Improving Your Website, Renewals and Social (Media) Skills
With the Miami Marketing Conference coming up in less than two months, we want to spotlight some of the accomplished speakers who are on the agenda along with a sneak peek of their knowledge.
On marketing.
1. Eric Hellweg, editor at Harvard Business Publishing, will be joining Mequoda’s Don Nicholas to present a session titled, “Limited Slots, Maximum Results: Maximize Your Marketing Inventory.” A little while ago, Hellweg looked back on his company’s successful transition. “When I started here three years ago, our Website was product-centric,” he said. “We used a transaction-focused approach; our outreach was based on sales. There was no relationship or community building.” We were batch-and-blast with our emails, and as a result, not effective. It was representative of where the organization was. So we decided to expand the Website and took the first steps—segmentation and building more engaging relationships in the community—while focusing on a group we call emerging leaders.”
On renewals.
2. Robert Lerose will be speaking on renewals in Miami along with Carol Brault of Access Intelligence. Here are two of his recommendations on the topic. Many more will be on the table in November.
a) Make your renewal efforts personal. Technology has given us great tools but don’t let them de-personalize your renewal series. Subscribers want to know there’s a real person behind those efforts.
b) Come up with a “value proposition” and sell it. Why is your publication valuable to the subscriber? What value will it continue to give? The answer to these questions should inform your renewal copy and become a selling point. Because times and subscriber needs change, you should regularly evaluate your renewal series to refine and sharpen this statement.
On connecting marketing and IT.
3. Greg Krehbiel of Kiplinger will be leading a session on the Top 10 Things Marketers Need to Know About IT. In an online forum discussion on this topic, he said one solution to bridge the gap between the two is to have a web business manager who a) understands how the system works; b) understands the business objectives of the website; c) can find creative solutions to new problems, and d) can figure out if it’s worth all the effort.
This is going to be an extremely valuable session.
On websites.
4. Gwen Tomasulo, audience development director for National Journal Group, will be co-leading a session titled, “Paid Content Websites: In-depth Case Studies.” National Journal is in the midst of a fall relaunch of its website and print publications, so Tomasulo will be able to share her experience and insight.
On the latest technology.
5. Philip Ramsey, manager of technical design for BNA, will share the speaking duties for a session titled, “Kindles & iPads and iPhones, Oh My! Marketing to Mobile Devices.” He has worked on all major mobile platforms, including the Kindle, iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry and Android, and he currently leads BNA’s mobile platform efforts. BNA currently hosts more than 150 separate websites on three platforms.
On rules.
6. Florin Campeanu is coming all the way from Romania and will be on the “Best of” panel at the end of the Conference. Asked about two or three concepts that have helped him to succeed in business, he answered: “Rule number 1: Always think like a marketer. Rule number 2: Ideas do not matter. Only the execution counts. Rule number 3: Set big goals. Have high expectations. Rule number 4: Always learn and test. Rule number 5: Try to do what you love and love what you do. Rule number 6: There are no rules…”
On the sell side.
7. Coming in with the most intriguing background has to be Annie Stickney, general manager, online marketing and development, Minyanville Publishing & Multimedia. She will be leading a session called Advertising Sales 101: Breaking Into the Sell Side of the Revenue Game. Looking through the Minyanville site, there’s a blog from this summer that says that Stickney once worked as a certified dolphin trainer. “Dolphins are like dogs in some ways,” she says there. “They won’t respond to commands from people they don’t know. And once they get to know you, they’re extremely responsive. When you walk over to the pool, they swim over to say hello.” We’ll definitely have to ask Stickney more about this experience and how it prepared her for ad sales.
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Look Who’s Coming!
You can now go on to the SIPA Website and see what
companies are coming to Miami for the Marketing Conference!
It’s quite a highly regarded list with companies like
FDA News, VNR and Broadlook Technologies.
Rooms ($179 a night!) are selling out quickly for the
Nov. 10-12 SIPA Annual Marketing Conference
at the Ritz-Carlton in Miami Beach!
So act fast, book and register now before it’s too late!
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