eXtra inQuiry

I attended the Online Marketing Summit’s Boston stop of the 2009 Whistle Stop Tour. I must say that it was simply amazing. I attended on behalf of Internet Strategy Forum (ISF, for short). I was grateful for this (thanks Aaron Kahlow who is at the helm of OMS). Trust me. This in no way affects my criticism of the event in the following paragraphs.

First of all, if you’re not familiar with the Online Marketing Summit, and you have anything to do with the Internet, then you should be. Besides the conference, OMS is constantly evolving (just like Online Marketing) and if one organization is keeping up with the curve — its them. See for yourself by following their blog or twitter feed.

The conference itself encompassed everything from e-mail campaigns to proper website design techniques to social media marketing topics. It had something for everybody because it was divided into three tracks: basic, intermediate and advanced. You chose where you wanted to go throughout the day minus the keynote, lunch and the “Big Brands, Big Plans” Panel. The Panel is where Chris Howe, Director of Online Marketing and User Experience at Avid Technologies, spoke (sponsored by ISF). The panelists were amazing and I was very impressed with their answers. I’m glad that they weren’t the standard answers that I almost came to expect. These people knew what they were talking about.

I started the day by going to “Planning & Strategy.” It was labeled as “beginners” on the agenda, but I wanted to see what was in store. Michael Weisfeld basically covered:

• The marketing landscape trends (which anyone, and I mean -anyone-, needs to know if you’re embarking to either make a website, or run a company).
• Why strategies of websites fail. I generally love to see why websites fail — people learn from their own mistakes, we all know this. So, we can learn from others too.
• User-centric design. Catch-phrase? Maybe. But it’s relevant in today’s world. If you aren’t design for the user visiting then don’t even bother designing. You’re wasting your time.
• Then he went over the website strategy process. This was the “meat” of the presentation and great to follow if you are new. He added some to the process, and reiterated some points.
• OVERALL: Know the website strategy process and know what your customer’s want. Also, know what’s in now (video). Use it to your advantage.

Great job Michael!

This exceeded my expectations. I actually learned quite a few new tricks of the trade, concerning web sites, from Michael Weisfeld.

Next up, I’ll give you a taste of the fourth session I attended: “B2B Marketing Roadblocks and How 6 Marketers Overcame Them.” This was presented by Corey Williams, Vice President of Emerging Markets, Silverpop.* He cited a lot of statistics. This was great. People get to bring these back to their management teams or their clients at the end of the day and say “Here. Look at these numbers or listen to this.”

According to Brainshark (a source cited often at this conference) roadblocks for marketers are generally the ability to track and score (for their management team): leads. Who would’ve guessed it? So some general roadblocks he pointed out from Brainshark were:

1. Alignment.
2. Scoring Leads.
   1. How do you score a lead?
      1. Frequency, recency, fine-time your system over time.
3. Nurturing leads (and having a set strategy to do so). I myself am all for automation and this is a key area where automation is your friend! How do you nurture yours? Do you automate this? How?
4. The last, but not least roadblock, was: monitoring the pipeline. If anything this was the most involved. Think about it. How do you monitor yours? Do you have tips for others?

I didn’t give away half the points or even half the presentations I went to. I only gave you a taste of what I witnessed here. I’d love to here from you in comments. What do you think? Can you answer some of the hard questions in the industry right now? I’d love to know how you score leads, nurture leads, etc. It’s a great conversation to be had.

I learned something from just about every person I heard in the sessions. They were intriguing, eye-opening, and appealing. Not only were they engaging, but they also cited many statistics that I could take home with me. At the end of the day I felt like I left with the a plethora of knowledge I could not have gained anywhere else.

Next time this train stops in your city, and you’re in the marketing business or just want to learn, make sure you’re on it! I guarantee you will learn something new.

*On a side note I went to link to Silverpop’s management team page, but I could not find Corey listed. I only found their press release page announcing his promotion in July of ‘03! So, I sent them a message. Very odd. They should keep that real estate up-to-date!