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Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Chris — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 12:20:29 +0000

Susan G. Komen for the Cure will be receiving about $12K due to your generosity last night. Thank you to all who attended and made this donation possible! SMX After Dark “Search for the Cure” was a great success. Thank you!

To the good people at Covario, we couldn’t have done it without you! Covario paid for the beverages and snacks, so all of the donation money could go to Komen. Thank you Covario!

Finally, thanks to the Third Door Media team for the time and effort you contributed to make the evening a success. I’m always impressed and humbled by your dedication. Thank you!

Chris

P.S: In my haste to get this out, I neglected to include a fourth “thank you” for the good people at etouches, our registration company. They donated their software and call center resources to this effort! Thank you etouches!

Performance Media Management Platform Provider Acquisio Becomes Lead Sponsor of US Search Marketing Expo – SMX Conferences

Chris — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 11:04:02 +0000

Acquisio will be a Premier Sponsor at SMX East 2011, SMX West 2012 and SMX Advanced 2012; Third Door Media and Acquisio renew their marketing relationship for the third year

Redding, CT and Montreal, QC – August 17, 2011 – Search Marketing Expo conference series producer and Search Engine Land publisher Third Door Media announced today that Acquisio Inc. will be a Premier Sponsor of its next three domestic SMX events. The sponsorships are part of a year-long marketing services agreement between the two companies.

More than 2,800 users and 7,000 brands rely on Acquisio’s platform to buy, optimize and report on performance media placements on search, social media and retargeting advertising networks. Third Door Media’s properties attract more than 1 million marketers each month.

“The SMX brand of conferences gives us the chance to reach out directly to our target audience—agency marketers searching for a better way to manage and report on their clients’ accounts,” said Marc Poirier, co-founder and CMO at Acquisio. “We appreciate that the Third Door Media team works hard to understand our needs and is willing to work with us in developing innovative ways to elevate the Acquisio brand—and we’re delighted to renew and increase what we feel is one of our most important marketing partnerships.”

“We’re delighted that Acquisio has chosen Third Door Media marketing solutions to help continue its rapid growth in the marketplace, and are excited to connect SMX conference attendees with a leading provider of performance media services to agencies,” said Chris Elwell, Third Door Media president. “We look forward to continuing our work with the Acquisio team to acquire customers and build the company’s brand domestically and abroad through advertising, events and demand generation services,” he added.

About Acquisio
The leading performance media platform for agencies, Acquisio helps agency marketers buy, track, manage, optimize, retarget, and report on media across all channels—including search, display, and social media.

Acquisio provides the industry-leading technology for agencies buying ads on any online channel, allowing them to handle all tasks associated with performance advertising, from ad purchase through conversion tracking and beyond, within a single integrated platform. Unlike other solutions, Acquisio hosts its own third-party ad server and employs a single tracking functionality across channels, allowing agency marketers unparalleled conversion and revenue attribution modeling and reporting capabilities.

With more than 2,800 users and 7,000 brands under its management, Acquisio is the multi-channel marketing solution preferred by the world’s leading advertising, marketing, and SEM agencies. Agency clients include large agency holdings such as WPP, Omnicom, IPG and Publicis; as well as some of the world’s most recognized performance media companies such as Amaze, Bertelsmann, Cossette, DAC Group, Guava, iProspect, Isobar, Media Experts, NetBooster, PhD, and Yellow Pages Group.

The company is based in Montreal, Quebec with satellite offices in Seattle and London. For more information, visit www.acquisio.com.

About Third Door Media
Third Door Media’s mission is to empower internet and search marketing professionals by providing trusted content and community services they need to be successful.

The company produces the global Search Marketing Expo conference series. SMX conferences include: SMX West (San Jose, CA), SMX East (New York City), SMX Advanced (Seattle, WA and London), SMX Munich, SMX Toronto, SMX Sydney, SMX Melbourne, SMX Paris, SMX Stockholm and SMX SoLoMo – Social, Local & Mobile Search (Phoenix, AZ).

In addition, Third Door Media publishes Search Engine Land, the leading search marketing news and analysis site, and Sphinn.com, a social news site that allows search and internet marketers to share news stories, participate in subject-specific discussion forums and build their professional networks.

The company also provides a full range of innovated marketing services including lead generation, content creation and licensing via its Search Marketing Now brand.

SMX Advanced Seattle Speakers Announced

Chris — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 21:48:14 +0000

We’ve just posted the final speakers for SMX Advanced Seattle in June. Check out the complete list at http://smxpo.com/jpw6N9 .

Thanks to all of you who are participating. See you June 7-8!

Real Time Lead Nurturing Post

Chris — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 17:40:15 +0000

This piece is a great wakeup call from Optify about real time lead nurturing, a topic everyone with a sales force wrestles with daily. Boiling it down, the advice is that the window for engaging customers when they’re ready to buy is ephemeral, so identifying prospects in real time is critical. Read the full piece here.

Don’t miss your oppotunity to meet the Optify team at SMX Advanced Seattle June 7-8. More info on SMX Advanced here.

SMX Advanced London: Exceptional Sessions, Great Networking & Barak Keynote

Kendra Jaros — Mon, 03 May 2010 11:09:48 +0000

This article was originally published on Search Engine Land, and was authored by Chris Sherman, SEL executive editor and conference chair for SMX Advanced London.

Our fourth Search Marketing Expo event in the UK is just two weeks away, and it’s shaping up to be an exceptional show. You can expect the great content, keynote, networking activities and meals for which SMX events are famous.

But this year we’ve added a new – and we think very compelling – focus to the show: SMX London is now SMX Advanced London, taking place on May 17 & 18 in Covent Garden.

Why an advanced focus?

While most of our SMX events have had a mixture of basic through advanced content, we’ve only run one conference that was totally dedicated to the needs of experienced professionals: SMX Advanced, held in June in Seattle each year.

As my partner Danny Sullivan describes it:

“SMX Advanced is for vets. It gives them the unique opportunity to learn and discuss search marketing topics in a group setting without any time lost bringing others up to speed. As I’ve said before, one of the best metaphors is that the show is a place where everyone can speak their native language without slowing down. Everyone at the event speaks search marketing fluently. You can have rapid-fire and high-level conversations about SEM.”

As the search marketing community has matured, we kept hearing from people outside of North America – what about us? We want an advanced experience, but we can’t travel to the U.S. What can you do for us?

The answer: SMX Advanced London.

Are the two Advanced SMX conferences the same?

SMX Advanced London is modeled on our always-sold-out SMX Advanced show, but with a distinct UK and European focus. For example, the majority of speakers hail from the UK or Europe. All of our speakers have proven track records, and are expected to share case studies, best practices and the knowledge and experience gained from working in the trenches and managing successful campaigns.

What can you expect at SMX Advanced London?

SMX Advanced London covers all of the search engine marketing topics – SEO, paid search advertising, analytics, social media marketing, local, mobile, and much more – again, with each session taking a deep dive into a topic, covering aspects of search marketing that many may not have considered or even known existed. Our goal is to “wow” an audience full of people who themselves are qualified to speak.

Serious SEO

On the search engine optimization side of the equation, we’re covering:

SEO Ranking Factors In 2010 – Google’s Matt Cutts recently said that Google makes one change per day on average to its ranking algorithm. That’s a lot to keep track of, and our expert panelists will discuss what’s working this year, and equally important, what used to work but isn’t any longer—including once-successful tactics that today may in fact be harming rankings.

Leveraging Digital Assets For Maximum SEO Impact – Search results have evolved far beyond ten blue links, including video, images, news and even real-time Twitter streams. This makes it harder to rank well in traditional web results, but also presents huge opportunities for SEOs who know how to optimize other types of content.

Link Building Outside Of The Box – As important as link building is, it’s really just about slogging through drudge work – or is it? Our panelists have developed different, unique ways of gaining those oh-so-important votes of confidence and will share their techniques in this session.

Keyword Research: Beyond The Ordinary – Everyone has access to the same keyword research tools – so how do you gain a competitive edge? This panel explores different ways of thinking and applying creative strategies to attract even more visitors to your site.

Powering up paid search

Paid search has also changed considerably in the past year, and we’ve got some great sessions lined up to show you how to supercharge your PPC campaigns.

Exploring Google’s New Ad Formats – Google has launched more new ad formats this year than ever, and yet according to Nicholas Fox, Google’s Business Product Management Director, surprisingly few search marketers are taking advantage of them. Here’s a look at what they are and how to get in on the action before your competitors do.

Amazing New PPC Tactics – OK, admittedly whenever anyone uses a word like “amazing” it’s easy to be skeptical. But the search advertising gurus on this panel have truly made some breakthrough discoveries and have the ROI and other metrics to prove it. Better yet, they’re more than willing to show you how they did it.

Search Ad Quality, Under The Microscope – It’s not enough to write an ad with a landing page any more. All of the search engines are now assigning a “quality score” – a measure of relevance and potential profitability – to ads, and this score has a direct impact on both ad position and cost-per-click. But quality score remains widely misunderstood. Panelists in this session demystify this opaque metric and show you actionable tactics for boosting your quality scores.

Yahoo! & Microsoft Search Alliance: The New Search Powerhouse – Once weak challengers to Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have joined forces, creating a compelling alternative that can’t be ignored by anyone wanting to reach the widest possible audience. In this session, both search marketers and representatives from Yahoo and Microsoft map out the possibilities and potential going forward.

Let’s get social

With the meteoric rise of Facebook and Twitter, it’s impossible (or maybe just willfully stupid) to ignore social media as part of your online marketing efforts. SMX Advanced London has an entire track dedicated to integrating social media into your campaigns.

Proving Social Media’s Value – Skeptics say, “Social media is great, but you can’t get reliable metrics to show whether it’s working or not.” Our panelists in this session beg to differ, and offer an array of tangible methods for demonstrating its value – especially to clients or bean-counters who control your marketing budgets.

Advanced Tactics For Promoting YouTube Videos – Quick: What’s the second largest search engine? YouTube! And if YouTube isn’t part of your overall search marketing campaign you’re missing out on huge traffic. Beyond Video SEO, our panelists on this session show you how to get the most out of YouTube using a variety of innovative tactics.

Killer Facebook Marketing Tactics – If Facebook were a country, it would be the third largest in the world. On top of that, web users spend more than three times as much time each month with Facebook than they do with Google! Even though it’s not a classic search engine, Facebook nonetheless offers both organic and paid options for reaching the citizens of its virtual nation.

Social Media, Search & Reputation Management – News spreads like wildfire on social networks, regardless of whether true, false or rumor. If your company or client’s good name is threatened online, you can effectively contain the damage or even burnish its reputation, if you do it properly. Here’s how.

Give It Up! Social Media Edition – Our “give it up” sessions at SMX Advanced are a cherished tradition for regular attendees. The idea is for top experts to tell all about their “secret” SEO techniques and tactics. In London, we’ll be doing the same thing but with a twist: focusing on popular social media networks.

Connecting with customers

Over the past year or two, search marketing has become less about rankings and position and more about improving the searcher experience and measuring outcomes. At SMX Advanced London, a number of panels focus on these vital conversion and analytics topics.

Conversion Science – The goal of any search marketing campaign is getting searchers to convert – that is, getting them to buy, sign up, download – whatever specific task you want them to accomplish. In the past, getting searchers to convert was often a matter of putting your best effort out there and hoping for the best. Now, conversion has become something of a science, with proven methods and processes to achieve continually improving results, and our conversion scientists will brief you on the most recent findings.

Bullseye! Reaching and Closing Your Ultimate Customer – Too often, it’s easy to forget that there are real people with real needs behind all of those clicks your site receives from search engines. By having a better understanding of who your customers are you can move from a “search/click” experience to tailoring a thoroughly satisfying process for all.

Top Ten Customised Search Analytics Reports – Basic analytics reports are great… but your competitors are seeing the same types of numbers and are using them the same way you are. The good news is that it’s easy to tweak reports to fit your own needs and give you crucial insight into your customers that your competitors may not have. Here’s how.

The Art Of Measuring Local & Mobile Search Results – With the overwhelming popularity of the iPhone and smartphones, we’ve finally at the point where local and mobile search have “arrived.” But how do you know if your campaigns are effective? This session goes into different ways of attributing credit to parts of your campaigns to make sense of what mobile and local searchers are doing.

Making Sense Of All The Numbers – The great thing about analytics packages is the amount of data they provide. But it’s easy to get lost in all that data, or to use the wrong numbers altogether. In this session, our analytics gurus show you what reports are the most important, and which ones you can safely disregard.

Keynote address by Barak…

Barak Berkowitz, that is. Barak is Managing Director of Wolfram | Alpha, the award winning “Computational Knowledge Engine” that arrived on the scene with a splash last year. Berkowitz will talk about how Wolfram | Alpha offers a compelling alternative approach to Google, Bing and other search engines. He’ll also offer some great insights about how search has evolved – he’s a longtime industry veteran who at one point oversaw the integration of Infoseek into the Disney Go network among many other accomplishments in his storied career.

Sponsors, networking & parties

Of course, our sponsors & exhibitors do have great information to share with SMX attendees. The exposition hall runs for both days of the show. In it, you can get information from exhibitors and sponsors about many products and services available to search marketers.

SMX Advanced has teamed up with UTalkMarketing to provide free workshops in the exhibition hall. Come along and join experts from Google, eBay and Coremetrics in discussing the topics of internet marketing and search optimization.

Beyond the conference sessions, there’s networking — and at SMX Advanced London, we don’t leave networking to chance, where you hope to randomly encounter the right people. We’re organized!

Even before you arrive, our SMX Connect networking system will allow you to meet people. Think of SMX Connect as an easy-to-use, disposable Facebook for just this event. You can find people with common work or personal interests, plan sessions to attend and see others who say they’re going. Connect with someone new during a session or plan to meet during a break!

In the evening of the first day, we have a reception in the exposition hall.

So don’t be worried about meeting people. You’re going to meet plenty – all of whom share your passion for and knowledge about search marketing.

Good food, WiFi & fabulous venue

There’s no sense providing great sessions, great networking and letting the conference experience be ruined by a terrible box lunch. That’s why with SMX, boxes lunches are a no-no. You’ll get a great meal, on a real plate, and you’ll want seconds. No joke, people take pictures of the food at our events, it’s so good. You’ll also get refreshments during the day.

We’ll also keep you connected, providing free WiFi in the conference rooms. Tweet, and Facebook, and Foursquare and email to your heart’s content — though consider shutting that laptop or turning off that iPad, lest you miss a great point one of our speakers is going to make.

The conference venue is beautiful, by the way. Held at Grand Connaught Rooms in Covent Garden, the building has been the Headquarters of the Freemasons since 1717. It’s an elegant setting for two days of cutting-edge search discussions!

Want even more?

We’re proud to be co-locating SMX Advanced London with the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit. If you’d like to attend both events, specially priced combo passes are available.

See you in London!

For more about the show, be sure to visit the SMX Advanced London web site, including the Agenda Overview. Can’t wait to go? Register now! See you there!

Now Accepting Session Pitches For SMX Toronto

Chris — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:59:02 +0000

Do you have a topic you’d like to see covered in a session at SMX Toronto on April 8-9, 2010? Something you’d like to see covered in depth, or a discussion of search business strategies, search analytics or tactics for getting the most out your search marketing campaigns? If so, we’d like to hear from you. Please head over to the SMX Toronto session pitch form and describe your idea(s) for sessions at the show. Please include:

Proposed session title
2-7 paragraph description of the session
Optional: Speakers who you think are most qualified for this panel

Remember that SMX Toronto sessions usually feature 3-4 speakers with 10-15 minutes each of speaking time, so please make sure your idea will accommodate that format. We’re not interested in any pitches for sessions where a single individual would speak for an entire session. And also please remember, no product or service pitches.

Ready to pitch? Please use the SMX session pitch form, and do not email Danny or Chris. These days we work with a team of people to help coordinate speaker selection. We need a centralized online system to help manage that process so things don’t slip through the cracks. By far the most reliable way to express interest in speaking is to go through the system – email too often gets overlooked or lost.

And don’t delay—we’ll be closing the session pitch form on December 15, and posting the agenda for the show by December 19.

Attending SMX in 2010? Register Now for Best Rates

Chris — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:11:03 +0000

Lowest Rates Now Available on Search Marketing Expo – SMX Conferences Worldwide!

Search Marketing Expo – SMX is recognized as the leading search engine marketing conference series in the world. And if you are planning to attend an SMX event in 2010, now is the time to register and get our lowest rates.

You will save a bunch by registering for any (or all!) of our SMX conferences before the end of the year. Enter Partner Code “SMX2010” (case sensitive, no quotes) and you’ll get a $100 discount (or in Euros/Pounds, you get the idea).

This offer is available for:

SMX West: March 2-4, Santa Clara, CA | Learn More – Register Now
SMX Munich: March 23-24, Germany | Learn More – Register Now
SMX Toronto: April 8-9, Canada | Learn More – Register Now
SMX Sydney: April 22-23, Australia | Learn More – Register Now
SMX Advanced London: May 17-18 | Learn More – Register Now
SMX Advanced Seattle: June 8-9, Seattle, WA | Learn More – Register Now
SMX East: October 4-6, New York City | Learn More – Register Now

You’ll be a more effective, innovative and inspired internet marketer after attending SMX. And, by registering and paying in full before the end of the year, you get the lowest rates that will be offered for any of these outstanding conferences.

Note: Rates available when you use Partner Code “SMX2010” and can’t be combined with other offers. Your payment must be received by December 31, 2009 in order to receive these rates. Sorry, your registration may be canceled if timely payment is not received.

Booking Accommodations for SMX East

Chris — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:48:01 +0000

There are nearly 75,000 hotel rooms in New York City, but unfortunately the SMX East block at the Westin is sold out!

If you are registering online and would like accommodations, select “Locate accommodations for me.” We’ll find you a great rate and notify you what we’ve come up with. We’ll also put you on the wait list for the Westin should any of our guests cancel.

Prefer to do it yourself? Just select “No lodging required.”

Have questions? Need help? Call our registration desk at (877) 242-5242 or +1 (203) 431 8950 (9AM to 5PM, ET) or e-mail registration (at) searchmarketingexpo.com.

SMX East Rate Increase Friday; Register Now & Save

Chris — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:00:05 +0000

The early bird rate for Search Marketing Expo – SMX East runs out at the end of the day on Friday, Sept 11. Save on your All Access ticket by registering now!

More than 150 of the world’s most knowledgable internet and search engine marketers will present at SMX East. They’re selected based on ability AND willingness to share the tactics and strategies that make them successful. Take a look who’s speaking.

With 60+ sessions and multiple tracks, you’ll find exceptional content you need to become a more effective, innovative and inspired internet marketer. Check out the agenda.

The SMX East program is from the editors of Search Engine Land. See what you’ll get by attending. Read the SMX East preview by Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land editor-in-chief and SMX East conference chair.

Join us October 5-7 in NYC for groundbreaking marketing tactics and invaluable industry connections at SMX East. Register today and pay only $1245 for a three-day All Access pass. Remember, rates increase Sept 12th, so don’t miss out!

PS: Interested in sending the whole team? You save even more when registering at least three people. Check out our attractive Group Registration rates.

Want to Speak @ SMX East? Here’s How

Chris — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 12:21:39 +0000

We’re now accepting submissions to speak at Search Marketing Expo – SMX East 2009. Use this form to submit your request.

As you might guess, interest is high in speaking at SMX conferences. Danny, Chris and the session coordinators sift through thousands of speaker submissions to make their selections. Here are some tips that will increase your chances of being selected.

Pitch early: Submitting your pitch early gives you a better chance of being selected. Coordinators accept speakers as soon as they identify a pitch that they think best fits the session, just like colleges that use a rolling admissions policy. So pitching early increases the likelihood you’ll be chosen.

Use the form: The speaker pitch form (http://searchmarketingexpo.com/speaker-form) is the way to ask to speak. There’s helpful information there about how your pitch should be written and what it should contain.

Write it yourself; be specific: Lots of pitches come in that are obviously written by staff or not specific to the session. These are two of the most effective ways to ensure that your pitch is ignored. If you’re a thought leader, write the pitch yourself…and make certain that it is 100% focused on the session topic.

You’ll be notified: If you are accepted to speak, you’ll be notified by e-mail. If not, you’ll be notified by e-mail by August 28.