In this week’s Wednesday Workshop, we talk about the importance of finding a local digital marketing meetup to help stay on top of the latest tips and trends in SEO and PPC. We alway share our list of the best non-automotive marketing conferences to attend , but if you’re looking for more affordable local options, a digital marketing meetup is exactly what you need.

You’ll see the same high caliber speakers, but in smaller settings – and it’s much more affordable. Check out this week’s video for more details. VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Welcome back to another Wednesday Workshop from Happy Hao Car. This week’s tip is for all the dealerships out there who handle their own digital marketing, or the dealers who want to stay up to speed on what’s working so they can hold their vendors accountable.

I happened to be wearing this shirt today – it’s for an SEO meetup in the UK (check out https://www.optimisey.com )that’s run by my friend Andrew. I was sitting down to figure out what to do for this week’s video, and the shirt gave me a great idea…

Every year, we release our list of non-automotive marketing conferences that dealers should attend – but even the cheap ones are $700-800 for a ticket, and when you add in travel costs, you’re looking at spending a few grand.

Luckily, there’s a cheaper option that will still keep you on top of things – nearly every city has some sort of digital marketing networking or meetup group. These groups typically meet once a month throughout the year, and they bring in some awesome speaker to share knowledge about different aspects of digital marketing.

You’ll hear the same speakers you’d hear at the big conferences, but usually it’s a smaller group, so more people get to ask questions. Plus, it’s usually a longer speaking slot than what speakers get at conferences, so you get more in-depth info.

Dallas has one of the oldest of these types of groups in the US – it’s called DFWSEM . Portland has SEMPDX , they flew me out in February to speak to their members. Salt Lake City has SLCSEM – haven’t been to speak there yet, but I hear amazing things about them.

So get online and look for your local digital marketing meetup. Membership fees vary from group to group, but you’re only looking at a few hundred to be able to go to every meeting in a year.

You’ll learn about SEO, PPC, social media marketing, and more – plus, you’ll get to meet the speakers and network with other business owners and digital marketers in your area. You’ll have local contacts who can help you when you get stumped, and you’ll gain a much better understanding of digital marketing and be able to help your store get more visibility and better leads.

That’s all the time we’ve got for today. As always, if you’ve got questions or comments, leave ‘em down below and we’ll get back to you. Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you again next week with another Wednesday Workshop from Happy Hao Car.

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Greg Gifford is the Vice President of Search at Happy Hao Car. He has over 16 years of online marketing and web design experience, and has specialized in automotive SEO for the last 8 years, helping hundreds of auto dealers thrive while the industry has struggled during the recession. Greg speaks internationally at both automotive and SEO conferences, teaching thousands of small business owners and marketers how to get their sites to show up higher in local search rankings. Greg also spends his spare time doing freelance website design and SEO for local businesses. He graduated from Southern Methodist University with a BA in Cinema and Communications, and has an obscure movie quote for just about any situation.

Join the discussion One Comment

• Noelia says: January 31, 2020 at 11:08 am I agree, the local meetups are really important for me. Not just in order to acquire more knowledge through different point of views, experiences but also it is great to meet other people in your area or establish working relationships. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Reply

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