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Report:: Second eDialogue Course in Copenhagen well received

I always thought that being alone with two women was a bit intimidating. So one should think that placing me in a setting  alone with eight women for a whole day would be terrifying.  Well, I just had the pleasure of spending a full day in Copenhagen with no less than eight great female marketers from leading Danish companies. It was a great experience. Here is my brief report about the experience.

Luckily some time ago I had the pleasure of managing a department consisting of quite a few female employees. It taught me a thing or two about female behavior in the work place. Mostly positive things.
And the advanced email marketing / edialogue course organized by the Danish Marketing Association (Huset Markedsføring), was a very positive learning experience for me as a trainer. In fact, I would love to be training a group of women again anytime soon. But not for the reasons some male readers may think.

Report: Michael Leander's Email Marketing Masterclass well received in Portugal

The infamous Ashcloud gave me a bit of challenge getting from Cracow in Poland to Lisbon in Portugal for the Email Marketing Masterclass. But thanks to two determined Polish drivers, an uncomfortable Citroen Berlingo, 23,5 hours of driving and Joao Ribeiro's determination not to cancel the event, I made it to Lisbon the night before. Here is the report from the event.

The Michael Leander Email Marketing Masterclass was held for the first time in Portugal on 20 April 2010 at the Sofitel Lisbon Liberdade Hotel in the center of Lisbon. Attended by nearly 60 marketing professionals from a diverse group of companies, I was very happy to meet a group of people whom willingly participated and interacted to make my job as the presenter of the Email Marketing Masterclass an easier one.

Cairo, Egypt. Digital Marketing Seminar and Michael Leander's Email Marketing Masterclass

For the third time in 6 months Global Consultants - in collaboration with Markedu MENA -  is bringing the Digital Marketing Seminar to Cairo, Egypt. The  three day seminar including Michael Leander’s Email Marketing Masterclass, will take place on March 20-22 at the Conrad Cairo Hotel.

The third  Digital Marketing Seminar with Michael Leander in Cairo, Egypt is a great opportunity to learn how to develop your digital marketing strategy and to optimize your online marketing business results. This high quality event is aimed at marketing managers, brand managers and their teams.

Organized at the luxury hotel Conrad Cairo, this digital marketing training is establishing itself as the premier event in Egypt and the Middle East for marketers interested in excelling in the digital marketing space.

Read more about the event right here

Digital Marketing Seminar and Email Marketing Masterclass coming to Beirut, Lebanon again

The Digital Marketing Seminar is coming back to Beirut, Lebanon in May 2010. Based on feedback from DMS in March, organizers Global Consultants have decided to expand to a 2 day event including Michael Leander's Email Marketing Masterclass.

Learn more about the Digital Marketing Seminar in Beirut here

Murphy's Law at play in Cracow, Poland CEE Loyalty Marketing Conference

From Cracow Poland April 2010

Before and during my presentation At the CEE & Poland Loyalty Marketing Conference in Cracow, Poland, the good old Murphy's Law were at play in a big way.  And I am not only talking about the Ashcloud or the tragic accident which caused the death of many prominent Polish political and military figures.

Facing some 150 conference attendees, I had to stop my presentation to allow for a computer change. And while the break was welcome, I am sure, it was not professional at all. I take part of the blame for not having sent my presentation and video clips prior (which is something I find increasingly hard to do as I prefer to adjust my presentation the day before to allow for last minute (local) impulses).

But part of the blame was definitely the equipment of the hotel. Something I have seen quite a lot lately. Old AV equipment, clip mics that break too easily and monitors unfit to accommodate the amount of people in the room.

While I must do my part to make the presentation work flawlessly, I think it is time that organizers of marketing seminars and conferences, demand a better experience from venues. Especially considering the (unreasonable) amount of money event organizers pay for AV equipment.

Michael Leander well received in Beirut, Lebanon for Digital Marketing Seminar

New country, new market, new people, different culture. It is always very exciting to be speaking in a "new" country for the first time. I presented the Digital Marketing Seminar in Beirut, Lebanon for the first time in March 2010. A few days ago I received the evaluation and an invitation to come back to Beirut soon. Here is my report. Evaluation results at the bottom.

A quick story and praise to Beirut
First, let me tell you a quick story. A few months ago when traveling from Prague to Cairo, I came to talk a person whom was traveling to Beirut. My first question to her was "Wow - isn't that dangerous?" - she of course replied, "no, not anymore".

I think that many people have a misconception about Beirut and Lebanon. So let me make one thing very clear:  Beirut is a fantastic place. Rather well organized offering visitors a great mix of modernity and awesome history, still affordable yet offering world class hospitality and a whole lot of fascinating places - most of which I haven't been to myself - yet. On top of that; people there are great. Hospitable and most speak English, which helps a lot.  I highly recommend you to go there for a visit. You won't regret - guaranteed. 

Egypt:: New tobacco packaging warning is a marketing joke

So here it is: The new picture and text on cigarette packs in Egypt does not do the job. If you are in marketing, you will know what I mean just by looking at the picture on this page.

Or maybe you do not "get it" right away. I am not afraid to admit that I did not. Someone had to explain to me what the symbolism of that picture means. And then I finally got it. Now, a few weeks later, I found this picture, and decided to share this information with you.

Personally, I think whoever was responsible for this, did not do a  very good job. There are so many other ways to inform smokers about the health problems caused by smoking (see below for examples and check the link from Brazil)

Ok, so this does not work, but what would you do?
It would be interesting to hear from you. What would you do if you were charged with designing and writing copy for a tobacco packaging warning? Please use the comment box, or email me and I will gladly post your suggestions.

Below I have listed a number of warnings from different countries.

Email Marketing Masterclass in Lisbon, Portugal coming up in April

The Michael Leander Email Marketing Masterclass is coming to Portugal for the first time. Sponsored by Kodak, e-Goi and Canalmail, it is a one day seminar taking place in the heart of Lisbon.

Marketers in Portugal are seemingly suffering from the same email marketing problem as marketers in many other countries South of the Alps and in Eastern Europe. Too much spamming going on for a number of years prior to permission legislation being put in place. The result is  - based on our non representative research - meager open rates and very low numbers for click through rates.

That is one of the reason I am looking forward to present my Email Marketing Masterclass in Lisbon on April 20, 2010. Hopefully I can provide some insights to marketers that will help them change their email marketing results from poor to good to great.

The Email Marketing Masterclass have invited Thomas Wimmer from Kodak to provide some insights about new trends in direct mail and individualized print part. I am looking forward to hear Herr Wimmer. At the Email Marketing Masterclass in Sofia, Bulgaria, German Sacristan from Kodak delivered a highly interesting and engaging presentation - and I am sure Mr. Wimmers will be equally interesting to experience.

You can learn more about the Email Marketing Masterclass here

Off to Poland to speak at the CEE Customer Loyalty Marketing Summit in Crakow

Soon I will be leaving to go to Cracow (Krakow) in Poland to deliver a keynote at the CEE & Poland Customer Loyalty Marketing Summit. The biggest of its kind in Poland and CEE.

It has been something like 25 years since I last visited Crakow. So I am really looking forward to see the city again. I am sure it has changed enormously since I was there last time so many years ago.

The loyalty marketing conference is organized by the brilliant people from Blue Business Media. They have attracted speakers such as Terry Hunt (UK), Mike Wittenstein (USA), Laurence Stock (UK), Simon Rees (UK) and Chris Jacobs (UK) - to mention the poster names.

My 40 minute presentation is about leveraging social media to sustain and grow customers.

You can learn more about the conference here  - and if you will be attending, please do get in touch so I can meet up with you.

After Poland, I will be travelling to Lisbon, Portugal for the Email Marketing Masterclass there.

Avoid Aweber if you require international character support for email marketing

Aweber.com is one of the most widely used online email marketing solutions. But if you need international character support, Aweber is not a solution for you. 

Aweber users whom happen to attract subscribers with names such as Jörgen, Mendonça, Renè, Ascânio or João are in trouble. The image above will give you an idea of what I am talking about.

The reason being that Aweber cannot handle international character support, which obviously is a problem if your subscribers primarily are residing in countries where socalled international characters are widely used. But - as you will have guessed - it is also a problem for someone in the US, the UK, Australia or an other predominantly English speaking countries who attracting subscribers from all over the world.

Michael Leander's Email Marketing Masterclass in Sofia, Bulgaria appeared to have been a hit

InterContact Bulgaria were the perfect hosts of the first ever Michael Leander Email Marketing Masterclass in Bulgaria. Judging by the evaluation from nearly 200 delegates, the Email Marketing Masterclass appeared to have been a hit.

From Email Marketing Masterclass Sofia Bulgaria Feb 2010

Held at the InterExpo Center in the outskirts of Sofia on February 25, the Email Marketing Masterclass also featured great presentations from German Sacristan of Kodak and a government representative speaking about the permission marketing legislation in Bulgaria.

Marketers attending liked what they heard and saw
After the Email Marketing Masterclass attendees were asked to evaluate their experience. On a 6-point scale where 6 is high, Michael Leander were given this evaluation:

From Email Marketing Masterclass Sofia Bulgaria Feb 2010

Presentation: 5,58
Information: 5,35

Says Michael Leander; "I am very pleased with the result. Especially considering that quite a few of the delegates depended on the interpreters, which arguably is a bit of an obstacle.".

When the picture does not say a thousand words in advertising

Reading the Business Today (an Egyptian magazine) yesterday, I came across an advertisement for German owned hotel  Steigenberger Nile Palace in Luxor.

The text reads "With the largest ballroom in Luxor and the knowhow of our expert staff your conference will be fit with class, 11 different capacities of meeting and breakout rooms that can host up to 2.000 participants and the main ballroom that can host 1.400 participants."

Nothing wrong with that. Clearly positioning the hotel's conference facilities. But.

What struck me was the picture, which you see to the left.
Had I not had a professional interest in studying the advertisement closer, I would never had decoded what the picture portrayed. And now I cannot decide whether I think a picture of the grand ballroom - or other pictures of the facilities would have been a better choice to relay the message.

What do you think?

100% will recommend Michael Leander's Email Marketing Masterclass in Cairo

Following the 2 day Digital Marketing Seminar at the Conrad Hotel in Cairo, 27 delegates joined the Email Marketing Masterclass with Michael Leander on Sunday 21st of February 2010. Judging from the delegates evaluation, the Email Marketing Masterclass was a huge success

The Email Marketing Masterclass was held for the first time in Cairo. Delegates from companies such as Credit Agricole and BNP Paribas, Saba Medical Group from Saudi Arabia, Elsewedy Cables, Better Home and hospitality marketing professionals from San Giovanni and Conrad Hotel, the 1 day Email Marketing Masterclass all said in their evaluation that they will recommend the masterclass to others.

Read more about the rating here

Excessive customer service and the trouble of languages

In conjunction with my Email Marketing Masterclass in Sofia, Bulgaria, I stayed at the wonderful boutique hotel Crystal Palace in the center of Sofia.

This hotel does not offer a coffeemaker in the room. So one morning - when time did not allow to go down for breakfast - I decided to order some coffee from room service. The previous day I ordered a pot of coffee, and got 1,5 cup, which just wasn't enough. So I decided to order a thermo with 5 cups of coffee.

The service was very nice indeed. And the woman from room service arrived with the thermo only 5 minutes after I placed the order. And - to my surprise - carrying a tray with the thermo and 5 coffee cups. She delivered it with the following remark "and I remembered cream and sugar too"

This just goes to show how difficult languages really are. I cannot help wondering what she must have been thinking when she saw me alone in the room. But she probably thought I was just another weird foreigner with strange habits.

Who is leading? Internet speeds and costs for broadband around the word

A recent report revealed the Internet broadband speeds and costs of access around the world. Why is that important? Because you need to consider how fast your website visitors can access the content you put on your website.

If you are marketing to people in Turkey, you may want to think twice about heavy usage of video and other download intensive content whereas in Japan, videos aren't a problem in the slightest. Broadband penetration in Turkey is around 33% with an average broadband speed of 2 mbps.

Japan - on the other hand- is the world leader with an average broadband speed of 61 mbps and a penetration of around 75%. Interestingly Iceland is leading the broadband penetration along with Norway, Denmark, Netherlands and Sweden. Broadband penetration in these countries are above 80%, yet the actual speed varies as does the cost of access.

Cost of access - Japan cheap, Poland very expensive
Obviously there is likely to be some sort of correlation between penetration, average speed and the price. Japan is the cost leader offering broadband at a price of USD 0,27 pr. 1 mbps pr. month and Poland clearly the most expensive place to get broadband access charging on average a whopping USD 13,00 pr. 1 mbps pr. month.

Click on the infographic to view a larger vision.

Michael Leander speaking about social media in Poland

In April 2010 I will be speaking as one of four plenary session speakers at the combined customer loyalty and customer insights conference in Cracow, Poland.

The most important marketing conference in CEE, I am looking forward to spend time with a bunch of really smart speakers and - most likely - even smarter delegates. If you will attend the conference, please do look me up to say hello.

You can read more right here.

Human creativity never ever ceases to amaze me - watch this and be amazed

The human capacity for creativity and innovation is truly remarkable. At least I think so. When you watch the video below, you will see something quite extraordinary.  This is a masterpiece, world class - simply fantastic.




In this video, Ukrainian Xenia Simonova Xenia shows how she manages with simple effects to entertain and affect an audience with her excellent creative talent.

In the event you do not catch the story right away, allow me to mention that she is drawing in sand. The pictures tells a story, which obviously still affects many (former) Soviet Citizens deeply. It is about WWII.

I saw this by pure coincidence and was deeply impressed by Xenia's abilities. Not "just" her drawing ability, but especially her amazing ability to weave together so many different images and messages to a story which seems to me very complex. Beautiful and quite touching.

Should I ever find myself involved in a marketing event  in need of that extra touch, I would not hesitate to facilitate the invitation of Xenia. Wow would she put things into perspective.

98% will recommend The Digital Marketing Seminar with Michael Leander

At The Internet Marketing Seminar recently held at the Fairmont Towers Heliopolis Hotel in Cairo, Egypt, Michael Leander provided insights to a wide range of topics relating to digital/online marketing. This successful event will be repeated in Cairo in February 2010 (learn more)

Nearly 80 marketing professionals from respected companies such as Elsewedy Cables, Cadbury, Google, Vodafone, Egyptian Banking Institute, Credit Agricole, Smart Management, Glextel Egypt and Noun Travel attended 2 day internet marketing event in Cairo. The event featured opening addresses by assistant minister of Investment Dr. Ashmawy, country manager for Citibank Mr. Ahmed Aftab and a surprise visit from mobile marketing expert Mr. Con O’Donnell, Managing Director of Sarmady Egypt.

After the opening addresses, internet marketing expert Michael Leander presented 1,5 day of internet marketing topics including

- 7 things you need to know to become a successful online marketer
- How to build or revamp your website
- How to drive traffic to your website
- How to get started with email marketing
- Leveraging social media and social networks for your business

45 out of 46 surveyed recommend The Digital Marketing Seminar
Based on the delegate feedback, the seminar was a success. When asked 98% of the attendees said they would recommend the seminar to others. Or to be more precise: 45 out of 46 delegates – who submitted the evaluation form – said they would recommend the internet marketing seminar.

Go on - read more about this story now

Michael Leander appeared to have been a hit at Drayton Bird's EADIM in London

From EADIM London 2009

"You appear to have been a hit" - that's what Kate Jones of Drayton Bird Associates wrote to me today. She referred to my presentation at the intro week of EADIM - The European Academy of Direct & Interactive Marketing - which took place in London in October 2009.

If you have been following my for a while, you will know that I frequently publish audience ratings of my presentations, courses and seminars. And I finally got around to do just that for EADIM 2009.

At EADIM delegates rated speakers on a scale from bad to excellent. 15 delegates were kind enough to pass their judgment upon poor little ol me. 8 said excellent, 6 said very good, and 1 said good. I translate that to a rating of 4,47.

Delegates rated me "very good to excellent", here is my evaluation of the delegates
I recently began rating my audiences. Why? Because it takes two to Tango. Especially in an exclusive program such as EADIM. So here is my evaluation of the delegates at EADIM:

Willingness to interact: 4,5
Ability to pay attention: 4,7 (only one person had trouble staying awake, a new record for me:-)

One of the best audiences I've had in 2009, and I am quite happy that I have been able to meet up with a few of them since EADIM.

Drayton Bird claims testimonials are important - I believe him
Some delegates were kind enough to write a few words about me & my presentation (thanks).A few below - and even more on my Linkedin profile.

"Very well presented; kept the audience involved the whole time. The information
was all very relevant."
Sheetal Vithlani

"Love it! "
Tim Piadea

"I was amazed by the simplicity of the complicated online world."
Raul Man

"Fabulous - humour/energy. Usefulness."
Anonymous

"Useful tips; Entertaining speaker. "
Mark Ellis

What in the world is EADIM?
In case you haven't heard about EADIM - you can read more about this wonderful initiative by Drayton Bird - by many regarded as one of the most knowledgeable marketers in the world. He is also the author of Commonsense Direct Marketing, which currently ranks #5 on Amazon's list of all time best selling books about direct marketing. Quite an accomplishment - especially considering that the first edition was published in 1982.

Best students - best teachers

From EADIM London 2009

It was my pleasure to present at the first EADIM in Brussels in 2008. And I sincerely believe that the "students" who choose to join EADIM are the best students I have met in Central and Northern Europe.

Not only because they are highly interesting individuals. But also because they are serious, bright and very talented . Not to mention - very smart.
But also because the teachers (that's what the speakers are called at EADIM), are amongst the best money can buy (myself excluded, of course).
You won't find any pretenders amongst the teachers. Every single one of them have "been there, done that" and are quite willing to share their profound knowledge.

I think EADIM will start a new group of students in 2010. Not sure when, how, €$£ and the program - but check the website and register for their newsletter and I am sure they will get in touch with you.

Michael Leander to come back to Cairo for Digital Marketing Seminar in May

In what must be sort of unusual, Michael Leander is coming back to present the Digital Marketing Seminar in Cairo for the third time in six months.

Organizer Global Consultants have decided to once again bring the popular Digital Marketing Seminar to Cairo, Egypt. A three day seminar to once again be held at Conrad Cairo Hotel, Michael Leander will be presenting the 2 day Digital Marketing Seminar and the 1 day Email Marketing Masterclass.

Interesting mobile marketing case study from Egypt

Vodafone owned Sarmady in Cairo, Egypt, were part of the marketing mix to sell the Internet Marketing Seminar with Michael Leander in Cairo. Yesterday Sarmady published the case study. And while I do understand the mechanisms and advantages of mobile marketing, I was quite surprised by their numbers.

Here is a quick overview of the case study.

Campaign Goals
* Create awareness about the event targeted at business profiles
* Generate traffic and online reservations through WEB and WAP sites
Tactics
* Mobile Channel:
WAP site development
Targeted SMS campaign (corp. tariff & owners of BlackBerry, HTC, iPhone and Nokia E series)
WAP banner on Vodafone Live English portal

* WEB Channel:
Banners targeting Egypt on Aljazeera.net, Mubasher.info, Elyoum7.com, FilGoal.com, kooora.com, ContactCars.com, swalif.net

Results
* 4,200 visits to the event’s WAP site
* 6,300 visits to the event’s website

For marketers, I think that is definitely something to think about. Now the ROMI - Return on Marketing Investment - has not yet been calculated at time of writing this, however to me this looks very much like an efficient media channel.

Obviously the challenge of mobile marketing in most countries is the permission part. Most companies do not have a sufficiently large amount of mobile marketing permissions and in many countries third party communication to cell phones is not allowed. But if you have obtained critical mass in your mobile marketing subscriber-base, you definitely should consider this channel - even for B2B marketing.

If you want to learn more about Sarmady in Egypt, contact them here.

Michael Leander's presentation at The Customer Loyalty Conference in Moscow, Russia

Blue Business Media delivered a very successful Customer Loyalty Conference in Moscow early December 2009. Michael Leander presented the topic "Loyalty marketing in the age of multichannel conversational economy – opportunities and threats of engagement"

Once again I was invited to speak at one of Blue Business Media's events. This time in Moscow, Russia where BBM hosted their first ever event in Russia.

With around 140 delegates from many of the leading companies in Russia, the top speakers included UK based Terry Hunt presenting "How Tesco built a rich relationship with 15 million customers", Laurence Stock of Nectar, United Kingdom, presenting "Best Practice in Coalition Loyalty", Radak Hrachovec from Bata Central Europe in the Czech Republic presenting "The Club Pays Back" and Jacek Powalka of Great Open House in Poland presenting "Consumer Loyalty programs world practices", the event in my opinion was a great success.

The danger of going off topic
Since this 2 day conference was a customer loyalty conference, I took a bit of a risk on the contents of my presentation. Not that I don't find the message I tried to pass to the delegates relevant - but because the conference was very much focused on loyalty concepts, case studies and loyalty program learnings from practitioners.

I tried to pass on some simple messages, namely;

- the importance of delivering good-to-great customer experience in all touchpoints
- the importance of establishing customer listening posts, monitoring these frequently and ensuring that the feedback collected is actionable.
- the opportunity of utilizing social networks to extend the loyalty experience and to initiate and retain a conversation with customers
- be relevant, respect your customers; the importance of communicating relevant messages to customers with the right timing and contents

Luckily the six or seven people I spoke to immediately after my presentation, seemed very happy about the content and the way I presented it. In fact the volunteered feedback from those people makes it all worth my while.

Evaluation satisfactory with room for improvement
I am always disappointed if I do not get top-marks for my presentations. But sometimes one has to be willing to take a change. Well, I often do because I insist on including content, which on the offset may seem obvious to marketers, yet most marketers do not get it right.

The evaluation of my presentation in Moscow on a 5-scale where 5 is high, 1 is low was:

Contents of presentation: 4,0
Presentation technique: 4,4

If I were to rate the audience, here is my rating::

Willingness to interact: 3,5
Ability to pay attention: 4,5

So there you have it. :-)

I will be presenting at BBM's Loyalty Marketing Conference in Cracow, Poland in April 2010 and am looking forward to extending my presentation by 10 minutes and improving this rating.

Congratulations to the Blue Business Media team for organizing yet another successful marketing/loyalty marketing conference. They are indeed a pleasure to work with and they deserve all the success they can get their hands on...

In the picture CEO of Blue Business Media - Dutchman Casper Haring and business director Edyta Olbratowska.

Michael Leander's workshop at Eurobest in Amsterdam

At the Eurobest 2009 in Amsterdam, Michael Leander presented the FEDMA workshop "Decoding email marketing" on the 25th. of November. It took place at the Beurs van Berlage in the very heart of Amsterdam. A fantastic venue, which I am sure the many delegates enjoyed.



Unfortunately we will not be getting any evaluation of the workshop, however judging from the number of camera's actively used to capture images of Michael Leander's slides, some members of the audience might actually have learned a thing or two.

FEDMA will be following up with a web-seminar in 2010 presented in collaboration with the FEDMA Pan European Email Marketing Benchmark Report 2010 sponsor, Alterian.

Pictures are from the event and our little outing after the fact.

An unreal experience in Ljubljana - I experienced world class customer experience

Having delivered full day internal marketing workshop for around 50 employees at Mladinska Kniga - Slovenia's largest publishers of books, magazine publishing, 60 retail bookstores, etc. - I was pressed for time to finish the preparation for my speech at an email marketing seminar in Ljubljana (organized by Dima Center / Promarket) the next day. But I had to eat. So I walked down to the center of Ljubljana to the same restaurant where I had lunch with that same customer Tuesday afternoon as part of my preparation for the workshop .

After arriving at the restaurant I found a table and ordered a few dishes. But it took quite a long time before the first course was served. I therefore asked to have the bill when they would serve the second course, while I explained that I was getting stressed because I was in a hurry and it was took far longer than expected to get the food. (at this time it was around 21 and I still a couple of hours of preparation for my 3 hour long lecture the next day).


The food was quite delicoius, the coca-cola's tasted like they should, but when the bill was presented it came along with the highly surprising "we have decided that you do not have to pay for dinner - we'll only charge you for the sodas."

I was not quite sure I had heard the waiter correctly and said "excuse me?". He repeated, and I have certainly looked like one big qustionmark. It actually took me the better part of an hour to get over the experience. That's how unusual and world-class it was.

Now that's what I call delivering a fantastic customer experience, and all that at a restaurant that - notwithstanding that many customers are likely to be tourists and business travelers - takes its own quality seriously. Whether or not this is an integral part of their business philosophy or a special case, I do not know. Hopefully when I am back in Ljubljana, I will get a chance to ask them to learn more about their customer experience philosophy.

This was an experience that I will certainly tell to others over and over again. The name of the restaurant in Ljubljana Slovenia is Gostilna restaurant and can be found at this URL.

Denne artikel findes på dansk her

5 things I am going to do to improve my results in 2010

Inspired by recent events, I thought I'd join the hoards of people coming out with New Year's wishes and similar to do lists in the coming month.

So here are the 5 things that I want to do to improve results in 2010. Order is random as I am writing this from the top of my head.

1. Improve Michaelleander.com with a clear direction
I never had a clear plan with this blog, but merely wanted to secure my name-url. Now I want to turn this Danish language blog into a personal site in English and Danish.

2. Improve meemoo2.com and improve quality
Meemoo2.com is my English/German language blog. While it enjoys steady streams of traffic, I want to increase the reading experience, offer more unique content and in general just improve the quality of the contents.

3. Re-launch marketingboss.tv
Some may remember how I lost all the content placed on marketingboss.tv. By far the best content idea for attracting visitors, I want to rebuild it, but this time I will be in control and not risk loosing hundreds of hours of work again.

4. Step-up the video presentation/tips efforts
Not sure if I will manage one video with marketing tips/tricks each week, but that will be my goal. I meet loads of interesting and highly knowledgeable people every month. All I need to do is to prepare questions, tape, publish.

5. Launch emailmarketingbenchmark.com
I have owned that domain for quite some time, but haven't done anything. In 2010 I want to establish a great ressource for anything related to email marketing benchmarks.

Internet marketing for businesses i Cypern - kort rapport

From Cyprus October 2009

Jeg gennemførte sidst i oktober 2 dages internet marketing for businesses workshop på Cypern. Deltagerne var repræsentanter for de største virksomheder på Cypern.

Det var som ventet interessant at møde marketing mennesker, der arbejder en anelse anderledes end vi gør i Danmark. Og de virksomheder, der var repræsenteret var på meget forskellige niveauer. Fra teleselskabet, der har nogenlunde tjek på deres online presence til hvidevare kæden, der først skal til at igang.

Da dette var den første af de kurser/workshops arrangøren RJTulip havde booket, var jeg meget spændt på modtagelsen og - ikke mindst - seminar evalueringen. Det gik heldigvis godt. De parametre som deltagerne evaluerede på lå - på en skala fra 1 til 5, hvor 5 er højest - ret højt. Resultatet kan du se her:










100% vil anbefale kurset til andre
Også den vigtigste faktor - vil du anbefale kurset til kolleger - scorede 4,5. Det er en lidt anderledes måde at spørge om anbefalingsværdigheden, som jo typisk er vil du anbefale: ja, nej, måske/ved ikke. Men mon ikke vi godt kan konstatere at 100% vil anbefale kurset til kolleger.

Bedre anbefaling kan man vel ikke få.

Jeg ser frem til at komme tilbage til Cypern i foråret 2010, hvor RJTulip vil planlægge et større seminar med mange flere deltagere.

Next stop i regionen er Cairo i december. Det skriver jeg mere om inden så længe.

5 tips til forbedring af dine resultater fra din LinkedIn profil

Dette er tip nummer 3. LinkedIn tip nummer 4 finder du her.

Dette tip omhandler at opnå flere relevante kontakter. Og det er som de andre tips meget meget simpelt at eksekvere.

På LinkedIn findes en lang række interesse grupper. Eksempelvis har jeg en gruppe, der hedder Chief Marketing Officer's Exclusive - aka Marketingboss.

Når du er medlem af en gruppe, får du mulighed for at sende beskeder direkte til andre gruppe medlemmer. I og med at du og den person, som du inviterer til at "connecte" må formodes at have samme interesse/r, er der stor sandsynlighed for at vedkommende vil acceptere din invitation til at connecte.

Men du skal passe på ikke at spamme dette. Og husk at give en god forklaring på, hvorfor du gerne vil connecte med den person.

Held og lykke med det.

Kursus om internet marketing i Damascus flyttet til januar 2010

En underlig følelse, at man som marketing person skal tænke på sikkerhed. Altså personlig sikkerhed. Men en vis film på en vis populær Arabisk TV kanal medfører nu, at det 2 dages kursus jeg er booket til at gennemføre i Damascus i Syrien (omtalt her) nu bliver flyttet til ultimo januar.

I den situation kan man ikke lade være med at tænke "der sker jo ikke noget". Men omvendt, så kan der jo rent faktisk godt ske noget. Arrangøren har valgt ikke at tage chancen - og det er nok meget godt.

Kurset på Cypern gennemføres som planlagt den 29- og 30. oktober 2009, skulle du have lyst til nogle dage i Limassol.

5 tips til forbedring af dine resultater fra din LinkedIn profil

Her kommer LinkedIn tip nummer 4 - og jeg er iøvrigt startet bagfra. Tip nummer 5 er her.


Dette tip er såre simpelt. Akkurat som de andre 4 tips. Men denne her er nok lidt sværere tilgængelig for danskere. Ikke fordi det er svært rent teknisk. Overhovedet ikke. Men fordi vi har den kultur vi har. Janteloven, ikke være for påtrængende, ikke påkalde sig opmærksomhed i for stor stil. Ikke udbasunere hvor god man er.

Tippet handler kort og kort om at aktivere det LinkedIn kalder Recommendations. Anbefalinger. Og egentlig er det vel bare det vi på godt direct marketingsk kalder "testimonials". Her er det bare i en sammenblanding mellem kundetestimonials, anbefalinger fra nuværende og tidligere kolleger, chefer, ansatte og helt i denne tidsalders ånd; fra folk man tilfældigt har stødt på.

Jeg har selv haft et ambivalent forhold til det. For der melder sig hurtigt nogle spørgsmål;
- hvem kan man tillade sig at spørge?
- hvordan kan man være sikker på at det en referenceperson vil fortælle står i forhold til den måde man gerne vil fremstå på?
- skal man lægge ordene i munden på personen?

Ikke desto mindre er jeg selv startet med at anmode folk jeg har arbejdet med og for, personer som har arbejdet for mig, tidligere og nuværende kunder m.fl. om at anbefale mig.

Hvorfor kan dette være vigtigt for dig?
Det afhænger naturligvis af hvad dit kort- og langsigtede formål er. Men én ting er sikkert; det kan næppe skade dig. Eller rettere; det kan kun (potentielt) skade dig, hvis du får anbefalinger fra en "omstridt" person.

For mit vedkommende er jeg målstyret ift. min foredragsvirksomhed. Jeg har igennem de seneste år fået mere end 100 udtalelser fra personer, der har hørt mig på et seminar eller en konference. Det er først og fremmest dem jeg gerne vil have på min LinkedIn profil.

Det er der flere årsager til;
1) så kan andre, der overvejer at booke mig se disse testimonials. Jeg bilder mig ind, at det vil virke overbevisende og gøre det nemmere at få bookingen
2) det giver flere henvendelser, hvis andre kan se, at man er anbefalet af andre
3) så kan jeg selv holde styr på anbefalingerne

Som du har gættet, er dette også godt ift. jobsøgninger. Men også når virksomheder anvender eksempelvis LinkedIn til at identificere kandidater. En ting er dit CV - noget helt andet er hvad andre har udtalt om dig. Der er som bekendt en grund til at referencechecks er så bredt anvendt som de er - og bør være, spørger du mig.

Prøv det. Tag fat i nuværende kunder, kolleger, chef, ansatte. Eller tidligere kunder, chefer, kolleger ansatte. Eller leverandører. Bed dem om en ærlig udtalelse om samarbejdet med dig. Og bed dem gerne lægge vægt på dine stærke sider. Alt andet ville ikke give mening.

God fornøjelse med det.

Email markedsføring og nyhedsbreve i København pænt evalueret

Kurset email markedsføring og nyhedsbreve, der afholdes af Huset Markedsføring er evalueret. På heldagskurset underviste Michael Leander.

Deltagerne bliver bl.a. spurgt om deres samlede vurdering af kurset. På kurset i København den 29. september vurderede deltagerne kursets samlede værdi til 4,5 på en skala til 5,0. En forbedring i forhold til det første, der blev afholdt i maj måned 2009.

Men 4,5 er ikke 5,0
Jeg må lægge mig i selen for at hente det sidste. Det ser ud til at der er nogle forbedringspunkter ift. disponering af indholdet, vægtningen mellem indholdskonceptet, akkvisition og design af email markedsføringskampagner. Så det må jeg igang med at forbedre.

Dette kursus afholdes iøvrigt i Aalborg den 8. oktober og igen i København og Aarhus i februar/marts 2010.

Vil du videre med email markedsføring og e-dialog, kan jeg anbefale kurset Effektiv integreret e-dialog, der afholdes i København den 21. oktober med Michael Leander som underviser. Kurset henvender sig til personer, der har mere end 2 års erfaring med email markedsføring. Og medlemmer af Huset Markedsføring kan deltage til en rigtig god pris. Der er stadig plads til din deltagelse, skulle du have mulighed for det.

Jeg plejer at publicere hele kursus evalueringen, men må beklageligvis meddele at jeg p.t. ikke har de 90 minutter det kræver at gøre det. Så den må man have til gode til næste gang.

Conduct siger " Vi overvåger for dårlige, halve løsninger og råber op om det". Nu råber jeg så op om Conduct

Det starter med et besøg på Twitter, hvor jeg tester hash-tags på Denmark, Obama Oprah og Copenhagen. Her falder jeg over et Tweet fra Conduct. Jeg klikker på Tweetet og kommer til Conduct's Twitter profil. Heraf kan jeg forstå at Conduct er et firma.

På profilen skriver de;
"We are Conduct. We know the internet and the users. By heart. And we know what they demand from corporations trying to harvest this new market in a good manner."

Fantastisk, ikke?

Husk at jeg ved at jeg selv laver mange fejl, men jeg påstår heller ikke andet.

Nu vil jeg gerne vide mer om Conduct. Fordi deres profil lyder interessant og jeg kender dem ikke.

Så jeg klikker på linket til hjemmesiden. Overrasket finder jeg der kun deres logo. Men en mouseover på linket fortæller mig, at jeg skam kan klikke på det. Og at jeg kan klikke for at komme til "contact and so much more" og noget med at blive redirected til Flickr.

Jeg tænker; Hvad skal jeg nu på Flickr. Jeg vil vide noget om hvad de laver. Har de mon lovet en tegneserie, der beskriver det profilen på Twitter lovede?

Men ak nej. På Flickr kan jeg læse;

We are on flickr!

Want to go back to conduct.dk? Or read more about the word "conduct" on Wikipedia

Please visit our blog, catch us on Twitter, or join us on Facebook

You can also send us an email or call us at +45 207 207 60

This photo has notes. Move your mouse over the photo to see them.


NØJ, hvor er det en sørgelig omgang. Hvorfor ikke bare;

a) sende mig til bloggen eller "om os" siden med det samme
b) give mig tre muligheder på conduct.dk (blog, twitter, flickr)
c) endnu bedre; lave bloggen om til at være hjemmesiden. For bloggen er fin med en god beskrivelse af firmaets USPs.

Men Conduct vil sikkert hævde, at det hele var en fejl, et eksperiment, baseret på en forglemmelse eller noget.

Fordi. De er Conduct, som de selv så flot skriver. Og de kender internettet.

Vor Herre Bevares for en Conduct.

5 tips til forbedring af dine resultater fra din LinkedIn profil

En invitation til at holde et foredrag ved Equipo netværket i København, gav inspiration til at starte disse 5 tips til brug af LinkedIn.

Du får tipsene i fem seperate blog-posts i bedste count-down.

LinkedIn Tip #5: Opret flere sprogprofiler
LinkedIn tilbyder en mulighed for at oprette din profil på flere sprog. Selvom LinkedIn endnu ikke har udviklet denne funktionalitet fuldt ud, kan det være en fordel at overveje at bygge en engelsk sproget profil, hvis din profil er på dansk idag - eller omvendt. Af billedet her fremgår hvordan det ser ud - her er valgt min danske profil, og du kan se hvordan besøgende kan switche til den engelsksprogede profil.

Der er uden tvivl flere fordele ved dette;
- Uanset hvor godt en dansker forstår engelsk, vil en dansker altid synes at det er nemmere og hurtige at forholde sig til dansk
- Ikke mange udlændinge har lært dansk i skolen - de skal se din profil på engelsk
- I visse lande er der en overflod af professionelle mennesker, der absolut helst forholder sig til deres eget (hoved) sprog. Nævner i flæng; Tyskland, Frankrig, Spanien, Italien osv.
- Med tiden vil LinkedIn sikre at dine forskellige sprogprofiler alle kan findes i søgemaskiner. Har jeg forstået hensigten korrekt, vil dette betyde, at søgninger på google.dk vil vise din danske sprogede profil, og søgninger på google.de - f.ex. - vil vise din tysksprogede profil.

Hvad er min anbefaling til dig så?
Har du kontakter eller ønsker du flere kontakter i bestemte sprogområder, bør du oprette en profil for hvert af disse sprogområder.
Du kan overveje at målrette beskrivelsen om dine kompetencer og erfaringer i forhold til det du søger i de pågældende sprogområder.

Du kan også overveje at de applikationer du har tilknyttet (blogs, præsentationer o.l.), også differentieres for at øge relevans for hver sprogprofil du har oprettet.

Hvad får du ud af det?
Du får forhåbentligt flere besøgende til din profil med tiden og - hvis dine oversættelser ellers er iorden - sandsynligvis vil flere besøgende på dine fremmedsproglige profiler bruge mere tid på at læse om dig og dine interesser.
Arbejder du med eksport, har datterselskaber i udlandet e.l., viser en profil i det eller de pågældende sprog også en vis respekt. Du viser at du er parat til at agere på de vilkår, der gælder i det pågældende land.

Der linkes til LinkedIn tip #4 herfra, når det er skrevet

Michael Leander workshop i Cairo, Ægypten: Internet Marketing i Mellemøsten

Jeg har tidligere skrevet om de internet markedsføring kurser jeg skal gennemføre sidst i oktober i Damascus, Syrien og Limassol, Limassol, Cypern.

I november er det så Kairo der står for tur. I denne fantastiske, pulserende Ægyptiske storby, er kursusprogrammet lige knap 2 dage. Det starter søndag den 22. november om morgenen og slutter mandag den 23. oktober ved 14 tiden - så kan jeg nemlig lige nå 17-flyet fra Cairo til London, hvor jeg næste dag skal gennemføre en masterclass "Utilising social media and networks to enhance marketing and a greater customer experience" arrangeret af Ark Group. (Det bliver iøvrigt 8-10 sindssyge dage, idet jeg skal gennemføre en email marketing workshop på EuroBest konferencen i Amsterdam i samme uge, er hjemme i weekendene, og tager derefter til Moskva mandag 30. november for at keynote en konference i moder Ruslands hovedstad)

Selvom mit rejseprogram er presset får jeg sandsynligvis en enkelt fridag i Cairo. Og det glæder jeg mig til. Forhåbentligt kan jeg nå et smut ud til Pyramiderne og måske det Ægyptiske Museum. Beklager kun, at min familie ikke kan være med, men det er desværre vilkårene.

Har du lyst til et par dages undervisning i internet markedsføring kombineret med nogle dages rekreation og oplevelse i Kairo, så læs programmet her.

Michael Leander workshop i Limassol, Cypern: Internet markedsføring i et ø samfund

Jeg har tidligere skrevet om det kursus jeg skal levere i Damascus, Syrien. På samme rejse, skal jeg levere et tilsvarende kursus på Cypern. Det sker den 29-30. oktober 2009 i Limassol.

Udover Cypriotere, forventer arrangøren RJ Tulip at dette kursus vil have deltagelse fra Ægyptere, Grækere, expats (udstationerede) bosat i regionen og måske kursus deltagere fra central Europa, der gerne vil kombinere et par dages kursus med et par dages rekreation. Som du ved er Limassol en turistby, der har alt hvad turister kan begære. (danskere er velkomne :-)

Kurset bliver en anelse mere avanceret end det jeg afholder i Damascus i oktober og det jeg skal afholde i Cairo i november. Men det er et 2-dages internet marketing begynderkursus alligevel - blot tilpasset at Cypern, Grækenland og omkringliggende lande har en højere internetpenetration end f.ex. Syrien, men lavere end f.ex. de skandinaviske lande.

Prisen for dette 2-dages kursus bliver omkring € 300. Altså under DKK 3.000 for to dages undervisning. Sådan er prisniveauet på de kanter. Til gengæld er der plads til flere deltagere (tror at de satser på maksimalt 55 personer), hvilket er årsagen til at jeg hellere kaldet det en symbiose mellem et kursus, en workshop og et seminar.

Du kan læse mere om dette internet markedsføringskursus her

Michael Leander workshop i Damascus, Syrien: Internet Marketing i Mellemøsten

Det er lidt vildt, men meget spændende. Michael Leander - det er mig - skal levere et to dages kursus om online markedsføring i Damascus i Syrien den 26 og 27. oktober 2009.

Dette er første del af internet markedsførings-kursus jeg skal afholde som følge af en aftale jeg har indgået med RJ Tulip - en uddannelses- og træningsvirksomhed, der ledes af Ron Joron og Marie-Antoinette Malha. Begge har en lang karriere indenfor universitetsuddannelser bag sig og har et stort og magtfuldt netværk i regionen. De ser et stort potentiale i alle former for direkte og interaktiv markedsførings træning i Mellemøsten, Gulfen og Nordafrika.
Damascus bliver min første udfordring, men RJ Tulip har også hyret mig til at levere samme kursus i Limassol på Cypern og i Cairo, Ægypten i år - og så skal der efter planen leveres mindst 18 træningsdage næste år.

Spændende udfordring
Det bliver spændende og meget udfordrende. For Syrien er et land, hvor adgangen til internet og dermed brugen af internettet i det hele taget ligger noget efter de gennemsnitlige europæiske lande. Det betyder at jeg har udviklet et internet markedsføring begynder kursus. Bortset fra 10% af indholdet, er resten faktisk også interessant for europæere, der ikke har erfaring med internet markedsføring. (der er varmt i Damascus i oktober :-)

Du kan se kursusprogrammet på arrangørens hjemmeside. Jeg synes selv at jeg har fået skabt et interessant program, som jeg glæder mig til at undervise. Det er lidt som at komme tilbage til fortiden, men også positivt igen at se på nogle af de helt basale elementer, som jeg ved at mange markedsførere glemmer undervejs.

Kurset foregår på engelsk - det er endnu ikke afgjort om det bliver nødvendigt med simultan tolkning fra engelsk til arabisk.

Hvis du kender nogen, der kan have interesse i at deltage, kan du læse mere på arrangørens hjemmeside. Bestillingssiden kommer op i løbet af få dage, men jeg mener at prisen for deltagelse er omkring € 300. Excl. rejse/ophold, naturligvis.

Nyt logo til Meemoo2 Marketers

På min engelske sprogede blog - http://meemoo2.com - har jeg længe manglet et logo. Det har jeg så fået nu. Og det står her på siden.

Jeg har længe fortrudt domænet "Meemoo2.com" - men det er ikke så enkelt at forandre. Så nu bliver det som det er, og min næste opgave er at få styr på min kommunikation og signaler. For at spare tid, springer jeg ofte over hvor gærdet er lavest - og jeg ved godt at det er forkert.

Men jeg tror at mange har denne udfordring; bloggen har ét navn, firmaet et andet, produkterne noget tredie. Det er en udfordring at få det hele til at gå op i en højere enhed så målgruppen også kan finde ud af hvad der er hvad.

Så den process skal selv jeg igang med over de næste måneder.

Google Wonder Wheel - praktisk redskab til online markedsførere

Google Wonder Wheel er et af de nyeste skud på stammen af muligheder som Google tilbyder brugere af søgemaskinen. Det er gratis og kan hjælpe dig til at forstå sammenhænge mellem søgeord og fraser.

Ligesom tidslinien (timeline) kan Google Wonder Wheel hjælpe dig med at finde det du søger efter hurtigere.

Men det er også et godt værktøj til at orientere sig om relaterede søgninger. Dvs. hvis du aktivt arbejder med søgemaskineoptimering, kan du få ideer til hvilke andre nøgleord, som brugere kunne tænkes at ville søge efter. I illustrationen ovenfor kan du se en søgning på mit navn. Her fremgår det at søgninger på f.eks. "marketing crm", "marketing automation" og "lifecycle marketing" åbenbart relaterer sig til mit navn - men nok desværre ikke omvendt (endnu :-).

Med Google Wonder Wheel kan man drill down og se hvilke ord eller søgninger, der knytter sig til de enkelte ord eller søgefraser. Her til højre kan du se hvilke, der relaterer sig til "marketing automation". Jeg tror at hvis du bruger mere end de 5 minutter jeg har brugt på at forstå dette her, kan du få en del værdi ud af det. Både som bruger, men også ift. dine egne søgemarkedsføringsindsatser.

Du får adgang til Google Wonder Wheel ved at gå på Google.com - foretage en søgning, og hvis du er blandt de heldige vil du i venstre øverste hjørne se en "options" knap. Aktivér den, og så vil du se flere herligheder. Og så er det bare at søge løs, klikke rundt, og pludseligt ved du meget mere om dette end jeg gør...

Jeg er bestemt ikke ekspert på området, men kan alligevel med stor tilfredshed konstatere at jeg i år har modtaget frugtbare henvendelser fra en del virksomheder, der har fundet mig via "ROMI - Return on Marketing Investment", "marketing automation" og "marketing CRM".

Så egentlig er jeg for dum fordi jeg ikke bruger flere ressourcer på dette - men sådan er der som du ved så meget man ikke kan fordi man må prioritere sine ressourcer hele tiden. Netop derfor lytter jeg altid med stor interesse til søgemaskineeksperterne og deres opfattelse af hvorledes man skal prioritere online marketing indsatserne. Men den post gemmer jeg til en anden gang.

De fatter det - hvorfor gør vi ikke?

Jeg har tænkt på det mange gange, men aldrig fået skrevet om det. Så det gør jeg nu -fordi jeg havde oplevelsen igen for et par dage siden.

Som du måske ved blev der - da Oslo flyttede hovedlufthavnen fra Fornebu til Gardermoen - samtidig lanceret et hurtigtog fra Garderoen til bl.a. Lillestrøm, Oslo S og helt til Asker - med stop ved Nationalteatret i den anden ende af Karl Johansgate.

Flytoget, som det hedder, har forstået hvordan man gør det nemt for kunderne. Her kører du blot betalingskortet igennem maskinen - og vupti, så åbner dørene sig. Vil du have en kvittering, går du blot til Flytoget.no og registrerer dig - så kan du til enhver tid trække din kvittering online. Altså ikke noget med at vente ved lugen, bruge tid på automaten osv. Gå lige igennem, swipe dit betalingskort, that's it.

Enkelt, nemt og smart.

Kunne DSB m.fl. lære noget her? Jeg tror det.

Knaldende uetisk markedsføring og akkvisitionsaktivitet, der startede godt

Det er bare mange numre for smart dette her. MM Medier A/S er igen ude med deres beskidte og tarvelige tricks, der sjældent gennemskues af den almindelige forbruger.

Det startede ellers godt; på Facebook ser jeg annoncen som er vist til venstre. Den reagerer jeg naturligvis på fordi det er tydeligt at annoncøren forsøger en eller anden form for segmentering. Og da jeg konstant leder efter gode eksempler på udnyttelse af online segmentering og/eller behavioral targeting, klikker jeg naturligvis videre. Jeg bemærker at udtrækningen af konkurrencevinderen sker den 25. august.

Min forventning er på det tidspunkt at jeg vil se en konkurrenceside, der ejes af et automobil brand. Og så vil jeg da deltage og forhåbentligt vinde den der bil - for jeg vinder jo altid... .- )

Men ak - nej. Da jeg ser landingsiden (klik her - eller se her til højre), registrerer jeg at jeg nu befinder mig på et MM Medier domæne. Det pirrer min nysgerrighed på en travl søndag. For jeg har tidligere bemærket selskabets metoder og har undret mig over, at de får lov til at anvende de akkvisitionsteknikker de gør.

Først undrer jeg mig over bidster.com logoet og sammenhængen. Dernæst over spørgsmålene, der skal besvares for at være berettiget til at deltage i konkurrencen. Det får mig til at klikke på betingelserne - og så skal jeg lige love for at kæden hopper af.

Du kan selv læse betingelserne her. Men læs fra start til slut, så du til fulde forstår hvor frækt dette er.

Ift. permission marketing, er dette så grotesk, som det næsten kan blive. Ja, jeg kan ikke komme i tanke om nogen, der håndterer permission marketing værre end dette selskab. Konkurrencen udbydes af Eanalyser, der er en del af MM Medier A/S.

Her et udpluk fra betingelserne:
- ved accept giver man tilladelse til alt; sms, email, telefonisk henvendelse
- man giver accept til at en lang række firmaer kan kontakte en telefonisk osv
- man giver accept til at data må overføres ikke til én, men mange 3dje part
- man giver tilladelse til at CLASH CLUB (hvem er det?) opbevarer data
- det nævnes at man kan kontakte Danske Surveys (hvem er det?) eller MM Medier
- det nævnes at man iøvrigt også lige bestiller 3 prøvenumre på FDM's Motor, tilmelder sig FDM's nyhedsbrev og - så er det ikke engang løgn - accepterer at blive ringet op af FDM

Slutteligt fremgår det at konkurrencen løber til 11. januar 2010 og at konkurrencen er aktiv i 4 nordiske lande.

Når du læser betingelserne er jeg sikker på at du vil give mig ret i, at sådan noget som dette her skal stoppes. Mit udgangspunkt er at dette er ulovligt. Men de advokater jeg samarbejder med på området arbejder ikke idag - så jeg har ikke undersøgt det til bunds.

Men hvis dette alligevel skulle være lovligt, så vil jeg mene at det er en dybt uetisk form for markedsføring, og at overveje at købe permissions igennem sådan et foretagende burde være fyringsgrundlag i enhver ansvarlig virksomhed.

Email markedsføring: De fire vigtigste årsager til framelding

Alle email markedsførere oplever frameldinger - de såkaldte opt-outs. Dygtige markedsførere, der kommunikerer relevant og rettidigt, opererer med opt-out rates på ml. 0,0 - 0,50%, men mange oplever opt-out rates på både 2,3 og 4%.

I USA har Forrester analyseret på hvorfor forbrugere framelder sig nyhedsbreve og email kommunikation. Eller mere korrekt; hvorfor ophæves den aktive tilladelse til e-mail kommunikation, der oprindeligt blev givet.

Her har du en flig af undersøgelsens resultat med mine kommentarer.

Her er de fire vigtigste årsager til at forbrugere
framelder sig nyhedsbreve i USA (klik for større billede)

Som du kan se er relevans den hyppigste årsag til at forbrugere framelder sig email kommunikation. Det er ikke overraskende - manglende relevans er et stort problem for os alle.

Dernæst "jeg får for mange emails" - det er dog ikke klart om man hentyder til at frekvensen er for høj, eller om forbrugeren oplever at email indboksen er oversvømmet. Jeg tror at det er sidstnævnte, noget jeg ihvertfald kan give medhold i.

Overraskende er der 50%, der giver udtryk for at de ikke kan huske at have tilmeldt sig overhovedet. Den er kriminel - og derfor har jeg valgt nedenfor at give et par konkrete input, der kan medvirke til at sikre, at du ikke oplever samme problem - eller ihvertfald ikke i samme omfang.

Endelig er den fjerde hypiggste årsag at man kun tilmeldte sig pga. en konkurrence e.l. Dette tal er relativt højt ift. mine erfaringer, men omvendt hvis man inddrager alle former for email kommunikation - også de mindre lødige, der bruger lokkemad for at opnå permission mhp. at "spamme" løs med ulødige tilbud, så kommer vi vel deropad.

Undersøgelsen er amerikansk, men jeg tror næppe at resultatet ville være meget anderledes skulle en lignende undersøgelse blive gennemført i Danmark.

Hvad gør du for ikke at blive glemt?
I denne undersøgelse nævnte 50% af de adspurgte, at de frameldte sig fordi de ikke kunne huske at de havde tilmeldt sig. Det er slemt.

Hvad kan du gøre for at det ikke sker for dig?

Her er nogle simple regler, der kan imødegå problematikken for de fleste;

1. Sørg for at din "email value proposition (EVP)" er klar og tydelig og - ikke mindst - attraktiv for publikum. (deltag på Huset Markedsførings kursus, hvis du vil vide mere om hvad EVP er)

2. Send en bekræftelsesemail til nye abonnenter omgående. De fleste skriver bare "tak for din tilmelding, venlig hilsen". Det er ikke godt nok - i din bekræftelsesemail skal du fortælle hvad man kan forvente at modtage fra dig, hvorfor det er fordelagtigt at være på din liste og meget gerne inkludere indhold fra tidligere email kommunikation. Kan du skabe noget indhold, der omgående aktiverer modtageren tilbage på dit website, din blog eller lignende, er det optimalt.

3. Sender du kun én gang hver måned e.l., så overvej at arbejde med en højere frekvens i starten. Men vigtigst er det at den første regulære kommunikation fra dig til en ny modtager kommer ret hurtigt efter tilmeldingen. Her kan du med fordel overveje en form for sekventiel autoresponder indsats, hvor dit email marketing system automatisk sender et antal emails med en passende frekvens.

Du skal tænke over, at det er din opgave at sikre at modtageren kan huske at hun har givet dig permission til email - ikke omvendt.

Mange danske email markedsførere spørger folk om hvorfor de framelder sig email kommunikation. Gør du det? Det er en god idé - så kan du udarbejde din egen analyse, der kan hjælpe til at identificere hvad du kan gøre bedre.

Det her er ikke svært - du skal bare gøre det. Du kan læse mere om email markedsføring på dansk her eller her og på engelsk her

Ксения Симонова. Полуфинал.

Når man skal fremhæve menneskets utrolige evne for kreativitet, synes jeg at dette i sandhed er et mesterstykke.

Ukrainske Xenia Simonova viser her hvordan hun med enkle virkemidler formår at underholde og berøre et publikum i den udmærkede talentkonkurrence "Talant", der også er populær i Ukraine.
Skulle du ikke fange det med det samme, kan jeg nævne at hun tegner billederne i sand og fortæller en historie, der naturligt nok stadig berører mange (tidligere) Sovjetborgere dybt. Den handler om anden verdenskrig.

Jeg så denne ved et rent tilfælde og blev dybt betaget af Xenia's evner. Ikke "bare" hendes tegne-evne, men i særdeleshed at hun formår at sammenflette så mange forskellige billeder og budskaber til en historie, der på mig virker meget sammensat. Flot.

Hun må da være oplagt som det festlige og eftertænksomme indslag ved enhver marketing konference, der har behov for noget ekstraordinært.