Are Online Communities Profitable?

Social Selling strategy that helps clients build online relationships with their ideal prospects and then take that relationship offline. The leads and new business comes from these new relationships. LinkedIn is at the center of the strategy but it also can be extended to include Facebook, Twitter and email.

For this strategy to work for people, they need to be able to find their ideal prospects on LinkedIn, preferable 100's if not 1000's of them. Also people need to buy into the power of relationships to really embrace this strategy.

This webinar breaks down into two sections: Section 1 answers the question "What is Social Selling?" and section 2 takes people through a Social Selling Playbook, webinar registrants will get to see how to run a full social selling campaign.

The esports market is on fire. Last year 43 million people watched the League of Legends world championships, a multiplayer fighting game. And it's not a niche market of teenage boys in basements. A recent report found that 31 million people watch esports tournaments in the U.S., and more than double that -- 68M -- in China.

And the question is -- how do you monetize that at scale?

Look to the wild success of the Asia-Pacific esports companies. The companies who stage events like China’s 2017 Riot Championships, which posted more than 32 million viewers, have been able to compel customers to actually pay to view content, and even tip players, with the right streaming and payment technologies.

Don’t miss this VB Live event for keen insights from leaders in the space on how U.S. companies can effectively operate globally or begin to expand globally. You’ll learn how to confront the challenges that scaling your audience can pose and improve it, from west to east, as you look to capture more of the global audience opportunity.

Register now for free.

You’ll learn about:
* The opportunities provided by the growth in the esports streaming content market
* What's causing the streaming content surge and market growth
* The technology making this explosive esports growth possible on a global scale
* Confronting the problems around scale in markets like China and elsewhere

Speakers:
* Dean Takahashi, Lead Writer, GamesBeat
* Johannes Waldstein, CEO, FanAI Inc.
* Roc Harry, Relationship Director, Worldpay
* Carter Rogers, Senior Analyst, SuperData Research

Sponsored by Worldpay

We’ve all seen the explosion of marketing technology companies over the past several years, clearly illustrated in Scott Brinker’s Marketing Technology Landscape that grew from 150 companies in 2011 to over 5,000 last year.

Today, we’re seeing many marketers who have been part of the martech tool buying spree in recent years take a step back and assess both how their stack works together and if they’re getting ROI from each piece. On the other hand, exciting developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have added capabilities and enhanced others.

So how do we make sense of the martech landscape today? How do you build a stack that answers business needs and takes advantage of cutting edge technology?

We’re excited to feature David Lewis, CEO of DemandGen, a leader at the forefront of making sense of today’s marketing tools for his clients, along with several innovative marketers who will discuss:

- Martech’s evolution in recent years
- Building a stack that makes business sense and delivers ROI
- Where martech is going, notably the impact of AI

When asked if they have good Sales and Marketing alignment, many leaders would quickly nod their heads. "Of course we do!" But when it comes down to it, is that alignment real? Are there clear SLAs in place for the treatment of leads and opportunities on both the Sales and Marketing sides? Is the impact of that alignment measurable? Do lead flow, reporting and other critical operations plumbing work as they should? How does this need to evolve as marketing is being asked to support growth across the customer experience?

We're excited to feature noted Marketing and Sales expert Matt Heinz, who will moderate a roundtable with visionaries from both functions where we'll discuss how to make tangible, measurable Sales and Marketing alignment a reality.

In this roundtable we'll cover topics like:

- How the best teams have operationalized Marketing and Sales' responsibilities
- How to measure the Marketing's influence at all stages of the buying cycle
- Which operational pitfalls to avoid

Every B2B marketer knows that great content is a key ingredient for winning growth strategy. Content marketing has changed dramatically since the “more is more” days. The best marketing teams, armed with better measurement capabilities, are taking a more thoughtful approach, delivering helpful, high-quality content and attributing its impact on growth. They’re also shifting their content mix. With 80% of web traffic expected to be video by 2020 (Cisco), streaming content like webinars and videos are no longer just a tick box for a top funnel asset. Target audiences want more engaging, interactive and human experiences online. Successful content teams are acquiring and inspiring their ideal audiences how, when and where they want at all stages of the customer journey.

In this lively roundtable, marketing content expert Steve Gershik and top marketers on the cutting edge of content will discuss:

- Leveraging the most compelling forms of content in 2018 at every stage of the buyer’s journey
- Making great storytelling a key part of your process
- Tips for measurement of content performance, connecting campaigns to revenue

The CMO role is in a time of great change. On the B2C side, we're seeing several noted CPG brands like Coca Cola eschewing the CMO role and instead hiring Chief Growth Officers. In B2B, there is some traction in the rise of CGOs but the broader trend shows the CMO role becoming much more metrics and revenue-driven. It's an exciting time for marketers but it's critical to understand what's driving this dramatic shift.

Liz Miller, SVP, Marketing at CMO Council will host a lively roundtable with several notable CMOs. In this session we'll explore why this shift is happening, how businesses should think about these leadership roles, and what this means for Marketing as a whole.

You'll learn:
- How the emergence of key technologies has powered the shift to CGOs and revenue-focused CMOs
- How the need for growth influences breaking down old siloes across organizations and placing big bets on innovation
- What a CGO does and whether your company needs one today

One of the best ways for companies to differentiate is by delivering a truly personal customer experience. In fact, today’s buyers have come to expect it. But customer interactions are happening on more applications and devices every day—so how do you ensure your customers get a seamless experience every time they contact your business, regardless of format or channel?

This session will take a deep dive into the next-generation technology that lets companies deliver an omnichannel contact center—one that uses every customer contact point and all relevant back-office information to create truly joyful journeys.

Most brands interact with their customers through advertising more than any other touchpoint. A good ad experience has become integral to a good customer experience pre and post purchase.

Learn about common mistakes brands are making that risk alienating, losing, and offending customers so that you can bring home ideas on how to solve the core issue.

2017 was the year where digital ad spend has surpassed TV ad spend. Brands are switching their ad spend focus from TV, radio and print to digital.

The majority of our audiences are hanging out online. But before we can market to them, first, we have to identify who is our target market. We will review how to create your customer avatar, identify their pain points and frustrations and pinpoint where the audiences are spending their time online.

With the target market identified, we will create content to engage users with the branded content. We will discuss the trends in creating content and review the types of content applicable at different stages of the customer lifecycle.

And now we are ready to disseminate this content on social media and engage with users. We will cover how to use social media to get your message across and connect with users who would be most likely to engage with your brand. The concept here is to engage, ascend the users to eventually become customers.

Bio: Jean Ginzburg is a best-selling author, serial entrepreneur, digital marketing expert with more than 10 years of industry expertise helping companies scale revenue, optimize sales and marketing processes and improve productivity. Jean is also the CEO of Ginball. Ginball's clients range from brand name Fortune 500 companies to innovative start-ups.

Jean launched her book Win New Customers: How to Attract, Connect, and Convert More Prospects into Customers in 60 Days Using Digital Marketing. The book is a #1 Amazon best-seller.

Jean's digital industry specializations include Full funnel marketing strategy, Facebook Advertising, Customer avatar development, Sales and Marketing Automation and Social Media.

Jean has been featured in numerous publications and as a radio and podcast guest. You can find the entire list here:
https://jeanginzburg.com/articles-and-podcasts/

Customer experience technologies play significant roles, yet it’s not uncommon for CX tech to actually make it harder to be a happy customer. To get it right, you need to look at customer experience technology not from an employee’s viewpoint, but from your customer’s perspective.

For customer relationship management, automated customer interactions, customer loyalty, enterprise feedback management, customer communities, social media and other platforms, this presentation will show you how to get beyond a technology-centered definition of customer experience management to view things the way customers do, and to leverage CX tech to inspire customer-centered management company-wide in ways that customers will reward with enthusiastic recommendations and expanded spending with your brand.

About the speaker
Lynn Hunsaker is Chief Customer Officer of ClearAction Continuum, which centers businesses on customers by empowering marketing and customer experience teams to adopt customer-centric outside-in thinking and influence for accelerating growth. She led customer experience strategy at Applied Materials and Sonoco Products Company since the early 1990s where her roles included Voice of the Customer Manager, Customer Satisfaction Improvement Manager and Head of Corporate Quality. Lynn has authored 3 customer experience handbooks, including Innovating Superior Customer Experience, and she was author of the year in 2017 and 2015 on CustomerThink.com. She is past president of Silicon Valley American Marketing Association and currently on the Board of Directors for Customer Experience Professionals Association. Lynn co-founded the ClearAction Value Exchange, which helps companies crack the code to overcoming organizational barriers to success with customer-driven change initiatives.

SEO & Content Marketing are the couple to beat. By understanding the art & science of SEO, this dynamic duo can help marketers in any vertical leverage their content marketing efforts to increase rankings and get eyeballs on their content.

The Internet didn’t exist 20 years ago. Especially in the form it does today. The Digital Revolution is an exciting time to be a marketer! Today there are more smart devices and more ways to search than ever before.

While there are no silver bullets, what I know for sure is that there are certain weapons & tactics you need in your tool bag that will help you hit your mark.

What should be in your bag: (what you’ll learn)

- Ranking research from Searchmetrics - Industry Ranking Factors https://www.searchmetrics.com/knowledge-base/ranking-factors-industry/
- Tactics for ranking as a Featured Snippet when people type questions into Google
- Content checklist: seasonality, semantic association of topics, search volume & intent

Content marketing is the very foundation of any marketing strategy. With limited time and resources, content is easily one of the best investments any business can make.

Targeted content can form the backbone for influencer and inbound marketing initiatives, thus maximizing the utility of short-form articles, white papers, ebooks, or infographics. In this presentation we take a look at how businesses can gain awareness, build trust, and grow with a content-first mentality.

Things you’ll learn:
- How to maximize your spend with content
- The Content Formula (Medium + Distribution x Frequency = Sales)
- Diversification of distribution and how to use digital assets effectively