| 8:00am-6:00pm |
Registration |
| 8:00am-9:00pm |
Morning Coffee |
| 9:00-10:00am |
Morning Keynote
- Keynote Speaker:
Jeffrey W. Hayzlett, Best-selling Author, Business Change Agent & Marketing Expert, Hayzlett.com
 Get a preview of Jeffrey's Keynote: free webcast ›
|
| 10:00-11:00am |
Coffee Break in the Expo Hall (open 10:00-3:00pm) |
| 11:00-12:00pm |
Attendees may choose to attend one of the five sessions offered during this time.
Track 1
SEO 101
Organic search is one of the best customer cost of acquisition values, simply because it is a "pull" medium, allowing people to find you when they need you. Search engine optimization will help you position your website properly to be found at the most critical points in the buying process. This SEO overview will help you understand what the search engines are looking for, and how the principle of building your site for your customers will also please the search engines. In clear, non-technical language, you'll learn the latest optimization trends along with the best practices necessary to make an immediate impact on your internet presence and website profitability. Marketing Virtuoso Session
- Introduction by:
Andrew Goodman, SES Advisory Board; President, Page Zero Media
- Solo Presentation by:
Bruce Clay, President, Bruce Clay, Inc.
Track 2
News Search Optimization
News search engines offer a great way to receive targeted traffic related to breaking topics or to help with a public relations launch. In this session, we look at how to make use of press releases and news content to tap into the power of news search. Marketing Virtuoso Session
- Introduction by:
Jamie Smith, CEO, Engine Ready
- Solo Presentation by:
Brent Payne, SEO & Social Media Director, 435 Digital
Track 3
Bringing SEO In-House: The Pros and Cons
Managing SEO in-house at mid- to large-sized organizations can pose many challenges. Once the company decides to start SEO in-house, what's next? In this session you'll learn what you'll need to do in order to manage a successful in-house SEO program that runs smoothly and successfully. There are many groups involved in SEO besides the subject matter experts and if you are responsible for SEO, you need to learn and implement these tactics that will increase the productivity and reduce the frustrations you face on a regular basis. Come and see marketers deliver the keys to success in building well-integrated search marketing programs that thrive on support from all levels of the company.
Track 4
Local 2.0: The Evolution of Local Search
What percentage of online searches are local? If you consider searches that end up having some influence on local buying activity, the opportunity is put into perspective. But there are still large gaps between the point of search and the point of purchase. How are online mapping, shopping engines, and directories starting to fill these gaps with user-generated content, video, or inventory data that funnel searchers towards local businesses? More importantly, how are location-based services (LBS) opening up new markets in wireless advertising and providing search marketers with increasing opportunities to target searches based on specific locations?
Track 5
Video Search Optimization
According to comScore, YouTube is now the #2 search destination in the world. While the good old organic results pages still attract tens of thousands of experts probing the latest algorithmic quirks and optimization techniques, video search remains relatively uncharted waters. Panelists discuss the importance of optimizing for video search, and probe into tactics like keyword research, copywriting, reputation enhancement, and sponsorships and special programs.
- Moderator:
Anne F. Kennedy, SES Advisory Board; International Search Strategist, Beyond Ink USA
- Speakers:
Greg Jarboe, President & Co-founder, SEO-PR
Grant Crowell, Senior Media Analyst, ReelSEO.com
Paul Carff, Sr. Developer Advocate, Google Inc.
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| 12:00-1:00pm |
Networking Lunch in the Expo Hall |
| 1:00-2:00pm |
Attendees may choose to attend one of the five sessions offered during this time.
Track 1
Search and Packaged Goods
It's common knowledge that the average consumer-packaged-goods (CPG) marketer spends 1% or less of their total advertising dollars on search. Why does Search remain so underutilized among CPG marketers? Do CPG marketers still view search advertising as primarily for direct response, not branding? Is Google's pricing system, and the rest of the search industry that largely follows its model to blame? Join us for an eye opening discussion as we examine the profile and online behavior of CPG searchers and explore the high-growth opportunity and untapped potential of search marketing for consumer brands.
- Moderator:
Chris Boggs, SES Advisory Board; Director, SEO, Rosetta
- Speakers:
Vic Catalfamo, Global Digital Marketing Manager, Beauty & Grooming, P & G
Erica Charney, Associate Director of CPG, iProspect
Track 2
Search, PR and the Social Butterfly
RT this. Take social media to the boardroom! Social media continues to spread its wings with the advent of Google Social Search, Bing, Twitter Search and Yahoo's Twitter-like moves. With the demise of traditional media outlets and the rise of search and social, PR firms have also gotten a big lift and muscled in on the territory once ruled by advertising agencies. Time to eighty-six the anachronistic press kits and media lists and hand over the keyword rich online status updates and Twitter feeds. Don't miss this opportunity to hear firsthand from online PR/social media pros that bridge the best of both worlds while influencing SEO via Profiles, Fans, Tweets, Friends and Follows.
Track 3
Conversion Ninja Toolbox
Landing page optimization can produce huge improvements in online marketing campaigns. The question is not whether you should do it, but rather how. In this fast-paced solo session and Q&A; with landing page optimization author and expert Tim Ash, you will learn about a number of powerful new tools that have recently become available for improving conversion rates. Learn the secrets of the conversion ninja, and become one yourself! Marketing Virtuoso Session
- Introduction by:
Tracy Falke, Director of Content, Search, Social Media & Emerging Technology, Powershift Media Group
- Solo Presentation by:
Tim Ash, CEO, SiteTuners.com
Track 4
Getting Mobilized! Mobile Marketing Strategies
Learn basic mobile marketing strategies that are attracting mobile traffic today. This session will focus on mobile SEO, but will also touch on driving traffic and conversions with mobile applications, text messaging and mobile email. You will learn what you need to know to develop, launch and track an integrated mobile marketing strategy.
This session will help attendees understand how mobile marketing fits into the traditional and online marketing mix and determine what mobile marketing strategy is most appropriate for their business. It will provide tips for updating existing sites to work on a variety of mobile devices and will expose the major SEO mistakes that are being made by some of the top mobile marketing agencies.
Attendees will walk away with a clear understanding of basic mobile SEO best practices including mobile site architecture, local and universal SEO tactics that work in a mobile application and how to author meta data that is compelling in mobile search results. Marketing Virtuoso Session
Track 5
Competitive Research
An essential component of any search marketing plan is understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors. This knowledge helps you comprehend what links to gain, ad prices to pay, content to offer and customers to seek. In this session, we take a close look at what tricks you can use with search engines to analyze your competitors' game and also what free and premium tools are available to deep dive into their strategy. Join us for a candid discussion as panelists reveal their secrets for monitoring competitive forces and threats while sharing tips that can be successfully applied to any business intelligence effort. After attending this session, you'll have the skills to easily discover what keywords your competitor is targeting, how much your competitor is spending on ads, and be able to identify opportunities your competitor is missing.
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| 2:00-2:30pm |
Afternoon Break in the Expo Hall |
| 2:30-3:30pm |
Attendees may choose to attend one of the five sessions offered during this time.
Track 1
Crowdsourcing for SEO & Social
By leveraging the power of the multitudes, crowdsourcing allows us to tackle challenges that were once the domain of a specialized few. Join our panel of experts as we reveal the secrets to effectively and efficiently leverage crowdsourcing for SEO and social media campaigns.
Topics will include: Content creation and tagging, monitoring and managing user generating content, and improving search results.
Track 2
Speaking Geek: How Marketers Can Work with Web Developers to Achieve Business Goals
We hear it all the time: an online marketer returns from an SES event brimming with new ideas and advertising tactics only to hit a wall when they present their plans to the developers responsible for implementing their ideas. It's no secret that marketing and tech don't often speak the same language and as a result projects are slowed or stalled, and millions of marketing dollars are wasted. So how do you bridge the gap? Hear from a panel of marketers and developers on how to collaborate and pull off a technical online project successfully.
- Moderator:
Tracy Falke, Director of Content, Search, Social Media & Emerging Technology, Powershift Media Group
- Speakers:
Jessica Bowman, CEO, SEOinhouse.com
Casey Rovinelli, Director, Digital Marketing, National Hockey League Players' Association
Track 3
Stretching Your Marketing Dollars: The Upside of Search
Small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) across all industries are being forced to weigh cost versus benefit with every decision they make. However, just because you're compelled to stretch your marketing dollars doesn't mean their effectiveness should be sacrificed to fit leaner budgets. Come and hear the tips and tricks that will help you pick up the valuable traffic being left behind by your competitors while putting your business on the path to profitable growth. Our panel of industry experts will teach you the secrets to maximizing your exposure via organic, paid search and local search without emptying your wallet or cutting sales or leads.
Track 4
Holiday Shopping Tactics
It's the beginning of the holiday season. All the campaigns have launched and you have thought of everything. Or have you? While other campaigns are flying on holiday spending autopilot, you can swoop in and re-invigorate sales during the peak season and even when everyone else has called it quits for the year after the Holidays. It's never too late to breathe new life into a holiday search campaign and you can take these tactics back to the office.
Track 5
Killer Facebook Marketing Tactics
Facebook! In a little over 3 years Facebook has ballooned to an astounding community of over 500 million users, many of whom are fanatically engaged. The resulting explosion has marketers scrambling for chunks of the gold rush. Replete with internal PPC (Facebook Ads), "SEO" and organic social (participation), Facebook has become a massive standalone social ecosystem all rolled up into one incredible viral ball.
Join our panel of international Facebook marketing pioneers for a no-holds-barred look at:
- Getting found organically: Winning use of Fan Pages, Interest Pages, Groups, Events, Applications & Internal Search (Facebook SEO). Panelists will share real big-brand & small business how-to case studies that rock.
- Facebook Ads: Learn how to run tens of millions of daily impressions with up to 1.25% CTR, awesome targeting, great lead gen' and direct response conversions. See examples of SMBs cleaning up regionally, for very little investment. Discover how others have overcome the Facebook UI's grueling work flow challenges and discuss emerging tools.
- Facebook Competitive intelligence: Zero in with laser precision. Attendees will take away techniques & tactics to target customers and identify influential users. This includes gathering comprehensive data on your competitors' most engaged friends, for holistic organic friend-making and buying your competitors' friends with Facebook Ads.
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| 3:30-3:45pm |
Session Interval |
| 3:45-4:45pm |
Attendees may choose to attend one of the five sessions offered during this time.
Track 1
How to Become a Link Magnet
Some people just have to sit at a keyboard and type for ten minutes. Some people spend a little time mashing up a video. And some people develop a cool tool or app. What happens next? They become link magnets.
In search marketing, where content is still king, we've talked about how to make your web site a link a magnet. But with social media and personal branding, developing a great presence online can turn you personally into a link magnet. Some people have. Thousands want it.
How can you develop your personal brand so that you only have to mouth an opinion and a gazillion links follow? Andy Warhol once suggested that everyone gets their 15 minutes of fame. And social media is certainly making that little prediction come true.
Find out from a panel of experts how you can have your (metaphorical) 15 minutes of fame, become a link magnet and dominate search engines.
- Moderator:
Laura Lippay, Partner, Nine by Blue
- Speakers:
Aaron Kahlow, SES Advisory Board; Chairman & Founder, Online Marketing Summit
Jim Boykin, CEO and Link Building Ninja, We Build Pages Internet Marketing Services
Track 2
How to Transform Your Approach to Video
In this session we will cover the fundamentals of getting traction for your videos on Youtube and other video sharing sites and social networks play. We will examine tactics to get more video plays and suggest strategies for 'going viral', that could work for large and small producers alike. We will also look beyond Youtube to a more comprehensive visibility strategy for a video library in general and explore ways to create a brand, monetize your content and suggest ways to continually develop great content ideas. Marketing Virtuoso Session
- Introduction by:
Greg Jarboe, President & Co-founder, SEO-PR
- Solo Presentation by:
Jonathan Allen, Director, Search Engine Watch
Track 3
B2B Marketing Tips
This session will focus on PPC and SEO best practices—specific to B2B search marketers. Examples and case studies to include:
- Reaching buyers across the buying cycle.
- Best ways to target a specific, niche audience.
- Engaging buyers, influencers, and implementers
- B2B offers: whitepapers, demos, trials, webinars, etc.
- Lead generation tips
Track 4
Twitter Nation & Automation
Within the dramatically expanding social network space, Twitter has become everybody's darling ever since major companies like Dell publicized how many millions of dollars they are actually making via this 140-characters-is-enough micro blogging platform. Of course, the real question is how to bring your message across this huge stream of endless tweets and how to actually be heard in an ocean of white noise without breaking the bank. Obviously, automation is key here - but it does require a lot of insight into the actual mechanics of Twitter in general and online conversations in particular: which automation tools to use? How can you prevent getting your account banned? Treading the fine line between ripping success and utter failure - it's about the right kind of credible interaction. Learn why subtle, "suggestive marketing" works best on Twitter - and how to automate that effectively, too. Plus, effective strategies to outpace your competitors.
- Moderator:
Matt McGowan, Managing Director, Americas, Incisive Media
- Speakers:
Tracy Falke, Director of Content, Search, Social Media & Emerging Technology, Powershift Media Group
Hollis Thomases, Founder, WebAdvantage.net
Michael Gray, Owner, Atlas Web Service
Track 5
Content Marketing Optimization
The core of any search or social media marketing program centers on content. Digital assets, rich media, web pages, MS Office and PDF docs as well as content created and shared by consumers all offer opportunities for optimization. If it can be searched, it can be optimized!
Online marketing is increasingly competitive and brand marketers world-wide are seeking real advantages that will improve the efficiency and impact of their Social Media and SEO efforts. This session provides unique insight into content based optimization strategies and processes as well as tactics for sourcing, creation and promotion of optimized content on the social web. Marketing Virtuoso Session
- Introduction by:
Matthew Bailey, SES Advisory Board; President, Site Logic Marketing
- Solo Presentation by:
Lee Odden, SES Advisory Board; CEO, TopRank Online Marketing
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| 4:45-5:00pm |
Session Interval |
| 5:00-6:00pm |
Attendees may choose to attend one of the five sessions offered during this time.
Track 1
Paid Search 101
Paid placement is a form of search advertising that provides a top ranking in return for payment. Every major search engine offers a paid placement program. Learn what's available in this session that is especially geared toward beginners, with details on programs from major providers and advice on how to succeed. Marketing Virtuoso Session
- Introduction by:
Stacie Susens, Director of Corporate Marketing & PR, Kenshoo
- Solo Presentation by:
Brad Geddes, Founder, Certified Knowledge
Track 2
SEO is Dead: Long live SEO!
SEO is dead... No it's not... Yes it is! It's been an ongoing debate for quite some time now. So what's the truth? Does SEO still give you the necessary oomph to rocket you up the search engine charts like it used to? Or, is SEO a "just in case" best practice routine these days? Can anyone prove it does work; can anyone prove it doesn't?
We have a panel of experts for you to agree with - or disagree with. It's a totally open discussion and it's led by the most important person in the room: You! We need your real world experience, opinions and feedback.
This is the perfect primer leading directly into the infamous black hat/white hat unconferenced session.
- Moderator:
Mike Grehan, Global VP Content, SES, Search Engine Watch, ClickZ
- Speakers:
Todd Friesen, Director of SEO, Performics
Bruce Clay, President, Bruce Clay, Inc.
Kristopher Jones, President & CEO, KBJ Interactive
Eric Enge, President, Stone Temple Consulting
Track 3
B2B Lead Generation Management & CRM Integration
This session will focus on "post-click" best practices -- specific to B2B search marketers and/or companies with a complex sales cycle. Examples and case studies to include:
- Conversion improvement tips
- Landing page and microsite testing
- Lead scoring, nurturing and management
- Integration with CRM systems
- Follow search leads through to offline sales
Track 4
Crossing the Digital Divide: The Leap From Search to Display
Many advertisers who embrace the highly measurable, highly efficient world of search engine marketing remain on the sidelines in display. Historically, display advertising has lacked the targeted pricing, placement, and ROI of search. The advent of new display optimization technologies and next-generation ad exchanges, however, is offering a radically fresh take on an outdated media model. Demand-side platforms, in particular, offer advertisers better control over pricing and targeting, and power these advantages by creating advertiser-specific algorithms. (That's a shift of power that search marketers can definitely appreciate!) In this session you will hear a "101" introduction to DSPs and ad exchanges, as well as advice for experienced search advertisers who want to take a first foray into exchange-traded display to broaden their media mix.
- Moderator:
Jay Sears, General Manager, the CONTEXTWEB Ad Exchange, CONTEXTWEB Inc.
- Speakers:
Mike Baker, President and CEO, DataXu
Mike Green, Director of Strategic Partnerships, AppNexus
Chris Zaharias, Senior Vice President, Dapper
Track 5
E-Commerce Site Clinic
This interactive session takes retailers and ecommerce merchants from the audience and examines their websites live to provide feedback about improving them to gain more traffic from search engines and increase online conversion.
- Moderator:
Aaron Kahlow, SES Advisory Board; Chairman & Founder, Online Marketing Summit
- Speakers:
Rob Snell, Partner, Snell Brothers
Ethan Giffin, CEO, Groove Commerce
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6:00-7:00pm
 |
Open Mic: SEW Black Hat White Hat Unconferenced
Search engines provide guidelines to protect their algorithms and the integrity of their results. But these are not laws - they are what they are - guidelines. Do we really have to stick to them? What if we find a loophole or two and we can get better results if we go under the wire? Of course, that would mean only some of us were playing by the perceived rules. And the likelihood is that, the white hat practitioners may find a black hat standing on their head and pushing them down the charts. And with search and social being strongly tied together there are so many more creative ways to circumnavigate the guidelines. Should anyone care anymore whether it's black hat or white hat to get results?
Join us for our unique unconferenced session. No formal presentations - and all with a glass of your favorite beverage in your hand, of course!
Location: Normandie Lounge - Chicago Hilton
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| 7:00-8:00pm |
SEMPO "Chicago Style" Networking Reception |
