A4U Expo Review – One Week Later. Guest post by Chris King

The following is a guest post from Chris King, who won my competition to attend the A4U Expo this year: It’s over a week now since the A4U Expo roadshow came to London Docklands, so time to throw down some thoughts & reflections from the 2010 event. If I can remember advice after one week, then it’s likely I will gain some long-term benefit from it. Travelling to A4U Expo, the excitement always starts when I reach Bank station and jump on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR). I only seem to go on the DLR when it’s Expo, and it’s awesome if you travel at the front. At any minute I expect to start chugging up a steep hill, only to go flying back down the other side into a pool of water. OK, so it’s not the Jurassic Park ride at Universal Studios LA but it’s a buzz none the less. This year I had it all planned two days of back to back conference sessions. For the first time at Expo education & learning was going to take a front seat. Networking - something I love to do - was going to have to take a back seat. I even had it all planned, two days of where I would be at what time. So, how did I get on? Day 1, I achieved my goals & objectives from the conference sessions. I attended 7 (!) which hit my super stretch target. I saw some great presentations, took away some golden nuggets, and saw a lot to reinforce what I already knew. The great thing about this conference compared to many others is that it has always been open, and presenters have been willing to share some very valuable points. Across both days, it was great to see people getting up there sharing their knowledge, and avoiding any pre-sales hype (well at least 90% of the times anyway). The sessions and subject areas that stood out for me on the 1st Day were as follows: SEO - The first session from Dave Naylor was great as it covered a breadth of SEO ranking factors. It’s not easy to get up there and present on your own for an hour. The great thing is though he knows his stuff inside out, and enjoys educating his audience. SEO ranking factors was the other session I attended, it was good to see that all 3 presenters had a different angle on things from link building, to how search traffic is continuing to evolve through Facebook. Sandwiched between these two was the Retail Insights session. Great to hear that merchants are increasingly embracing content publishers more for campaign integration. Back in my days as an advertiser we used to promote this, and would work with publishers to implement these strategies. Campaign integration is the advertisers domain, and is preciously protected by their marketing communication/campaigns teams. To see publishers getting involved in this demonstrates that they are viewed as more than just a performance channel, and part of the online marketing mix. Becoming an Affiliate a Reality Check was extremely valuable to anyone looking to start up as a publisher or any business. John Lamerton was great in these sessions as he offered practical advice about running a business based on his own experiences. I was enthused to hear how he had been there and got the t-shirt by having an office with 15 staff. Whereas, nowadays he is running a successful business working at home with other freelancers who are also working at home. All 3 presenters John, Nick Smith & Kirsty McCubbin were pragmatic, and offered some great tips for budding publishers. Richard Baxter’s session on Information Architecture was a quick pace session full of excellent advice. The biggest take out for me was the on page optimisation of category pages. The key message was, bring your useful content onto these pages and you will enjoy good rankings. This presentation has been uploaded, suggest you take a look at it if you want to understand more about information architecture and it’s relationship to SEO. Something that was not covered in the session but worth noting is that information architecture is a significant factor in driving customer satisfaction on a web site. If one of your objectives is to increase user time spent on your site, then it’s imperative that you invest time in information architecture. Ease of use commonly is the significant factor in driving customer satisfaction. In turn, ease of use can be broken down into areas such as information architecture, navigation, site search & nomenclature. Getting information architecture right, therefore, makes happy customers = increased revenues. Wake Up! PPC is More Than Search was another fantastic session. Both Sri Sharma & Ian Howie offered a whole range of ideas as to how to get the most out of emerging channels, and the more familiar channels. For anyone dipping their toe into Mobile, MSN, LinkedIn, Yahoo, Facebook, You Tube or Google display, Ian provided numerous ways to shortcut the early trials & tests. Sri provided a great presentation and some very golden nuggets (in fact I’d say some were platinum nuggets). Sri was very generous with what had worked, and what had not worked for Net Media Planet & their clients. His presentation was very well put together with clear signposting and summaries of each proposed initiative. Particularly, two things stood out for me. First, the Understanding Customer Behaviour provided some very insightful data for online shopping trends in Christmas 2009. This was followed by some very useful tips as to how to get the most from your campaigns by planning Xmas in September/October. Sri’s suggestions on Mobile was the second area that stood out for me. Rightly, he identified that there is a big opportunity for “Click to Call” within mobile. Whilst mobile commerce continues to evolve (surely it’s the next big thing right!), click to call can provide the bridge for consumers that want to buy via the mobile channel, and merchants that want to drive revenues from this channel. Publishers, therefore, can take their slice of the pie as their advertising will drive the calls. Advertisers that can get this implemented for publishers will get an early head start on their competitors. Finally, I just wanted to give Sri Sharma a “big up”. Sri has a wealth of knowledge & experience in this area so definitely worth watching him present. I first met Sri more than 5 years ago as he was one of our key publishers at that time. He’s an intelligent bloke, and knows his stuff. It’s great to see how Net Media Planet has evolved, and how they have differentiated themselves with their company branding “We are the PPC People”. Nice one Sri, I wish you all the success for the future. Finally, The Grill session at the end of the day allowed networks to put their best publisher managers on the spot. The graveyard shift is always a tricky session for all parties, however, the publisher managers handled anything that was thrown at them. To be honest I think they got off lightly but it was at the end of long day of presentations. It was reassuring to hear that the long tail continues to wag, and that networks appreciate their value (Tradedoubler). Added to this, if publishers invest in building a good site networks should engage them (Affilinet). Nice one guys, I will keep those statements in mind in the future. On Day 2 I got back on the DLR, and didn’t attend as many sessions. I dedicated more time to networking and meeting up with some familiar faces. The Affiliate Virgin by Michelle Dewberry was the session that kicked off Day 2 for me. Michelle provided a mine full of nuggets around customers, marketing, keeping costs down, and running a business. Of particular note, her suggestions around effectively capturing customer data, and customer retention tactics were very valuable. I was also encouraged about her ideas of keeping costs down especially during the current economic climate. She said if you don’t have cash, then barter your skills or time for the resource you need. This is a great idea, something I support and a growing trend. Finally, I would like to think that someone from Expo is negotiating with her some technical resource. She mentioned that she was having a nightmare in this department & clearly needs someone in full time to advise, consult and deliver in this area. Making it Happen on a Shoe String Budget was the next session I attended. Although Kieron was busy with his new site, there was some great advice & tips from the Sharemyplaylists.com presentation. It covered a number of areas such as launching a product, Twitter & Facebook tips to generate customers, and how to keep customers engaged through competitions and seasonal campaigns. The main take out from this session was how Kieron & Sharemyplaylists.com use Twitter as an effective marketing channel. It revealed how to find lists with journalists, and then how to approach them in a cordial way. Also, how to target Twitter super users with lots of followers. Finally, how running Twitter competitions with a “Retweet to Win” message can be very effective at generating a buzz, and in turn customers. Together these initiatives showed how you can get some big bang for your business, on zero or only a few bucks. Dixon Jones, on the other hand, offered some excellent recommendations on business basics, how to survive when you’re starting up, site build considerations, and how you can work on our personal profile. The presentation was packed with practical and useful advice. The major points that stood out for me. Plan in advance and get on top of your cash-flow as soon as you start running the business. Managing a business on a shoe string does not = being shoddy running a business. Furthermore, there are many ways to ensure that you look professional without spending money. How you can build your profile in your area of expertise, offered a whole host of effective and free tips. Finally, using Ferry to France as a case study, Dixon demonstrated how to maximise all forms of marketing on a page which in turn will give you the best chance to earn some revenues. How to Build & Make Real Money on Your Email Lists by Nadeem Azam was pretty much the A-Z of email marketing. Nadeem knows this subject inside out and his presentation was bursting with ideas around best practice. Giving away a free ebook for data capture was something that resonated with me, and backs up other recommendations about how to get customer information. He also stressed when negotiating with an advertiser ask them what their actual CPA is, rather than their target CPA. Sounds simple, however, often publishers don’t ask these direct questions. From an advertiser’s perspective when publishers are this bullish it sends out a message that the publisher can deliver. Note to Affiliate Managers - just because they ask it doesn’t mean, however, that you need to give them an accurate answer ;-) Creating a glitzy media pack was also a great suggestion which is too often overlooked by publishers. From my days as an advertiser it’s surprising how different the approaches are from publishers with regard to presentations or proposals. Often the person responsible for the affiliates’ channel will have to pass these upwards to senior management. Corporate companies can’t get enough of slick powerpoint slides or snazzy PDF media packs. Nadeem is spot on to say that you should invest some time in producing these as often this is the only connection between the upward chain of advertiser’s budget holders & the publisher. Secrets Lives of Content Sites provided a useful backdrop to where we are, and where it’s going for content. Content has always been King. Again it was pointed out that advertisers marketing and PR teams like to work with content sites to get their communications into the market place. There was also some great advice around building up a readership first, and then look to monetize after you have a base of users. I have always been a big promoter of the idea that good, quality content sites should be looking to align themselves with an advertisers wider marketing and PR objectives. Often publishers have fantastic positions on advertisers key-phrases, and are able to get their message out in a more effective manner than the advertiser themselves. As each new generation of consumer comes through, they are ever more distrustful of advertisers direct communications messages. I expect to see more publishers getting involved in these areas, and getting more of advertisers marketing communications budgets. So that’s it for a round up of the sessions I attended. Overall, high quality and bundles of useful suggestions. Next year I would like to see more weighting and advice on SEO, aimed at marketers & content producers. For sure SEO is also about technical, platforms & code but there should be more tips for marketers & content producers. Looking at some other reviews it sounds as though I missed out on the Conversion Rate Experts, so I’ve made a note of catching them at the next event. Finally, just to say that what a great time I had at the two evening social events that I attended. What a great laugh, conversation, networking and dance moves to be had across both nights. At the conference, Affilinet & Tradedoubler were neck & neck for the all important “Best Coffee” award. Finally, what a nice touch to be on a Routemaster heading to the party on the first night. Looking forward to seeing more of them back on the roads in London in the future. Congratulations to Matt Wood & the Existem team for putting on another quality event. I did comment to Matt how relaxed he looks as each year goes on, keep it mate you’re doing a great job. I would also like to say it was great to see so many old faces & to meet some new people. See you all next year & good luck with your campaigns. What I'm listening to right now: Radio Fallout: New Vegas