1) Stay Hydrated – Seems simple – but I can’t tell you how easy it is to forget when you are running around. Carry a bottle of water with you at all times. It can be so easy to lose your energy by the end of the day. Stay hydrated, and you will thank yourself when everyone else is falling apart.

2) Hire a Private Driver – If it sounds like an extravagance, it’s not. Private drivers are often more reliable and charge less than taxis. Thanks to my good friend, Sarah Robinson, we found an excellent driver named Alex in Vegas. Not only did he charge less than the taxi drivers, he also knew all the hot spots in the city – and had excellent customer service. It made the conference experience much more pleasant.

3) You Don’t have to Stay Close to your Conference – Contrary to popular opinion, I don’t think you always have to stay close to the conference. Sometimes, at the end of the day – you need some room to breathe and do your own thing. Since, I have to run the business while on the road – I prefer to stay a bit further so I can work without distractions. Also, hotels further from the conference center often cost less. To share another example, during SXSW 09, my friends and I rented a house that was a few minutes away from the conference. It was a great experience – and cheaper for everyone.

4) Get a Rolling Bag for your Laptop – I resisted this idea because I thought it looked geeky. I got over that pretty quickly after I realized how hard it was to tote a few extra pounds around on your shoulder. Make it easy on yourself – get a rolling bag for your laptop. Also, expect free stuff. I find that the more I speak, the more free stuff I get. From t-shirts, to boxes of chocolate almonds – to a director’s chair with Shama.Tv written on it. I kid you not.

5) Take your own Billboard – One way everyone recognizes me at conferences is by looking at my laptop. It has a huge laptop sticker that says Shama.Tv. You can get one for less than 20 bucks at http://www.SticViews.com. It’s a great ice breaker.

6) Plan on Getting Less Done – I always think I am going to get a lot more done at conferences than I do. Always expect the unexpected. Conferences are fun because of the spontaneous things that occur. As a rule, you will always get less done than you think.

7) Don’t do Things for the sake of Networking - You don’t have to go to parties if you don’t like to party. This was an important lesson for me. I am not a party person – by a long shot. And, for the longest time I thought I was missing out on a chance to network because I didn’t attend conference parties. Not so. I realized there are lots of other people who prefer a quiet dinner or fun lunch with a small group rather than drink and dance with a crowd. I am not saying either way is the way to go. I am saying do what works for you, and not what is considered “smart networking.”

If you are Speaking, bring Food - I took cupcakes to my last session at the Blog World Expo, and they were such a hit. It made things lively. I gave them away to folks who asked questions, and it added flavor (no pun intended) to the whole session. People like food!

9) Share the Spotlight – Whenever I speak, I try to share my stage with someone else for a bit. It adds variety to the session and gives the other person a chance to provide a different perspective. At Blog World, my good friend Rich Brooks shared his tips for Facebook marketing. If you aren’t speaking, make it a point to connect folks to each other. It allows for win-wins across the board.

10) Encourage Tweeting/Facebooking/Sharing – At Blog World, this goes without saying. But, at other conferences, the rules aren’t so clear. I love encouraging folks to share when I speak, because 1) it allows others to learn and 2) the attendees remember more when they write it down.

11) Bring a Wing-man or Wing-woman – I am pretty lucky that I have Stephanie Cross, our Accounts Supervisor, in tow when I am at a conference or speaking. It makes everything so much easier. Stephanie backs me up for everything. No clicker for the powerpoint? Stephanie will gladly click through the slides for me. Want to attend two different sessions? We each attend one and compare notes. If you have a team member, bring them. If not, buddy up with someone else also attending to support each other.

What are some of your favorite conference tips?

This post is brought to you by Click To Client's Online Marketing Blog.

11 Ways to Rock a Conference

This “Like” feature is quite similar to the “Like” feature enabled for other components in Facebook. To make ad-browsing more efficient and user-friendly, Facebook will be adding an “X” on every ad. One tap on the “X” closes the current advertisement and initiates the emergence of the next ad in the chain.

Either you “Like” it, or you don’t

The “Like” system is actually a boon for individuals who are growing weary of giving thumbs-up and thumbs-down ratings for materials they encounter on the Net. If you click “Like”, the system recognizes the rating and records it. If you don’t like an ad and you decide to just close the ad, you will be led to an area where you can give Facebook your feedback.

How the “Like” feature can affect businesses through Facebook

The keyword here is “quality connections”. People who rate particular ads have a whole network of friends. When a person endorses an ad, there is an instant connection. Let’s say John likes your ad. Now Mary, John’s friend, sees that John liked your ad. Mary is more likely to also like your ad.

Capitalizing on Facebook’s new feature

There are simple ways to capitalize on this new feature. This is a challenge for all advertisers- adapt or lose the game. First, make sure that you hyper-target your ads . Additionally, the graphics you use should also be visually engaging. Make everything as fresh as possible- even the text on the ads. Well done humor will also take you far!

This post is brought to you by Click To Client's Online Marketing Blog.

Facebook Launches “Like” Feature for All Ads

If you are a US company with a valid federal ID and less than 500 employees, you can enter. If you are an authorized employee, you can also enter. Can you imagine how happy your boss would be? : )

100 Companies will Win:

* British Airways airfare for 10 round-trip Club World business class flights.
* 5 free British Airways World Cargo freight shipments of up to 500 kilos to worldwide destinations
* $1000 toward accommodation at Courtyard by Marriott
* 5 Regus Businessworld Gold Cards providing access to business lounges worldwide
* Canon PIXMA MX860 Wireless Office All-In-One Printer

Go here to enter. Entries close Sept 30th, so you have 14 more days.

In this economy, there is no reason not to make the most of opportunities like this!

This post is brought to you by Click To Client's Online Marketing Blog.

Small Businesses Fly Free – A Cool Grant by British Airways

Streamline it

The most important component of your offer should be clearly visible. Use simple, bright colors and clean text links. If you want your visitors to view two or three more pages, make sure that they can navigate the deeper pages with little effort. If they don’t want to navigate other pages anymore, the registration form should easily be seen on the landing page they are on.

There is not fixed formula for the placement of your main call to action. It all depends on your website’s over-all design, the length of your copy, the number of illustrations and graphics, etc. You don’t have to guess. What you can do is create different versions of your landing pages with the call to action box in different places. Ask people to take a look, and see which placements convert well. Testing is key.

Additionally, you can also experiment with your font styles and font sizes.

Straightforward registration forms

What do you need their home addresses and phone numbers for? People are no longer comfortable with sharing this information with total strangers, much less to someone who is amassing hundreds or thousands of people’s names and email addresses. If you do not have a direct use for such information, then don’t ask the information from people trying to opt-in. If you need a person’s physical address, you can ask them confidentially in specialized (customized emails) and you have to reassure them that all the data would be held in strict confidence. Ask for a name and their email address- that’s all you need for an opt-in. You can get to the nitty-gritty of their private lives after you get their email (and trust).

What’s in it for them?

Really, with the amount of junk on the Internet today you have to be really convincing with your offer. And you have to be reassuring as well. You can go the extra mile for more opt-ins by providing sample screen shots of what they will be receiving in the mail. Live samples such as online PDF copies of a few newsletters can also be helpful (make sure that your ‘snippets’ are good quality).

More options means more opt-ins

Letting people ‘shop’ for the stuff that they would receive in their personal mail boxes is one of the most efficient ways of multiplying the number of your opt-ins. For example, you can offer them a newsletter, but directly beneath the check box for the newsletter is another check box for a good primer or a cool free eBook. You see the difference already? They’re not stuck with something that looks machine-wrought. They see a list of free goodies that they would get immediately by just giving away their email address. Additionally, you can also offer your new opt-ins technical options. For example, they can choose between plain text emails and vanilla-flavored HTML emails. They can also opt for monthly newsletters, daily alerts, bi-daily alerts, weekly primers, and more. Expanding to the social networks such as Facebook can also help increase the exposure of your current deals. It’s fast, and it works.

2. More value for their opting-in

There’s a difference between adding one-time bonuses for opt-ins and genuine quality content delivered over time. In the age of Web 2.0, the agile email marketer gets the most number of conversions. Don’t rely on ‘carrots’ too much because they won’t get people talking about your website much. ‘Carrots’, as we’ve mentioned earlier, are one-time bonus you offer people to just sign up (but it is by no means an effective method of convincing people to buy anything from you). If you can produce engaging case studies with real statistics and usable data for your mailing lists, then you have something.

3. Invite people to opt-in whenever you are communicating directly

Your website can be considered direct communication; the same applies to Twitter and Facebook. So what’s stopping you from offering your email course or newsletter when you’re actively communicating with your clients?

Here are just a few of the places where you can include an efficient “call to action”.

Your website

Of course. It should be at the center of all your activities.

Social networking

I will say this again and again: use social networking to your advantage.

Call centers rock!

Inbound call center communications are actually a vibrant source of conversions, if you know how to format the script right. With B2C communications, it’s always wise to include an invitation to sign up or opt-in for something when the customer is about to close the chat window. If your customer service representative provided good service, then there’s no reason why a cheerful and polite request to sign up would be denied. Think about it; what do you have to lose if you ask your agents to include an extra link at the end of each B2C conversation?

Conferences and other engagements

Nothing like good old offline marketing to get your website started. While you will get only a fraction of the total number of people attending a trade show or conference, you’re still getting more people to sign up. Remember, business cards are not a sign of agreeing to anything. Ask for permission first and tell your potential consumers what you have to offer when they agree to register.

Make your content shareable

Social networking works best if people can share what they saw on your email or website to other people. Actually, this is already the beginning stage of viral marketing. By encouraging involvement, you’re making people feel that they are part of something dynamic. However, don’t expect thousands of new subscriptions with mere Tweets and Diggs. The main impetus for creating content that is shareable is exposure. More exposure means better business, remember that.

This post is brought to you by Click To Client's Online Marketing Blog.

How to to Maximize Your Opt-In List: A Quick Guide

What makes an offer, an email course or a ‘hard-sell’ email spam? First, if the sender of these materials does not provide a basic ‘unsubscribe’ or ‘opt-out’ option in the email, which can immediately qualify the email as spam. Why would you send someone unsolicited mail if they can’t unsubscribe? That’s already forcing someone something they won’t even read. The content of newsletters also matter. If a newsletter looks like it’s been written by a troubled fifth grader, then would people want to read it? No, people would rather have something else on their personal mailboxes, like emails from friends and their bosses. Certainly not a newsletter with grammatical errors and senseless content.

It’s quite easy to follow the basic rules of CAN-SPAM. First, identify yourself adequately in the Sender box. Next, include the physical address of your company or organization. Third, make sure people can stop your emails from coming. Write the unsubscribing information on the bottom of the email, but make sure you include it. If you don’t, you might be fined $11,000. And that’s for every time you commit such a mistake!

Opting-in matters, too (a lot)

Well you know, you can just send your emails to tens of thousands of people right? Some companies are still doing this up to now. Well you can do that too, if you want to fill up the Spam folders of Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo Mail. Fact is, these three are wising up with better spam filtering. Now, what would make your email, well, recipient friendly? The answer is “opt-ins”. We know you probably are laughing right now, because opt-ins is part of the ABCs of email marketing. But hey, we give everyone the benefit of the doubt. If you want to annoy people, send unsolicited email. If you want to make fat profits from selling something online, then make them opt-in for something.

Offering something to potential clients must be done with all honesty. If you want to offer infrequent sales letters so they get discounts galore on some months, then just tell them. It would be better if they choose this option for themselves. Instead of being annoyed, people would feel empowered, because hey, you gave them the choice to receive something of value when they subscribed to your mailing list.

Is there a way to make your offer even more powerful? YES.

Double opt-ins can make two things possible: first, reduce the chances of your mails being automatically junked by Spam filters and second, a double opt-in can filter out not-so-serious takers from the serious takers. By asking them to confirm their subscription, you can also take the opportunity to pitch another product or upgrade. Make your mails creative! Creativity rules in the realm of email marketing.

Why are you sending them to your homepage?

We know your homepage is one of the well-designed parts of your website, but does it really drive home your message? Does your homepage really contain the information that would get you a sale, based on the unique content of your email? Remember the basic rule of sending out emails over a period of time? Each email has to be unique but should employ different strategies in selling whatever it is you need to sell. It might be useful if you had unique landing pages based on what your emails are promising to your recipients. For example, if you offered them a money-back guarantee, the link on your email should lead to a landing page that talks about the money-back guarantee more. It’s all about efficient dissemination of information, right?

Quality is also an issue here. We know that it can be tiresome to write new information for your mailing lists. It’s not unusual for webmasters to have people rewrite things that have been sitting on their website for years already. Hey, people notice these things. If every email is mirror of the last one, what’s the point of reading these mails anyway?

Re-thinking graphic-laden emails

Most email services these days offer recipients the ability to download or ignore images – many choose to ignore them. Should you quit using graphics altogether? Not really. Visuals work very well, but you have to balance it out. 75 kilobytes is the ideal size of HTML emails with graphics.

Back to the basics of copywriting

Should copies for your emails be shorter or longer? Some people say that shorter copy works better in conveying what needs to be said. For example, “Know How To Take Care of Baby Tigers Without Being Eaten!” is definitely an eye-catching headline (and it’s only 11 words long!). How long should the email copy be? It all depends on what you are trying to sell. Some products require short copy; some need longer copy in order to sell well.

Subject lines are for nerds? Not anymore!

Every part of the email matters, not just the body of the email. If you have an insufficient sender’s address you get fined. If your subject line is lousy, you’re missing out on getting fast clicks and genuine interest in what you have to say! Now, how can you make those profit-laden subject lines? It’s easy! What’s the gist of your email offer? Are you offering discounts or bonuses? Write those down! Try to create a subject line that’s 6-8 words long. If you need to be wordier, just make sure that people can read your subject line in one breath, okay?

Learn how to link your emails with Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Online marketing is all about creating synergy. Isolating one part of your advertising campaign from the larger body can be detrimental to your efforts in building a name for yourself or your company. Twitter and other social media networking services can be avenues of fast information relays. But you have to make sure that what you’re saying on your emails are also connected with what you are saying on Twitter. For example, an ideal link to your Twitter page would be “Liked the 10% discount here? Get more discounts and freebies. Follow us on Twitter at (insert your Twitter link here)” It’s easy, it doesn’t take up much of your time and your clients would think that they’ve hit a gold mine with a single email that you sent. Email marketers need to provide a lot of useful content to people in order to gain their trust.

Now, don’t forget mobile phones. Mobile marketing is very promising if you do it right. Immediacy can also make a world of difference. For example, if you own an online bookshop, you can send a message to your mailing list that would get a fast response: “New York Time Bestsellers at 50% off, only 2 days to go!” Because of the time constraint, people who are already thinking of buying a book would probably check out your website since you are offering a big discount on selected books.

Are you bored with testing?

Testing emails? People might scoff at the idea at first, especially if they’ve read too many books and they feel generally lazy. But it works, that’s the point. Get a small segment from your current mailing lists and send them different emails. Measure the response rate. It’s easy mathematics: the email that gets the most number of good responses is the mail that is most effective in laying down the cards!

This post is brought to you by Click To Client's Online Marketing Blog.

Email Marketing Mistakes to Avoid