The Email Wars

Fear and Loathing. That is how I typically think about Vegas from years of Consumer Electronics Show trips that were way too long and seemed to start/end each morning with me in a cab with the sun coming up. Danger Will Robinson, Danger. But here we go again. I have been asked to teach 4 work shops at the DMA Annual conference October 12th to 16th and I am going to try to lay low. 

BUT if you are going to be there I would love to know about it. Maybe we could get a cocktail hour together? A ride in a gondola? Or a we could all head out of town to the weapons range and fire any gun you can imagine. (Yes I will be doing that one day that week for photos for this blog.) 

If you want to find me at DMA, best way to do so is to request to follow me on Twitter. My page is at www.twitter.com/dtboyd. Now I don’t allow everyone to follow me, AND some people might not like everything that is posted each day. (I think I have over 3200 Tweets this far) But I can promise you it will be a fun ride. 

OR you can follow eROI at www.twitter.com/eROI, might be a safer more family friendly choice. Or maybe LinkedIn is a safer vehicle for you? Either way buckle up, sit back and get ready for a good time.

Hope to see you there. If we can get a line up of some of the top email marketers with M60’s and AK-47s (Imagine Stephanie Miller and Loren McDonald holding automatic firearms… I need that photo) we will have a blast. Or at least a cocktail.

In London? Want to meet up with some email marketing leaders? DMA UK Nov 4th.

I have the pleasure of being a speaker this event I am am very excited to be speaking with such a great caliber of email marketers. I hope that if you are in London you find time to join us at the event. I am only there for 3 days total but would love to meet anyone that has time for a beer.

What I am really excited about is I will get to hear many of these great speakers from Europe that I hope to learn a lot from. There are some differences in strategies that might give me some new ideas for email marketing campaign execution.

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Anyone going to be in NYC next week for OMMA East? I know a few of you either live there OR plan on hitting the show. If you are going to be there we would love to meet you. Alex Williams from the eROI team and blogger of ReturnOnSubscriber will be there Tuesday to Friday for client meetings, work at the eROI East Office, and hitting OMMA. 

If you have not been to OMMA it is not JUST about email. WHEW. I know how much email can you consume each and every day. But the line up is great again this year and I think you will gain some great knowledge out of it. We do twice a year and look forward to it. BONUS that it is in NYC and we would spend all week every week there if we could. 

On that note, the eROI office there is booming and we are so happy to find such great clients in the software, social media, publishing and entertainment industries that are excited to work with our team. If you ever want to get together in NYC, let us know and we will be happy to come over and share with you some of our knowledge in person and show you some of the amazing campaigns we keep launching each and every week. 

OK, self promo over. Hope to see you there.

Internet Strategy Forum Summit 2008
July 17-18, 2008
Governor Hotel, Portland, Oregon
http://www.internetstrategyforum.org/summit

Internet Strategy Forum Summit attendees will gain actionable insight into smart enterprise Internet strategy as they engage with VP and C-level keynote presenters* from leading global companies such as eMarketer,Forrester Research, Disney, Nike, Intel, IBM, WebTrends and Fandango, who will share their experience and ideas on how to best leverage the Internet and integrate it into your overall business strategy.

The event covers a diverse array of important and complementary strategy areas, including: general digital strategy, social media, integrated marketing, e-commerce, email marketing,customer metrics

Presenters include:
* Geoffrey Ramsey, Co-founder & CEO, eMarketer
* Nancy Bhagat, VP of Sales and Marketing Group, Intel
* Daniel Stickel, new CEO, WebTrends (formerly with Google)
* Charlene Li, VP & Principal Analyst, Forrester Research
* Chris Shimojima, VP, Global Digital Commerce, Nike
* David Placier, VP, Consumer Insights, Disney Online
* Shane O’Neill, Chief Technology Officer, Fandango
* Mike Moran, Distinguished Engineer, IBM, author (highest-rated speaker at
2007 Summit)

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If you are in NYC June 25th and looking to learn from some people much greater than myself, come to the Digital Publishing Conference. http://www.dpaconference.com/. Should I be scared? Nope, I am ready to rock this!

A Case Study: The ABC’s of Digital Publishing: The task of managing and delivering your content into a digital form can be a daunting task. Just about all publishers and content companies have an online and digital presence today, but are they headed in the right direction? Do they have an A+ distribution strategy, use of advanced technologies, the right online approach to connect with and engage their audience? What is the right mix of web, digital magazines, email, podcasts, video, online communities, and mobile to fuel growth? And what digital advertising solutions, formats, and integrated sales strategies are they using to please advertisers and increase their revenue? Find out about the ABC’s of digital publishing from the leaders in the field who are winning the hearts and minds of their audience and their advertisers.

Moderator:
Tim McHale, Managing Partner/Editor, Madison Avenue Consultants

Speakers:
Chuck Cordray, VP General Manager, Digital Media, Hearst
Christy Tanner, VP, Marketing and Editor in Chief, TV Guide Online
Ben Mosse, Director, AP Mobile Product Development
Rich Murphy, SVP, BPA Worldwide
Dylan Boyd, VP, eROI

If you ever needed a reason, you really don’t, to get out to Portland, Oregon during the best time of the year, here is one you can use with your boss. The Internet Strategy Summit 2008. And even better I have a Discount Code (REACHROI) for 10% off.

Titans of E from Forrester, eMarketer, Disney, Nike, Intel, IBM, WebTrends and Fandango at Internet Strategy Forum Summit in July. This event has been GREAT every year and promises to be even bigger and better this year. It sells out, so make sure to register soon. And when was the last time you could attend an event with the caliber of speakers for $200?

Geoffrey Ramsey and Charlene Li are some of the best speakers and always have given me so much at events like OMMA and SXSW and now right here in Portland.

Internet Strategy Forum Summit 2008, July 17-18, 2008
Governor Hotel, Portland, Oregon

Presenters include:
* Geoffrey Ramsey, Co-founder & CEO, eMarketer
* Nancy Bhagat, VP of Sales and Marketing Group, Intel
* Daniel Stickel, new CEO, WebTrends (formerly with Google)
* Charlene Li, VP & Principal Analyst, Forrester Research
* Chris Shimojima, VP, Global Digital Commerce, Nike
* David Placier, VP, Consumer Insights, Disney Online
* Shane O’Neill, Chief Technology Officer, Fandango
* Mike Moran, Distinguished Engineer, IBM, author (highest-rated speaker at 2007 Summit)

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I have been writing up the sessions today that I will be editing and posting during the week. But Tamara Gielen is covering it LIVE on her blog. so take a look. It is a full house and some great panels thus far.

http://www.b2bemailmarketing.com/2008/05/live-from-the.html

So about the time you are reading this, my plane should be landing in sunny FLA. Once again it is time for one of the best and most intimate email marketing events, the Email Insider Summit. I hope that many of you will be there this time from the East Coast. It is one of my favorite events and I was not at the last spring one. So watch out Insiders as it is going to be a blast.

I have heard from many of the players in the ESP world that will be there as well as from some people going for their first time. I will try to keep you updated during the week of what is going on and keep you in the loop.

Mojitos should be involved and we have decided to do an A/B split and test whether a little umbrella OR a plastic monkey enhance the take rate of the mojitos.

If you have not seen SlideShare, it is something you might want to learn more about. I was looking through it the other day and found some great email marketing decks that are loaded up there. It is a good resource for presentations you might have seen, and an even better one to give your old PPT decks some extended reach and life.

SlideShare allows you to load up your deck, add audio and embed your presentations into sites and blog posts.

Take a look at a few.

If you have not mentally packed your bags for sunny FLA for the Email Insider Summit then get on your horse.

Friday is the last day to save $500 on the event. I can personally tell you that this is the event (Spring and Winter) that we look forward to each and every time. It is small enough to be intimate, allowing you to meet peers and brand marketers, while at the same time large enough to bring some of the top minds together.

It is in line with Fight Club as what is shared between rivals, brands, and ESPs tends to stay in the room. It is a real event of collaboration and openness.

Get your act together and meet me there. I will buy you a drink with an rainbow umbrella….

Register TODAY - Save $500
Early Bird Pricing Ends Friday
http://www.mediapost.com/?fa=rsc.form&showid=45

Learn more after the jump…

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A recent experiment that was FORCED on me the past weeks while at SXSW and OMMA West was not having the ability to send email - from either the wifi at SXSW (I started this article there) or at my hotel via wifi or ethernet. Then at OMMA in Hollywood same issue again, plus while trying to tweak my configuration with other ports (yes total geek speak here), I killed my ability to receive email. I was blind! Unable to use my trusted inbox while on the road, what was I to do? Could I survive? Would someone send a search party to pull me out of this situation and see if I still had a pulse?

So what happened when email was turned one way to the inbox? Well it changed the dynamic. I became a listener and not a participant. How was that you ask, as I am never one to be quiet. It was different. Not complete hell, but close. It drove me to thumb bending feats of danger across the city of Austin, the airports of Denver and LA, and the city of Hollywood. I was a corporate road warrior and I had no inbox pillow to rest my head.

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About your personal brand in social media.

Interesting that the whole panel started with asking everyone to submit questions to the panel via twitter. What an interesting way to bring in the audience prior to starting your panel. Love it, but then I am a Twitter maniac, as was EVERYONE at SXSW.

Steve Ganz: Linkedin
Steve Smith: Ordered List

What is social networking?
Any time two people connect. Can be over twitter, linked in, myspace, fbook, flickr, email, im, etc.

Ways to use personal brand
Wanted to promote services and knowledge as web designers. Used the main person to sell design and services. Use social networking as a sales tool

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Tues Keynote: The Future of Happiness: Jane McGonigal, Creative Dir, Avant Game
Is it a game or is it real life? When you get right down to it, is there really a difference? Learn about the growing popularity of ARGs from one of the most innovative minds in this industry. Jane McGonigal explains what it is like to be a puppet-master of this exciting new genre.

Speech starts with a killer movie trailer for “The Lost Ring” At the www.thelostring.com. Worth checking out

It is the alternate reality game for the Olympics in China this year. About a sport that was lost and no one knows how to play. MUST check this out.

This game has been going on for a week now. Flickr photos are tagged with “tr01″ for secret q’s on the game. If you want you should go look these up as I think this is going to be massive.

Back to the panel (WHICH completely was 200% better than I expected)

Alternate Reality Game designer: Instead of making them more realistic, interactive, etc, she is trying to make the real world to be better designed, like a game. Odd idea, but let’s see how it falls out.

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Here are some tips I heard about working on your blog PR/outreach from some film bloggers at ifilm and other properties.

Know who you are talking to or writing to. Think about personally contacting bloggers yourself and not using your PR firm. They get so many PR emails that they often ignore them.

Know what they write about and be up to date with last few months of writing, if possible. This way you can craft your email TO them not AT them.

Create a company feed on Twitter for bloggers to follow you easily and get info as they need it. This way they can watch, and they do watch, for things of interest.

When people are reaching out to you, you need to reach out to them. This in NOT a one way street, but a dialogue.

Be an active listener not always a talker.

Product sampling. Giving away snippets, premiers, teaser shots, product demos, video, etc so that you can empower them to experience, taste and get more of it. Downloadable content to give people the tools to build and make things. (Like our DTI, Direct to Influencer programs at eROI)

IS “Blogger” a bad word? When do people care about bloggers? Does the word blog mean something other than something good? Some people still feel that blogging/bloggers/blog is a really low hanging fruit thing. But it really does not when you are reading real people that are good writers, well read and intelligent, with daily updates and relevant content.

Many blogs have larger readership than many print publications so make sure you are leveraging your blog outreach growth strategy.

Yeah, just a hype title for this panel. But man it was good. I was not expecting Mark Cuban to be the one interviewing Michael Eisner, made it sooo much better than I could have expected.

Eisner and Mark Cuban: The Interview

Eisner comments:
Is this the time for internet delivered stories?
Yes the time is right, make a little money, testing right now to see what works and makes money. In a short time we should find this to be a new distribution stream that will give professionally produced content via this distribution channel.

Remember VHS? I have seen this happen my entire career. “People that watch movie screens will stop watching television…” People always want to say X will kill Y. Just not true. They can coexist.

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