One thing that everyone needs is visibility, have a blog like this helps, but perhaps now and more so in the futuretwitter and other social sites will be used as an effective tool for broadcasting and consuming information.

1. Offer something they don’t have

The number one reason to start a blog or to be a journalist isn’t to position yourself as an expert or get your thoughts out there. 99% of bloggers and journalists make almost nothing (relatively nothing), but the network that they gain from giving value to successful people, is priceless. See, the one thing that all successful people have in common when it comes to needs is that they need visibility and promotion for their brands. With a blog, you can provide that to them. When you first start your blog, you can’t because you won’t have enough readership to prove the benefit to them.

2. Give something for free

Unless you have something of extraordinary ‘one of a kind’ value to give to successful people, you are better off giving them something for free in exchange for an endorsement or referral later. A lot of consultants choose to do this or have to do this when they are first starting out, so they can build credibility and a track record. Obviously, people are more inclined to accept that type of generous offer than pay a complete stranger or someone who isn’t as wealthy or successful. If you receive an endorsement from them, you can use it on your website or on LinkedIn to attract new business or opportunities. Also, if they talk about you or promote you back, you gain visibility with other influencer’s, which can further your career.

3. Take genuine interest in their brand

If someone emails you and is sincere, you are more inclined to answer their email. If someone is reaching out to you asking you for favors, especially when you are more successful than they are, you are going to disregard the email. Genuine interest goes a long way in this world, especially because people are so used to being used and abused, as well as spammed daily. There is a great opportunity right now to locate people who are closely aligned to your brand and reach out to them. Even if you’re less successful than they are, they will at least answer you based on flattery.

4. Get noticed by them

Successful people take notice of other successful people. There are like secret code words and there is an ancient language they all speak . A great way to connect with them is to be where their eyes already are. For instance, if you speak at an event they are speaking at, it’s easy to start a conversation around that and for them to already know who you are. Also, if you write an article for a blog or traditional news site that they read, you might earn some respect from them.

5. Find people who know them

The shortcut to meeting successful people is by meeting them through your personal contacts. Your friends’ endorsement can save you from a random outreach and make it more personal. LinkedIn is so important because you can see who knows you and then strategize. Networking gets easier once your network gets larger. When you’re first starting out, it will be hard to implement this strategy, but as you grow older, it will become much easier to meet successful people this way.

Date -Thursday, August 21, 2008
Time – 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM

Why are we doing this?

As email marketing has fantastic results in terms of converting new and existing customers to buy your products and learn about your company.

Reaching your customer using email newsletter campaign is still a fantastic way to encourage visits to your site. With email being still the largest social network in the world!

Sending emails has the main purpose of enhancing the relationship of a company with its current or old customers. As well as encouraging customer loyalty and repeat business no matter how large and small your business.

Researchers estimate that US firms alone spent $475 million on email marketing in 2007, as it proves to be a cost effective method of marketing and increasing sales.

Todays level of reporting combines very detailed analytics that measure the effectiveness of every campaign you send out. This and more will be discussed on the evening.

Register on upcoming at the Email Marketing Masterclass page.

This is still a valuable tool for reaching customers, and it is quite difficult to lose money in email marketing. The question is how to we measure the visitor statistics successfully. There are a number of US and UK companies that provide the mailout and reporting using spam filter friendly servers so a higher proportion of emails get delivered.

The mere fact that companies send emails to customers, regardless of the fact if they are opened or not leads to brand impact and awareness of the company and its services.

Follows are the values for a ‘Typical’ mailout by email:

Percentages:

90% of email newsletters get delivered
10% Bounce rate
30% Open rate
10% Click thru
5% Buy product // Contact company

Or in other words, the metrics for a mailout to 250,000 customers:

225,000 Non bounce
213,750 Inbox
67,500 Opened
22,500 Click thru
1,125 Buy

So over 1000 people buying your product every time you send an email out is some very successful marketing and an excellent way of projecting increased revenue.

The frequency and email design reflects on how well each campaign does, however it is not rocket science and by following design/development standards and the correct testing procedures in place for email clients it can not only increase your brand awareness, but also make people successfully place orders very quickly and without little fuss.

Further resources:

• Resources from e-consultancy
• Top Tips from Dotmailer

This reinforces the values with which we follow in our day to day working lives here. Particularly these two which are on the charter.

1. Be human. Use a respectful, conversational voice, avoid scripts and never use corporate doublespeak.
2. Demonstrate your good intentions by speaking plainly, earnestly and candidly with customers about problems that arise

We think things would be very confusing if we didn’t share our knowledge, issues and foster and long term reputation with the company.

We hope you think so too, voice your support in doing business like all the folks at CCPact, by signing up as well.

Just one look at the events calendar is enough to make any person nervous, with the amount of world renowned speakers and also some homegrown talent going over to share knowledge, hang out with friends and make new aquaintances.

How to maximise everyones time at SxSW08

This is how I can see the event working. After the initial check in for flight, and at the hotel. All delegates are required to register. This will be a good initial check to get a vibe for just how friendly and excitable everyone will be about the week ahead. Hopefully to spot some of the Brightoninan’s that will also be there.

The main key ingredients for the week will be networking and marketing. Covering all corners of the event, as well as the all important after party’s sponsored by some big brands, Google, MicroHoo!..

An exciting part of any conference it’s not knowing what’s going to be the topic of the day to discuss with other delegates, from inside the seminars to what is happening outside with respect to popular technology and business developments posted on techcrunch.

As with any early adopters for web apps and spending a lot of time generally online you should have an general opinion or most things happening online, and be ready to contribute to conversations with people who either have little knowledge to actual innovators on the topics.

Above all, I think having fun with the web is still the main thing to remember at SxSw, dont take the web too seriously, the world will not end if you get a 404 page error.

Personally, I’m looking forward to how many connections we can all make at the event, and I’m looking forward to contributing to the blogosphere whilst in Austin..

Jim Callender

The evening had 5 speakers, all from different areas of the digital market place.

• Marketing - Jon Bains – Co-Founder, Lateral
• User experience – Nikki Barton – Creative Director, CIMEX
• Agencies - Andy Hobsbawm – European Chairman, Agency.com & Co-Founder, Green Thing
• Advertising - Guy Phillipson – CEO, Internet Advertising Bureau
• Media Planner – Pete Robins – Co-Founder, Agenda21

A marketing look in the future for digital media. Based on what brand is all about rather than the bling of web 2.0.

User Experience:

• The mouse will be dead in 2012 > Replaced by multi-touch and gesture interfaces.
• A beginning of a new era of interface design.
• The primary device of the internet in 2012 will be the Mobile device

The mobile will be the first device for internet usage.

How do we do this in a limited number of pixel resolution, and with whose standards? The challenge still lays ahead.

Agency Perspective:

• Using more analytics for recommending next steps for client in digital campaigns, based on data and information captured.
• Traditional agencies will be catching up with digital competitors, due to cross marketing and outsourcing projects to experts in the field. This will lead to the marketing companies who choose to do this becoming more digitally motive.
• Digital PR will be BIG, lots of requests from clients in 2008. Digital PR versus Press, no compeition who will win this one.

Information is cheap, it’s becoming easier to be more creative