Digital Marketing and Social Media Conference

In this all-day conference, you will learn how to engage your customers and prospects online through your website and social media and track your activities so that you know what is working and what needs to be adjusted. Join us to build your marketing toolkit and take a time-out to learn more!

Marathons and Sprints: Smarter Marketing for Savvy Entrepreneurs (presented by Rachel Rasmussen)

A lot of small business owners – especially those in professional services – share some common challenges. Managing peaks and valleys, having limited capacity, predicting workflow, and managing time and priorities are all things professional service businesses face daily.

As a result, managing your marketing efforts can become a delicate dance – you want to keep a pipeline filled and new business coming in, but you also don’t want it to overflow and dilute your services because you have too much work.
That’s where being mindful and intentional with your marketing can help. It’s about developing and executing long-term marketing strategies (the “marathon”), and then filling in the gaps with short-term strategies (the “sprint”) when you need it. It’s knowing and understanding what levers to pull and when in order to help flatten the peaks and valleys of business, and still maintain a highly client-focused business model.

In this session, we’ll share ideas, tactics and strategies to help put the most impactful ideas into your marketing plan.

Learning objectives:

• Fully define all the pieces of your business – Learn what foundational pieces need to be in place in order to develop and launch any focused marketing initiatives.
• Identify Long-Term Marketing Strategies – Learn to determine and execute long-term, consistent, predictable and controllable marketing tactics to stay in front of your contacts.
• Identify Short-Term Marketing Strategies – Learn how to use short-term marketing tactics to drum up business as quickly as possible, and when to “turn off the faucet” of your short-term efforts to service new business that comes in.
• Measure Your Success – Learn how to evaluate the success of your marketing initiatives, and how to recognize if/when your strategies and tactics need adjusting

The Crowdfunding Playbook: Social Strategies, Financial Insights, and Hard Truths (presented by: Therese Merkel, Tricky Foods)

Crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter provide entrepreneurs with an innovative way to raise funds for their business ideas by directly engaging their community. Unlike traditional funding methods, Kickstarter allows creators to present their vision to a global audience, inviting supporters to contribute in exchange for rewards or early access to products. This approach is particularly appealing to entrepreneurs looking to validate their idea, build a loyal customer base, and generate buzz without taking on debt or giving up equity.

In this session, we’ll explore what it takes to launch a successful Kickstarter campaign through the inspiring story of Therese Merkel, founder of Tricky Foods. You’ll learn how Therese used the power of social media to tell her story and invite the community to be a part of her blossoming charcuterie business. She’ll share what went into her campaign planning – or didn’t! – in terms of both creativity and financial calculations. By learning more about Therese’s process, you may leave inspired to use the power of social media to grow your business.

Learning Objectives

• Craft and Share Your Personal Business Narrative: Discover the importance of embracing and sharing your personal story to connect with your audience, sell your vision, and create a compelling brand identity that inspires action.
• Develop Strategies for Crowdfunding Success: Learn how to creatively leverage platforms like Kickstarter, social media, and storytelling to fund your business goals, engage your network, and attract supporters through authenticity and humor.
• Adapt, Celebrate, and Build Momentum: Understand how to pivot when needed, rally your network around your business journey, celebrate achievements with your supporters, and transform unexpected successes into lasting visibility and growth

Session Title: AI Demystified: Practical Applications for Small Businesses (Presented by Amy Calder)

Learn how to use the power of AI to enhance the way you run your small business. In this practical session, you’ll learn how to:

• Choose the right AI tool for your goals
• Use tools different AI tools – both free and paid
• Streamline operations with AI-driven efficiency tools

We’ll explore the difference between a simple prompt and a “better” prompt to help you get the best results, share tips for optimizing tools like ChatGPT, and demonstrate how AI can save you time, reduce costs, and enhance your marketing efforts. Whether you’re new to AI or looking for new techniques, this session will equip you with actionable ideas to support your business. Perfect for small business owners ready to embrace innovation and simplify their operations.

AI for Business: Use Case Demonstrations and Conversation (presented by Ben Rush, Data Scientist, UW-Madison)

In this demonstration-based session, participants will have the opportunity to see artificial intelligence tools in action. Planned demonstrations using ChatGPT include:

• Developing a customer persona in order to practice customer interviewing
• Generating customized advertisements and images for the business
• Creating a project charter document using a custom GPT

In addition, participants will have the opportunity to learn more about how to create custom GPTs and how to evaluate the GPTs that are available to the general public.

Finally, the session will end with the opportunity for participants to ask questions, and to share their existing challenges. For those challenges that scope appropriately, we will try to demonstrate them on the fly!

Note: If you are newer to artificial intelligence, we recommend attending Is it the Real World, or Is It AI? first as your “101” session.

Learning Objectives:

• Increase understanding of how AI works through live demonstrations of small-business use cases
• Through real-time demonstrations, learn how to troubleshoot poorly performing prompts to reach desired outcome(s)
• Increase participant confidence in using AI by giving them experience in engineering appropriate prompts and better understanding current limitations of the tool

Registration Spring 2025

Location: Grainger Hall, Wisconsin School of Business, UW-Madison

Schedule: 8:30 am- 4:30 pm

Date: 5/8/2025

Fee: WEDC and the Mainstreet Bounceback Program are supporting the $309 cost of this course for operating, for-profit businesses under 500 employees. These businesses should register here:

Businesses <500 Employees, Register here for Spring 2025

Fee: The cost of this course for nonprofits, pre-venture (not yet started) businesses, and those participants from a company of over 500 employees is $309. These organizations should use the link below to register: 

Register here for Spring 2025 or call 608-262-2451 to register.

(Includes boxed lunch. We cannot guarantee lunch for those who register less than 2 weeks ahead of the event)

Registration Deadlines

BONUS: Place 2 or more paid leadership courses in your cart, and use discount code SBDC10 for 10% off. Classes must be purchased in the same transaction.

Registration & Cancellation policies

• Payment will be required at time of registration. You must have either a credit card or valid UW-Madison funding string to be able to register.
• We cannot guarantee that a meal can be provided for in-person participants registering less than 14 days prior to the event date.
• Cancelations at least 24 hours before the program begins will incur a $25 cancellation fee. Cancelations less than 24 hours before the start of the program will incur the full program fee. To cancel, call registration at 608-262-2451. Please note that in the case of a cancellation (by either the participant or the SBDC), participants can only be transferred one time into a new course.

Disability Statement: Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made if requested at least two weeks in advance. Contact the UW-Madison SBDC office at sbdc@bus.wisc.edu to request accommodations.