In his newsletter this morning, Bob details how you can figure out how
much to send on acquiring a new customer and I thought the message
was particularly relevant given that my readers and my clients are in the
business of generating new customers and keeping old ones happy.

Even if the majority of your new clients come from referrals, you can
still invest money in making sure you continue to receive referrals.

If for some reason you’re not looking for new clients, something
to consider is investing money in keeping your existing list of customers
active and happy. In either case, putting money back into your business
is a way to keep it healthy keep it growing.

Bob’s newsletter describes how to determine how much to spend on
acquiring (or keeping) customers. Personally I prefer to think of money
put into marketing as an investment. It’s an investment into your business
that should pay you a return.

Read through Bob’s ideas below and let me know what you think.
I think you’ll find he has an interesting way of thinking about the
value of a client.

Best,

Adam

*Note: Bob allows people to spread, share, and copy his newsletter
and blog content as long as you attribute his site as the source.
——————————-

Dear Direct Response Letter Subscriber:

To determine how much they can afford to spend to get a new
customer, many marketers base that figure on the average size of
the first order.

Therefore, if the front-end product or service is $500, they
won’t spend anywhere near that to acquire the customer, for fear
of operating at break-even or even a loss. If they want to double
their money on the promotion, the most they’ll spend to make the
sale is $250.

But savvy marketers know that the amount of money you can spend
to acquire a new customer should be based on the customer’s
lifetime value, not just the revenue from the first order.

Lifetime value refers to how much money your customer is likely
to spend with you during the period he remains a customer of your
business.

For instance, if the average unit of sale is $500, the average
number of purchases per year is two, and the average customer
remains a customer for 5 years, the lifetime customer value is
$500 X 2 X 5 = $5,000.

Based on the average lifetime value, you can see where it would
in fact be well worth spending $500 to acquire a new customer.

The business owner who understands lifetime customer value as it
relates to customer acquisition has a tremendous advantage: He is
willing to spend more to acquire new business, because he knows
its true value.

Example: A company selling books to corporate librarians planned
a marketing campaign to get new corporate accounts to start
ordering books from them.

I asked the owner what he would be willing to spend to get a new
account. He said about $300.

Forget advertising, I advised. Just open up an account for every
company you want as a customer – and put $300 in it!

Send each prospect a personal letter telling them they already
have an account with you — and that it contains $300 they can
use at any time this year.

Instead of a sales or marketing campaign, my client gave the
money he would have spent to generate leads and makes sales calls
directly to his key prospects, so they could try the service at
no cost. It worked like a charm!

Today online trading services use the same tactic. They send you
a letter telling you they have opened an account for you with $75
or so in it. You get the money when you do your first trade.

Need to stimulate business? Calculate lifetime customer value,
decide what percentage of that amount you want to spend on
acquiring new customers (10% is a common figure), and invest that
amount of money to acquire new customers.

It will likely be more than your competitors think they can
spend, giving you a huge edge in winning new business.

Sincerely,

Bob Bly
Copywriter / Consultant
590 Delcina Drive
River Vale, NJ 07675
Phone 201-505-9451
Fax 201-573-4094
www.bly.com

Follow Bob:
Twitter, http://twitter.com/Robertbly
LinkedIn, http://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbly
Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-Bly/535042603

Tweet This Post  Plurk This Post  Buzz This Post  Delicious This Post  Digg This Post  Ping This Post  Reddit This Post  Stumble This Post 

The tool is called KISSInsights and what it does is enable you to post a small unobtrusive pop up survey to your home page or all of the pages on your site if you choose.

The idea is to engage with and request feedback from your website visitors. By serving a quick mini survey you can find out what people think about your site, what they are there to do, and more. Really you’re only limited by your imagination as far as what you can ask or the knowledge you can gain from your visitors.

KISSInsights keeps it simple and when you sign up, they ask you a few questions that will help you quickly customize and setup your first survey. One of the things I really enjoyed about their site and the sign up process is that they make it easy and obvious what your next step should be at each stage. I learned a thing or two about conversion just by going through the process (great work guys!)

I going to recommend you test adding the feedback survey to your site for 3-4 weeks and then gauge your response. It’s always a great idea to collect visitor feedback and this is a simple and elegant way to do so. Just make sure you take action on what your visitors are telling you!

To get started, visit KISSInsights. It will be obvious what to do from there!

Tweet This Post  Plurk This Post  Buzz This Post  Delicious This Post  Digg This Post  Ping This Post  Reddit This Post  Stumble This Post 

Thoughts:

1. When something works in advertising and marketing, repeat it.

I’ve seen this kind of video before where someone compiles a bunch of stats and figures about the crazy growth of the web and presents them in an interesting way with catchy music. It’s a content model that has worked to generate videos and other types of content that have gone viral in the past.

The take away here is that you could  create something similar for your industry with a little research and some elbow grease. (A Realtor for example could produce a video on the latest round of MLS statistics or perhaps do a video that covers the goings on of their local industry year by year for the past several years.)

If you see someone else doing something that works, copy it or re-purpose what they’ve done for your industry. If you see a general concept like this executed well, find out if you could create something similar for the niche you work in.

(Note the link overlaid on top of the video by JESS3. A great way to bring visitors back to your site and the real reason why the video was created in the first place!)

2. Video has arrived

It’s interesting that on a lot of the main stream web marketing sites that I frequent I still do not see much being said about video. I have to admit that even though I have a Flip HD I too have been lax in putting it to use. But assuming the stats are true: video could be a huge opportunity for you to reach new customers. Youtube is serving up over a billion videos per day. The average North American is watching 168 videos per month (and likely growing). Think about it.

3. Email is still huge, and of course Social Media is here to stay.

I’ve run out of steam here so I’m not going to elaborate on the last point. It’s just interesting to note that email is still huge (and in some ways not a surprise.).

So, did watching it spur any ideas for you?

Tweet This Post  Plurk This Post  Buzz This Post  Delicious This Post  Digg This Post  Ping This Post  Reddit This Post  Stumble This Post 

Twitter is now changing that. Advertisers can now pay to be featured in Trending Topics – and so far, it seems to be a hit with advertisers. Coca-Cola is the second company (after Disney/Pixar) to buy a sponsored trend. Rumoured to cost tens of thousands of dollars, Coke’s trend was timed to coincide with world cup fever, when traffic on Twitter would be the heaviest.

Coke reported 86 million views, with a user engagement rate of 6%.  I think that is a pretty healthy return on investment – and quite a step forward for Coke, who could have just as easily shelled out millions of dollars for a more traditional advertising campaign.

One minor concern is the relevance of trending topics to users. If they know that certain trends are being paid for (or the tweet within certain trends are being paid for), how interested will they really be? It will be interesting to see if user engagement drops as sponsored tweets become more ubiquitous. However, I doubt that will ever happen; Google’s AdWords connect people with the products they’re searching for every day, so it will be interesting to see if Twitter’s sponsored tweets manage to do the same.

Tweet This Post  Plurk This Post  Buzz This Post  Delicious This Post  Digg This Post  Ping This Post  Reddit This Post  Stumble This Post 

The world of internet advertising has been conventionally dominated by Google. As times changed and people began using internet from their phones, Google adapted its ads to show up on mobile devices. However, AdWords ads remain at the mercy of Apple when it comes to iPhone users, as they could lock them out of the system at any time.

Apple, for the time being, isn’t going after Google directly. The company is targeting users in another mobile device activity that is swelling in popularity – mobile applications. Mobile device applications, known as ‘apps’, are becoming as popular and well-used as the internet on smartphones, and Apple is well-aware of this.

Thus was born iAds, the platform for advertising on apps. So far, it’s been a hit with advertisers: in its first 8 weeks of release, Apple has over $60 million of committments to advertise on iAds in 2010 – much of it from large companies such as Unilever and Citigroup. Analysts feel that this strong showing so early in the development of iAds is promising, even a long-term threat to Google. However, this is not to say that Google should be worried too much – $60 million is nothing compared to the billions of dollars of annual revenue Google generates from AdWords.

While it is too early to tell just how great of a success iAds will be, things are already look up for the newest addition to Apple’s product offering. It is also too early to say whether or not Google and Apple will end up fighting for control of the market, as there is still plenty of opportunity in the market itself, and many niches and media for each company to develop.

Tweet This Post  Plurk This Post  Buzz This Post  Delicious This Post  Digg This Post  Ping This Post  Reddit This Post  Stumble This Post 

According to Google, if your content network campaign is opted in to show ads on mobile devices, this is the domain name that shows up for those visitors who see and click on your ad via a mobile app.

For one of our client’s campaigns a lot of clicks were being generated without any conversions, so I added this to the excluded placements list to stop any more wasted clicks.

If you pull reports regularly, you can catch this kind of thing.

Take a look at your own content network reports (e.g check your automatic placements) regularly to see if domains like adsenseformobileapps.com are generating clicks and therefore costs, without conversions. If so, get rid of them!

Tweet This Post  Plurk This Post  Buzz This Post  Delicious This Post  Digg This Post  Ping This Post  Reddit This Post  Stumble This Post 

If you’re new to the Google Display Network, in a nutshell it is the network of websites owned by Google and sites owned by third party publishers that show Google text and banner ads to their visitors.

Before the re-brand, Google had been placing more emphasis on the Content Network with the launch of multiple new features like ad re-targeting or re-marketing as Google calls it, and a push to get advertisers to try banner ads using its display ad builder.

When you do a search in Google, you’re seeing ads on the search network. When you see an ad on your favorite website and you see the “Ads by Google” image at the bottom of the ad, the website you are viewing is part of the Display Network (Formerly the Google Content Network. The launch of the Display Network website and renaming the content network is really just a PR play to make something that already existed look new again: a classic marketing tactic.)

Here’s a quote from Google that summarizes where you can show your ads using the Display Network:

The Google Display Network will comprise all of the sites (apart from search sites), where you can buy ads through Google, including YouTube, Google properties such as Google Finance, Gmail, Google Maps, Blogger as well as over one million Web, video, gaming, and mobile display partners (our display partners include all of our AdSense and DoubleClick Ad Exchange partner sites that allow text and/or display ads). The Google Display Network offers all ad formats –  text, image, rich media, and video ads – enabling you to unleash your creativity and engage potential customers across the Web.

A few of the benefits of the Display Network include:

• Clicks and Conversions can be much cheaper than the Google search network
• You can target the websites you want your ads to show on
• You can use re-targeting to show your ads to people who have visited your site in the past
• You can often generate far more traffic than is possible on the search network, even for niche terms
• You don’t need to use keywords to show your ads if you choose
• You can show image ads, text, ads, video ads, interactive flash ads, and mobile ads

Our clients have known about the content network for quite some time and some have been taking advantage of the power of image ads for a while now to drive traffic and conversions at a lower cost than traditional search traffic.

If you’d like to learn more or want to test driving and conversions using the Display Network, get in touch or give me a call 778.899.4523.

PS: I almost forgot. Google released a study on

Tweet This Post  Plurk This Post  Buzz This Post  Delicious This Post  Digg This Post  Ping This Post  Reddit This Post  Stumble This Post 

• the sheer volume of business from the group of consumers

• the exposure, both through the consumers themselves and the word-of-mouth buzz if the experience was good

The method for setting up such a deal is through a broker of the service itself.  These companies operate by signing companies up to offer a deal to their subscribers, and then taking a cut of the deal to make a profit.  Enter the core of the group buying phenomenon: the group buying website.

Group buying websites (such as Groupon, featured in my post earlier this week) were started in big, social media savvy cities with a city-wide scope.  Since then, they have spread to nearly every urban centre in North America and Europe.  Not only that, the trend shows no sign of slowing down or becoming yesterday’s fad.  In fact, the coupon conoisseur has a range of options, with many cities represented by multiple deal-brokering group buying websites.

Here are a few players in what has become a very saturated market.  Deal lovers should have more than their fill of discounts after signing up for a few of these services:

• Groupon
• Citydeal (operated in Europe; subsequently bought out by Groupon)
• Shnoop
• Grooster
• CheapToday
• LivingSocial
• Tippr
• OfferMint
• DealOn
• Offermatic
• 8Coupons
• StealTheDeal
  

The group buying concept has proven to be so popular with consumers that there is even a website where you can sell your unused coupons – CoupRecoup.com claims to be the Craigslist of Groupons, so consumers can buy coupons that are sold out, or that they didn’t  purchase before the deadline.

Group buying sites are here to stay – particularly with the young, newly-affluent professional urban crowd.  Part of the success of the concept is the willingness of businesses to offer deals in exchange for large-scale exposure.  Knowing that the population segments they are going to reach are actively looking for interesting venues, these businesses offer great deals that they hope will generate regular customers, as well as a lot of word-of-mouth advertising.  Young urbanites in turn love the selection of hip, new places to choose from, and purchase coupons.  As more and more of this demographic continues to sign up, the draw for young or little-known businesses becomes even greater, and selling a coupon becomes a more integral part of their advertising strategy – and so on, and so forth.

In short, if you’re a city-dweller looking for fun – look no further than group-bought coupons; if you’re a small business owner looking for cheap exposure, group coupons should be part of your marketing strategy.

Tweet This Post  Plurk This Post  Buzz This Post  Delicious This Post  Digg This Post  Ping This Post  Reddit This Post  Stumble This Post 

My topic is Accelerating Your Reputation Through Corporate Blogging, Twitter, and Other Digital Platforms.

There are still passes available so head over to Acuity Forums to book your seat!

Tweet This Post  Plurk This Post  Buzz This Post  Delicious This Post  Digg This Post  Ping This Post  Reddit This Post  Stumble This Post 

Day 1

Program Agenda / Tuesday June 15, 2010

8:30 – 9:30 Keynote Presentation

THE STATE OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING:

WHERE WE ARE, WHERE WE’RE HEADED, & HOW TO LEVERAGE IT

Gillian Muessig, President & Co-Founder
SEOmoz Inc.

Social Media Marketing was the watchword of 2009. In 2010, as millions of new customers per month gain access to the web through pda cell phones, Mobile Media Marketing is taking center stage. And new life is being breathed into main street businesses with the increasing focus on local search. The convergence of local-social-mobile marketing is the Power Triumvirate of 2010. Today’s keynote covers the events that led us to this nexus, the deep databases that power it, and the process for developing strategies to help your business/clients thrive in it.

Gillian Muessig is the President and Co-Founder of SEOmoz, the web’s most recongnized and respected name in SEO tools, resources and community. Known as SEOmom throughout the industry, Gillian travels the world evangelizing for both the company and the search marketing industry. SEOmoz, Gillian and her partner, Rand Fishkin (son and CEO of SEOmoz) have been featured in publications such as Newsweek, NPR, and the NYTimes. Gillian is known to have hand on the pulse of the profession and has provided keynotes and sessions for conferences and seminars around the world.

Morning Refreshment Break  9:30 – 9:45 9:45 – 10:45: HOW STORIES AND SOCIAL MEDIA POWER ATB FINANCIAL’S ALBERTA ADVANTAGE Shawn Ohler – Director of External & Media Relations ATB Financial How ATB Financial used the web and social media to further its reputational and corporate social responsibility goals with a site called wearealberta.ca. Why it’s vital that companies don’t jump to social media “just because”, but rather use it in ways that solve actual business problems and align with their core values. Why attracting and growing an audience for your social media initiative can be trickier than deploying a great solution in the first place.  The six-figure budgets and external vendors are not compulsory if you have visionary leaders and creatives in-house.

Shawn Ohler is Director of External and Media Relations for ATB Financial, the largest Alberta financial institution. Before his move to corporate Canada three years ago, Shawn was an author and 15-year newspaper journalist at the Edmonton Journal and National Post. He is still at heart a storyteller who believes that ATB Financial’s ability and eagerness to tell resonant Alberta stories will help set the Edmonton-based bank apart in a hyper-competitive and commoditized industry.

10:45 – 12:15

CASE STUDY CHEVROLET ROAD TRIP: INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT DURING THE 2010 OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY

Erin McConnell - President

Michael Allison - Consultant

Wilcox Group
General Motors of  Canada retained Wilcox Group to leverage the company’s 2010 Winter Games sponsorship as Official Vehicle Supplier, Wilcox Group engaged online influencers during the 106 day trek across the country and tied GM’s Chevrolet brand to the Olympic Games. We will use this case-study to explain why it is important to:

• Utilize personalities whenever possible instead of brand names
• Ensure all team members are familiar with social media tools
• Engage online influencers through unique experiences
• Utilize multimedia to maintain interest and drive traffic to online properties
• Integrate social media activity with traditional media relations
• Monitor brand mentions and influencer interactions for potential opportunities
• Create an online hub to house your message
• Maintain speedy turnaround for all content

Erin has led integrated strategies for companies in the mining, retail, telecommunications, manufacturing, energy, restaurant and legal sectors that span the communications spectrum. From corporate communications to media relations to internal communications and social media, Erin formulates bold, practical and strategic solutions for communications challenges by examining and considering all facets of an issue. With expertise in crisis communications planning and execution, Erin has helped some of the country’s best known companies to prepare for and navigate high-profile corporate issues. She is a highly-respected media trainer, providing key executives and spokespeople with the required skills to deliver their message during the most challenging situations. Erin has provided strategic counsel and project management to a number of clients, including BHP Billiton/EKATI Diamond Mine, TELUS, TD Canada Trust, Kinross Gold Corporation, Terasen Gas, Canada Safeway, Spectra Energy, Pacific Newspaper Group, the Cardiac Care Network of Ontario, the BC Cancer Foundation and Canaccord Capital Inc. Erin holds a degree from Simon Fraser University with a major in communications and a minor in publishing.

Michael provides communications support to clients including General Motors of Canada, KFC and Lesley Stowe. A deft communicator, Michael advises clients on fulsome approaches to social media that complement existing PR goals and strategies. He plays an integral role in creating employee social media policies, writing for the web, engaging online influencers, training clients how to use social media tools and building meaningful relationships. For General Motors of Canada, the official vehicle supplier of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games, Michael led an integrated social media strategy involving the Chevrolet brand for the duration of the 106-day torch relay. He developed and executed a Twitter and blog strategy for engaging influencers and assisted in generating multimedia content to cultivate an association between the client’s brand and the torch relay. This fully-integrated campaign garnered more than $500,000 in PR value. Michael holds a master’s degree in professional communication from Royal Roads University and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Victoria.

Luncheon for Delegates & Speakers  12:15 – 1:00

1:00 – 2:00

CASE-STUDY SOCIAL MEDIA AND GOVERNMENT “YOU GOTTA BE” ONLINE

Christine Wood - Communications Director, Social Media and Online Communications

Public Affairs Bureau

• Hear how the provinical government is implementing social media strategies to engage and inform British Columbians by creating shareable and compelling content
• By reviewing real-life examples (H1N1) https://spring.gov.bc.ca/exchweb/bin.redir.asp?URL=http://www.gov.bc.ca/h1n1/
• BC Forest Fire Info and You Gotta Be here

https://spring.gov.bc.ca/exchweb/bin.redir.asp?URL=http://www.yougottabehere.com/

• Our campaign for the 2010 Winter Games and sharing our success stories, you will learn how to identify opportunities for your own public-sector organization, including practical advise to help you determine what channels and tactics will work best, and what kinds of resources you should expect to put into your social media efforts to achieve results

Christine is a seasoned communications specialist with more than 12 years experience in the private sector and 6 years in the public sector. Christine is passionate about strategic communications, collaboration and innovation. As the director for Social Media and Online Communications for the provincial government she now leads the development of strategic engagement using new media. At present, she is a member of a cross-government working group developing best practices for social media (web 2.0) and is implementing these strategies in her current role. She will be presenting on how the BC government is using social media to engage with the public, including lessons learned from the most recent campaign for the 2010 Winter Games “You Gotta Be Here.” The provincial government uses Wordpress for blogging.

Afternoon Refreshment Break  2:00 – 2:15 2:15 – 3:15

AVOIDING THE TRAIN WRECK: WHY SOME BIG BRANDS WENT OFF THE RAILS, & HOW YOU CAN STAY ON TRACK

Rob Cottingham - Principal

Social Signal

Learn from the mistakes of others, and avoid social media pitfalls! Looking at case studies from high-profile face-plants, we’ll help keep you on the straight and not-too-narrow.

Find out…

• How the CEO of an internationally-known chain humiliated himself and his company by using a fake online identity to trash a competitor
• Why failing to disclose they were backing a blog left both a PR firm and their department-store client wiping egg off their faces
• How a delay in responding to online customer complaints cost a widely-respected brand untold damages to their flagship product’s repuatation From honesty to transparency to resourcing, learn simple principles that can keep you upright – and spell the difference between understandable missteps and painful pratfalls.

For 20 years, Social Signal president Rob Cottingham has worked with senior strategic levels of government, business and advocacy organizations to help them engage with audiences – in both the digital and offline worlds. Pioneering in the online arena comes naturally to Rob, who launched his first web site in 1995. He built one of the earliest party leadership candidate web sites in Canada , launched the country’s first online political game, and oversaw the creation of anambitious anti-tobacco website targeted to youth years before similar efforts became ubiquitous. He launched the ground-breaking Confeederation.ca site during the 2005-06 federal election, garnering national media attention for a service that aggregated blog posts from candidates across the country. Rob believes strongly in sharing his skills and knowledge. An engaging and entertaining presenter, Rob has provided training and facilitation to government departments, political parties and conferences on everything from basic Internet skills to online advocacy. Rob maintains a long-running blog on technology and public affairs at RobCottingham.ca. He draws the popular Noise to Signal web cartoon, has been a regular freelance contributor to CBC Radio and performs in a variety of venues as a standup comic.

3:15 – 4:15

ON BEYOND PRESS RELEASES - ADVANCED LINK BUILDING

Gillian Muessig, President & Co-Founder
SEOmoz Inc.

Link building the most difficult, tedious task of SEO. And now that buying links is non longer an effective link building method, link building has become very expensive indeed. This session will give you some inside secrets to link building. From strategy to implementation, you’ll come away with a task list you can begin to use as soon as you step back into your office that will build high power links to your website and keep them coming over the long term.

• Linking building basics – what’s good, what’s not, link valuation methodology and tools
• Linking business strategy  – how many links do you need? How often do you need new ones? Where should they come from?
• Managing expectations – What will it cost? How long will it take?
• Getting ready – building pages with the correct keywords
• Getting down to business – making strategy alliances, asking for links, creating content that deserves links, promoting your content, secret link sources, tools to make your link building life better

4:15 – 5:15 TWITTER, FACEBOOK, BLOGS AND WIKIS: HOW TO USE THE NEWEST SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS TO FOSTER INNOVATION & CHANGE

Kevin Grandia - New Media Director

Hoggan & Associates

You will learn how to use various social media technologies to build communities, both internally and externally. Through these technologies, you will learn how they have driven internal innovation and internal sourcing of subject matter expertise to create external changes. You will also gain an understanding of why this change in communications and hierarchy is so important to the changing nature of employees and the organization’s demographics. In this session, you will hear how to overcome the challenges of implementing tools such as: Twitter, Facebook, Blogs and Wikis Niche tools such as Yammer, Laconica   Finally, you will learn how all these tools can allow your organization to turn information and knowledge with the right resources at the right time

Kevin Grandia has over ten years of experience in communications. Over the last four years Kevin has focused entirely on social media and online media. Kevin is known internationally for his award-winning expertise in social media marketing, new media public relations, blogging, search engine optimization and online reputation management. Since joining Hoggan as the Director of Hoggan’s Social Media practice, Kevin has managed DeSmogBlog, which was named one of the Top 50 “Eco-Blogs” in the world by the Times of London. In 2007, DeSmogBlog won a “Leadership in Communications” award from the Canadian Publis Relations Society – Vancouver Chapter. Kevin is the co-founder of the Vote For Environment online campaign that was nomited in 2009 for a World Summit Award, an international recognition of the world’s best e-Content and innovative ICT applications.

Day 2

Program Agenda / Wednesday June 16, 2010

8:30 - 9:30 Keynote Presentation

ACCELERATING YOUR CORPORATE REPUTATION THROUGH CORPORATE BLOGGING, TWITTER, & OTHER DIGITAL PLATFORMS

Adam Killiam - Internet & Social Media Marketing Specialist

It can be difficult to establish a solid online presence. Maintaining a large social network can often seem like an impossible task or simply too much to handle and, in many situations, it becomes completely impersonal, doing more damage to your reputation than good. Successful organizations manage their corporate and product reputations using social media and other Web 2.0 tools. During this presentation, we will discuss:

• What is the basic strategy that builds value using social media?
• How can an organization use social media to increase business?
• How do you determine the communities you should address?
• How can social media help your Web site?
• How does social media form the “other half” of “normal” Web site marketing?
• How can social media work to build brand?

Adam Killam helps businesses get more traffic, more leads, and more sales using the web. An Internet Marketing & Social Media Marketing specialist by trade, he works with Vancouver companies to help them make their online presence profitable & to keep them competitive online. Since the age of 13, Adam has watched the web grow from a geeky past time to a main stream sales and marketing machine that has changed the way people do business. His career passion is helping people efficiently use the web to make a profit.

Morning Refreshment Break  9:30 – 9:45 9:45 – 10:45 WHEN COMMUNITY FLOATS YOUR BOAT

David Alston - Vice-President Marketing

Radian6

What does social media really mean to your organization?  It’s not a another channel for blasting messages or a cheap way to get eyeballs and click-throughs.  It actually is a way to find your community – the people who are as passionate about your “raison d’être” as you are. But is your organization listening to your community?  Is it engaging with them, learning from them, helping them, sharing their content?  Does your brand live within its community or does it still look over the wall at “the audience”?
David will challenge your thinking around what defines “marketing” in the age of the connected consumer. Their expectations of brands have changed. They hope you want a relationship. They want to deal with people not logos, both accessible and transparent. They want brands to line up for them, not the other way around. They want something different, and they want it now.
Find out how to transform your company into one where community is its biggest asset.

David Alston Vice President of Marketing & Community at social media monitoring solution company, Radian6. David’s focus at Radian6 is building the firm’s brand internationally through the use of social media monitoring, outreach and engagement. David has also become a featured speaker and panelist at a number of new marketing, blogging and social media events as a guide to how brands should be listening to consumer generated media online. As one of Twitter’s most followed CMO’s, David takes his interactive style of marketing to every speaking engagement – listening, learning and engaging with the audience. You can follow David on Twitter at @davidalston David blogs at TweetPR.

10:45 – 11:45

SOCIAL MEDIA IS NOTHING WITHOUT CONVERSATIONS

Chris Goward - CEO

WiderFunnel Marketing Optimization

Social Media can be a powerful tool for generating interest in your brand, but what do you do once the visitors arrive on your site? Does your site deliver a “sticky” and persuasive experience?

In this session, you will discover:

• The ways your website is failing to convert visitors
• Examples of how to lift conversion rates by up to 290%
• How to apply a continuous improvement process to your business

Chris Goward is the leading expert in applied Marketing Optimization and is Co-Founder and CEO of WiderFunnel Marketing Optimization. His Conversion Optimization methods using A/B and multivariate testing have helped clients improve their website lead generation and sales rates by up to 404% for clients such as eBay, Epson, BabyAge.com, SAP, Electronic Arts, Outrigger Hotels, Google and many more. His WiderFunnel LIFT Model™ is taught at the University of Eastern Michigan Conversion Optimization program. Chris is a globally recognized speaker at conferences like PubCon, SMX, and IMC. Chris was the “highest rated speaker” at SMX Search Analytics and IMC workshops. His work has been published in Marketing Sherpa, Search Engine Watch, the Google blog, Search Engine Marketing Journal and DM News. You’ll find him at http://widerfunnel.com/chrisgoward

Luncheon for Delegates & Speakers  11:45 – 12:45 12:45 – 1:45 THE SOCIALLY POWERED ENTERPRISE

Eric Weaver - Account Director & Digital Strategist

Tribal DDB Canada

Social channels and tools offer businesses the unprecedented ability to transform both their market offering and their operations. But how…and why? In The Socially-Powered Enterprise, social marketing strategist Eric Weaver will explain how businesses can adapt to redefine and improve their relationship with their customers. The presentation, aimed at VPs and directors of marketing, HR managers, and line-of-business managers, will discuss:

• Which trends are influencing preference and impact revenue at the moment?
• What is the value of social channels and tools both internally as well as externally?
• Is there a monetary benefit to socializing my business?
• How can these tools be integrated into the organization’s overall  value chain? What are the benefits they bring?
• How can collaboration, responsiveness, engagement, transparency, awareness and sales conversion be improved?
• Is additional staffing required? What kind of talent should I look for? How do I govern employees active socially?Attendees will walk away with several suggestions on socializing their enterprise, trumping the competition and improving their connection with their customers and prospects.

Eric Weaver is a veteran marketer who has helped drive awareness, revenue and loyalty for household brands across North America . As one of the very first digital marketers, over his 18-year career Eric has helped firms like Brita, Clorox, De Beers, eBay, Ford, GE, Johnson & Johnson, Kraft Foods, Lincoln, Mattel, the Mayo Clinic, Procter & Gamble, RCA, the US Postal Service, and the Clinton Administration build and extend their brands online.
Eric’s teams have launched the Lincoln Navigator, the BMW MINI, Ultra Cascade, the Lincoln LS, Mercury Sable, and Sebastian hair-care products. Joining Tribal DDB in 2009, Eric now focuses primarily on social marketing, helping companies understand ongoing shifts in culture, commerce and media. Most recently, he has helped develop social marketing strategies and provided counsel to Microsoft, UPS, Starbucks , BC Hydro, the Government of Alberta, Puget Sound Energy, Nature’s Path Foods and Perry Ellis International. He also uses social media to build awareness for causes like clean water, renewable energy and local homelessness. Eric speaks regularly on social marketing and social good, and has been quoted in BusinessWeek, Fortune, Hoover ’s, AdAge, the National Review, the Seattle Times and the Washington Post. In 2009, he was awarded a Brand Leadership Award from the World Brand Congress. He graduated summa cum laude from Xavier University .

Afternoon Refreshment Break  1:45 – 2:00 2:00 – 3:00 WHAT OTHERS THINK OF YOU MATTERS: MANAGE & BOOST YOUR CORPORATE REPUTATION USING SOCIAL MEDIA

Wayne Hartrick - President & Chief Reputation Officer

Reputations Corporation

Social media has an important role in helping manage corporate reputation. But what is corporate reputation and how can it be quantified and measured. Can you set a goal for corporate reputation? How do you determine the role of social media in driving that goal? This presentation will propose answers to these questions through a review of case studies and a reputation management framework.

Wayne has been offering strategic counsel to clients in North America, Europe and Asia for more than 15 years. He has been instrumental in building two successful communications consulting firms, holds an APR (Accreditation in Public Relations), and is an accreditation examiner for the Canadian Public Relations Society. Wayne is a past member of the Vancouver City Planning Commission, past Chair of the Vancouver Blueway Task Force and sat on the Board of Directors of the Vancouver Maritime Museum . He also sat on the Board of Directors for the Port of Vancouver where he was Chair of the Communications Committee. An active participant in provincial and civic politics, Wayne acted as Campaign and Communications Chair on several successful campaigns and most recently acted as Communications Director for Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan. Wayne is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Nanitch Policy Society, a society dedicated to improving the economic and social wellbeing of individuals faced with disability. Wayne is also the Director of the Global Civic Policy Society (GCPS) and Homes for the Games (HFG). GCPS undertakes and funds research that supports the social, environmental and economic resilience of Canadian communities. HFG is non profit home stay program for Olympic visitors that directs its proceeds to helping solve homelessness in Vancouver . He spends his leisure time enjoying the BC outdoors, including boating and snowboarding.

3:00 – 4:00 SOCIAL MEDIA: TIPS TO AVOID IN A RISK MANAGEMENT NIGHTMARE

Mark Fancourt-Smith - Associate

Fasken Martineau

With the enormous opportunities that social media offer come considerable potential risks as well. Organizations are now finding they must address this conflict in order to use social media in ways that enhance the business but also protect it. What are the risks associated with social media? What are the blogging liabilities? This presentation will help you understand the emerging and evolving legal privacy and disclosure issues but also what can be done to mitigate the risks.

• Overview of privacy law as it pertains to social media
• Understanding the issue of control in the social media environment
• What are the risks of being transparent and open to your consumers and employees?
• Discuss the legal liabilities for material published on the web
• How to determine which social media tools and communities to monitor & how to effectively monitor
• What are other organizations doing to deal with privacy and disclosure issues?

Mark Fancourt-Smith is an associate in the firm’s Litigation and Dispute Resolution Group. He practices within a broad range of commercial disputes, including technology and intellectual property litigation, protection of trade secrets, breaches of fiduciary obligation, and fraud. He has particular experience with injunctions, trade-mark protection, mining disputes involving confidential information, and the area of preservation and discovery of electronic documents and records in complex litigation. Mark has appeared as counsel in the Supreme Court of British Columbia, the British Columbia Court of Appeal, and in the Federal Court.

Tweet This Post  Plurk This Post  Buzz This Post  Delicious This Post  Digg This Post  Ping This Post  Reddit This Post  Stumble This Post