Thursday, September 10, 2009
Need something to do this week? Internet Marketing Conference (IMC) Vancouver is in town and, although the training day (Sept 16) is sold out, the conference and workshop days (Sept 17 -18) still have room left.
IMC Vancouver will cover everything you need to know to successfully do business online, including analytics, strategy, content, SEM, SEO, email marketing, social media, on-site behavioral targeting, and multivariate testing. It’s a great event for both new and seasoned Internet marketers.
This year’s speakers include:
- Google’s analytics evangelist Avinash Kaushik, author of the best-selling book Web Analytics: An Hour a Day
- Facebook’s newly appointed Canadian representative Louise Clements
- Linkedin’s head of advertising sales and operations organization, Steve Patrizi
- SEOMoz’s Gillian Muessig
- Google’s Sandra Cheng and Rob Torres
- Yahoo’s Adam Muscott
- Vancity’s William Azaroff
- Bell Canada’s Adam Muscott
- VKI Studios’ John Hossack
Details from the website
The program will mix presentations with discussion panels and networking opportunities. Meet with those who have dared, pioneered, and succeeded. Learn from mistakes by others. Whether you’re an advertiser, a marketer, or a business analyst, our goal is to provide you with valuable and actionable knowledge. Newbies and seasoned Internet marketers alike will find something they can take back to the office. IMC is produced by experts, for experts, and for all of you who’d like to become experts. Over the past nine years, it has been held in eight North American and European cities.
Location
Four Seasons Hotel
791 West Georgia Street
Vancouver, BC
September 16 - 18, 2009
Cost
Tickets for Sept 17 and 18 cost $995 CDN. You can also buy tickets for individual days.
For more information visit the IMC Vancouver website.
Register here.
Posted by Crissy Campbell |
Email to a Friend | Of course, you should follow me on twitter
here
Filed under:
•
Events
Permalink
Thursday, August 06, 2009
As I mentioned last week, Search Engine Strategies is taking place in San Jose August 10 to 14.
I’m envious of those who get to go so this is my pitch for what sessions you should attend so that I can follow the tweets and blog posts.
August 12 - Wednesday, Day 2
9:00am-10:15am
Geek Speak Track: Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues
I love to speak geek. And I’d love to better understand duplicate content and content syndication through RSS and feeds—“Will other sites be considered the “real” site and rob you of a rightful place in the search results?”
10:45am-12:00pm
Geek Speak Track: Landing Page Testing and Tuning
Geekdom 2x. Tim Ash of SiteTuners.com is one of my favourite speakers. I get him.
4:00pm-5:15pm
Vertical & B2B Track: The BuyerSphere Project: Understanding B2B Buyer Patterns
I know I left a long break here but I’d probably be chatting or attending the Google sponsored session. I would definitely be back from hiatus in time for Gord Hotchkiss, another dynamo and not-to-miss speaker. According to the session notes, “A major B2B research initiative, conducted by Enquiro with input from Google, Business.com, Covario, Marketo and DemandBase, showed that most marketers aren’t effectively leveraging online assets to their best potential.” Did we need a full study? Yes, because the BuyerSphere project looks at how online strategies became artificially separated from traditional best practices, how they can be more effectively integrated and the part search plays as a major influencer. B2B is big.
Moderator: Gord Hotchkiss, President & CEO, Enquiro
Speakers:
Mark McMaster, Senior Planner of B2B and Technology Markets, Google
Ben Hanna, VP Marketing, Business.com
Susan Scarth, VP Marketing, Demandbase
Jon Miller, VP Marketing, Marketo
Dr. Matthias Blume, Chief Analytics Officer, Covario
August 13 - Thursday, Day 3
9:00am-10:00am
Morning Keynote: How to Prepare for the Future of Search
Keynote Speaker Charlene Li, Co-Author, Groundswell, Founder, Altimeter Group, is 100% worth hearing.
10:30am-11:45am
Organizational Track: Electronic Contacts and the Long Arm of the Law
Johnnie Law my friends is worth knowing. The ease of e-commerce over brick-and-mortar business does not preclude the legal requirements that are unique to internet businesses situated anywhere in the world. Even offshore internet businesses can be held accountable under a variety of US federal and state laws concerning gambling. Know the rules.
Moderator: Anne F. Kennedy, SES Advisory Board, Founder Partner and CMO, http://Joblr.com and Managing Partner & Founder, Beyond Ink
Speakers:
Robert Friedman, Partner, Kelley Drye & Warren
Mark Rosenberg, Of Counsel, Sills Cummis & Gross P.C.
12:45pm-2:00pm
Organic Track: News Search SEO
Boxcar Marketing likes online press releases and news search engines so we’d be ready for this panel on generating targeted traffic with the use of press releases and news content. Extra! Extra!
Geek Speak Track: Follow the Carrot: Cool Mobile Apps
Our double whammy of course is that friend and colleague Matthew Snyder, CEO of Mobify, is on this panel discussion about user migration to a mobile environment.
And yes, stick out the whole day.
It’s not to late ... Register Today!
Posted by Monique Sherrett |
Email to a Friend | Of course, you should follow me on twitter
here
Filed under:
•
Events
Permalink
Friday, July 31, 2009
Search Engine Strategies is the event for search marketing and optimization. It’s one of my favourite conferences and I’m disappointed that my schedule doesn’t allow me to attend this year.
But if you are going, I’d love to have notes or feedback on the conference.
And if you’ve never gone before and are going to San Jose, here’s what I would do.
August 10 - Monday (Training Day)
9:00am-12:00pm
SEO and Direct Marketing Tactics for Ecommerce Websites with Matt Bailey, SiteLogic
Half-day $645
The world of ecommerce is fascinating to me and Boxcar Marketing is starting to work on a number of ecommerce projects. I’m interested in how principles of Search Marketing and Direct Marketing can increase the sales rates, impression and visibility of a site.
1:00pm-4:30pm
Search and Social Media Tactics and Case Studies with Aaron Kahlow, Online Marketing Summit, and Hallie Janssen, Anvil Media Inc
Afternoon Session Only $495.
Social media gets a lot of attention but I don’t think that Search should be left by the wayside. This session promises lessons on Integrated Search, Social Media and Website best practices from the trenches of the world’s leading brands to the local business. Stories and case studies are always interesting to me.
August 11 - Tuesday, Day 1
9:00am-10:00am
Keynote Speaker, Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody, is great to listen to and inspirational. Get up and go to the keynote.
10:30am-11:30am
Search & Measurement Track
Always be Testing: Marketing Optimization in Challenging Times
Rising costs and shrinking marketing budgets are never going away, nor is increasing demand for accountability. This means you can’t afford not to test, whether it’s A/B or multivariate testing. If you don’t know where to begin, Bryan Eisenberg is the perfect guy to tell you. I find his work exemplary and would love to attend this session.
Bryan Eisenberg, SES Advisory Board & Co-Founder, Future Now, Inc, go look him up. Trying searching (lol).
11:45am-12:45pm
Search Fundamentals Track
Successful Site Architecture
I spend a lot of time talking about site architecture with designers and developers. Successful architecture, such as specific page elements and design technologies, affect organic search rankings. Directory, file structure, server-side includes (SSIs), 404 error trapping, JavaScript, robots.txt use, frames, secure area usage—do you know how these affect the ability for customers to find your site?
1:45pm-2:45pm
Search Fundamentals Track
Turn Brain Science into Bucks: Incorporating Persuasive Messaging into Your Content Strategy
Oooo, who doesn’t like the brain and its inner workings. At Boxcar Marketing we are constantly thinking about Twitter, white papers, optimized web pages, blog posts, and any other possible opportunity to help our clients capture the attention of prospective buyers, open up communication with customers, build strong b2b and b2c relationships as well as c2c relationships. I think the showcase of online content campaigns and strategies would be very interesting given the social proof, neuroscience, and psychology twist the speakers will provide.
Moderator: Greg Jarboe, President & Co-Founder, SEO-PR
Speakers: Graeme McLaughlin, Manager Digital Marketing, British Columbia Automobile Association and Heather Lloyd-Martin, CEO, SuccessWorks
3:00pm-4:00pm
Search & Community Track
Stop the Presses! How SEO Can Help Save the Publishing Industry
Publishers absolutely need to know how to leverage SEO and drive traffic to their sites. I can’t talk about this enough so it would be great to hear someone else’s perspective.
4:30pm-5:30pm
Search & Measurement Track
Extreme Makeover: Conversion Edition
Bryan Eisenberg, I’m a fan. I’d be back to hear Bryan speak in this session on metrics, usability and persuasion. Plus it ties into the A/B test in the earlier session. The big sell: “This session will instruct you on how to identify the critical barriers to success on the sites selected and how this team of experts would go about fixing them in less than 48 hours.” I hope someone will share notes here.
Moderator: Anne F. Kennedy, SES Advisory Board, Founder Partner and CMO, http://Joblr.com and Managing Partner & Founder, Beyond Ink
Speakers:
Bryan Eisenberg, SES Advisory Board & Co-Founder, Future Now, Inc.
Ethan Giffin, CEO, Groove Commerce
Day 2 and 3 thoughts coming up ...
Posted by Monique Sherrett |
Email to a Friend | Of course, you should follow me on twitter
here
Filed under:
•
Events
Permalink
Monday, March 16, 2009
Change Your World in 50 Minutes: Making Breakthroughs Happen
Monday, March 16th at 03:30 PM
PRESENTERS
* Kathy Sierra - CreatingPassionateUsers
DESCRIPTION
Gain real-world ideas for markedly improved productivity from an industry expert and passionate speaker who always inspires SXSW audiences.
MONIQUE’S NOTES
There’s you. There’s your goal.
Between in the brick wall.
Incremental vs. Breakthrough
Today is about when incremental stuff doesn’t work. You need to do something drastic.
Incremental = Arms Race
Sometimes you’re in a quality arms race, or a features arms race.
Google pages are an example of the marketing, whuffie, etc. race.
So how do you get past that wall?
Breakthroughs:
ideas
performance
Your users need breakthroughs. In order for you to breakthrough, you might have to find ways to let your users make breakthroughs.
[how to be an expert graph]
WOM vs. WOO
Word of Mouth vs. Word of Obvious
You could sit at home, quietly kicking ass. But someone kicking ass is better than someone who says they are.
Are your users tuck in “P” mode? i.e., how many people have SLRs, and how many people are stuck in program mode, they don’t know how to do it.
Sometimes you’re stuck in program mode not because you don’t know how to get out of that mode but because they don’t know why they want to.
Sometimes you’re stuck in program mode because you don’t want to upgrade. You don’t want to suck again.
Anyone can compete
Sometimes you don’t have to change the product, you have to help people kick ass better than your competitors.
But we have to get to know each other first.
1) iPod Playlist and ... [your real playlist!]
2) Pick one of these Flight vs. Invisibility
If the person next to you also has this superpower, you need to find someone with the other. Sell them on the superior superpower.
What superpower do we give our users?
What are we giving them as a superpower? What do you provide for them as a superpower? And how does this change what you do?
Picture it on the suit. What would you put there?
Pivot-table Man
Auto-correct Spelling Man: This is not a superpower.
Think about super-hero action figures. Would it work?
My First Scoble.
Twitter Man?
Doesn’t look like a superpower. But it is.
Motivating ... because it’s good for you ... Productivity Man? Lamest thing to say.
VCs say “what problem do you solve” and we think about increasing productivity. People want something better than that. Productivity is the broccoli.
What superpower do I give? What do I put on the suit?
2. Superset Game
If it’s you (little dot) vs. competitor (bigger dot), then think about the bigger thing that is inclusive of both. Taking on the bigger thing is more motivating. What cooler thing is my thing a part of?
i.e., I sell kitchen appliances. The cool thing is people are cooking, not this utensil is cool. If you blog about your company, that’s likely not the coolest thing you could be writing about. Users want to hear about cooking.
10,000 hours
Intimidating? It really takes 10,000 hours to be amazingly good. It takes years. That’s not acceptable if you’re in your 50s. LOL. How do you shrink that? How do you see the patterns and take short cuts?
1. Learn the patterns
2. Shorten the duration
Reduce to 1,000.
[Chess grandmaster can recall one graph vs. the other because one is from a real game. This is pattern knowledge. How can you capture it?]
4. Deliberate Practice
Kicking ass in
< 1,000 hours can happen if you do deliberate hours of practice.
After 1-2 years, experience is a poor predictor of performance/expertise. (10 years vs. 1 year repeated 10 times)
What do experts do?
Tiger Woods pop quiz: how much practice time on weaknesses vs. strengths?
He works on his strengths.
Help your users deliberately practice. Offer exercises, games, contests, tutorials that support deliberate practice of the Right Things.
How do you construct this? Where there's an education field, you can find the answer.
Where is the sell-by-date of "solutions"? The first pages that come up can be soooo last month. These things might not work anymore. When you organize bits of knowledge, guess at the sell-by-date. Or at least make someone be responsible for smelling the milk.
5. Make the right things easy and the wrong things hard
Think about this.
Make it easier for users to have a breakthrough than to stay where they are.
Treadmill gathering cobwebs? It’s not in the corner because you don’t use it, you don’t use it because it’s in the corner.
If the exercise bike is in the corner, you don’t use it because it’s in the corner. Put it in the middle of the room. Remove the comfy seats and leave the bike.
6. Get better gear (and offer it)
Sometimes spending the extra money is required to make it good. It works better in a profound way. WOO.
“The tablet changes lives.” Drawing with a mouse is like drawing with a bar of soap.
Find, make, offer higher-end gear that bumps them to a new level.
7. Ignore standard limitations
The Cluetrain Manifesto and the Clueless Manifesto.
Don’t be limited by limitations. Learn. What would it be like if I didn’t know what it’s supposed to be?
8. Total Immersion Jams
16 hours over 2 days vs. 16 hours over 2 months
Concentration, processing, down time. Ad Lib Game Development Society is a group of people (game developers) who program games over a weekend.
Always
Be
Closing
You had to come out with 3 songs. The goal is not to be good. The goal is to get something done. You have to ship.
The Shoot Out: 24 Hours Film Making Festival
Right before the shoot, you have to pick 5 things from a list and 1 thing has to be within the first 30 seconds.
“The surest way to guarantee nothing interesting happens is to assume you know exactly how to do it.”
Less *Camp, More *Jam
Sometimes if we want a breakthrough, we have to go do stuff. Look at the Jam model and it’s development. Get people together to build something.
Change Your Perspective
Don’t make a better [x], make a better [user of x]
What will make them better? What changes affect that ecosystem positively?
Really think about whatever your product or service is.
What movie are your users in?
The user’s journey: call to action, refusal, enter special world, allies and mentors, enemies and bad things, more bad things, the hero’s reward.
Who are the mentors?
Is tech support Yoda or
Your company is to your user as ___ is to Frodo.
Think about what movie are your users in?
What movie do they want to be in?
(and don’t forget the soundtrack)
If you can figure out what the movie is, then you have the narrative of your journey.
Indiana Jones model?
ThemeSong AIR App. Every time you walk into a room, it plays your theme song.
Want incremental improvements? Ask your users.
If you want to make breakthroughs? Ignore everybody.
Hugh MacLeod’s next book “Ignore Everybody.”
Listening to users: what they say vs. what they REALLY want
Individuals vs. consensus
The Featuritis Curve: You can pass over the peak without noticing in an attempt to satisfy everyone.
You can ask other people’s users. At some meta level, this thing looks like that thing.
12. Be Brave
Concept car. Actual model. What happened to the fantastic idea? Fear takes us to the actual. Someone’s risk aversion is what leads to the actual model.
Another way we screw up is that we are too afraid. The ease-of-use police step in and give us easy to use, i.e., squeaky toys instead of the German Shepard. Hey, sometimes things are hard to use.
Ford: if I asked my users, they would have wanted faster horses vs. cars.
The assumption of that is it’s lame to have faster horses. But hey, look at the dead pool. The recreation horse industry in the US is worth $40 Billion annually.
Etsy.com the theory here is that these crafts are obsolete. Make magazine becomes one of the best things O’Reilly is publishing.
Can obsolete be refashioned in a new way?
14. Change the EQ
Price, Number of Features, Quality, Service, Performance.
See each as a slider. Here’s how products compete. This is the incremental competitor game.
Don’t just do the mixer. Add new sliders that normally aren’t considered. Meta-cognitive, Pain, Engaging
[In Vancouver, the art gallery, salsa dance room, cafe. Experience beyond the standard.]
i.e., picking a dentist. If you have dental fear, look for “cosmetic dentistry”. Because you don’t have to go there, they actually make the office look nice. Like a spa vs. an institution. Learn from this.
What did Gary do?
Episode418.mov
Gary Vaynerchuk, what new sliders were added here?
Action figures
Personality
Fun
Break the model
Look at people who’ve had a breakthrough. What’s on those sliders that no body had? What are the new labels to add?
15. Don’t mistake narrow for shallow
LOLCats + translation, 52,000 google pages
LOLCats translates the Bible. People take things that are ridiculously narrow and it’s not shallow.
PassiveAggressiveNotes.com is a favourite.
Literally, A Web Log
All these people looking for misused quotations.
Think of the sites you killing yourself laughing over. Think about what matters. Those things matter.
16. Be Amazed
Conan amazing video.
Posted by Monique Sherrett |
Email to a Friend | Of course, you should follow me on twitter
here
Filed under:
•
Events
•
Tools & Technology for Non-Techies
Permalink
Monthly Newsletter
Conferences & Events
What we’re talking about 
Project Highlights
Did you know?
Vancouver internet marketing strategists 
Looking for the bee? 
Subscribe to our blog.