Marketing & Web Blog

Success for the 2011 Holiday Season B2C Marketing using Email and Social Media

2011-11-29T14:37:00.000-08:00

I am sure you have begun your marketing campaigns for the 2011 holiday season but I thought I would pass along some trends and tips to up your success rate no matter which stage of your plan you are already in.

I'm sure that you are already aware that more shopping is happening online every year. Online retail sales grew by 12.6 percent in 2010 and Forrester Research projects 10 percent year-over-year compound annual growth through 2015, but online sales can't happen for your organization unless people visit your website.

In the 2010 holiday season, email was a major force in driving traffic to websites. ForeSee reports that 19 percent of people surveyed reported visiting a website as the result of a promotional email.

According to the Direct Marketing Association, email continues to be the most productive channel in terms of ROI. Social media may be sexier, search engine optimization and marketing are effective for people who don't know you, but a strategic marketing program to people that have opted in to receive email from you is the best way to have a positive impact on your bottom line.

Here are some trends from previous years that will continue in 2011, along with some new ideas for making the most of your holiday email marketing.

-Stay Focused on Value in Your Marketing
Offering dollars or a percentage off is good, but don't be afraid to get creative. Retailers are also having success with gift-with-purchase offers, coupons good for discounts on future purchases, and other value-based ways to drive sales.

-Its Ok to mention FREE when it's Shipping
Earlier this year, it was reported that the No. 1 offer used by retailers in email marketing was free shipping. Don't be concerned that using the word "free" in your subject line will cause your email to be filtered as spam. That alone won't cause your email to be diverted from the inbox. Free shipping is so common that most consumers have come to expect it and many will rethink buying from you online if they have to pay for delivery.

-Up Your Email Frequency... Strategically
If this is your peak selling season, your email frequency should increase. But be careful not to bombard your list and alienate your recipients.
Have an email that did particularly well? Do an "encore" send, letting people know that this promotion is being repeated or extended because it was so popular. Just be sure to keep a close eye on your unsubscribe and spam complaint rates as your frequency increases -this can be a symptom of overmailing.

-Use Social Media to Acquire Email Subscribers
Use social media as a way to introduce yourself to prospective customers and entice them to sign up to receive email from you to sell them. Email has the added advantage of allowing you to target messages. Ask for enough information at email signup to do this effectively.

-Use Social Media to Drive In-Store Sales
Newer social media channels, like Foursquare, offer businesses the opportunity to reach potential customers who are shopping near brick-and-mortar locations. Offering an immediate discount on purchases may drive people who would otherwise walk past to walk in and buy from places that offer your products.

Definitely keep email the main focus for your primary online marketing channel this holiday season, but be mindful to mix in social media. It can prove to be a way to boost sales even further.

Marketing and Tech Events for December 2011

2011-11-29T11:48:00.000-08:00

Here some Marketing and Tech related events happening throughout December 2011.

US Events

SMX Social Media Marketing

December 5th-6th, Scottsdale, AZ.

SMX Social Media Marketing, a tactic-rich conference where you’ll be immersed in social media marketing of all types. Learn cutting edge techniques for driving site traffic, increasing conversions and managing your company’s brand and customer service across multiple social media channels.

For more information on this event visit: http://searchmarketingexpo.com/socialmediamarketing/

UP 2011

December 5th-9th, Mountain View, CA. and Virtual

UP 2011 is developed to promote collaborative analysis of the latest trends and challenges in cloud computing and ICT, looking at core process and strategies in the rapidly shifting world. We create thought provoking conference panels, workshops, and tutorials which are selected to cover a range of the hottest topics in ICT.

Visit the following link http://upcon11.com/about for more info on this event as well as a list of keynote speakers.

CIO Cloud Summit

December 8th-9th, Scottsdale, AZ.

This summit addresses Enterprise Cloud Computing challenges and benefits.

The CIO Cloud Summit will help C-suite executives better understand the true capabilities of cloud computing and the transformational opportunities it can bring to their business. Through a unique blend of focused case studies, CIO think-tanks, CIO debates, analyst workshops and visionary keynotes, technology executives will leave the event feeling invigorated and enthusiastic, with critical takeaways that can be implemented back at their business.

Interested in checking out the agenda, click here: http://www.ciocloudsummit.com/agenda.php

EMEA Events

MAD World

Mobile Advertising World Europe 2011

December 6th-8th, London, UK

Mobile Advertising World will unite the CMOs, and Heads of Digital from leading global brands and agencies with mobile operators, mobile advertising platforms and enablers to examine and understand how to exploit the opportunity mobile brings to their business. Mobile Advertising World will outline how consumer brands can seize the mobile opportunity through an outstanding speaker faculty of leading global agencies and brands and an agenda built by an advisory board of the industry’s key players.

To see a brochure or to view the programme check out: http://www.terrapinn.com/2011/mobile-advertising-world/?pk_campaign=Terr-Listing&pk_kwd=marketing

LeWeb

December 7th-9th, Paris, France

LeWeb brings together the most influential audience in the Internet ecosystem. Top industry entrepreneurs, executives, investors, senior press & bloggers gather to focus on the key issues and opportunities in the web marketplace.

Learn more: http://www.leweb.net/

NG Security Summit Europe 2011

December 12th-14th, Barcelona, Spain

The Next Generation Security Summit EU is an exclusive industry forum that brings together the industry's leaders, experts and most experienced members to address the key challenges that the industry is facing and to share expertise and experience. The summit serves as an arena for senior level executives to engage in clear and focused dialogue with their peers and examine their management objectives in a relaxed and vibrant environment.

For details and videos regarding this event visit: http://www.ngsecurityeu.com/

Tis The Season To Purchase Software!

2011-11-28T13:40:00.000-08:00

It’s that time of the year again. Consumers are rushing all over town to capitalize on the offers out there. We’re all too familiar with the craziness that occurs on “Black Friday” where millions of people waiting in line rush in to department stores everywhere take advantage of huge sales. What about online sales? The term “Cyber Monday” became popular in 2005. It’s the “Black Friday” for online shoppers. Everything from clothing, electronics to home goods are being offered online at discounted prices. Most even offer free shipping on them as well! But... What about selling software?

Now is the perfect time of the year to offer deals on your software products. People have money to spend, new versions of software releases are coming out and you can advertise through many of your partner channels. For example, Adobe is now offering up to 50% off of its products. Considering that some of its products cost a thousand dollars or more, being able to pocket hundreds of dollars sounds pretty appealing, doesn’t it?

It’s a great time to work with your distributors to strategically place highly competitive pricing or enticing promos to grab the edge over your competitors popular products. With so many people investing their dollars in new electronics such as desktops and laptops it’s a perfect time to position your software discount with a computer brand as well. Sure, consumers this time of the year are known for flocking all over the place to get the latest deals on department store products. As time progresses however, and people start to do a majority of their shopping online, this presents no better time then now to market and sell your software products for the holiday season. Tis the season to purchase software!

Steve Jobs 1955 - 2011

2011-10-26T10:49:00.000-07:00

Recently, the world lost a icon, Steve Jobs. Jobs wasn't a politician, an actor, or a famous athlete; he was the genius behind Apple. Most of us probably own or have owned an Apple product at one point. Whether it be an iPod or the 12 core Mac Pro, "Mac" became a household name in the early 2000's.

I recently read about how parallel Jobs' life was with Bill Gates. If you look at the time line of Apple and Windows, you'll see that everything from the launch of their initial product to the time they decided to leave their active roles in their company lines up. In the early 80's, Jobs would actually have Gates come to his house to show him what he was working on. He was very passionate about his company and felt that it was going to "revolutionize" computing as the world knew it. Well... he was right!

Apple was never exactly about making "cheap" priced products by any means, and Jobs knew that if he was going to create a products that "revolutionized" the world, he couldn't take any shortcuts with the design, or functionality of his them. There is a cheaper alternative to almost any Mac product out there, yet people are still drawn to Apple's creativity and innovation, i.e., "It's cool!" If it wasn't, then the stock wouldn't be worth over $400 a share and it wouldn't have exceeded over $100 billion dollars in global sales.

Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003. Recently, CNN mentioned in an article that mortality was the motivation behind the creation of Apple's boldest products yet, such as the iPhone 4GS and the iPad 2.

The 656 page book, based on over 40 interviews with Walter Isaacson, is going to go on sale any day now. According to Simon & Schuster, Jobs cooperated with the books creation and asked for no control over what was written or the rights to read the book before it was published. I think that's a 656 page book that I wouldn't mind reading! As far as Apple goes, After seeing how enthusiastic Tim Cook was in his keynote about the iPhone 4S, I have no doubt in my mind that the the legacy of Steve Jobs will be carried on.

Marketing and Tech Events for November 2011

2011-10-26T10:22:00.000-07:00

Here are just a few Marketing and Tech related events happening throughout November 2011.

US Events

InnoTech
November 3rd, Oklahoma, OK.
The 6th annual InnoTech Oklahoma, the region's largest business & technology conference & expo, presented by InterWorks,Inc., returns on Thursday, November 3, 2011.

Last year, InnoTech hosted over 1000 of the region's top business & technology professionals at the Cox Convention Center for a full day of education, innovation, hands-on exhibits, peer to peer networking opportunities, special events and more. Don't miss this year's InnoTech event!
For more information visit: http://www.innotechok.com/

Social CRM 2011
November 3rd, New York, NY.
This conference will be fully interactive with presentations, case studies, Q & A sessions and panel discussions. There will also be an Exhibition Area featuring many of the leading social CRM tools and services. The ticket price includes lunch, refreshments and a handbook and networking drinks at the end of the day.

Topics to be discussed include:

What is social CRM?
How to develop your Social CRM strategy
Mapping your CRM system to the customer journey and much more.

For a list of program highlights click on: http://www.oursocialtimes.com/socialcrmnewyork/\

Ad Tech New York
November 8th - 10th, New York City, NY
As the digitization of media continually redefines the business of marketing, it is ad:tech’s mission to provide brand advertisers, agencies, portals, online publishers and technology providers an unparalleled forum – one that supports the exchange of ideas, experiences, new practices, emerging models and expert opinion. That’s why every ad:tech conference features a balanced blend of:

Keynote speakers sharing frontline experiences and an executive level perspective. See here for notable keynoters: http://www.ad-tech.com/ny/adtech_new_york.aspx
Panel discussions focusing on best practices and economic opportunities

Hands-on workshops delivering immediate, take-away value

EMEA Events

European Email Marketing Conference

November 1st – 2nd, London, England

The European Email Marketing Conference is the annual gathering of marketers and email experts to exchange knowledge, review new cases and campaigns and discuss email as marketing tool. Renown companies from all over Europe and across different businesses share their best practices and give detailed insights to learn from. Experts address new developments such as social media and video, or new techniques to drive conversion, to analyse behaviour, plus various examples of multichannel campaigns. This combination of day to day learnings, tools, business insights and strategies, makes the European Email Marketing Conference the perfect occasion for updating your email marketing skills.

For program details visit: http://www.emailmarketingconference.com/program

GOTO Prague International Software Development Conference 2011

November 22nd – 23rd, Prague, Czech Republic

GOTO Prague is a vendor independent software development conference - made for developers by developers presenting the industry's best speakers. Our goal is to give the software development community a high quality conference with unique learning, discussion and networking opportunities.

The Conference takes place in Prague, Czech Republic and includes: 2 conference days and 1 tutorial day with more than 20+ Presentation Sessions by International Experts and Authors.

SES Singapore

November 22nd – 23rd, Singapore

SES brings its world renowned learning experience and thought leaders in the search engine marketing field to Singapore. More than 50 speakers from a cross-section of well-respected industry organizations will discuss the latest market dynamics and trends, best practices, technology and innovation.

SES Singapore 2011 will be packed with sessions covering PPC management, keyword research, SEO, social media, local, mobile, link building, duplicate content, multiple site issues, video optimization and usability, plus networking events, parties and more.

To see registration details and speakers go to: http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/singapore/index.php

Leverage the power of your CRM to deliver the goods

2011-10-25T14:36:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share another insightful post I found on Maximizer CRM Central. This entry gives a brief yet helpful suggestion on how a robust CRM that has integrated marketing and sales modules can make your sales conversation with prospects and leads much more compelling. In turn you get the metrics to determine how successful your online marketing efforts are.

Leverage the power of your CRM to deliver the goods
by Bob Neudecker

For many marketers, measuring the success of your campaigns and ultimately your ROI can be a somewhat daunting and time-consuming process. Not only can it be painful weeding through campaign metrics and making sense of the numbers exported in spreadsheets or reports from 3rd party email campaign engines, there is often a disconnect between measuring what you are responsible for (generating new leads and nurturing existing ones) and measuring what the sales team ultimately generates in terms of qualified opportunities and sales closed from those leads.

Leveraging the power of a robust CRM with integrated marketing and sales modules allows you to connect the dots between your campaigns and the sales leads and opportunities they generate. You need to be able to export your campaign metrics and generate lists of subscribers that clicked the links in your email. With this information, you know who is interested in what, which is invaluable for subsequent or future targeted campaigns to engage prospects further or build brand loyalty with existing customers.

For example, you send an email campaign to your list of prospects introducing them to your three latest product offerings. You include links to a specific landing page on your website for each product, with the call to action to view a demo. Your CRM should record how many people received the email, how many opened it, how many were unique opens (i.e. some people may click on it several times, so you need to know the actual number that took action), and who clicked on which links.

Your sales reps following up on the leads generated by the campaign can see which product(s) the prospect is interested in. Armed with this knowledge, the rep can engage the prospect further by contacting them, providing additional information and initiating a discussion to determine how best to address their needs. You can track how many of the leads you generated for the sales team become qualified opportunities in the pipeline and how many closed, allowing you to easily determine the ROI on your campaign.

Three Online Marketing Movements To Engage In

2011-09-27T07:48:00.000-07:00

Understanding the interaction between search, social media and content translates into opportunity for brands and marketers, such as yourself, to engage an active online marketing strategy that celebrates diversity of channels – provided such efforts are customer focused.

The future of online marketing brings the best of these disciplines together. To meet consumer needs, whether it’s B2B or B2C, it’s inevitable and a must that PR will know SEO and Social Media Marketers with be versed in media relations.

Relevance, timeliness and ability to share is the coveted trifecta to win with modern online marketing. That means offering better content and better visibility in all the places customers might be looking or influenced by. It also means a better experience in brand / consumer interactions.

I'm sure many of you out there are like me when it comes to wanting to know and learning about the latest online marketing trends. Here are 3 areas that you will want to be paying attention to in the coming year...

Content Marketing: Brands have begun adopting a publisher model of marketing through content as evidenced by the growth of “content marketing” and “content curation”. This will continue and get increasingly competitive for those that can afford to scale original content and media.

Mobile and Tablet: These days this is an obvious trend prediction. As of late 2010, more Americans own mobile devices, including tablets, than computers. Search, social, local and apps all offer opportunities for consumer sales and engagement on mobile devices. Social networking is one of the top 3 uses of mobile phones and as apps and tablets dominate the market, more time will be spent there and away from personal computers. This means you will need to spend more of that annual budget and strategy time in this growing arena.

Social Business: When you evaluate the impact of the social web on overall business outcomes, it’s easy to see why companies like IBM are adopting social business models. Companies that incorporate social media literacy and empowerment from within will empower their employees, partners and customers to act collectively on behalf of the brand.

Within each of these areas lies an important consideration for how brands will connect people with content and experiences that create awareness, confidence, relationships, sharing and conversions.

Working in “The Cloud”…

2011-09-12T12:57:00.000-07:00

Even though the term “Cloud Computing” may still be relatively new, what are the chances people will begin to work remotely once businesses start to implement a cloud platform? I can attest that with a 30 mile commute to work each day, the thought of working from home sometimes is very appealing. How appealing is it from a business aspect though? Can a business survive totally in the cloud? Could a business run from a “virtual” office?

This could definitely work for a business that had all of their applications hosted in the cloud. Think about it… if you used a service like Gmail or Outlook Cloud for all of your emails, met with Skype for all of your meetings, texted via MSN Messenger and could access all of your software applications via the cloud, so you could literally pull this off! What would the significant drawbacks be? I suppose you could say that there is no way to track the amount of work that an employee does, but we all know that that can all be tracked and stored in the cloud. You could say that not everybody knows their way around the internet. That would have been a logical excuse to make in 1997, but it’s 2011 now, and it should be a prerequisite to be fluent online. I guess you could say that it would lower the morale of the employees because of the lack of social interaction, but that’s why we have friends… right? You could even say the obvious, like… “What if we lose our internet connection?” That’s about the only legitimate excuse I could think of, but even with that it’s only temporary, so go outside for a short walk.

Honestly, I just can’t think of a single reason why a business, particularly in industries such as marketing, design, software, etc... couldn’t survive entirely in the cloud. I’m not saying that all businesses could survive in the cloud, but I think that a decent percentage could. Think about the infrastructure of your business. Is there anything that you need to do each day that you couldn’t do via the web? If you can’t think of anything, then you my friend could work in the cloud!

Marketing and Tech Events for September 2011

2011-08-29T20:48:00.000-07:00

Here are just a few Marketing and Tech related events happening throughout September 2011.

US Events

Cloud Computing & VirtualizationSeptember 7th -9th, Washington, D.C.

Cloud Computing & Virtualization provides a national forum showcasing how government agencies use case studies in developing cloud infrastructure and software services; and emerging strategies and best practices to help government agencies securely migrate to next generation computing platforms and use virtualization more effectively.

For more info on this event visit: http://govcloudconference.com/Events/2011/Home.aspx

TechCrunch DISRUPT 2011September 12th-14th, San Francisco, CA.

At this conference you can see more than 100 startups strut their products, with 30 of them battling to be the best of the lot. Also presenting will be a number of high-profile entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and media figures.

To register and find out more about this exciting and unique conference go to: http://disrupt.techcrunch.com/SF2011/

The Social Media Strategies SummitSeptember 30th-22nd, Boston, MA.
If you want to learn from the best and harness the power of social media to further your brand’s reach and impact than this is the summit for you.

During this 3 day summit attendee’s will learn how to best utilize and integrate the myriad social media platforms to engage customers directly at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing. Through the intelligent use of social media marketing you can, in house, have continuous direct contact with your customers.

The agenda for this event offers informative descriptions about what topics will be discussed for the 3 day event.

EMEA Events

IMC Stockholm September 19th-20th, Stockholm, Sweden

The digital eco-system has expanded across multiple platforms through multiple devices putting pressure on marketers to manage multiple touch points and make sense of behaviour, sentiment and intent. IMC Stockholm provides an environment to explore and debate today’s challenges, opportunities and solutions.The agenda for this 2 day event features topics on Online Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Advertising, Social Tools, Email Marketing and Analysis.

See who will be speaking at IMC this year.

eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit September 19th-20th, Stockholm, Sweden

This 2 day event is co-located and running parallel to both SMX and IMC (combo passes available). During this event attendees will have the opportunity to hear from the leaders and experts in their field and share best practices and real-world solutions in online marketing. The agenda features discussions on conversions, traffic, measuring SEO, design, analytics and customer experience.

For this year’s summit agenda visit: http://www.emetrics.org/stockholm/2011/agenda_overview.php

Ad Tech LondonSeptember 21st-22nd, National Hall, Olympia

For the seventh year in the UK, the online marketing and advertising community will come together for ad:tech London 2011 to reveal the latest trends and market figures, share best practice and address industry challenges.

Here are this year’s Ad Tech featured speakers.

Better Your Business - Personal Branding and CRM

2011-08-29T13:46:00.000-07:00

I recently noticed a great article posted on Maximizer CRM Central discussing the importance of having a strong personal brand and how that can be extended using your CRM to deliver a customized and consistent experience to each client or prospect you have.

Personal Branding and CRM
Whether you are a lawyer, accountant, financial services professional, realtor, or health and wellness professional you know how important developing a positive personal brand can be for your business. In an environment where services appear similar this is what makes you stand out from the crowd. It is a way to reflect your values, personality and expertise, and increase your credibility by providing exceptional client experience.

When building a personal brand Robin Fisher Roffer; author, speaker, personal branding expert and strategist, and CEO of Big Fish Marketing, starts with what she calls "the Holy Trinity of Branding: consistency, clarity and authenticity".

Consistency makes you look like a brand leader. This is about staying on message - synchronizing agreement and action -- walking the walk and talking the talk. Think about Verizon's "Can You Hear Me Now?" campaign. Is there anyone in American that doesn't know that Verizon delivers the most consistent and dependable cell phone service?

Clarity tells the world why your brand matters. The best brands edit their communication down to its essence and speak to their audience in a language they can understand and emotionally connect with. Think about how much Nike communicates with the simple tagline, "Just Do It."

Authenticity gives your brand staying power. Great brands come across as real. They don't manipulate the truth to get what they want. What they say about themselves comes directly from their true essence. Think of fast-growing brands like Zappos, Google and Apple. Not only do they have authenticity at their core, their visual image syncs up with what they say they can do.

So what does this have to do with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software?

As your business evolves and your client and prospect database grows it becomes more and more difficult to deliver a consistent message, maintain a high standard of service and stay on top of your sales and marketing activities. With CRM you can deliver a customized, high-value and consistent experience to each client or prospect every time to build and maintain your positive personal brand.

For example, Maximizer CRM not only stores client contact information but also their complete history with you, account history, product and service profiles and even their favorite sports teams and life events like birthdays and anniversaries, to build a 360-degree view of your client.

Organize resources and coordinate a series of activities (such as emails, calls, meeting preparation and appointments) around a client or prospect with an action plan. Maximizer CRM allows these plans to be reused so you can stay on track no matter who you are engaging. Clients will notice your attention to detail and the consistent, dedicated experience that you deliver.

Is Social Networking Ruining the Development of Social Skills?

2011-08-11T12:54:00.000-07:00

It seems like everybody is a part of a social media site nowadays—you, your parents, your grandparents and your pet may even have a Twitter or Facebook account. The trouble that I’ve witnessed firsthand is how it seems to be affecting legitimate social skills, particularly in younger users. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but the whole aspect of communication amongst friends via posts and messaging seems to put a halt to the growth of social capabilities.

Taking into consideration the fact that you’re reading this blog, which by my interpretation makes you somewhat web savvy, ponder the following. How often did you call your friends and family to catch up and see what was new with them? Now compare that to how often you called your friends or family 5 – 10 years ago, which if this is the case, you may want to re-visit your cell phone plan to see if you’re actually using the 2,000 anytime minutes a month that you use to. It’s not necessary to call like we use to now that we know just about everything that’s going on in the lives of our friends and family by simply reading their posts and looking at their pictures. That’s just the tip of the iceberg though. It’s impossible to go just about anywhere nowadays and not see people consumed by texting, facebooking or tweeting. I know I’m not the only one who has seen people do it at their place of work, even if their place of work is in the service industry where customers require the attention of the staff. Texting has seem to take over. Do u no wat I mean?

My real concern is about the progression of communication and how it’s going to eventually affect the workplace—particularly in the customer service industry. I realize that some things in life just some with experience, but being able to communicate and interact shouldn’t. Like I said… I see kids on their phones texting away all the time, but they’re like a deer in headlights when it comes to answering a question in person. What are your thoughts on this?

Get more subscribers to take action when receiving email via mobile device

2011-07-21T07:32:00.000-07:00

Here are some best practices that help ensure your content is received in the best possible light when on a mobile device. If you want subscribers to take action on the emails they open via mobile devices consider using the following...

Keep the subject short and sweet.
Mobile devices display a limited number of characters in the subject line, so title the email in as few words as possible. Your recipients can't take action on your emails if they don't open them first.

Trim the fat.
Mobile Internet connections run slower than desktop connections, so avoid extremely data-heavy content. You don't want your recipients abandoning the email before the content loads so take down that file size.

Get to the point quickly.
If content via mobile is not easy to read and respond to, your customers will most likely delete or ignore the email. Get to the point quickly; your recipients are probably on the move and exposed to all sorts of distractions throughout their day.

Optimize landing pages for mobile devices.
Mobile landing pages should have brief, direct copy that gets the point across. Those who want more information can return to your site later from a desktop and explore deeper links for more detailed content.

Encourage sharing.
Social media sharing buttons should be available and easy for your mobile audience to use. Instead of placing these buttons all the way at the bottom or top of the email, insert them near the middle, next to content that recipients most likely will want to share.

Create a sense of urgency.
Hinting, not screaming, a sense of urgency is a good idea. Make it clear when your sale or special offer expires, so that recipients have more incentive to take action immediately on their mobile devices rather than waiting to view the content on a computer.

Make sure to test and review results to determine what percentage of your subscribers are opening messages on mobile devices and use the results to adjust your message and layout to cater to your mobile users.

Marketing and Tech Events for August 2011

2011-07-20T15:15:00.000-07:00

Here are a handful of Marketing and Tech related events coming up in August thru September 2011.

US Events

Summer Marketing Educators’ Conference 2011

Delivering Value in Turbulent Times

August 5th-7th, San Francisco, CA.

The Summer Marketing Educators' Conference is an important forum for current research, intellectual exchange, networking and career development for marketing academicians world-wide.

To view event program visit: http://www.marketingpower.com/Calendar/Pages/SummerMarketingEducatorsConferenceSanFrancisco.aspx

Virtual Cloud Connect

Designing and Deploying Reliable On-Demand Applications

August 11th, New York, NY.

Virtual events simulate the activity and impact of face-to-face events, tradeshows and conferences online. Virtual events are free, and can be viewed live or on-demand from anywhere in the world.

Cloud Technology is changing at breakneck speed. While the annual Cloud Connect Conference covers a broad range of technology and business subjects, there’s plenty to discuss in the interim. Virtual Cloud Connect 2011 will look at some of the core issues that are top of mind for Cloud Computing Decision Makers.

To register for this event go to: https://vts.inxpo.com/scripts/Server.nxp

VMworld 2011

August 29th-September 1st, Las Vegas, NV.

Don't miss VMworld 2011 to learn about the latest virtualization technologies and strategies which can help your organization realize its' vision for a cloud computing approach to IT.

Attend over 300 in-depth sessions and labs, a packed agenda of meetings and special events, and visit hundreds of exhibits showcasing the latest advances in virtualization and cloud infrastructure technology. Join thousands of IT innovators, practitioners, executives and technology providers and come away with the insight and tools needed to drive unprecedented business results.

Learn more about the VMworld 2011 event.

EMEA Events

Software Product Line Conference

August 22nd-26th, Munich, Germany

The event will be held over three days, with presentations delivered by researchers from the international community, including presentations from keynote speakers and state-of-the-art lectures. After the conference, there will be a free sightseeing tour to Poland and Slovakia.

For registration information visit: http://www.splc2011.net/registration-1/index.html

Apps World – Discover the future of Multi-Platform Apps

September 1st-2nd, Suntec, Singapore

Asia represents 60% of the world's population so it is no wonder that the entire APPS ecosystem is turning to that region. Many predict that this region is going to be the app hotspot on the globe. With that in mind, what is making Asia such an app-rich region? Simple - the sheer number of subscribers. With that comes competition and churn and app developers are looking for new ways to generate revenue and increase and maintain customer loyalty.

Apps World Asia 2011 will delve into this highly populated yet dynamic region and its app eco-system. This is the event of choice for the region's App Developers, Network Operators, OS Vendors, Brand & Marketing Managers and Technology Providers; looking to connect, build partnerships and network whilst becoming educated and inspired by the latest developments within this exciting industry.

Ad Tech London

September 21st-22nd , National Hall, Olympia

For the seventh year in the UK, the online marketing and advertising community will come together for ad:tech London 2011 to reveal the latest trends and market figures, share best practice and address industry challenges.

Here are this year’s Ad Tech featured speakers.

Music in the Cloud and the Constant Struggle

2011-07-19T11:16:00.000-07:00

Remember Napster? Of course you do. It was a pioneer in it's day. That is of course before it was shut down by record companies after constant lawsuit battles over music piracy. Little did we know that it was just the tip of the iceberg for the online music revolution.

Since then, record companies have been going after used P2P clients, such as Gnutella and Morpheus. More recently, bit torrent sites have been the victim of attack. Now, don't get me wrong, if you just want to listen to music throughout your day, you can simply use Pandora, Grooveshark, or even create a playlist in YouTube if you don't mind spending the time looking for music with adequate quality. But, what if you just wanted to take your CD's and import them to an online location that you could access for your own personal use. There is nothing wrong with that, right? Not so much, according to a recent article I read in CNN.

Now the record industries are cracking down on companies such as Amazon and Google for their
cloud platform that allows music collections to be uploaded for personal use. The issue with that pertains to licensing agreements. Currently, word has it that Apple is negotiating license agreements for its iCloud service.

So... when will the constant struggle with record companies and online music services end? I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Cool and Useful Twitter Tools To Start Using Today

2011-06-24T14:24:00.000-07:00

If you are one of the many folks out there using Twitter these days, whether it be for personal or business reasons, you know that managing all your outgoing and incoming content can get overwhelming at times. Not to mention if you are doing any kind of tracking on your tweets its always great to find the latest resources out there that can help you see who is sharing your posts and which individuals are interested in a similar topic as you.

To make connecting and managing life in the Twittersphere even easier here a few tools you may want to start taking advantage of.

Tweet Everywhere
These Twitter tools help you to not only post tweets but also to other social networking and social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, etc...
• Ping.fm
• Hellotxt

Contact Management
These Twitter tools help to manage your contacts, those who you follow and those who follow you. You can also search for new followers, analyze those following you, find out who they are following and more.
• Twerpscan
• TwitterCounter

Twitter Directories and Search

These Twitter tools are directories where you can search for new followers or find who is following you via certain parameters and keywords. They are a really helpful set of tools to increase followers relevant to your niche.
• Twitter Search
• Twellow
• WeFollow
• Twitterholic

Tweet Schedulers and Productivity and Auto Tweets
With these Twitter tools you can schedule tweets for later as well as tweet blog entries. Don't over-do it though or you could appear to be a "bot", a spammer, rather than a person. Use wisely my friends.
• PostLater
• Twitterfeed
• Twitresponse

Twitter Statistics, Graphs, Analysis and Evaluators

These twitter tools allow you to evaluate your twitter profile, run analysis on your twitter reach and popularity, with all sorts of stats and graphs.
• Twitter Grader
• Tweet Value
• Tweetstats

Toolbars and Firefox Add-ons

Twitter tools to make tweeting from within your browser easy.
• HootBar
• Twitizer
• Echofon

Let me know if you have any great Twitter tools that got missed in this list that you would like to share.

Marketing and Tech Events for July 2011

2011-06-22T14:49:00.000-07:00

For those of you looking to put some new events on your radar here are a few taking place throughout the US and EMEA throughout July.

US Events

OMS – Online Marketing Summit

July 11th-13th, Jersey City, NJ

OMS Jersey City returns with a flexible, three-day "Super Regional" format:

•Day 1: Online Marketing Boot Camp. Choose from 12 intensive workshops covering the digital marketing essentials, advanced "how to" tactics, social media and more.

•Day 2: Conference Day. Attend sessions across 3 tracks covering online marketing best practices and case studies in search, social, email, integrated marketing and more - all presented by industry thought leaders.

•Day 3: Post-Conference: Social Media Workshops. Go beyond introductory courses and receive intensive intermediate and advanced social media training at these partner workshops.

Clean Slate

July 19th, New York, NY.

Join major industry pundits and experts at this highly interactive forum as they discuss and explore the opportunities, risks and pitfalls the new Tablet Economy has to offer. Delve into some of the key questions and issues you are facing today:

• How are consumers using the tablet today — how will they use it tomorrow?

• What will the Tablet Economy look like in 5 years?

• Getting ready for the new advertising paradigm

• Innovative monetization strategies for the content industry

To see who will be speaking at this event click here, Clean Slate Thought Leaders.

Cloud Control Conference and Exhibition

July 19th-21st, Boston, MA.

The Cloud Control Conference and Exhibition proposes a new opportunity to professionals in the crowded cloud space. The conference will be collocated with the popular Green Data Center Conference in order to give attendees the hands down most comprehensive conference experience available. Delegates will have the opportunity to attend sessions at either event, expanding the web of information to include data center management, innovation and the rise or virtualization.

For more look at the agenda for this conference go to: http://cloudcontrolconference.com/program/agenda-at-a-glance.html

EMEA Events

International Conference on Digital Information Processing and Communications

July 7th-9th, Ostrava, Czech Republic

The event will be held over three days, with presentations delivered by researchers from the international community, including presentations from keynote speakers and state-of-the-art lectures. After the conference, there will be a free sightseeing tour to Poland and Slovakia.

For keynote speaker and schedule information visit: http://www.sdiwc.net/public/cz/public/Keynote_Speakers.php

Strategic Marketing Forum:

New Trends & Insights in Creating & Sustaining Competitive Advantage

July 14th-15th, Novotel Singapore Clarke Quay

This two-day forum is designed to provide an ideal platform to learn about how today’s consumers think and behave, how they react to the various media profiles and campaigns, where they search for information on products and services, what values organisations should develop and highlight to best meet their customers’ expectations, etc.

This forum is not just about marketing mix, brand extension, communication strategies or channel marketing. It also strives to look towards the future and provide insights for a successful relationship with the customers and clients. You will also gain practical knowledge on social media, emerging trends and marketing ROI, as well as from real case-studies.

Complete forum details and program outline can be found by clicking here.

AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media

July 17th-21st, Barcelona, Spain

ICWSM, the fifth international conference on weblogs and social media, put on by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, brings together researchers from computer science, linguistics, communication and the social sciences.

For a list of keynote speakers visit: http://www.icwsm.org/2011/speaker.php

Web Deals - Stimulating The Economy And Relationships

2011-06-16T13:31:00.000-07:00

Everyday, I get emails from both Groupon and Living Social with special offers that are available for a limited time. These offers vary from discounts on cruises, flights, events, movies, food and even excercise classes. A majority of these businesses that are offering these services are typically offering a deal that gets you at least half off the original cost. Like most people, I'm drawn to deals and bargains.

Recently, I've started to take advantage of these deals. I used to just be annoyed when I was in my car listening to Pandora and an advertisement would come on about local deals, but now I actually pay attention. Why? Because it gets me "brownie points!" Think about it, if you are now able to give your significant other a gift for a very reasonable cost, sometimes up to 80% off of what it use to be, why wouldn't you? $26 for a half hour massage and facial? Sign me up!

The reality is that these businesses were most likely influenced by the struggling economy as a way to entice people to get back out there and have fun. So I say, let's take advantage of these offers while they're around. I'm all about stimulating the economy because I know everyone will benefit from that. But let's enjoy it while we're doing it!

Valuable Insight for Software Sales Reps and Marketers

2011-05-25T11:02:00.000-07:00

I am pleased to announce that after a year of designing, developing and testing that our TestDrive™ INSIGHT service is now ready to offer what we had ultimately envisioned making possible.

Building on the services ability to record TestDrive™ online demo sessions and save them or review, now it’s an advanced service that can deliver quantitative and qualitative data to our customers. The improved service features offer many advantages to our customers whether it’s used for Sales, Marketing or Product Development/Product Management.

In this post my focus will be related to Sales and Marketing however if you are interested in reading more about how Product Development can benefit from TD INSIGHT you can check out Andy’s post.

TestDrive INSIGHT is a solution that can look at what a user did, identify each keystroke, mouse click and which dialogs and menus were accessed and then track certain patterns. Our system can be customized to flag user sessions that exhibit a certain pattern or search for them after the fact and then jump to the video playback to watch how a menu feature was accessed.

This is great for Sales and Marketing professionals alike. From a Sales perspective a conversation can be started that addresses what a user is most interested in purchasing the software for. This conversation can be based off the software demo summary the TD INSIGHT system automatically delivers to them when each lead has completed their online demo. This insight can also help a Sales representative to better assist a new lead to find a feature in the software that they may not have been able to locate initially in their demo, hence securing the sales opportunity.

For Marketers, TD INSIGHT offers a whole new range of opportunities specifically with user behavioral profiling. For example if a customer is using the TestDrive lead capture system and a lead answers a question that asks what new feature they are most interested in learning about. We can take that answer and track it to what menu features the user accessed during their software demo. This data can later be retrieved to find out how many leads answered the same feature to how many actually went looking for it and found it during their demo. This information can be valuable when sending out nurturing email blasts and developing tutorials to better assist and educate users about the software they are looking to purchase.

This type of insight allows Sales and Marketers to be the fly on the wall when it comes to better understanding how their leads evaluate their software. It takes the guess work out of not only when a lead has had a chance to look at your product but also when they need your help to identify the value of what it can offer them back.

E-books. How far can we take them?

2011-05-23T13:59:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you're probably familiar with the term "e-book." The pioneer for this movement can be credited to the Kindle, which is one of Amazon's most highly toted products. There are other competitors out there, but none as popular as the Kindle. So, there are alternatives, some of which are cheaper, but the point is that this this isn't just a fad.

I recently read that for every 100 books sold on Amazon, they are selling 105 e-books. Three years ago when e-books were hovering around $300+ per device, it would have been hard to image this ever happening. As with most technology however, supply and demand has worked it's ways to be able to offer these devices at more than half of their price in 2008. With most tech products, the key is to get them to a price-point where the consumer believes they are getting a "good deal." The numbers speak for themselves in this case, but that just means that this doesn't stop here.

Remember when you were in school and you had to drag around those backpacks full of books and folders? Eventually we had lockers, but most of us had a significant amount of paper we were still lugging around. Let's be honest. Those suckers got heavy! At $114 a piece now, with the potential to go significantly lower, wouldn't it make sense to issue these in schools for a test run? Personally, I see these making a significant presence in schools, especially as a way to make sure that your curriculum is up-to-date. The 3G technology that is enable on most of these devices would allow us to be able to download new course books, rather than having to storm the book stores at the beginning of each semester. Another logical step if proven successful would be to include quizzes or tests within book chapters. This would allow software industries to get involved and possibly get a piece of the e-book pie as well.

The truth is, we really can take this convenient technology and run with it. I believe this is just the tip of the iceberg. I think we will be seeing a dramatic increase in cost for these devices over time as well as significant integration in our education. But, I guess only time will tell.

Marketing and Tech Events for June 2011

2011-05-19T10:03:00.000-07:00

For those of you looking to put some new events on your radar here are a few taking place throughout the US and EMEA during June.

US Events

8th International Cloud Expo

June 6 th-9th, New York City, NY.

This event is the only Enterprise IT event in 2011 covering the entire scope of the Cloud Computing spectrum. Cloud Expo New York will feature 200+ technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty chosen from among the leading Cloud industry players in the world.

To learn more about this information content packed event visit http://cloudcomputingexpo.com/.

Measure Up

June 6 th-8th, Boston, MA.

Measure Up is the world's most comprehensive cross-dimensional view of marketing measurement best practices. THIS YEAR, the event is structured around integrating many fractured pieces of measurement analytics into one effective marketing strategy. The event will focus on return on investment (ROI) as it relates to online activities; specifically, Social Media.

Measure Up: Agenda at a glance

The Corporate Social Media Summit

June 21st-22 nd, New York City, NY.

The Corporate Social Media Summit is the only social media conference catered exclusively for corporate practitioners. Learn best practice and insight from an unrivalled line-up of leading corporate practitioners. The agenda will be focused on all the key social media issues that a corporate practitioner needs to know.

Click here to see the summit agenda and download a brochure.

EMEA Events

Integrated Marketing Communication Conference

June 6th-7th, Joburg

Only top influential marketing gurus have been selected to deliver their Marketing Communication speeches at the 2011 IMC Conference. Each delegate will be able to attend up to ten, thirty minute marketing workshops per day, during the course of the conference. These interactive workshops will give delegates a far greater understanding of the particular marketing niche as well as offer delegates the opportunity to get their hands dirty by partaking in the workshop exercises hosted by the workshop hosts. For a complete details on this unique event visit http://www.imcc.co.za/

Cloud Computing World Forum

June 21st-22nd, Olympia, London

This free-to-attend event featuring all of the key players within the Cloud Computing and SaaS markets, and providing an introduction, discussion and insight into the future of the ICT industry.

Building on the success of the 2010 show, this two day conference will provide the most complete and comprehensive platform for the global Cloud Computing and SaaS industry.

To see the seminar agenda and attain a free expo pass please click here.

The Online Marketing Show 2011

June 29th and 30th, London, England

Chaired by the experts at New Media Age, the two-day conference explores the latest trends that are shaping the future of digital media and marketing. From mobile location based services to online video and social media, there are so many avenues to explore. This is the prefect opportunity to stay one step ahead of the game and make sense of this fast changing interactive world. Click here for full programme details

Marketing and Tech Events for May 2011

2011-04-20T08:34:00.000-07:00

For those of you looking to put some new events are your radar here are a few taking place throughout the US and EMEA during May and June.

US Events

Pay per Click for Marketers

May 4th-5th, Denver, CO.

This two-day Training Series will help you and your organization understand and execute profit maximizing techniques for pay per click (PPC) marketing within multiple online ad platforms. Attendees of this seminar will get a comprehensive understanding (from business strategy to conversion) of the elements that make PPC work best.

Interop

May 8th-12th, Las Vegas, NV.

Interop is the only event to give you a comprehensive and unbiased understanding of all the latest innovations—including cloud computing, virtualization, security, mobility and data center advances—that help position your company for growth.

For complete details on this technology event visit http://www.interop.com/lasvegas/.

Content Delivery Summit

May 9th, New York, NY.

Now in its third year, the Content Delivery Summit is a one-day conference designed to bring together telecom carriers, service providers, content owners, and industry vendors for a detailed look at CDN platforms and the delivery of video and rich-media content.

You can review the conference agenda and speaker list here: http://www.contentdeliverysummit.com/2011/Agenda.aspx

EMEA Events

GIA Conference Amsterdam 2011

May 23rd -25th, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Learn how leading companies apply the Key Success Factors of High Impact Market Intelligence to improve their business decision making. Plus gain insights into the 2011 Global Market Intelligence Survey to benchmark your company with global peers. Best practices will be shared by leading global companies such as Best Buy, Cintas, Cisco Systems, Electrolux, GDF SUEZ, Nycomed, Procter & Gamble, Rabobank, Randstad, Statoil, T-Systems, TNT Express and TomTom.

For a complete brochure on this event and agenda visit: http://www.globalintelligence.com/events/gia-conference-europe-may-2011/

Tmforum Management World

May 23rd -26th, Dublin, IR

TM Forum's Management World is the meeting place of the industry, providing an open forum to discuss and debate the challenges of today and the opportunities of tomorrow. To grow, our industry must undergo a revolution: one focused on the transformation from service provider, to innovative service enabler. Management World 2011 lifts the covers off this revolution, unwrapping the who, what and how of communications innovation enabling the digital economy. The Conference features three Forums comprised of six Summits that tackle these critical areas of change: driving innovation into your business to deliver new growth; establishing the agile IT and operations you need to support those innovative new business models; and how to bill for it all while delivering the experience your customers demand.

For complete details on this event visit: https://www.tmforum.org/ManagementWorld2011/9414/home.html

The Online Marketing Show 2011

June 29th and 30th, London, England

Chaired by the experts at New Media Age, the two-day conference explores the latest trends that are shaping the future of digital media and marketing. From mobile location based services to online video and social media, there are so many avenues to explore. This is the prefect opportunity to stay one step ahead of the game and make sense of this fast changing interactive world. Click here for the full programme details.

5 guidelines for successful Web analytics

2011-04-19T11:41:00.000-07:00

Web analytics has increasingly become one of the most important resources for optimizing a marketer's online marketing strategy over the past few years. Here are a few simple rules to keep in mind when revamping the company website, creating a new campaign or engaging in social media.

1. Web analytics has to be comprehensive in the campaign planning and throughout the campaign's execution.

2. The Web analytics portion of the campaign is just as important as creating the messaging. You need to define the factors of the data you want to track during the campaign.

3. Because marketing messages live in multiple environments, we as marketers, need to take a holistic approach to tracking and measuring online campaigns.

4. Understand how your customers engage with your website through metrics other than simply tracking click-through rates.

5. The ability to leverage Web analytics doesn't require marketers to rely on the IT department; marketers also need to prepare to push back if IT says they can't correlate Web analytics to other types of customer data.

Web data is a means to an end, with that end being able to make an educated business decision on how to best reach out to your prospects and customers to meet your revenue goals.

Here are some Web Analytics tools for tracking your visitors...

-Google Analytics

-Reinvigorate

-Woopra

-Mochibot - can track flash campaigns

I have Facebook, so I can manage a CMS. Right?

2011-04-15T12:30:00.000-07:00

It's no surprise that both small and large business are slowly switching to a CMS website. After all, most of us have a Facebook, so we're used to managing content... right? Before I start with my song and dance, let me begin by letting everyone know that the following information comes from my first hand experience in this topic. Well... most of it.

I know that both small and large businesses have dealt with their share or web designer nightmares. Whether it be lack of control, cost, or the shear fact that you once designed a project in Microsoft Front Page for a group project in the second semester of your junior year of college. And, you got a B+, so you're clearly ready to tackle something as simple as a Content Management System! My advice is to leave it to the designers and coders. There is a reason you're doing what you do and they are doing what they do.

Suppose your approach to a CMS is that you want to be able to manage your own content, thus keeping costs of updating your site down because you're doing it yourself. Well, that sounds like a great idea on paper, but what happens when you break something and have to go back to that designer to have them fix it? You're right back where you started right? I'm not saying that you can't learn the software, but you're putting yourself in a situation with a high possibility of future frustration.

Managing a CMS, such as Wordpress or Joomla, is not as simple as managing the content that's on your Facebook. It's one thing to learn how to setup a CMS by yourself, so that you learn the ins and outs before it's even complete. It is however another have a professional designer or firm build you a complete site so that you can take it over with little or no knowledge of how it works.

So, when you decide that you need a new website, or that your current one needs a re-vamp... leave it to the professionals and save yourself money in the long run.

5 Things You can do to Sell More Software Using the Web and Social Media

2011-03-16T15:45:00.000-07:00

Now more then ever your prospects are busy and purchasing your software is probably on the bottom of their “to do” list. They have bills to pay, the kids to cart around from one activity to another, they’re sleep deprived and they don’t trust in your face advertising. However it’s your job to break through their routine and have them hone in on the products that most likely will make their lives just a little bit easier. So how do you do you do that? Simple…address your prospect’s current problem or need they help with.

1. Make it All About Them

You need to develop a Position. This position clearly and succinctly communicates what your solution does for them. It also presents a point of differentiation from your competitors.

Your Position allows you to get into and stick in the prospect’s mind.

You need to decide WHO you are talking to… what their NAGGING problem is, how your product solves it, and how your product is different from the alternatives.

When you answer those questions you are ready to develop the Positioning statement.

2. Uncover Patches of Organic Fans and Widen your Business Opportunities.

A great example of this is Photoshop, I know a number of Photographers, Graphic and Web designers that are using Photoshop for their work and personal use but recently I discovered there is a whole niche of Real Estate professionals that are trying to make themselves experts with this tool in order to enhance the look their personal websites and photo galleries and videos to make a lasting and great first impression without having to spend the extra cost to hire a professional to do the same services.

Put in a system to discover this. If you have customers select their profession or industry when they purchase, you can create a simple system for noticing surges (up or down) and look into it further. Your software may be getting used for reasons you may have never thought of. Then, you could create an entirely new website or landing page for this group with specific testimonials, case studies, tutorial videos, and online demos to engage them with.

3. Make Video and Interactive Demos a Must!

The benefits of video can’t be stressed enough… particularly for software services. Showing your software in action helps melt resistance to purchase, or even trial, away and makes the user feel like she has a better shot at getting the full benefits. Most people won’t sit down and read a ton of text, but many will watch a several minutes of video.

If you don't have one you may want to set up a channel on youtube.com for your company. It’s one place to house all your videos and it also helps when prospects are trying to maybe not find a specific video but all videos related to your company software. Here is an example of video to sell software demo services, Intro to TestDrive online software demos. All sites selling software should have these types of short, demo videos.

4. Put out Case Studies, Serve Up Testimonials.

It’s surprising how many companies still don’t do this… Testimonials sell software, heck great testimonials can sell anything when they are put where people can see them, so place them everywhere…your website, your Facebook fan page, even on Twitter. Case studies have even more impact. You can offer case studies on industry related publications to gain more exposure. Take that a step further and create video case studies and testimonials.

5. Use Social Media to Connect, Support and Improve.

When I am looking for software that I may not be familiar with the first place I go to is Twitter these days. I want to know who else is using the software and their thoughts on it, the good and the bad. It’s the fastest way I know to get relevant information that is of the moment.

Offering an ongoing conversation about your software is key to not only support current customers but to engage new ones as well. There are already many savvy software companies using Twitter and other social sites to make customers aware of outages, blips in service, updates and to ask questions on what users would like to see in the next version upgrade.

YouTube is usually the next place I go to review what people are saying about a product and how they use it for their needs. I like to see if their needs are relatable to mine and how this software has possibly helped them. From viewing the videos I can also discover other uses and features that I did not know were available. This is why having a channel is so important so that your customers can share information and indirectly gain you new clients while at the same time upgrade current ones to latest versions. Its’ also a great way to visually show your current customers how to resolve simple problems or errors they might have run into.

Once I have done my research on a new product Facebook tends to be my last stop on the social media tour. It’s where I go once I become a fan of something and other times it’s where I go to learn about how the product or service I like so much is evolving… whether it be a service update, upcoming related products or discounts.

The web and Social Media in particular are such a necessary resources for all companies and customers these days that even if you are not making the fast sales from it you gain face time with folks that you may not otherwise reach. It’s a way for your testimonials to become a living and breathing entity that can and will create the strongest sales source of all….word of mouth.

Marketing and Tech Events for April 2011

2011-03-16T12:02:00.000-07:00

These are just a few of the many marketing and technology events taking place in the US and throughout EMEA for April 2011.

US Events

Forrester’s Marketing Forum 2011

April 5th-6th, San Francisco, CA.

Forrester’s Marketing Forum 2011 will explore how you can create marketing programs that harness the power of emerging tools, adapt to new models for engaging your customers, and manage through the disruption. The Forum will explore not only the key customer trends across four disruptive technologies — mobile, social, cloud, and video — but also how technology can help you plan, manage, deliver, and measure synchronized marketing initiatives in this more complicated, multichannel environment.

For a glance at this year’s agenda and speakers click here.

Ad:tech San Francisco

April 13th , San Francisco, CA.

As THE event for digital marketers, ad:tech features the industry's most entrepreneurial and innovative marketers. By attending, you'll have the opportunity to network and learn from experts on what's hot in social media, mobile, viral, cross-channel, application-based and geo-location marketing. You can also walk the ad:tech Expo hall floor to meet one-on-one with 300+ influential, leading-edge businesses and experts who specialize in everything from search and publishing to video, mobile and much more.

Check out this year's ad:tech Marketing Masters!

Cloud Slam ‘11

April 18th – 22nd,

Day 1: Mountain View, CA.

Day 2-5: Virtual

This hybrid conference is global event, covering latest trends and innovations in the world of cloud computing. Conference panels, workshops, and tutorials are selected to cover a range of the hottest topics in cloud computing.

You can review the conference agenda here: http://cloudslam.org/agenda

EMEA Events

The AM Brand, Corporate Identity and Reputation SIG

April 5th -7th, Oxford, England

This 7th Global Brand Conference moves the research agenda forward inits focus on brand, identity and reputation in the 21st century. This conference offers both academics and practitioners the opportunity to present and listen conceptual, empirical and practitioner research.

Click here to review the conference schedule.

Digital Media Europe 2011

April 11th-13th, London, England

With Digital Media Europe, the WAN-IFRA conferences on digital topics will be taken to a new level. Beyond 2011 - the World Digital Publishing Conference and Mobile Media Day will merge into a new event format.

For registration pricing and summary of the discussions taking place visit: http://www.wan-ifra.org/events/digital-media-europe-2011

MMA Forum

May 3rd -5th, Singapore, Republic of Singapore

The 2011 MMA Forum Singapore brings together attendees from brands, agencies, carriers and others across the global mobile marketing ecosystem. This year the consumer takes center stage in the world of mobile marketing. The MMA Forum will address four key aspects of this change and explore how Consumer Centric Engagement can deliver value to brands and marketers.

For complete details on this event visit: http://www.mobilemarketingforum.com/singapore2011

3D Internet. The Next Logical Step?

2011-03-11T13:29:00.000-08:00

Take a deep breath, close your eyes and imagine yourself being able to fully interact with a website, almost as though you're able to touch it. Grab the navigation with your mouse and bring it closer to you, larger and more in focus. Double click on the navigation and allow it to fall back in place. Forget about introductory paragraphs and watch the short introductory video clip that looks like it's just a part of the website interface. Watch the presenter as you fight the urge to reach out and touch them or shake their hand. Now, open your eyes and look at your computer monitor as is. It's vastly different than what you were imagining, isn't it?

I believe this is the next logical step though, and probably something that's not too far in the foreseeable future. As with any new technology, the initial challenge is getting it down to a cost-effective rate so there could be a significant boom in the market, convincing software developers and manufacturers that the 3D experience is the next step and not just a fad and justifying their commitment to further development. Right now we're all becoming accustomed to TV's being in 3D, but, what I think most people haven't been talking about is the fact that the monitor we stare at the most throughout the day is our computer monitor, on our desk. Yeah, the one you're looking at right now. Most of us are probably using an LCD monitor, which is basically what we all have in our living rooms, right. So theoretically, the next logical step would be a 3D internet, right?

All I know is that once we're at that point in technology I'm going to want the software asap! I think 3D internet is eventually going to play a vital role in the users web experience as a whole. This ultimately means I'm going to probably have to invest in a sick pair of 3D glasses as well. Do they make any that look like aviators?

Marketing and Software Technology Events for March 2011

2011-02-16T06:51:00.000-08:00

Here are some upcoming March Marketing and Technology events that will be taking place in the US and in EMEA throughout the month.

US Events

Search Marketing Expo – SMX West
March 8th – 10th, San Jose, CA.

Search Marketing Expo – SMX West content is so compelling, you’ll want to implement what you’ve learned before leaving the conference. Dramatically increase the number of people who come to your site with ROI enhancing paid search advertising and search engine optimization techniques and best practices.

For a glance at this year’s agenda visit http://searchmarketingexpo.com/west/agenda

Strategic ROMI Strategic Measurement and Communications of Your Marketing Strategy- The Keys to Successful Marketing Leadership in an Uneven Economy

March 23rd, San Francisco, CA.
AMA’ Strategic ROMI Spotlight Forum brings strategy and practicality together. Expert facilitators will go beyond just providing you with actionable tools for developing and executing a solid ROMI model.

For discussion points visit: http://www.marketingpower.com/Calendar/Pages/StrategicROMISanFrancisco.aspx

Custom Content Conference
March 23rd -25th, Charleston, SC.

Hosted by the Custom Content Council, the Custom Content Conference features a series of high-level marketing conversations focused on the newest content.

Speakers represent a variety of disciplines and engage attendees in conversation about improving content, building stronger brands, and exploring new methods to monetize custom media programs across the print and digital landscape.
Featured speakers can be seen here: http://www.custompublishingcouncil.com/ccc2011.asp

EMEA Events

TFM&A – Technology F0r Marketing & Advertising
March 1st-2nd, London, England

TFM&A is packed full of reasons why you should leave the desk behind for a day. Here's just a few....
• source new technology solutions and tactical information to deliver successful campaigns gain unique strategic
• insight from industry leaders to achieve bigger and better results
• network with your industry peers and share ideas for the future of your campaigns

Do more for the success of your campaigns in one day, than in a month at your desk!
For this year’s keynote speakers visit: http://www.t-f-m.co.uk/page.cfm/link=366

M2C
March 28th-29th, Paris, France

The Marketing 2.0 Conference is aimed at all professionals who think that today's marketing industry is in need of a change! They are bringing the world's best experts and specialists together to discuss the future of marketing, (social) media, and advertising, as well as new technology.

The main goal of the M2C is to exchange ideas and learn how to handle the dramatic changes in media, marketing, and consumer behavior in your day-to-day business using the latest knowledge, best practice, and trends. The objective of this event is to gain insights from the bigger picture instead of focusing on only one discipline, such as technology, marketing, or media. Furthermore, we recognize that all areas are becoming ever more connected and also recognize the need for better understanding across all departments today.

To learn more about this unique Online Marketing event go to: http://www.marketing2conference.com/2011/about.php

Teradata Universe- Do More With Your Data
April 10th, Barcelona, Spain

Now in its 16th year, the Teradata Universe Conference 2011 is uniquely positioned as Europe's leading Enterprise Data Warehousing, Advanced Analytics and Business Intelligence conference.
Learn from some of the world's foremost visionary thinkers, including Sir Terry Leahy and Clay Shirky, and the presenters from our global customer community. Be surprised by how you can make smarter and better use of your data from the case studies illustrated.

For complete details on this event visit: http://www.teradataemea.com/

Interested in going viral?

2011-02-16T06:30:00.000-08:00

Word-of-mouth behavior is what a viral email marketing campaign is based on to spawn awareness of a product, service or concept. The significance of such a home grown campaign, most often uses shock or humor, lies in connecting with the right people via social media channels and offering relevant content that motivates them to take action and forward the message to others they know.

Similar to a real virus, a campaign starts out as a single entity and uses its host and their resources to spread out, replicate and double with each interaction. To become viral, the campaign needs to find the right recipient to begin with. An individual will receive a message, this person then passes on the message to friends using relevant sharing tools notably displayed in the email. These friends usually trust the person who sent the email, so they're more likely to open it and forward it onto their own group of friends from there sparking the viral aspect of it all.

Here is what you can do to ensure a successful viral email marketing campaign.

1. Be unique. What makes you respond to an email and take action? Is it because it's unique, makes you laugh, shocks or excites you? You want your campaign to have a similar effect, so try applying these reactions to your message.

2. Stay relevant. Offering a unique approach is only a part of the message, you also need to offer content that is different, useful and appropriate to your target audience.

3. Offer the goods. Viral marketing works best when consumers are able to get something out of forwarding a message to their friends. Think along the lines of a free report, case study, white paper or even a coupon. Just ensure you're able to deliver on your promise or you run the risk of turning the tide and your company could get bad mouthed virally.

4. Make it readable. It's a good idea to cover your content layout bases by incorporating HTML and text options, this way people who open your email can easily see what you have to show on their mobile devices.

5. Brand it. Remember to include and clearly display your branding, logo, website and contact details. You want to make sure people recognize who started the campaign. To go a step further you may also want to tie in a url to your branding and logo that takes viewers to a campaign landing page to further engage them in what you have to offer.

6. Include a call out. Tell your customers what they need to do and how to do it with a direct call to action button. It could be along the lines of “send to a friend now” or “share”.

Gaming In The Cloud. Is It Possible?

2011-02-15T09:18:00.000-08:00

I was watching a commercial this weekend for Gamefly, which is very similar to Netflix, where you can rent games online and have them delivered to your house. I believe the company itself has been around for a few years, but it's not exactly where Netflix is yet in terms of user experience. With Netflix, you can now watch any of their selection of movies online, without having to download anything or receive it in the mail, thus making it "in The Cloud". So, I thought to myself, is it possible to do gaming in "The Cloud?"

Working for Runaware, I know that it's possible to put a software demo experience in "The Cloud", and allow for users to use actual software in real time, without the hassle of downloads, or installations. It really is a great service, but being a fan of gaming as well, I initially I thought about that concept, and whether it would be possible to demo a game before purchasing it. This would give the user a sence of how the game functions, controls, etc... Then I thought that the next logical step would probably just be what Netflix is already doing, but with gaming as opposed to just streaming video's.

The obvious challenge is going to be whether or not the game is able to be streamed effectively to ensure that the gamer has a great experience, not to mention the possibility of a functional multi-user experience. The basic technology is already out there for online, multi-player gaming, but most of the games online are flash driven or very basic in their appearance. But, what if we could stream the ability to play a game like "Madden '11", with multiplayer capabilities. How much more convenient would it be to be able to login to your account online and access your purchased games without actually have to have any physical copies. Maybe we could even eliminate the aspect of having to have a console at all. I realize that I'm probably getting way ahead of myself right now, because the possibility of this even being capable is beyond me.

Regardless of my curiosities, I do believe that we are soon going to be able to play complex games in "The Cloud." I haven't seen anything quite like it yet, but I'm sure one day it will be possible.

Marketing and Software Technology Events for February 2011

2011-01-14T13:49:00.000-08:00

Here are just a few of many Marketing and Technology events happening in the US and EMEA throughout the month of February.

US Events:

Social CRM EXPO
February 2nd – 4th, Miami, FL.
Social CRM allows you to listen and react to what customers are saying, and affords a way to interact with customers in places where they live. The masses are somewhat addicted to Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube and they will be more susceptible to your message if they find it in content.

For agenda information visit: http://www.tmcnet.com/voip/conference/social-crm/2011/East/agenda.aspx

OMS Online Marketing Summit 2011
February 7th-11th, San Diego, CA.
Join over 1,000 of your marketing and internet peers and hear from industry leading expert practitioners teaching best practices in the areas of: Social Media, Search (SEO and PPC), Demand Generation, Conversion, Email, Analytics, Integrated Marketing, Mobile, Online Advertising, Affiliate Marketing, eCommerce and Website Strategy. Thought leaders, authors, world-class brand marketers and proven practitioners will all be sharing their case studies and successes secrets from the front lines of online marketing.

To learn more go to: http://www.onlinemarketingsummit.com/oms-annual-2011/

Paid Content 2011
February 19th, New York City, NY
The momentum for change is growing as the topic of paid content has come full circle. Now, as the tumultuous economy speeds up the transformation of traditional media, and with the industry getting squeezed from all sides, the debate around the business models for digital content has become much more urgent. On February 19th, we will be bringing this debate to you live with our first namesake conference, paidContent 2010, in New York City.

Visit http://paidcontent.org/event/paidcontent-2010/agenda/ for event agenda and speaker information.

EMEA Events:

Cloud Expo Europe 2011
February 2nd and 3rd, London, England
Cloud Expo Europe is the only European event which is dedicated to the past, present and future of cloud computing, virtualization and open source.
With even more speakers and industry insiders than last year, this event truly showcases the possibilities and opportunity of cloud computing.

For conference schedule visit: http://www.cloudexpoeurope.com/conference/

European ISV Convention 2011
February 10th, London, England
The directors of Europe’s top Independent Software Vendors will gather in London for the European ISV Convention 2011 (10th February 2011), giving delegates an unrivalled opportunity to share knowledge with their peers and hear, at first hand, the views of major hardware and software vendors and service providers on how the application software market is evolving.

The following speakers will be present at this year’s convention: http://www.delegateselect.com/event/iteuropa/

SES London
February 21st-25th, London, England
SES London is the leading search marketing conference in Europe. This conference brings together the industry's brightest minds and most seasoned practitioners, it’s a wealth of search and online marketing nuggets. Learn how to optimise your web site for the most efficient crawling and indexing. Use keyword analysis to discover the top converting words and phrases for optimum conversion. Make link building for super ranking at the major search engines second nature. Tackle local, mobile, video, analytics and social media like a marketing Ninja.

An agenda overview for this conference can be found at: http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/london/agenda.php

How many times is too many times when it comes to emailing the same list?

2011-01-14T11:18:00.000-08:00

We have all been there, we get a great contact list and we want to maximize our efforts to get the best response rate out of each e-blast we do. The trick of it all....how many times is too many times to blast that goldmine of a list?

If you go to the experts you will notice they all aren't on the same page when it comes to defining that magic number. Some feel you got one-shot if you acquire your list. Others say no, no, no not true, you need to hit it at least three times. Taking into consideration the email might get labeled as spam and get deleted. It's best to send it three times at different times of day on different days. Then there are those rebel email specialists out there that say forget having a specified number at all and hit them every week, you will still reap positive results.

The truth in all this...definitive rules are not easy to come by. The simple fact of it all is that the number of times you can send to any one list will depend on several factors which include the quality of your list, the scope of the campaign, the type of deliverable and product and/or service.

If you have a narrow audience focus you would be better off sending out a newsletter once a month or as frequent as every two weeks to prove you are the expert in your field, service or product.

Another way to determine your send frequency with a list is to observe your opt-outs. Once your opt-out rate starts to increase this is a good indicator that your list may be degraded.

The other key factor you want to keep in mind is price. Depending on the price of a product or service sustaining a high send rate to the same list is not necessarily a negative approach. For instance many BtoB sales are big fish to land, so the likely hood of a CEO converting to a sale worth several thousands of dollars from only one single email is a bit like hitting the lottery and powerball in one shot...not exactly the everyday occurrence. Placing your brand in their inbox on a regular basis offers you a better chance of winning the long race, cause when they know who and what you have to offer it's almost a sure bet you will be on their shortlist when it's time to buy.

When Does a Social Networking Site Lose it's "Cool" Appeal?

2011-01-12T07:11:00.000-08:00

The term "social networking" has been around for a few years now, but what does it really mean to most of us? Recently Facebook has become a common household name, but before that it was Myspace. The latest trends show that Myspace has lost it's "cool" appeal. Despite what Myspace CEO's may say, the reality is that it just became cluttered with ad's and virus prone personalized profiles, full of animated gif's and flash. I can attest... At one point I though my flash savvy Myspace profile was pretty slick, but then it became too customized. So much in fact that these custom profiles were full of ad's embedded in the code that the average user wouldn't even know how to get rid of. These profiles simply became "uncool". The proof is in the pudding. In a recent article you can read about how MySpace slashes its staff in half!

I've had a Facebook account for about 3 years now and I've noticed personally, that it's slowly becoming "uncool" as well. Yeah, it may not be this cluttered, personalized mess like a Myspace page which basically replicates the typical website from the late '90's, but, is it still "cool"? If a personal social site is becoming ridden with games, ad's and callouts to parents, grandparents and other family members, does it still maintain it's appeal? According to Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook was originally created to post status updates and photo's... true "social networking". Now it's farmville invites, mafia wars, privacy issues and photos of children and families.

You, however, may not be on Facebook because it's cool... you may strive to have the best farm, or the strongest mafia. You may have never left Myspace! Who knows? My point is that I believe we have all seen trends occur in social networking sites that dilute the "cool" appeal and I believe we are slowly seeing that with Facebook as well. So what's next?

Shop online for your "TECH" wish list!

2010-12-15T08:43:00.000-08:00

It's no surprise if you've been out and about to any of the major department stores this holiday season that tech gadgets and electronics have taken over the pages of their in-store ads and specials. I personally made the mistake of walking into a Target at midnight on Black Friday just to witness the madness and sure enough... it was a mad house! I was starring at lines 12-15 carts long with people hoisting their will-be gifts and gadgets. Hi-Def LCD TV's were selling for cheaper than I'd ever seen. MP3 players were almost being given away, laptop computers were hundreds less than their original retail price. I however, didn't take advantage of these deals because for the last few years I've been doing all of my holiday shopping online.

"There are several sites online where you can do your online shopping without the hassle of being trapped in line for hours. On top of that a majority of the online stores are offering FREE SHIPPING for the holidays, so it's a no brainer for me."

A few that I've used personally and would recommend are Newegg, which had a bunch of great deals on computers, portable hard drives, monitors and a pretty good breakdown of pricing and product comparisons. It also has some pretty good consumer feedback. Tiger Direct also has a wide variety of tech products such as, cameras, GPS devices, LCD TV's all at very reasonable deals as well. You can of course check out Target, Wal Mart or any of the larger department stores as well as most of them are offering free shipping to compete with other online distributors.

So, come time to make that purchase, remember to read user reviews, compare prices between stores and keep in mind that most stores are offering free shipping. No worries though! You can do all of this in the comfort of your own home, while sipping on your favorite holiday beverage, munching on holiday snacks and watching re-runs of holiday TV specials. Cheers!

Marketing and Software Technology Events for January 2011

2010-12-14T09:39:00.000-08:00

Check out some of the Marketing and Software events that will be taking place around the word as we head into January 2011.

US Events:

Affiliate Summit West
January 9th -11th, Las Vegas, NV.
This three day conference includes an exhibit hall with affiliate merchants, vendors, and networks, as well as multiple tracks of educational sessions covering the latest trends and information from affiliate marketing experts.

For registration information visit: http://www.affiliatesummit.com/register/

Data and Dashboards
January 20th- January 21st, Washington D.C.
This workshop provides mid- to senior-level marketers with the knowledge to put data at the center of your marketing strategies. The format combines a review of dashboard resources, use cases and participant collaboration to provide actionable learning.

For complete event details check out: http://www.marketingpower.com/Calendar/Pages/2011%20TS%20Data%20and%20Dashboards-DC.aspx

Email Evolution Conference 2011
January 31st –February 2nd, Miami, FL
It's a cutthroat business. The stakes are high. The competition is fierce. This conference is focused on the ever-changing and evolving world of email marketing, providing you with the best ways to capitalize on the high ROI this low-cost communication tool can provide both on its own, and integrated with social, search, mobile, video and other email enhancers.

Top email marketers will model out-of-the box design and innovative cross-channel strategy. The challenge: cutting-edge, on-brand email that will catch the eyes - and clicks - of subscribers everywhere.

Visit http://www.the-dma.org/conferences/emailevolution/registration.shtml for an event registration and schedule information.

EMEA and ASIA Events:

SphinnCon Israel 2011
January 9th, Jerusalem, Israel
SphinnCon Israel is the premier networking event designed for SEOs, SEMs, SMOs and affiliate marketers to exchange ideas, influence the industry and build their networks.

To learn more about this event and the agenda check out: http://searchmarketingexpo.com/sphinncon

Click Asia Summit 2011
January 20th -22nd, Mumbai, India
With the US and Europe still struggling with the economic crisis, Asia has emerged as one of the growing group of economies that will dominate the global markets for the next few years. As a marketing professional, there is no way you can miss the changing face of Digital and Mobile marketing in Asia.

Click Asia Summit 2011 is designed to create a forum for some of the top marketing professionals to congregate and create a marketplace for ideas and services that will help Asian companies get the marketing edge.
For more information on this conference and expo visit: http://www.clickasiasummit.com/

Learning Technologies
January 26th-27th, London, England
Europe's leading showcase of organisational learning and the technology used to support learning at work. And it's now quite literally bigger and more vital than ever before.
With more than 200 exhibitors, over 100 free seminars and an audience of 4,000 learning and development professionals, it is the must attend event for anyone involved in organisational learning.

For highlights of what you can expect to get from this conference visit: http://www.learningtechnologies.co.uk/

Predictions for Online Marketing Trends in 2011

2010-12-09T09:12:00.000-08:00

While you're still focused on trying to make last year's cutting-edge online marketing trend ideas work, here is a list of marketing updates and activities that you will want to take into consideration for 2011's Marketing Strategy.

Online Marketing will get larger chunk of marketing budgets
Customers and prospects are increasingly going online early in the buying cycle to gather information, form relationships, and make decisions about how they will buy. As a result, businesses must move marketing budgets to where the customers and prospects are – online.

Social Media Marketing matures
Over the past few years many marketers have been experimenting with social media tactics, in 2011, businesses will be executing social tactics that are fully integrated into the overall marketing strategy. So if you’re business isn’t on Facebook or Twitter – then in 2011 you will definitely be behind the eight ball.

Mobile Marketing set to take off
Mobile marketing will keep growing as smartphones expand their range of functions. Mobile marketing can now move beyond mobile messaging; mobile email, mobile websites and mobile applications will become viable channels for marketers.The explosion will happen when the new devices, faster networks and new location-based technologies converge.

Personalized Marketing headed for the next level
Expect more personalization capability to be embedded in websites in 2011. For example, regular visitors to a website will see a page based on all the information collected from previous visits. We also expect that personalized marketing will be extended beyond the website to other marketing channels such as social media, mobile and email marketing.
Privacy discussion will heat up
Online marketing relies on a dirty secret – it needs cookies to track and target behavior. But consumers are rising up and demanding change. So much so, that legislation is now looming in Congress. Privacy experts don’t believe it will pass in 2011, but you can expect to see a much stronger emphasis on self-regulation.

More right touching
The idea of this concept is to have a multi-channel communications strategy that delivers the right message with the right value proposition at the right time across all communication channels thus touching a prospect at the right time with the right message for the right impact.

SEO will become even more complex
The task of getting your business on the first page of search results has become much more complex with the increasing number of competition between search sites and social sites alike. Also, with mobile search and geo-location search playing such a big role in 2010, the 2011 year is sure to be full of challenges and surprises for search engine optimizers.

Technology vendors are blurring the distinction between products and services
The technology vendor landscape is transforming quickly. Consolidation by big service companies means they will increasingly offer a buffet of services and products. This is making it very difficult for marketers to determine who does what. Marketers typically prefer best-of-breed solutions, but vendors push for integrated online suites runs.

Marketing Analytics will become more advanced
Google will continue to roll out improvements to its Google Analytics service. Social media tracking will improve with better metrics in place. With so many online marketing channels offered now it wouldn't be surprising if there was soon a central place or application that offers to integrate all the data from all marketing sources (web, search, video, mobile, and social conversations). An overall benefit to that would allow marketers to develop better strategies/actions.

The online marketing space has rapidly evolved through 2010, it will be exciting to see what 2011 holds.

Holiday Online Marketing Tips

2010-11-15T11:54:00.000-08:00

As online marketers, we know that ecommerce will be extremely active as we close out 2010. Keeping the following online marketing tips in mind will help you to quickly catch buyers attention and lead them to your products over the competition's.

Holiday Promo Emails-
Make an effort when it comes to the subject line to draw attention from the hundreds of other emails being received during the holidays.

Start sending now and gradually increase frequency to get your brand in front of your audience, you don't want your email to get lost in the sea of promotions that are soon to follow.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)-
Design Holiday themed pages targeted on specific Holiday keywords, this will not only pull new visitors but keep them engaged. Use Holiday keywords in the meta title, meta description, and meta keyword tags. For meta descriptions, try to incorporate a call to action or a value proposition that is specific to the holiday shopper.

Incorporate content that reflects holiday shopper needs to make their lives easier. Holiday shoppers tend to search for gift ideas, gift wrapping, and gift certificates; they are also concerned with return policies on gifts purchased, shipping changes, and delivery dates. Creating content around those topics can help pull visitors in while providing targeted content up front.

Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC)-
Create new ads with Holiday keywords for meaningful differentiation, to appeal to your customer’s emotional state, and to improve Quality Score.

Remember don't promote discounted pricing if you can’t compete. Its a good idea to scan the search engine results page of your keywords for any mention of pricing from your competitors. Pricing obviously is not the only factor buyers take into consideration when shopping new products and services but now more than ever it is a sensitive factor.

Marketing and Software Technology Events for December 2010

2010-11-15T09:14:00.000-08:00

Check out the latest events that will be taking place throughout the US and EMEA during December 2010.

US Events:

Bionetics 2010
December 1st-3rd, Boston, MA.
BIONETICS 2010 aims to provide a world-leading and unique opportunity for bringing together researchers and practitioners from diverse disciplines that seek the understanding of the fundamental principles and design strategies in biological systems and leverage those understandings to build bio-inspired systems.

For more information on the keynote speakers for this event visit: http://www.bionetics.org/index.shtml#keynotes

BRANDSconf- exploring humanization of brands
December 2nd, New York, NY.
BrandsConf is a new event taking place that will explore the “Humanization of Brands” and the underlying effects this is having on business. The conference will explore a range of topics from best practices and legal issues to the natural conflict of personal and corporate branding.

Visit http://www.brandsconf.com/ for a complete scope of what this new conference has to offer.

Interactive Local Media
December 8th-10th, Santa Clara, CA.
Interactive Local Media 2010 is BIA/Kelsey’s annual conference devoted to digital media with a local focus. This event provides a 360-degree view of the local marketplace, covering local search, Internet Yellow Pages, vertical directories, Internet video, online classifieds and mobile search.

For conference details check out: http://www.kelseygroup.com/ilm2010/index.asp

EMEA Events

GX Connect 2010
December 2nd, Amsterdam Arena
Discover new insights and ideas for your online strategy at GX Connect 2010! It's the perfect opportunity to refresh your knowledge and to update your network. New developments and cutting-edge new technologies come with a fast pace.

To learn more about this event and register go to: http://www.gxsoftware.com/en/gxconnect2010.htm

Market Research in the Mobile World
December 2nd-3rd, Berlin, Germany
This highly interactive event will bring together top researchers and practitioners to discuss new challenges and opportunities of leveraging mobile devices as a new way for collecting data and capturing real-time insights.

For more information visit: http://www.merlien.org/upcoming-events/mrmw2010.html

Twelfth International Conference on Information and Communications Security
December 15th -17th, Barcelona, Spain
The 2010 International Conference on Information and Communications Security will be the 12th event in the ICICS conference series started in 1997, which will bring together individuals involved in multiple disciplines of Information and Communications Security to foster exchange of ideas.

To see the conference outline visit: http://www.icics2010.org/conferenceoutline

House-hold modems... Are they the next "home phone"?

2010-11-10T13:22:00.000-08:00

Personally, I stopped using a house-hold phone about ten years ago. I remember receiving a few strange looks at the time when I was asked for a home number and I said only had a cell phone. At the time though, cell phones were just becoming widely used for personal phones, but most still kept their house-hold phones rather than transferring their numbers. I remember talking to a few colleagues about seven years ago about how cool I thought it would be if we were completely wireless and didn't have to rely on a modem for internet accessibility--if some way, we could always just be in a wireless hotspot.

Wireless hotspots can be found in most coffee houses, airports, libraries and restaurants now. Some are free, and some still cost money to access, like those on airlines, but nonetheless, it is one step closer to a completely wireless environment. We can usually pick up a wireless network on our phones now in most places we visit. But what about our homes? Why do we have to have a physical modem in our homes still. Most cable companies make us pay a montly fee for them, just to have them in the house. Not only that, but they need to be plugged into an outlet, and unless you're using a router and have wireless capability, you will most likely have to setup your workspace close to the outlet. If you do have wireless on your lap top, you still need to be in the vacinity of your router so you get signal.

The good news is that that we are slowly evolving into a wireless hotspot. Last week Verizon announced that by the end of 2010, they were going to bring 4G to 39 cities in the U.S. That means that an estimated 110 million Americans will have wireless 4G coverage by years end. Verizon also hopes to extend the 4G coverage as far as the current 3G coverage by 2013, which will encompass most of the U.S. That's pretty awesome! They're not alone though. Other companies are working on LTE (Long-Term Evolution) 4G coverage as well, such as Sprint and AT&T. This is great news because a lot of new lap tops that will be coming out are said to be 4G compatible, which means that while using one of the above networks, we can finally be sans modem and router! What does this mean for our modems and routers though? Who cares!

Serious App-etites!

2010-10-25T12:45:00.000-07:00

The term, "Apps", may still be relatively new to us, seeming to have sprung from the iPhone sometime in 2008. No matter how large or small your appetite may be, they do however play a fairly significant role in our day-to-day lives. I mean, how many of us after buying a new smartphone have thought about what new apps to get? They're not just for the iPhone anymore, and they can be made to encompass just about anything now.

Personally, I'm a huge music buff, so when I hear something new, I like to use the "Shazam" app, which allows me to hold my phone up to a speaker while it names the song. There are also apps for games, travel, business, music and social networking. Looking at Facebook now for example, it seems as though more and more people are posting their status updates from a mobile app, whereas it used to be while they were physically in front of a computer. Now, keep in mind that this has really just take effect over the course of the last year or so! The same thing applies to twitter posts.

Each day, apps are making it easier for us to access information or complete tasks that were, not to long ago, simply not as accessible to us. The beauty is that just about all of the apps out there are affordable--usually around 99 cents a pop! And, there are thousands of them! Why so many? Because, we all want the convenienve of an application that provides us with a viable resource ASAP. So, whether you need a cooking recipe on the fly, the name of a song, or your checking account balance, I assure you, there is an app out there for you! Believe me, they will keep coming as well.

Marketing and Software Technology Events for November 2010

2010-10-22T14:47:00.000-07:00

Events taking place in the US for November:

Ad Tech New York
November 3rd-4th, New York, NY
ad:tech is an interactive advertising and technology conference and exhibition. Worldwide shows blend keynote speakers, topic driven panels and workshops to provide attendees with the tools and techniques they need to compete in a changing world.

Click here to see this year’s speakers: http://www.ad-tech.com/ny/adtech_new_york.aspx

IASTED International Conference Series
November 8th – 10th, Marina del Rey, CA.
The International Association of Science and Technology for Development (IASTED) is a non-profit organization devoted to promoting economic and cultural advancement. IASTED organizes multidisciplinary conferences for academics and professionals, mainly in the fields of engineering, science, and education.

For details on which conferences will take place in Marina del Rey go to: http://www.iasted.org/conferences/location-MarinaDelRey2010.html

Up 2010 Cloud Computing Conference
November 15th-19th, San Francisco, CA.; Islandia, NY.; and Virtual
UP 2010™ conference is the premier cloud computing event, covering latest trends and innovations in the world of cloud computing.
Conference panels, workshops, and tutorials are selected to cover a range of the hottest topics in cloud computing.
UP2010 conference is hybrid in delivery model which has both virtual and physical elements. Virtual sessions will be streamed to physical locations, where people could ask their questions back to presenter.

For the full conference agenda visit: http://up-con.com/agenda

Events taking place in the EMEA for November:

The 5th International Conference for Internet Technology and Secured Transactions (ICITST-2010)
November 8th -11th, London, UK
The 5th International Conference for Internet Technology and Secured Transactions (ICITST-2010) is Technical Co-sponsored by IEEE UK/RI Communications Chapter. The ICITST is an international refereed conference dedicated to the advancement of the theory and practical implementation of secured Internet transactions and to fostering discussions on information technology evolution. The ICITST aims to provide a highly professional and comparative academic research forum that promotes collaborative excellence between academia and industry.

To view a list of topics that will be part of the discussion go to: http://www.icitst.org/

PDP - Ireland’s provider of practical compliance information
November 11th – 12th, Dublin, Ireland
PDP is the leading provider of knowledge-based compliance services. Ireland's largest Data Protection Conference discusses the important data protection issues that are faced by Irish organisations. Attended by delegates from organisations of all sizes, this highly practical two-day event brings people together from all sectors to provide unparalleled learning and networking opportunities.

For a rundown of presentations and workshops visit: http://www.pdp.ie/conference/

PAW - Predictive Analytics World 2010
November 15th -16th, London, UK
PAW focuses on concrete examples of deployed predictive analytics. Hear from the horse's mouth precisely how FT 500 analytics competitors and other top practitioners deploy predictive modeling, and what kind of business impact it delivers. November's agenda covers hot topics and advanced methods such as risk management, uplift (incremental lift) modeling, open source analytics, and crowd sourcing data mining.

Click here to view the agenda at-a-glance

Five Ways to Drive Mobile Marketing Results

2010-10-21T13:24:00.000-07:00

As an Online Marketer if Mobile Marketing was an activity you were putting on the back burner you can't afford to do so for much longer. It's been stated that over 80 percent of Americans own mobile phones now and over 50 percent of those phones will be connected to the Internet by the end of 2011. More people are making Smartphones their mobile device of choice which means they are doing more online and accessing more rich media without their PC. This also means that creating a mobile marketing strategy needs to be part of your marketing mix in 2011.

Based on research and findings from Limelight Networks they were able to asses five recommendations for driving the highest results from a mobile outreach strategy.The recommendations are based on real-world findings. Limelight Networks does mention they are not applicable to every campaign, however they still provide insight into mobile marketing techniques that have had success.

1. Timing is Everything - Market During a Live Event

Smartphones are great for marketing at live events because they allow for user participation as they happen. Smartphones allow users who don't normally go online get drawn in to the action taking place.

2. Take Advantage of the Latest and Greatest

Even though the goal of advertising is to reach the masses, its advised that you don't want to sink to the lowest common denominator in a mobile campaign.
The iPad is an example of latest and greatest mobile technology that offers a huge opportunity to offer visually stunning and engaging ads filled with multimedia content.

3. Ads and Apps will Multiply Your Impact
Multiple brand impressions are important in any advertising/media plan and mobile marketing is no different. Engaging the customer at each point in their buying process dramatically improves your chances of a click to start a conversation. To do this in mobile marketing you can create a branded mobile app to relate back to your online site messaging. You can also purchase multiply display ads that would show over video as well as in-video advertisement and companion banner ads all designed to enforce your main marketing message.

4. Mobilize Your Site with a Universal URL
With so many people accessing the web from a number of different mobile devices its becoming increasingly important to establish a Universal URL. A Universal URL provides a singe site address that displays the right content and can automatically format for whatever device a user logs on with.

5. Use Rich Media Across Every Distribution Channel
There are many reasons to support the use of rich media across all channels. For one its been studied and stated that people retain 50% of the information they see and hear. Also in today's world there are now three generations of business users that have been raised watching television, so intuitively they understand the way stories are presented in a visual medium. So as you can gather offering rich media can greatly increase the strength of your digital marketing message efforts. This is not just so for online advertising but it's also the case for social sites and email as well.

Upcoming Marketing Events and Conferences

2010-09-17T13:29:00.000-07:00

Here are the latest software and marketing events coming up for the US and EMEA.

Events happening in the US:

IMCM Internet Marketing Conference Mobil
October 12th-13th, New York City, NY.

The Internet Marketing Conference (IMC) is bringing this unique Mobile Cross Media event called (IMCM) in order to debate and discuss how to efficiently enter a strategy of mobile and online marketing convergence.
For event agenda details go to: http://www.internetmarketingconference.com/newyork#agenda

SMX – Search Marketing Expo East
October 4th-6th, New York City, NY.

Attend SMX East and you’ll take away tactics that increase traffic to your web site, increase conversions…and sales! Choose from 60 sessions on search engine marketing topics including search engine optimization, paid search advertising and social media marketing on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

To register for this event sign up here: http://searchmarketingexpo.com/east/2010/register

Inbound Marketing Summit
October 6th-7th, Boston, MA.

The Inbound Marketing Summit is where the online marketing community gathers to solve today's marketing and business communications challenges. This event features the brightest minds in the business, including world-renowned authors and practitioners, as well as leaders from some of the companies already using the new tools and strategies.

Click here to see this year’s speakers: http://inboundmarketingsummit.com/speakers.html

Events happening in EMEA:

Chief Marketing Officer Conference
September 30th, Zurich, Switzerland

The European Chief Marketing Officer Conference (CMO) is Europe's leading event, often referred to as 'Davos for marketers', which brings the world's leading CMOs and marketing directors together in one place for a day of discussion and networking. Those who attend will hear the latest strategic thinking and insights in marketing, offering inspiration and vital information for their organisation's success in the future.

For a list of discussion topics and speakers visit: http://www.cmo-conference.org/ce/conference_2010/schedule

9th Annual Data Protection Compliance Conference
October 14th-15th, London, UK

This Data Protection Conference is London’s largest data privacy event. Designed for those who work with data protection issues, this two-day Conference is attended by delegates from organisations of all sizes and types.

An overview of this conference visit: http://www.pdpconferences.com/data_protection/2010/

Business Cloud Summit 2010
November 30th, London, UK

This summit offers a unique, original, top-level industry insight and end-user experience, with a strict 'no PowerPoint' rule. This event promises to offer a hi-tech, real-time ‘networking arena’ opportunity to get a glimpse into what the future of Cloud Computing means for your organization.
For a breakdown of the discussions for the day go to: http://www.businesscloud9.com/summit/conference

Peace Online!

2010-09-16T14:11:00.000-07:00

We're constantly being updated or informed about international cultural and economic issues that affect us all on a daily basis via the web. Whether it's CNN, CBS, NBC or Facebook status updates and tweets from friends or leaders and representatives globally, I think that we can all see how online resources provide us with information about progress between nations taking place everyday. World peace is no new concept, but our means of accessing news pertaining to world peace and global progression is.

The reality is that, in growing numbers, we are now getting our news from online resources as opposed to the traditional method via TV or newspapers. News events are streamed to online resources as soon as they're available, and considering that most of us aren't sitting in front of a TV all day, we use our computers or phones as our primary resources for keeping up with what's going on around the world. It doesn't stop there though, because we also utilize our online resources to make a statement. Whether we're promoting peace, recruiting for pro-peace activities or organizations, or being a part of a greater cause through online media, we can be on the giving and receiving end of positive global impact. International peace is going to be a constant up hill battle, but our ways of promoting it are going to be ever expanding.

September 21st is International Peace Day, also known as World Peace Day. The globally recognized event is approaching it's 30th year. It's recognized by several nations, political groups, military groups and people aroung the world. This year commemorates the 2nd annual Peace Day Global Broadcast, which shows how important, impactful and connected we can be now to this global cause. Stay connected HERE.

What to Ask When Buying a Marketing List

2010-09-16T12:35:00.001-07:00

I am sure you will be able to relate to this one. You have a new email campaign that you want to tackle but your current email list performance has gotten tired and you need to draw in some new fish to the net. You like the idea of purchasing a list but there are soooo many list companies out there, how can you tell the professional ones from the amateurs, do they throughly scrub their lists and are the contacts you're purchasing indeed the target market and unique decision makers you need to be addressing?

After searching for some help on Marketing list shopping I found a great article by Chris Golec, titled "Eight Questions to Ask When Buying a Marketing List". Golec offers some great insight as to what questions to ask and let's you know what answers these companies should be offering back.

Here are just a few notable questions you may have not thought about asking but he says you should be and why.

1. What makes your data unique?

There are many data providers out there, and many pull from common sources, such as Dun & Bradstreet/Hoovers, Jigsaw, or Infogroup. It is important to ask what makes the data in the list you are considering unique, and then determine whether it will complement your current database and serve the campaign you are considering.

If the provider partners with leading data companies, find out whether they also pull from smaller publications and data companies that might help to "fill in the blanks" on their business contact records.

2. How often do you refresh your data?

It's important to know how often your data provider adds names to its database, but it is perhaps even more important to know how often names are removed from the database and what steps are taken to prevent "dead" names from being added back in.

Don't be impressed by claims of "tens of millions" of contacts unless you can verify that the list vendor is actually removing out-of-date information from its system in a timely manner. You shouldn't care about millions if your target audience is just a few thousand people.

In a best-case scenario, the provider runs quarterly checks of its contacts in the database, both to verify the validity of each business contact and to give these contacts the opportunity to opt out of inclusion in the database.

3. How do you handle inaccurate data?

No matter where you get your data, some churn is inevitable, even in the most accurate and highly marketed lists, especially in a down economy. A key factor in handling inaccuracies is to work with your provider to establish some sort of "return policy" in advance of the purchase, if there is not one currently in place.

If you are purchasing an email list, for example, the "hard bounces" after a mailing can be a terrific basis for establishing your list of inaccurate contacts. If you send an email and it is not delivered, the recipient's system typically sends back some sort of notification as to why. A "hard" bounce is when you receive a notification that the nondelivery is due to a permanent condition, such as the intended recipient is no longer at the company. A "soft" bounce is when the notification indicates the nondelivery was due to a temporary condition, such as a full mailbox or an "out of office" situation.

Ideally, the vendor you use for your email campaigns will be able to differentiate between "hard" and "soft" bounces, and the proof of a "hard bounce" is a great basis for handling returns of inaccurate data. Vendors will usually offer a full credit for all business contact data proven to be incorrect, as it helps them maintain database accuracy.

4. Do you remove or credit duplicates for contacts I already own?

A common frustration when purchasing lists is acquiring contacts you already have in your database. Make sure your data provider has some sort of system in place to remove or to credit back contacts you already own, and, if you are a repeat customer, remove contacts you may have already purchased from the provider previously.

Contact providers often track your purchase history so that you will never buy the same contact more than once. In addition, some provider systems can integrate with CRM software to automate the de-duplication process—saving marketers valuable time and money.

5. How are your lists targeted? Do I need to pay for any filters to refine my list?

Some data providers charge you to run filters against their database that help you to target your list to your specific needs. For example, if you were looking for a list of marketing contacts at software companies, you might be charged $300 to remove all nonsoftware companies and another $300 to target the marketers.

An advanced filtering system will allow marketers to zero in on contacts based on geography, industry, industry specialty, seniority (level of contact), department, functional role, and more. The top-tier providers will individually "score" each contact in the database against your specific needs so you can build highly targeted lists.

Data companies charge for filtering to discourage any activity that may reduce the size of the list they are trying to sell. Be aware of both the costs associated with building a more targeted list and the hidden costs to your reputation and response rates if you don't filter your lists and market to contacts who are not in your "sweet spot.

In the end you want to find a list vendor who uses best-practices to ensure their list of contacts allow the distribution of their contact info and that these vendors continue to have a conversation with their contacts in the database so they can choose to stay in or opt-out of the vendors list database.

Presenting a new face with stronger age lines

2010-08-24T11:36:00.000-07:00

When we think of improving our appearance, a sleuth of natural and medical options come to mind….some more exaggerated than others but all holding the promise of change revealed…

As we set to enhance the face of our company, our very own website, we were posed with the question which is the right approach. True believers of our mission and services, needed to convey clear message with a clean format. Not a task for the weak since we need to reach a lot of people and manage a lot of content difficult to scale.

Web development standards have risen and there is a level of appearance and professionalism required but you can still get disqualified based solely on how you look. It’s not okay to have a site which looks like it’s designed in 1998. Also, add to the mix how to reflect trust and experience which made us want to keep our 11 years in business “age lines”.

Heads were spinning, finding ways to improve landing pages to increase conversions, achieve better search visibility…with everything that needed to be taken in consideration for this new challenge….we took a moment to carefully plan this surgery. Our focus was clear:

• Professionalism of design

• Sparseness and neatness

• Organization and clarity

• Scalability

At the end of the day, we must keep up with trends but stay firm to our grass roots approach and be comfortable in our own skin. It takes wearing many hats and sharing responsibilities to be proud of final product. We can no longer be single specialists when as marketers we should strive to be contributors. Sometimes we need to recognize that there is always room for improvement.

Upcoming Marketing Events for September 2010

2010-08-23T13:19:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the upcoming marketing, networking and development events taking place in September in the US and EMEA for September 2010.

US Events:

New Marketing Experience - Chicago
September 21th, Chicago, IL.
Through six key discussion sessions this program will help you analyze and draw the best of what you need from these Big Ideas. Learn how to turbo-boost your marketing and business planning – this is the ultimate Business Ideas That Work conference.

To get a better idea of what this program will cover check out: http://event.nmlevents.com/chi/

EdNET 2010
September 26th – 28th, Boston, MA.
Whether you’re a publisher, software developer, hardware manufacturer, investor, industry analyst, or provider of any service to schools, you need to be at EdNET!

EdNET is the place to find strategic partners for product development in both the private and public sector. Want to be ahead of the curve on new technologies and education initiatives? You’ll find the early adopters and crystal ball gazers at EdNET.

For event agenda go to: http://www.ednetconference.com/ednetagenda.asp

OMMA Global New York
September 27th-28th, New York, NY.
OMMA GLOBAL is the two-day intensive tour de force of all separate conferences rolled into one. The conference topics cover the main four areas Online Media, Marketing and Advertising. There are a number of subject specific content tracks that make this conference one not to be missed.

Take a peek into some of the Marketing track sessions that will be presented: http://www.mediapost.com/events//showID/OMMAGlobal.10.NYC/type/Agenda/itemID/
1614/tag_type/ct/tag_ID/87/OMMAGlobal-marketing.html

EMEA Events:

dmexco – Digital Marketing Exposition & Conference
September 15th & 16th, Cologne, Germany
The dmexco is the leading international event for everyone working in the global digital marketing and media industry. Specifically focusing on advertising, creativity, branding, relevance and efficiency, dmexco provides marketers, publishers, advertisers and agencies with bundled branch know-how, as well as current trends and innovations. The dmexco is the cross-media and transnational central hub for the digital industry and as such it becomes the “place of answers”.
For more info visit:
http://www.dmexco.de/cipp/km_dmexco/lib/pub/tt,lang,2/oid,427/ticket,g_u_e_s_t

e+mail 2010
September 23rd, Stockholm, Sweden
Email Marketing is here to stay and this full day conference on September 23 gives you the latest in the world of email marketing.
Key industry professionals and Emailing Gurus are all gathering at the prestigious Oscar Theatre in beautiful Stockholm City to discuss the challenges and possibilities in the world of Email Marketing.
An overview of the day’s program visit: http://www.email-marketing-evolved.com/program.php

Chief Marketing Officer Conference
September 30th, Zurich, Switzerland
The European Chief Marketing Officer Conference (CMO) is Europe's leading event, often referred to as 'Davos for marketers', which brings the world's leading CMOs and marketing directors together in one place for a day of discussion and networking. Those who attend will hear the latest strategic thinking and insights in marketing, offering inspiration and vital information for their organisation's success in the future.
For a list of discussion topics and speakers visit:
http://www.cmo-conference.org/ce/conference_2010/schedule

Back to School... Connected!

2010-08-19T12:33:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again! Summer has finally reached it's end and student's are now preparing for a new year. With each year that passes, the question we are often faced with after the determination of wardrobe and class schedule is reached is... which tech devices do we need to get? The answer for me would be the iPad.

The iPad, which essentially is a larger version of the iPod Touch, that allows ease of use for researching and storage of materials is one of the best gadgets I've seen come out this year. It's also great for maintaing your social networking pages as well, and let's be honest, we're all glued to them at some point throughout the day. But in all seriousness, this thing starts at $499 and comes with a 9.7" touch screen. This is perfect for on the go web-browsing, emails, skype, etc... With it's on screen keyboard, you can put it on a dock and it practically becomes a laptop. The really cool part though, is the "extras." You can obviously take notes, update contacts and type up documents, but you can also download app's. It also has a photo gallery application that allows you to organize and store all of your photo's from your "extra-curricular" activities for easy access, like facebook postings. It even has the ability to access a bookstore, so you can download and view book in full color, as opposed to the Kindle, which is still as monochrome as a calculator.

You probably don't even need that backpack you're wearing with one of these. So, if you're still trying to decide which device you need for the new school year, take the following into consideration. When you finally land that job you've spent years working towards, you're always going to be connected. We're connected virtually to our private lives and in today's world the same applies to the workplace. Believe me, to have the ability to be prepared, on-the-go, without the hassle of startup and shutdown is going to be to your advantage. The iPad really allows just that! It's compact, powerful and economical. I'm not going to say you need to go out and buy an iPad right now, but I do think that as a student, you're going to find having one very convenient.

Upcoming Marketing Events for August

2010-08-10T09:21:00.001-07:00

Here are some events taking place throughout the US during August:

OMS, Online Marketing Summit

August 5th, Miami, FL.

Education first - The Online Marketing Summit (OMS) enables attendees to collaborate, network and learn how to execute on the best practices in Online Marketing with no exhibit floor or vendor sales pitch distractions.

For summit details visit: http://www.onlinemarketingsummit.com/about-oms/

eTail East

August 9th – 12th, Baltimore, MD.

Key themes for this event include:

• Social Media & Engagement - Building Loyalty & Monetizing

• Examining The Evolution Of SEO

• Positioning Your Business For Growth In 2010

• Multi-Channel Integration

• Customer Service & Fulfillment As A Differentiator

• The Impact & Execution Of Mobile Commerce

• Creating A Relevant, Personalized Experience

For event agenda go to: http://www.wbresearch.com/etailusaeast/summitday1.aspx

ClickZ’s “Connected Marketing Week”

August 16th – 20th, San Francisco, CA.

The first of its kind, Connected Marketing Week will be the biggest gathering of interactive marketing events aiming to educate marketers on every aspect of the digital industry. Participating events include SES San Francisco, Online Marketing Summit (OMS), Jeff Pulver's 140 Characters Conference, Email Experience Council, IAB and Tim Ash's Conversion Conference.

To get the scoop on this highly anticipated even check out the latest release: http://www.connectedmarketingweek.com/clickz-launches-connected-marketing-week-san-francsico.php

If you are in EMEA here are some events you may want to put on your radar:

GDC Europe 2010

August 16th-18th, Cologne, Germany

The GDC Europe is the pan-European developer event bringing together developers and business professionals across the continent.

For more info visit: http://www.mcvuk.com/events/283/GDC-Europe-2010

An Introduction to search engine marketing for SMEs

August 17th, London, England

In two halves, this free training session focuses on natural search in the morning and paid search in the afternoon, taking the user from the absolute basics (What is a search engine?) to the key areas that affect a sites performance in each of those channels. Covering everything from bidding strategies to link building, this is SearchCatalyst’s entry level SEM training programme, aimed at giving SMEs the knowledge to engage intelligently with the search engine marketing options available to them.

An overview of this training session can be found here: http://www.searchcatalyst.co.uk/training/

2010 Global Marketing Conference

September 15th – 16th, Helsinki, Finland

IMC is a European conference that started in 2000 and since then has travelled the globe to create a meeting place for marketers interested in the latest online developments.

For conference details and registration visit: http://www.internetmarketingconference.com/helsinki/

The iPhone 4 - Relax, it's just a phone.

2010-08-03T09:18:00.000-07:00

It's no surprise that the recent iPhone buzz has been countered with some pretty harsh criticism since it's public release date on July 7th, 2010. The lines to get one phone averaged about a 6 hour wait time in most places and over a day in some in some cases. Apple has a huge following, but don't take my word for it, let the numbers speak for themselves. It's estimated that Apple sold 1.5 million units the first day! It's also predicted that they will sell 3 million units in the first month. Apple (AAPL) is however receiving numerous complaints about it's new gem though. The biggest complaint was in regards to it's metal antenna on the lower left side causing a weak reception for many people. There is even a petition for people to sign who are infuriated with their less-than-perfect gizmo. Steve Jobs response however, was "Relax, it's just a phone." Honestly, let's not forget that in the end. Sure, we're spending about $200 to $300 for the phone itself, but at the end of the day, we are just buying a phone.

I believe a lot of the hype for the iPhone 4 started around the article published online by gizmodo.com back in April, 2010. In the article they talked about how the iPhone 4 was camouflaged to look like its predecessor, the 3GS. They then disassembled it to discover that it was in fact, the real deal. I'll have to admit that when I first heard of the incident, I thought to myself, "someone is getting fired!" It soon dawned on me that it was actually a great marketing tactic. I can't think of one commercial I saw on t.v. that advertised the new phone, but I do remember the day I read on cnn.com about the new iPhone 4 leak. I'm not sure if the buzz around the leak enticed Apple to push the release date so consumers could finally have one in their hands quicker than anticipated. If so, we can dispute that they should have put it through a more rigorous testing process, but the fact is -- it's here, it's selling and it has flaws.

The same advice most would give in regards to buying a brand new car model also applies to a brand new tech product. "Wait until the glitches are fixed first." In my experience, it's usually a good idea to wait until v1.2 of either a new tech device or a car comes out because the initial feedback is taken into consideration and any issues are usually worked out or tweaked to provide the best performance for the consumer. The good news is that in regards to the iPhone 4, Apple is offering a free bumper for your phone that will both prevent the reception issue for occuring and provide some extra protection as well. So, if you're thinking about buying the iPhone 4 right away, just understand that it may not be perfect. If you've already purchased one and its imperfections are keeping you up at night, then I'm with Steve Jobs. "Relax, it's just a phone."