Addicted to eMarketing

Wow, what a show!
If you missed the 3rd Annual eMarketing Techniques Conference at Corporate College East on May 8th, 2009, you missed one of the greatest events I’ve ever been to.
And I’m not just saying that because I ran the event.

• The speakers were awesome
• The breakouts were fantastic
• The food was delicious
• We packed the house with 240 people!

Follow up Conference Stuff!

Rick Burnes keynote presentation:

Post-keynote interview with Dan Hanson of Great Lakes Geek:

Post-plenary speech discussion with Matt Dickman:

Post-conference interview with Brad Kleinman:

Videos from Sage Lewis:

I’ll be blunt: email marketing works.

There’s no doubt that it can be one of the most powerful (and cost-effective) eMarketing Techniques in your toolkit.

But one of the problems we’ve seen with email marketing has always been the fact that on average, marketers should only expect an open rate between 20-40%.

Relatively speaking, this could be viewed as a high amount of people viewing your message. And if they’re not viewing it, it’s most likely because of the following three reasons:

1. The spam filter got to it
2. They were so inundated, they simply didn’t open it
3. They accidentally deleted it

My concern is with reason #1…spam filters.

Thanks to CAN-SPAM compliance laws put into place by Congress in 2003, we have to be very careful who we send email to: only those who ‘opted-in’.

If I’m at a trade show and I receive 20 business cards from interested prospects, I want to make sure that as many of those individuals as possible get my email. Yet, my open rate is still only 20-40%!

Increasing the click-through rate is a huge part of it to (and moreover, increasing the conversion rate), but what can I do to increase that open rate?

Personally, I believe the best way to improve open-rates is through follow-up.

Think about these types of individuals:

• They want your stuff, but it goes straight to the spam filter and they don’t even know about it
• They’re incredibly busy, and only check the email that they know is important

You have an opportunity during each email campaign to improve open-rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates. We highly recommend segmenting your list (the smaller and more personal the segments are, the better). Also, split testing can be very informative to help you determine stronger subject lines, email layouts, and more.

Here are 4 eMarketing Techniques that we use to increase the relative success of our email campaigns:

• Technique #1: Give a quick phone call to the individuals that click on your email within a week of the campaign. It’s important to track who these people are, and make sure that they’re opening and clicking on your email month after month. Give them some TLC…they deserve it.

• Technique #2: Send a follow-up email without HTML (just use plain text) to the individuals that did not open the email within two weeks. Make sure it is coming from one individual and that it looks as though it was a personal email to that person.

• Technique #3: Make sure you are tracking who you get a response from during steps 1 and 2. If you don’t track, how do you know if your campaign is working? There are multiple systems out there for higher ed that help you manage this tracking. Personally, we are fans of Intelliworks because it combines CRM and email marketing into one robust system.

• Technique #4: For those that do not respond back with an email after technique 2, give them a phone call before your next email campaign. Express your interest in making sure that they receive your email, as it will contain value-packed information that you feel they should be aware of.

Email marketing can be one of the strongest tools in your arsenal. Test out different techniques within your market to explore the opportunities it provides, and implement follow-up techniques to see even more success!

Happy eMarketing.

- Brad Kleinman

www.WorkSmart-eMarketing.com
brad@WorkSmart-eMarketing.com

Hi everyone,

I’m fascinated by the power of text messaging.

Did you know that 98% of all text messages that are sent are actually opened? Compare that to 20-40% of emails that are opened, and you get the idea of how powerful text messaging can be.

Especially if you can leverage it during a large event, like a conference.

We’re running the eMarketing Techniques Conferences in Austin Texas next week, and we are encouraging the participants to take part in our mobile community for the event.

All they have to do is sign up with the widget I’ve embedded above, or text “emarketing” to 66937 and they’re in!  We can then deliver them broadcast messages, such as:

• Polls
• Surveys
• General info about the conference, breakout sessions, etc.

Mozes is definitely one of the coolest mobile websites I’ve seen in quite a while.

And you can’t beat the price!

Regards,

-Brad

So you’ve done it all to improve the volume and the quality of traffic to your Web site. You’ve edited your content and your coding, to increase the relevancy of keywords that are important to your target audiences. You’re finding that people are finding you, going to your site, yet there is little conversion action.

Maybe it’s time to get back to the basics. The first step in creating a new Web site, or revamping an existing one, is the development of a comprehensive brand platform that can be easily translated to the Web site itself.

A case in point is the Centers of Excellence (COE), one of the key initiatives of the California Community Colleges Economic and Workforce Development (CCCEWD) program. Many of the CCCEWD initiatives are geared toward serving business and industry in specific high growth sectors with consulting, training and other services. The COE’s mission is to supply customized workforce information to the California community colleges which supports their decision making processes and resource development endeavors.

The COE produce high quality products such as environmental scans and customized reports. When designing a new Web site, the team was unclear around what to communicate. “We spent a lot of time on thinking about changing our name, getting a logo, and housing our scans, but then we had to answer some tough questions such as what were we trying to communicate, to whom and why,” said Sharon Dwyer, South Central COE Director and Web Site Project Lead. “It became very clear that we had a gap, which was a lack of a clearly defined brand strategy.”

The COE put their Web site design on hold and undertook an extensive brand strategy process with Full Capacity Marketing, Inc. (FCM). A customer-centric model was used in which market research determined the COE’s current market position among its identified target audiences. Market position was evaluated through customer surveys to determine perceptions around the COE brand name, brand comprehension and usage, perceived value, loyalty, and market demand for COE products and services. This information was cross referenced with an assessment of internal processes. A gap analysis was then conducted to examine the differences in how the market perceived the brand and how internal teams were poised to respond to market demands

“I understand now why we were struggling with the Web site design process,” said Elaine Gaertner, Statewide COE Director. “The market position assessment led to the development of a brand platform that included our core communication elements about the COE. The Web site is merely an extension of this process.”

The COE’s brand strategy and revised Web site can be seen at www.coeccc.net. To uncover your organization’s brand gaps, take FCM’s Brand Audit at http://www.fullcapacitymarketing.com/free_webinars.shtml

Full Capacity Marketing, Inc. (FCM) is a national social branding, marketing and communications firm dedicated to workforce and economic development, education and other important social missions. For more information on how to design a new or existing Web site for your government, non-profit or community-based organization, contact FCM at info@FullCapacityMarketing.com, call (858) 793-6694, or visit www.FullCapacityMarketing.com

Hi all,

It’s January 1st…and that means the NACCE Conference (Nat’l Association of Community College Entrepreneurship) is only days away.

And I’m excited!

It’s in Anaheim California, which is apparently a bit warmer then Cleveland Ohio.  In fact, watch this video we made for participants showing our excitment for the upcoming event:

The WorkSmart eMarketing team is incredibly excited for this conference.  We are sponsors this year, which is a first for us.  We’ll have an exhibit booth, and we’ll be giving out 15 Exclusive WorkSmart Teddy Bears.

Why did become a sponsor the NACCE Conference?

1. The conference is awesome! This is my 3rd year attending it and I love the people, the sessions, the venue, EVERYTHING!
2. California is awesome! It’s a lot warmer than the frigid cold taking place here in Cleveland.
3. We have a great value proposition.  We work with community colleges, and specifically continuing education or entrepreneurship departments, to help them grow enrollment with eMarketing.  We run conferences, workshops, and webinars to help educate our partners about the web.  We also help strengthen their websites, email marketing campaigns, and use of social media.

My conference will be focusing in on how you can use eMarketing as a curriculum area to create a revenue stream at your institution.  I’ll focus on both strategy and tactics involved with making a successful program.

Take a look at my presentation for the conference:

I’m unhappy with my blogging…or should I say ‘lack of blogging’.

I haven’t posted in more than a month.  I kind of feel like that’s a big no-no in this whole blogging world.

I’m not exactly sure why I haven’t written in a while.  I’ve been busy:

• Ran a free webinar with Kathy Yeager on ‘Recession Proofing Your Contract Training Unit’.  It went very well, and you can access the presentation on Slideshare here.  We’ll be running monthly webinars in 2009! Click here to register for our next free webinar for business (how to optimize your website for conversion.)

• Spoke at the Winchester Society for Human Resources on November 19 and met with some of my partners at Anne Arundel Community College (could be a big event to let you know about in May in the DC area!)

• Gave our first international webinar with Belfast Metropolitan College.  It was very well received as we broadcast across the Atlantic!  Over 35 people were in a room with a big screen as we discussed the power of eMarketing Techniques!

• Went back to Virginia for the Virginia Community College System Workforce Development Conference at The Homestead.  I delivered a keynote speech and also ran a workshop the following day.  It was incredibly fun and I’m pretty sure the participants had a good time and learned a lot.  During the workshop we video conferenced in Todd Gibby of Intelliworks, looked at how to leverage several social media sites, and even had a meeting on Second Life to explore how the incredibly young tool could be used in education.

• The next day, we had 2 free eMarketing webinars: one for educators and one for businesses.  They both went quite well, with over 60 registrants for each.  The first webinar was actually broadcast from GoToWebinar AND Second Life.  It was the first time I’ve ever done this, and it went well.  The second webinar entitled ‘TwitterVerse’ had a great response with a lot of excellent questions and discussion.  We have placed the recording from the business webinar about twitter here.

So obviously, I’ve had plenty to blog about… but I haven’t blogged about it.  Why?

Well, I like to put some time into my blog posts.  And if I “don’t have the time”, I subconciously choose not to blog.  How can I counter this?

I’ve decided that in 2009, I will be calendarizing my blog posts.  For the first quarter of 2009, I am going to put blogging time into my calendar.  I am going to actually section off an hour every week and a half to spend time strictly on blogging.

I’ve found when my clients do the same, they have success with blogging or social media intiatives.  I’m going to go for it and share my findings!

Oh yeah, and I’m reading my new favorite book, Groundswell.  What an amazing book!  Interested in this whole social media thing?  You need to read this book. I’ll be sharing my thoughts on the book over the next few months as I slowly digest.

What’s your favorite book on Web 2.0 and social media?

Last Thursday was an interesting day!

Every Thursday at 2PM I teach a class of 2nd grade boys for an acting class at Orange Stagecrafters.  The class is called “No Girls Allowed”.

I like to say, it’s not teaching: it’s managing the insanity.

I mainly teach older individuals, and it’s helped me learn a great deal about working with very young kids!  It’s QUITE different.  Darn hooligans.

2 hours later, I gave a presentation on Search Engine Optimization to “Ladies Who Launch”.  For that presentation no boys were allowed.

I had a lot of fun working with the entrepreneurial women, as I shared best practices on improving their web strategy and specifically SEO.

Here’s the presentation:

Towards the end of the presentation, you’ll see I narrowed down the best tips I’ve found.  What do you think are the best tips?

Good afternoon!

Last week, I had the wonderful opportunity to participate on a webinar with one of our partners, Intelliworks.

The topic was ‘eMarketing Best Practices for Continuing Education and Workforce Development.’

The webinar attracted over 100 participants from around the nation and the panelists were Todd Gibby (CEO of Intelliworks), Chuck Terrell (VP of Workforce Development at Virginia Western Community College), and myself.

The 60 minute webinar covered a lot of ground in terms of how community colleges can use eMarketing to grow enrollment in their continuing education departments (a topic that I am fascinated by!)

At the end of the webinar, we had some great questions from the audience, such as how to create an engaging microsite (a small, few-page website), how to develop more engaging emails for email marketing, and others.

The question I did not have a good amount of background on was in regards to Second Life.

If you’re not familiar with Second Life, it is an incredibly innovative online world.  As wikipedia states:

“Second Life is used as a platform for education by many institutions, such as colleges, universities, libraries and government entities. There are over one hundred regions used for educational purposes covering subjects such as chemistry^[65] and English.^[66] Instructors and researchers in Second Life favor it because it is more personal than traditional distance learning.^[67] Research has uncovered development, teaching and/or learning activities which use Second Life in over 80 percent of UK Universities.^[68]“

And it’s growing like crazy!  Just look at the growth in signups from January 2006 - March 2007:

Second Life for Community Colleges

I’ve already seen many great examples of Community Colleges using Second Life, such as:

• Valencia Community College
• Caldwell Community College
• Northern Virginia Community College
• Community College of Aurora
• Mesa Community College
• Moraine Valley Community College
• Brevard Community College
• Monroe Community College
• Broome Community College
• Lane Community College

In fact, there is a wonderful wetpaint wiki online with a vast amount of resources for you if you are interested in learning more about it:

Community College in second life wiki

The wiki features community colleges currently using SL, how to get started, consultants that can help you out, teaching tools, and much more.  I have to say though, the best way to get started is to dive in. You’ll be amazed at how large this world is and how people are using it.

How can you take advantage of Second Life?

In Dr. Steven Warburton’s presentation on “virtual spaces, second lives: what are the potential educational benefits of MUVEs?” he discusses examples of Second Life used in different educational contexts. (A MUVE is a multi-user virtual environment):

1. Visualization
2. Roleplay
3. Self-paced tutorial
4. Simulation
5. Problem solving
6. Conferences and lecture-spaces
7. Workshops
8. Virtual reality

I personally feel that SL can be used not only to improve classroom experiences and help students retain learning through an innovative and engaging environment, but I also feel it can be used to attract students:

• What if you held a virtual seminar in Second Life, giving prospective students a taste of your school in a virtual world?
• What if you ran virtual workshops in SL for free, giving prospects value-based examples of the kind of lessons they could learn at your institution?
• What if you sponsored a SL party that encouraged prospects to sign on and meet other students with similar interests?

The potential of Second Life is only bound by our imaginations.

Videos about Second Life

I’ve gathered together some videos that I think do a great job of giving you a good picture of how SL works, and how educators are using it at their institutions.  Take a look:

Slideshows on Second Life

I’ve embedded a slideshare ‘pack’ of some of the best slideshows I’ve found on Second Life.  Some of these are introductions to SL, and some are more geared towards Educators and Higher Education institutions:

| Get your Presentation Pack

Just dive in

Now, I can go on and on telling you about how cool Second Life is, but you have to see if for yourself. Jump on in, the water’s warm.

Happy eMarketing and Second Lifing,

-Brad Kleinman

Well hello there!

Today I had the wonderful opportunity to speak at Cleveland State University for an MBA class on Integrated Marketing.

My good friend (and soon to be ‘Board Advisor’), Elad Granot, invited me to his MBA Marketing Class.

Over the past few years of teaching, I’ve only had the chance to work with college students or grad students.  Usually I’m working community colleges, so the demographics of the group , so I was concerned the students were going to already know everything I wanted to talk about.

Fortunately, I got to show them a bunch of sites they had never heard of, and explain how Web 2.0 and eMarketing Techniques work.

One of the main things I focused on with them was the need to establish a marketing system in which new prospects come in the know about your product/service, and then are connected to your ongoing marketing efforts.

I feel a strong marketing system always starts with a strong website or microsite.  An email campaign cannot be successful unless it is forwarding interested parties to a landing page and website that is conversion centric.

We covered some of the ways to make websites more conversion centric:

1. Add in rich media from websites such as www.youtube.com or www.slideshare.net
2. Capture the users email address with a value-based monthly newsletter
3. Use your most important real estate (top area of your site) to drive home one major thing you want your customer to do

Basically, make it easy for them to want to join your community.

We discussed all the other components of the system above that make a successful marketing strategy work:

• Websites
• Email marketing
• Online video
• Customer relationship management
• Search engine marketing
• Social media optimization
• Traditional collateral

I only had an hour, so the main ‘takeaway’ I wanted the class to have was that this was just the tip of the iceberg!

There is so much stuff out there, you have to dive in because the water is in fact warm.  I hope they enjoyed my session, and I’ve offered any of the students in Elad’s class (or others) to contact me in the future if they have any questions!

Happy eMarketing,

-Brad

Hello!

On October 5th-7th, the National Council for Continuing Education and Training held their annual conference in Cleveland Ohio.

Overall, the conference was fantastic.  The keynote speakers were dynamic, the breakout sessions were valuable, and it was great meeting the participants from around the country.

Breakout sessions

Here are some examples of the breakout sessions at the conference.  (I’ve offered to help any of the breakout speakers from the conference in helping them get their presentation on Slideshare to share them with the world.)

Kathy Yeager - Recession Proof Your Contract Training Unit

David Toth - Social Media, it’s not a revolution, it’s a way of life

Brad Kleinman - Create a revenue stream with eMarketing Programming

Conference testimonials:

Good times at NCCET!

I’ll be updating this post over time, including pictures, videos, and other fun stuff from the conference.  If you have some good pictures from the event, send them my way!

OH, and if you missed Kathy Yeager’s standing room only speech on ‘Recession Proofing your Contract Training Unit’, don’t miss our free webinar with her on November 17th.   Click here to get registered.

Regards,
-BSK