Ph.Creative’s inaugural series of internet marketing seminars was launched last week at the BT Convention Centre in Liverpool.
The focus of what has been planned as a national road show of events for 2009, the seminar explained to more than 100 representatives from across the North West how to generate more business using the internet with three simple, effective steps…Attract, Capture and Engage.
The audience initially heard from Joel Jelen of Ubiquity pr who began the morning by explaining the role of a pr company in helping attract new business via publicity through the traditional, offline route utilizing print and broadcast. He then explained how fundamental, online pr activity over the last 5 years has become for his clients that include Ph Creative.
“You can guarantee that in 2009 any one client’s media list will be dominated by online media,” said Jelen.
“It also means there are now more platforms than ever to include news and features about our client’s business. Also, when you combine this with for example, blog and expert view opportunities on the likes of DLIB’s site as well as the shared links you can create, PR is becoming increasingly more tangible.”
‘Google Dave’ Hazlehurst picked up the momentum on how to ‘attract’ with some simple tips and tricks on how to drive relevant online traffic to websites.
His emphasis was twofold, firstly to take the jargon out of online business and secondly to give the attendees some nuggets of insider-knowledge that they could put into practice and see immediate results.
He talked about the techniques that generated impressive results and huge cost savings for the likes of household brands including Somerfield with his own consultancy before being acquired by Ph earlier this year and how he loves delivering for Ph clients through the very same applications.
Ph Creative MD, Bryan Adams then introduced a highly engaging and typically award winning performance from Britain’s Best Sales Trainer 2009, Andy Bounds.
Taking a leaf or two out of his own best selling book, The Jelly Effect, Bounds wowed the audience with his detailed account of how to immediately engage business prospects online and whilst out networking by simply switching focus…”It’s all about you, the client, not about us the supplier,” he urged.
Captured, in fact captivated, Adams wryly thanked Bounds for having to follow him but the polished internet marketing guru took it in his experienced stride to build on Bounds messiah-like messages.
“The capturing process is about the finer points of how to ensure a website makes the most of the hits it receives,” insisted Adams.
“The key question that people walked away with from the session was, ‘what are the ‘afters’ of their website…i.e. what are customers empowered with once we’ve delivered?
“It was key that we got this across and it was clear from feedback during some questions I took that a number of businesses felt frustrated by their existing website but thoroughly enlightened by my advice which was our aim.”
Job done, having ‘attracted’ and ‘captured’, Ph.Creative’s newest addition to the team Richard Waters backed up by networking maestro and chairman and founding father of DLIB Frank McKenna set about engaging – a straightforward task given Mr. Mckenna’s credentials and Mr. Waters track record with international brands including MSN Shopping, Marisota and IT 24/7.
The ‘engage’ element of the seminar provided some enlightening material to work with.
It posed the not so straightforward questions, “what do you do with the prospect once captured’ and ‘how do you take that prospect from cold to warm to hot with as little effort as possible’?
It was a chance for Waters to indulge in his favourite video of the moment…featuring the Cadbury’s gorilla and from the States, Blendtec, a company that has become a multimillion -dollar business thanks to the power of the internet (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC8Zvl-8ziA).
The defining moment for our Frank in bringing the thought-provoking day to a close was how involved the audience felt.
He said: “It was a great chance for DLIB to broaden its appeal and build on our membership in celebrating our fifth year, whilst at the same time appreciate how progressive the speakers were and are in both their thinking and delivery of new marketing techniques…something DLIB is going to take advantage of and build on.”
Useful references:
http://www.andybounds.com/resources
http://www.ph-creative.com -the ‘university’ section
www.ubiquitypr.co.uk