LinkedIn Ads

Denver DataMan will be hosting a Email Marketing seminar on 12/2 and I am trying to expand the audience for the session. To do this I started looking at LinkedIn events and I posted the event and then decided to connect this with a LinkedIn events ad.

Creating the event was very easy once I figured out how to get into the interface. I had to click on another event and then it showed me a main page for LinkedIn events. You can get into LinkedIn Event at http://events.linkedin.com. Like the rest of LinkedIn you are very limited on formating. You can see what an event looks like at http://events.linkedin.com/pub/15457.

I like that the events are linked to the person who created it so you can see their LinkedIn profile information. I also like that you can see the public profiles of people who are attending.

After you create an event it asks you if you want to buy adds for the event. I did not want to buy an add for the first event I posted - http://events.linkedin.com/pub/15453 - because the event is free but when I posted my e-mail seminar I chose to buy an ad.

Ads on LinkedIn are sold by impressions (number of times the ad will be shown). You can filter out who you want to see the add by geography, industry, gender, age, company size and similar demographic information. As you do this the size of the population of users you will reach is updated as well as the price. For example I paid $16 per-1000 impressions.

There is a $25 minimum order - and unlike other Ad tools there does not appear to be a way to set budgets. For example on Google you can say I want to spend up $50 over the month. Here you are pre-paying for impressions.

Overall I like the interface for both LinkedIn ads and LinkedIn events. I look forward to seeing how effective either will be for the promotion of events.

Whats in a Name?

eMarkerter Daily released a report this morning from a November 2008 study done by MailerMailer, that found that email open rates for commercial email has fallen. Though this may sound like bad news for those of us who use email as a marketing tool however don't fret we just need to return to core principals and we can beat the odds.

For example eMarketer sites that "Subject lines of less than 35 characters yielded an average open rate of 19.6% and a 3.1% average click rate. E-mails with subject lines of 35 or more characters drew average open rates of 14.8% and average click rates of 1.9%."

Getting your email opened is the first step, getting people to read and click through is the next. Value added content is the key! Define yourself as an expert and share information that your clients and prospects want to read.

Face-to-Face

Last week I read Judith Briles article in the Denver Business Journal called Tech devices are fun - but face-to-face talk is better. I would have to agree with every major point in her article especially her point to "Let technology enhance - not dominate - your personal and professional life."

I am writing this post a week after I read the article because I was thinking about this when I was on a webinar this morning. We had a quasi personal meeting with the person giving me a tour of their product and answering questions but it is not the same as meeting in person.

This just stresses how important it is that we make the most of the relationships we have with the people we are in front of and use technology to augment not to replace to face-to-face contact. Well, I am off to lunch with a another business person and it will be good to be face-to-face.

Denver DataMan Takes Best New Show

On Friday October 31^st Denver DataMan exhibited at the South Metro Chamber Expo. The Expo is an annual event that brings together businesses from all over the South Metro area to share the exciting products and services we have and to grow the general economy of the area.

The event was tons of fun. Because it fell on Halloween costumes were encouraged and I dressed up like the Denver DataMan logo. The Denver DataMan booth was awarded Best New Show (new exhibitor) and I won most original costume, thanks mom.

Congratulations to the following people who one prizes in our drawings:

1-Hour Social Networking Evaluations

• Kevin McClure
• Amy Gill of Award & Sign
• Alyssa Guirdy of GSE Technologies

Constant Contact T-shirts

• Robert Youngberg
• Eric Furnee of Wells Fargo
• Jack Hanchette of TriNet
• Tyshawn Bailey of World Financial Group

iTunes Gift Card

• Ruth Mees of Bank of the West
• Todd Morrissette of Corossol Software
• Don Cooper of The Sales Heretic

I would like to give a special thanks to VIP Exhibits who made my banner stand and Cuttlefish
Arts for helping with the graphic design for the stand.

Chase ATMs

I use technology every day, serving my clients, talking on my cell phone, connecting with friend on Facebook and in any number of other ways. I must admit it takes a lot to rely impress me with a new technology. I have recently found a technology that though it has been use in other ways for some time I love its new use.

Chase now scans checks inserted in the ATM making deposits available more quickly and even gives you a print out with copies of the checks you are depositing if you want that. You can also safely deposit cash because it can count cash when making a deposit. Check scanning has been used inside the branches for some time now but this new implementation helps me be more productive which I like.

The thing about technology is it is only great if it works to solve a problem or gives us something fun to do. Technology should not be about the coolest most flashy thing (especially for work) if it does not make us more efficient. This technology though simple compared to others excites me because it will help me be more efficient.

10-7 Ask the DataMan

On Tuesday 10-7 Denver DataMan celebrated joining the South Metro Chamber of Commerce. As part of this event Steve Kessler of Denver DataMan answered questions from the floor. Here are some the of the questions we addressed and the resources that were given to solve problems

· What is Firefox? Firefox is an alternative browser for accessing the Internet. Firefox is free and open source and does some things better than Internet Explorer and Denver DataMan believes Firefox to be more secure. You can download it at www.firefox.org

· What antispyware program should I use? Denver DataMan recommends AVAST! It appears to work very well and it is fast.

·Is it more important to use antispyware or antivirus? They are both critical to keeping your computer and your information safe in today’s world.

·How large can my Outlook file be? Your Outlook file can be larger than you would ever want it to be. When Outlook starts to get slow it usually is the size of the Outlook data file. You can create another data file and move older information into that email store. I would not worry about the number of contacts (including small pictures attached to them), calendar events, appointments, and tasks that you have.

· How do I know how much RAM I have? For Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP, and Vista right click on My Computer or Computer and go to Properties. You can also go to your Control Panel and go the system icon. You will find at the bottom of this screen it will tell you how much RAM you have (generally measured in either MB or GB) and the speed of your processor.

· Should I be using Microsoft Project for single person management of many tasks? Microsoft Project is designed primarily for many people to use at once. It is also a very costly program. One of my partners, recommends GantProject which is an open source application that does many of the same things. You will need to look at this solution and others to find what may be best for you.

· Is it a good idea to use open Source software? Open source software is freely available and that makes it attractive. It is often of a higher quality than some commercial solutions but it also sometimes has an overall feature set that is not as rich as the commercial solutions. Like all other software it should be evaluated and tested for your needs.

Other questions were asked as well but they are to specific to show on this page. For example how do I find information about a contact while I am currently speaking on my Motorola Q. Thank you for all who attended and made it a great event. A special thanks to Wendy Woods of Nexus Financial Services, Inc. for her help in arranging and promoting this event.

Defining Yourself as an Expert Online Part 6 of 6

For those who have read all my blog posts for the last 5 weeks about using the Internet to define yourself as an expert I appreciate it. For those of you who have not you might want to look at one or all of these articles to help you get more from this wrap up.

• Introduction Article
• Using Your Website to Define Yourself as an Expert
• Using Your Blog to Define Yourself as an Expert
• Using Social Networking to Define Yourself as an Expert
• Using Email Marketing to Define Yourself as an Expert
• Using Local Resources to Define Yourself as an Expert

Each of these articles provides one aspect of the parts of a plan. Your Internet marketing plan cannot work effectively if it is an island and not part of an overall plan to increase brand awareness and differentiate yourself from the others you compete with.

The reason for a plan is to see the big picture of what you are doing and evaluate what success means. It is very easy to invest all your time in answering questions on LinkedIn Answers or sending out the best eNewsletter the world has ever seen but if these things are not part of a greater plan how will they help you?

I love the book Good to Great by Jim Collinsand in the book the idea of a Hedgehog Concept is revealed. The Hedgehog concept asks three questions of a company that relate to a business plan but are the most overarching questions a business can ask should relate to marketing as well.

1. What you can be the best in the world at (and, equally important, what you cannot be the best in the world at)?

2. What drives your economic engine?

3. What you are deeply passionate about?

You can read more about this on the Good to Great Website but the crux of the story is that where these circles intersect that is your business. Once you know this about your business you can apply it to your marketing.

What marketing tools show that you are the best in the world as something that matches your economic engine and you are deeply passionate about. If you don’t like the idea of email and in fact you hate getting email you will not do a good job with it and it is not the right tool for you.

If answering questions online takes all your time than it does not match your economic engine. It is nice and important to share the knowledge we have but we must do it in a way that helps makes sure we have food on our plate.

It is important not spread yourself to thin. Is it better to be in more places with junk or fewer places with high quality content? I would hope you would say that quality is more important than quantity. Consistency is also a critical factor. Can you keep up the quality writing 4 blog posts a week or is it better to write 2 and sometimes three to keep up the quality?

Remember, email marketing is part ‘how we are doing this’ as well. Try to collect where you connect, meaning that if you are connecting with people ask for their email address for your email newsletter. You should have a form on your website, links on your blog and your social networking presence. Research suggests that email is the preferred media for reaching people over 30 and that it will be for a long time.

One of the tricks to all this is give people the information they want when they want it. You should provide links between your presences just like we talked about above with sign-up opportunities. The Denver DataMan contact page lists many ways and places to Contact Denver DataMan giving everyone the tools they want.

I hope you feel that you have better tools to define yourself as an expert. It is a lot of work and you will find there are things about it that are very hard but using it can also be a lot of fun. Share, grow and discover how these new technologies can help you.