huzar first had the idea for OfferUp, it was solely to make room in his house that was full of things he’d collected over the years. He created OfferUp to give the traditional resale a mobile makeover, and struck a chord by making a solution for a culture drowning in fast fashion. The re-commerce marketplace company is now valued over $1B, with 44M annual users participating in millions of transactions each year. Nick shared his story of growing and scaling OfferUp, and his tips for reimagining the existing way of doing business.

Takeaways: 

1. Success comes when you define your priorities and invest in them. For OfferUp, this is simplicity, trust and liquidity. 

2. People should start a company whenever they want to start a company—don’t wait! It always takes longer than you think. 

3. Technology is always evolving. Think about how technology might look in the future and ensure you can leverage those capabilities in your evolving product. 

While we know this year looked a bit different for the DIG SOUTH team and attendees alike, cheers to both the speakers and event organizers on the completion of a successful event. We’ll see you in Charleston in 2021!

Interested in speaking at events like Dig South Virtual Tech Conference? Get in touch!