Business networking at its best

Be it online or offline, you need to build contacts for your business. The key is to attend relevant digital marketing conferences and start networking. Digital marketing conferences have evolved remarkably over the past couple of years. It's not just what you learn from these digital marketing conferences but it's who you get to know. If you have never attended a digital marketing conference, I recommend it strongly. Chances are, once you attend a single conference, you will be addicted to it ( in a positive way) like the rest of us and mark the days in your calendar.

At each of these conferences, you'll get ample opportunities to hear from few of the best digital marketing experts, speaking about Web analytic, paid search advertising, social media, search engine optimization, mobile search and the like. Generally, there's huge networking possibilities during various sessions or tea-breaks at these places. You'll be surprised to get the amount of knowledge that you can buy at the cost of few drinks.

Here are five key advantages of attending a digital marketing conference:

1. Implementing innovative ideas: Often, at various networking events, there are large number of popular speakers and industry experts who usually give valuable speeches worth considering. During such instances, it's great if you could take down important notes and points which are relevant to your business.
2. Ample opportunities: In a digital marketing conference, you are likely to come across a mix of CEOs, CFOs, Managing Directors and top executives of various companies with whom you can interact, socialize and connect for your business purposes. There will be plentiful opportunities to meet several business leads and speakers for future online marketing event. Always, ensure that you end up having a face-to-face conversation with them. You can also connect to them via social media platforms.
3. One-on-one sessions: If the event allows, try to organize a small private meeting with company hot-shots, before the event starts. This can be really beneficial for your business and add immense value to you. Additionally, don't forget to utilize lunch and conference breaks for networking with company executives. This could be a valuable time to understand their business acumen and strategies. So do keep your ears and eyes open.
4. A large collection of business cards: It's highly important that you collect business cards from the business honchos. This will ensure you of successful networking. These contacts will take you far.

So igniting conversations and building up relationships with various event attendees will help you gain bountiful business knowledge.

Next time you attend an online marketing conference, here are few pointers that you should keep in mind for better business deals:

1. Captivate audience with dynamic conversations
2. Activate social networking for fostering brand affinity
3. Penetrate customer psyche
4. Raise brand profile

Sure, marketers and business leaders in these events are primarily looking for business, however, you, as an event speaker should do a good job in delivering a speech that imparts sales-pitch-free information.

Attending a marketing conference or online marketing event establishes a great platform for daily marketing decisions back in your business or at the store. So try to make the most of such opportunities whenever possible. 

Social Media Blunders – How You Can Stay Away From Them

The year 2013 has almost come to an end. The holiday shopping season is here and online retailers are looking forward to a great time. With every passing day, more and more brands are going digital than ever before. When the world around us revolves pretty much around the Internet, it's time to focus on what should not be done if you want to make profit online. Avoiding the blunders some brands make on social media is the best way to prepare your company for the new year. When used properly and appropriately, social media can help companies achieve great success. However, behind every social account there are humans, and humans make mistakes. Here are five common mistakes brands are making on social media and what you can do to avoid them:

Everything is not on the Internet

While it's true that we can learn a lot of things from the Internet, but not everything. Many people have no idea why they should visit digital marketing conferences on a regular basis. Why attend a conference when you can learn about online marketing with a simple Google search? You can read a few blogs or websites and learn certain things about digital marketing, but remember many other companies and brands are reading the same articles online and going to apply those for their businesses. Your business is unique, and it should have its customized marketing campaign. You can get to know customized marketing strategies by attending an online marketing conference. Google can help you a lot, but there's nothing like sitting in front of digital marketing experts, great entrepreneurs, and marketing giants and hearing them sharing their knowledge with you. Also, networking is another major benefit of attending a digital marketing conference. You can also find great digital marketers, SEO experts, and designers who can help your company grow.

Failing to understand what your customers want

Social media helps you to talk to your customers in real time. It's definitely one of the easiest ways to know what your customers want and what they don't want. You need to be a good listener first. Many brands fail with their digital marketing campaigns for this reason. They don't understand what their customers want from them. There's no way to can have an one-way-conversation on social media. Ask them what want and how you can serve them better. The more your understand your customers the better your chances are to win their heart.

Have a unique voice (and maintain it)

You need to maintain a tone of voice and a specific personality on social media that will help your audience to relate to the brand. A lot of successful pages on Facebook has admitted that the secret is maintaining a voice that is unique and remains the same. You need to get it right, none of us like to talk to a robot, neither we like to talk to multiple people about our product issues. So, it's you who have to figure out what works for your company and most importantly, be authentic!

 By avoiding these common mistakes, your business can grow on social media. Most importantly, attend a digital marketing conference and you will get to know more about these things, what to do do to prevent a crisis, how to stay prepared for one, how to respond to your customers if anything goes wrong, and so on. Attending an online marketing conference is one of the best investments you can make for your business.

Why You Cannot Say NO to A Digital Marketing Conference

Planning to attend a digital marketing conference? Whether you are a digital marketer or a business owner, you have taken the right step towards achieving your marketing goals. In such an event, you will rub shoulders with the biggest names and brands in social media marketing, soak up uncountable tips and strategies, and reap the benefits of extensive networking opportunities. Do a quick search on Google and you will come to know that business owners are taking these events as an opportunity to connect face-to-face with the best digital marketing experts while breaking bread with like-minded peers from all corners of the globe.

Whether your company is a start-up or a large organization, you will get to know customized marketing tips with relevant case study examples, interactive workshops, and engaging sessions. All these together will help you boost your digital marketing efforts and reach your business goals. In addition to that, you will also come to know the emerging strategies, latest trends, the best social tools, and insights that will help you run successful social media campaigns. In hardly 3-4 days of an event, you will have all the elements you need to achieve social media success.

There are plenty of digital marketing conferences or mobile marketing events out there, but not all of them can provide you equal benefits. So you need to be careful about finding and attending the right one. When you have done that, try to book your seat in advance because the best conferences offer a limited number of seats. Moreover, you can also take advantage of their early bird registration deals if there's any. Some of them also provide great group discounts, so you can plan to bring your marketing team or partners with you.

Like many other business owners, you may have taken social media casually, but as a marketer you need to have a deeper understand of what works, what does not, and who the best players are. You need to know about the subtle differences between paid, earned, and owned social media platforms. Moreover, social media channels can be a great platform for branding and marketing, also it can be an effective platform for PR, customer service, and community building. By attending a digital marketing event, you will get to know the core fundamentals of using social media platforms in ways that suit you the best.

Ask anyone around – Facebook and Twitter are easy things. Just sign up, upload a profile picture, and post whatever inspiration strikes. That's true for individual users, but using Facebook and Twitter for your business need a lot more thought and special care. You need to know the answers of the following questions. Why are you using Twitter, for customer service? To stay in touch with people? For branding? Sales? Also, what kind of corporate image are you trying to present and maintain? You will get to know all the answers in a digital marketing event.

Not just these, there are many other benefits of attending a social media marketing conference. You will learn tricks and tips that will help you to engage with your customers via social media and harness the power of marketing, right away.

Online Marketing Event – Why Cannot Afford To Miss One

According to a recent survey done globally, it has been found that more than 70% of all people questioned prefer to browse the web on their mobiles, tablets, and laptops rather than through traditional desktop computers. A lot of businesses have realized the fact that digital marketing is interactive and cost effective. To grow a business and make profits, it is crucial to have a positive and effective online presence. Yet it is alarming that some brands and organizations have not added digital marketing to their priority list. Many of them don't even realize that their own business websites represent their brands on the Internet. Who does not read a review page before purchasing something from a website?

Search Engine Optimization : More than 90% of buying decisions on the web start with a Google search. This has led many big and small brands use search engine marketing strategies for their businesses. At an online marketing event, you will come to know from the marketing experts how you can get to the top of the search engine rank pages (SERPS), find out the importance of 'social' in search, and learn which are the most preferred search engines by marketers and customers. Moreover, you will get to know how big brands are integrating search engine marketing into their marketing campaigns.

Here are 10 good reasons why you should attend an online marketing conference:

1. Learn from experts and practitioners about content marketing.
2. Expect a dynamic learning environment. People who are attending these events are experts or entrepreneurs like you who want to learn.
3. You don't need to have technical knowledge. Just ask the questions you want answered.
4. Create new connections! Meet the speakers, digital marketers, and fellow delegates. You never know who may come to help you in the long run.
5. Get customized marketing strategies that will actually work for your business.
6. Bring your marketing head or the full marketing team. Remember, 'digital' is too important to ignore.
7. If you're a marketer, you cannot afford to miss the opportunities to learn from an event right from the best minds in the industry.
8. Expand your professional contacts. Remember, talking them face-to-face is a lot better than mailing them.
9. Find experts whom you can hire for your own company. There will be plenty of them in an event, talk to multiple digital marketers to select the best one for your business.

One more very good reason is, you would love to see your business grow! Times are changing faster than we can imagine. Information is available throughout the Internet and your customers make decisions based on peer recommendations on social media websites and online reviews. Another study has found that a large number of people do not event think of doing business or availing services from companies that have out of date or hard to navigate website. 

Another large number have agreed that they don't buy products from a company with poor online presence. If you are one of those business owners or marketers struggling hard to build a solid web presence, here's a good news. Attend an online marketing conference and come back with a new world of knowledge in your brain.

3 Major Questions Answered About Why You Should Attend an Online Marketing Event!

Many of us come across websites on the Internet poorly designed, crammed full with ads, and keep opening new pop up windows that distract us from the information we are looking for. We all hate this! Why would a business have a website like this anyway? What's wrong with their marketing department? We're coming to the point slowly. Small and medium sized business owners spend time, effort, and most importantly, their hard earned money only to be eluded by the results they want to see from their online marketing campaigns. What the big brands and companies have realized is that having a bit of online marketing knowledge will actually help you guide a poorly performing campaign to the right direction. So if you can learn from digital marketing gurus and other entrepreneurs who have been there, done that... there's nothing better! Don't take my words for it, do a quick search on Google and see by yourself how many small and medium sized companies are attending online marketing events these days.

Why would you attend an event when you can learn about digital marketing on the Internet?

True that. Internet is a great place to learn new things. But there's no match for sitting right in front of the industry experts and hearing them speak about what you can do to grow your business. Moreover, you will get to meet many reputed and expert designers and digital marketers by attending a digital marketing conference. They can help you understand what's wrong with your business website and what are the things you need to do to get on the right track. Also, you will get to know other entrepreneurs like you and extend your network which can be beneficial for both the sides.

What are the things you will come to know by attending an online marketing event?

Well it starts with your website, then to your blog (if you have one or if you don't have one, you will find enough reasons why you should start one immediately). These will be followed by search engine optimization and marketing (by which people find your website on search engines when they are looking for products and services similar to yours). Next comes social media marketing. Your customers are on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Pinterest and various other social networking sites, you will get to hear how you can reach new people and maintain a good relationship with your loyal customers on these social platforms.

Do you really have to learn about all these?

Not really. If you are happy with what you have and have no plan to grow your business, you can stop reading this article right now. But if you are planning to extend your business and reach more and more potential customers than you do now, then Internet is the best platform. Like every other things, Internet has its own set of rules too. So you will get to know the rules and the tips to stay ahead in the competition from an online marketing event. It's like going to a university and listening to the best professors of the world sharing their knowledge to help you grow.

3 Good Reasons For Attending An Online Marketing Event

Attending an online marketing event usually requires prior registration and often payment of a considerable amount as fee. However, the benefits of attending these events far exceed the amount you invest on the tickets. In fact, if you are a marketing professional or a business owner, you should make it a point to attend at least a few such events every year. You can stay updated about emerging trends in the sector of sales and marketing that way, and also find out about the ways you can increase the efficiency of your existing marketing campaigns.

These are 5 benefits that you can always expect to gain by attending a digital marketing conference. Just be prepared to approach the right people at the right moments and you will get to enjoy quite a few of these.

Fresh ideas and concepts for promotional campaigns

Have you been using the same technique to promote your business on social media networks for the past two years, with diminishing returns with each passing financial quarter? Then it is about time you gave it a complete overhaul. Perhaps some fresh techniques and concepts are in order, to breathe new life (so to speak) Into your marketing efforts. Keep your eyes and ears open at the conference and you will likely leave with a head (or preferably, pen drives) full of ideas that can provide your marketing campaigns with the much needed booster.

Networking opportunities with influential persons

What if you are able to impress a CEO with a new product concept you have prepared, or the managing director of an MNC with your sales pitch? That could get you a much needed investment that was stalling your product launch for months. Even if you are not out there looking for investments, building networks with influential business owners and top-level executives can certainly get you new clients and opportunities to build new business partnerships. Approach as many people as you can find, during breaks. You never know what a 5-minute discussion over a glass of beer can lead to. Keep your business cards handy throughout the day. You never know who you might be able to approach at these digital marketing conferences.

One-on-one talk sessions

If you get a chance to grab the seat beside a well-known business owner during lunch, utilise the opportunity and ask for business advice. Take notes using your smartphone or good old-fashioned pen and writing pad. Whatever you learn here may be worth its weight in gold. So, be sure to review your notes when the online marketing event is over for the day and see if you can use them to improve your promotional campaigns in any way. More often than not, a piece of advice you could not understand during the meeting makes perfect sense when you review your notes in the peace and quiet of your hotel room.

Attending an online marketing event is a great way of getting a bunch of new ideas that you can use to improve the ROI of your promotional campaigns and increase the revenues earned from your business as well. Make sure you attend at least 2-3 of these events every year, if possible. That will help you stay informed about new marketing strategies, as well as tips and tricks that you can put to good use.  

Why You Should Make It A Point To Visit Popular Digital Marketing Conferences

Are you a digital marketer, who has to manage online promotions for multiple clients on a regular basis? Then you should try to attend as many digital marketing conferences as you possibly can, every year. Not only do these conferences help you learn about new developments in the industry sector of your business, but also help you meet and network with industry leaders, who you would otherwise have a hard time meeting or chatting with. Besides, you also get to hand out your business cards to potential clients from major business organizations. What could be better than that?

However, you need to prepare a bit before you attend digital marketing conferences, so that you can reap maximum benefits from them. Here are some pointers that you should keep in mind:

Pick a team

Choose who would accompany you to the conference. Your marketing team will certainly be part of the list, but if you have a communications department, it is better to include the best employee from there in your team, as well. A communications officer could prove to be invaluable for networking with industry leaders you are likely to meet face to face at the conference.

Carry enough supplies

Make sure everyone in the team has a smartphone, or at least a feature phone capable of recording both audio and video. You never know when you get valuable advice from one of the leaders you meet and taking notes can consume a lot of time. Also, be sure to provide at least a hundred business cards to everyone in the team. Exchanging business cards is one of the major benefits you can get at these conferences. It ensures potential clients are able to reach you when they need and you have their cards so that you can contact them whenever you have a good business proposal to pitch.

Book lodging facilities wisely

Preferably, book a hotel as close to the venue as you possibly can. Take advantage of advanced booking facilities if the hotel offers them, so that you can get better rates. Also, try to book adjacent rooms for the entire team. That would help everyone gather at one spot after a day at the conference and swap notes, before retiring for the night.

Minimise technical issues

Are the smartphones and laptops configured properly to connect to Wi-Fi networks? Is every software and app you are likely to need at the conference working fine? Is there any error message that you keep getting when you run your laptop or smartphone? Get such issues sorted out before you leave for the event. Also, if you are visiting the digital or mobile marketing conference with a large team, it makes sense to include at least one person from your tech support department in that team. That way, if you run into some problem, you will always know help is just a shout away.

Preparing wisely before attending a digital marketing event will help you reap maximum benefits from it. The pointers mentioned above can help you keep track of the most important tasks. Get each team member ready to handle the responsibilities expected of him (or her) and head to the event with confidence.  

Shifting Your Creative Ideas To Mobile and Online Marketing

Various aspects of regular business activities have undergone complete changes ever since the introduction of the mobile devices. Nowadays, everyone has got a mobile phone; even someone who has no interest in technology, owns a cellphone. Well, wondering how can marketers take advantage of the same? When it comes to brand promotion, mobile has become the most popular medium of promotion. Even a couple of decades ago, businesses would stick to traditional methods of promotion. But now if you aren't going mobile, you aren't going anywhere. And this is the reality in the present digital marketing domain. Thus, topics like mobile lead generation and mobile engagement are mainly the point of discussion in any digital marketing event.. Some of the most popular brands have adopted mobile marketing as part of their advertising tactics.

How is mobile marketing relevant in today

In fact, mobile marketing is what drives any business today. It’s been advised by digital marketing experts that you should keep experimenting with your mobile marketing tactics and be innovative to find out which one is suitable for your business. And for this you require a volley of ideas. So where can you get innovative ideas? Well, one of the ways is to attend online marketing events on a regular basis.

The mobile marketing conferences are happening everywhere and quite frequently. These are one of the best ways to bring businessmen, digital marketers, entrepreneurs and mobile web enthusiasts on the same dias. Ideas and opinions are shared, brands are promoted and you get to know about the latest trends in mobile marketing, what can work for you and which strategies might prove detrimental. If you are still contemplating whether to visit the next mobile marketing conference, then a discussion on some of the vital features of this advertising medium might help.

Benefits of attending mobile marketing events

Firstly, generating leads through this new online advertising is a lot simpler now. Since people carry their mobile devices along, it is easy to reach out to your prospective customers. Text messages, email alerts and other notifications are regularly checked. Thus, mobile engagement is easy to attain. If you have designed your mobile marketing campaign well, it is sure to receive positive response.

Secondly, to engage a mobile user, marketers should understand his mindset. Since these people are always on the go, it might be difficult to engage them. However, with successful campaign is one that can attract the attention of the customers and help in conversion. Hence, it is important to assess your approach to reap the benefits of mobile marketing.

Thirdly, this form of marketing is relatively a new approach and fewer companies have adopted it till now. So, this is the right time for you to make a smart move and utilize it before the market saturates. It will ensure higher margin of profits and increased market penetration.

Fourthly, launching a mobile marketing campaign will attract more prospective clients. However, ensure that your approach is correct and you do not end the campaign soon after noticing minor improvements.

While you read through this, it is also important to keep learning about the latest tips and tricks on mobile marketing. And for this, you can attend the mobile marketing conferences. Such online marketing events focus on how social media is helpful in growing and sustaining your businesses.

Click Asia Summit: Digital, Social, Mobile Marketing.... and a Whole Lot More

Over the last couple of years, there is a radical shift in the way information is shared on the Internet which has impacted online marketing. Marketers have made a conscious decision to use inbound marketing techniques more than outbound tactics. At Click Asia Summit (CAS), a popular online marketing summit, you can listen to industry experts and thought leaders sharing their digital marketing experiences during their sessions. As Click Asia Summit steps into the third year, after the successful first two outings, the hopes and expectations from the participants are a lot higher. This year Click Asia Summit will be held in Mumbai.

As an annual online marketing event, Click Asia Summit has already made an impact among its audience. This event aims to transform your visions into reality by helping to build the right attitude and create networks with successful people. You can collaborate with over 800 visionaries, architects and leaders who can help you with the latest tips and trends in the online marketing domain that includes social media, SEO and content.

Renowned speakers at the Click Asia Summit discusses latest digital marketing trends in details. For now, let us look at the top online media marketing trends that have impacted businesses and brands in the last one year :

# m-commerce

While many businesses are still looking for ways to optimize their e-commerce efforts, the market has moved on to m-commerce. Today sales occur on mobile devices including smartphones and tablets. With time, the impact of mobile devices in the online sales will probably explode.

# Social media

Well, this isn't a trend since social media has been around for quite some time now. But players change and so does the platforms. Social media giants always upgrade their platforms to stay competitive in the market. The growth of Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and Pinterest as a medium for brand promotion speaks a lot about the impact that these sites have had on marketers.

# Visuals will rule

As the Internet is hit with growing numbers of ads, its becoming crucial to make good quality content. Most social media sites give emphasis on visuals and images. The increasing popularity of sites like Pinterest and Buzzfeed are testaments to the potential of visual content. Most of the successful blogs on the Internet that receive most likes, comments or shares have attractive images to spice up the texts.

# Content marketing will become a lot more important

Constant creation of quality content is important in order to stay in the news. Most of the top brands are establishing their base on the online world with the help of fresh and original content. Informative content with a little bit of humor always attract people's attention. Some of the top B2B content marketing strategies include: creating business website, creating a social media presence, developing e-Newsletters, articles, blogs and case studies.

The first two editions of Click Asia Summit had succeeded in creating the buzz. This year the online marketing conference expects to be even bigger and better with more than 5000 participants, 500 international delegates, 50 renowned speakers and 15 participating nations.