The Search Engine Strategies conference from Incisive Media has really taken an amazing turn this year for the West Coast event. Not only have organizers moved the conference from San Jose to San Francisco, but SES is now a part of an event called Connected Marketing Week that involves a coordinated effort from a number of organizations providing a 360 degree digital marketing experience.
San Francisco is one of my favorite cities and I think it’s a very smart move to change venues but also to evolve SES into being part of a much larger event. Involving other organizations will give attendees an impressive selection of content to choose from plus even more ways to connect with industry experts, peers, vendors and attendees in general. This year I’ll be giving a solo presentation on Aug 18th called, Content Marketing Optimization. Here’s the official description:
Content Marketing Optimization (8/17 at 3:00 pm) 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.
We’ve posted quite a bit on the topic of content marketing, strategy and optimization. Here are a few for reference so you can get an idea of the type of information I’ll be presenting at SES:
- Key Questions to Optimize Your Content Marketing Strategy
- Content Marketing Strategy with a Side of Social
- 10 Steps to Optimize Your Content Marketing Strategy
I will also moderate a session on the challenges and opportunities with convincing business executives on the ongoing value of investing in search engine marketing. Search marketing is just one of many marketing channels CMOs and Marketing VPs are responsible for. There is often a disconnect in the language and expectations of input to outcomes and this session will reveal first hand experiences from agencies and in-house marketers.
The lineup on this session is very impressive and includes: Paul Wilson, Chief Revenue Officer, iProspect, Rich Lesperance, Director of Online Marketing, Walgreens, Laura Lippay, Partner, Nine by Blue and Vivek Chaudhuri, Director, Search Marketing, Digitas Health. The official description:
Selling Search to the C-Suite (8/19 at 4:45pm) Your CMO still calls and wants to know why your company isn’t number one for the most popular, random, non revenue orientated terms you have ever seen or heard about. Your entire day is spent answering questions about search. Search marketers and non-search marketers have traditionally had difficulty communicating in the language of their disciplines, often creating friction and unnecessary conflict. This very interactive session will explore how both disciplines can educate each other and explore such issues as the nominal percentage of marketing spend that is allocated to search.
Ron Belanger & Mike Grehan
This has been an exciting year for the internet marketing industry and my time as a member of the SES Advisory Board will always be appreciated. The connection between SES and TopRank’s Online Marketing Blog goes back at least 5 or 6 years as a media sponsor and our agency TopRank Marketing has had a very good experience sending staff to SES events. Additionally, I’ve been very fortunate to speak at at least 10 SES conference in different parts of the world and look forward to continuing that relationship.
One of the people I’ve worked with at SES and Incisive Media over the years is Matt McGowan. Matt has advanced quickly in the Incisive organization to Publisher & Head of U.S. at Incisive Media, which is the parent company to SES, Search Engine Watch and ClickZ. I reached out to Matt for attendee tips and for his insights on making SES part of Connected Marketing Week:
Please share a tip for conference attendees or sponsors on how they can get more out of participating with SES:
Put aside a few hours and really look over the agenda and the expo hall floor. There are a lot of options, so chose the ones that are most important to you and your business. Remember SES SF is part of Connected Marketing Week so the options are endless! All partners were chosen based on their focus on education. The bar was set high.
There’s an increasing amount of competition in the marketing conference world. What advantages are there to attending SES and/or Connected Marketing Week over other events?
Education. Most conferences sell speaking spots or put sales or commercial people on stage most of the time (yes, even other online advertising and marketing events). SES and the other partners involved in Connected Marketing Week do not (except for a few sponsored sessions which are clearly marked). We guarantee you will not be pitched. Instead, you will come away with pages upon pages of notes that will help you grow your company’s profitability.
What are you most proud of with the upcoming SES San Francisco conference?
Pulling off Connected Marketing Week was no easy feat. That said, I am very happy with the outcome.
Thanks Matt, we’re looking forward to it!
Adam Singer
No TopRank Marketing experience at a SES conference would be complete without liveblogging, so be sure to watch Online Marketing Blog August 17-19 when we’ll be posting about 2 times each day as well as Tweeting and putting up photos and videos to our Flickr and YouTube channels. Speaking of video, we’ll be putting up another post with videos of our live bloggers talking about their expectations of SES and the sessions they plan on covering next week. That post will share our blogging schedule for SES including which sessions we plan to cover as well as a request for your help to tie-break a few sessions.
We’ve taken nearly 1,000 photos at various Search Engine Strategies conferences and you can see photos from our past SES San Jose (now San Francisco) events here:
- SES San Jose 2005 – Thanks to Thomas, we have some good photos to share since our “official” photos have gone missing.
- SES San Jose 2006 – You’ll recognize a lot of these photos as they’ve been “re-purposed” by SEO bloggers quite a bit.
- SES San Jose 2007 – TopRank sent 5 bloggers to cover SES resulting in an all-time high in photos and posts.
- SES San Jose 2008 – This set includes slides, candids and shots of the last, infamous Google Dance.
- SES San Jose 2009 – A nice mix of candids and Search Bash.
If you’ll be attending Connnected Marketing Week and/or SES San Francisco, please be sure to visit the Content Marketing Optimization session on 8/17 at 3:00 pm. I will be presenting a lot of practical tips that you can use as well as a case study you haven’t heard before.
