Scott Harrison’s story of turning his life around from one of excess indulgences and shallow endeavors as a NYC night club promoter, to founding one of the fastest growing and influential non-profit charities in the world, charity: water  — which brings clean water to poor villages around the world — is more than just a fascinating tale.

It’s a lesson in the smart use of connections, social media, emotional selling and accountability for your actions. And it’s a striking tale of growth with a zero dollar marketing budget to raising more than $100 million dollars and helping more than 3 million people in just six years.  Is it something that can apply to other industries in marketing?  I think so.

As a keynote speaker at last week’s Inbound Marketing Conference in Boston, Harrison presented not just a tale of how he got to where he is, but also succeeded in getting nearly 4,000 people in the room (include myself) to vow to support the charity’s efforts. Talk about leveraging the power of the masses!

 

Read my blog post at the UP THERE, EVERYWHERE website.

 

E3 International Agency Network will host its first-ever open conference (open to the public and not just members). For E3, this is an important moment. For international marketers, it’s a great chance to hear from some experts in the area of place branding and global marketing.

The conference will be held October 9 in Duisburg Germany.

Why Duisburg? Well, for one thing, one of the agency conference organizers, Sander Werbung is there. For another, it’s a perfectly centrally located European location that many E3 members, prospects and clients will find it easy to get to.  And finally, it allows E3 to turn the conference into a workshop for the city of Duisburg…bring great minds together to consider it’s branding strategy.

The event will be held at Landschaftspark Duisburg Nord. This former iron and steel working industrial complex has been thoughtfully turned into a community park and conference location by the city of Duisburg Nord.

E3 Meeting Agenda

The E3 meeting will include several international speakers in the areas of place branding and authenticity in brand building.

09:00 am – Reception and registration

09:45 am – Opening: Michael Meier President E3

10:00 am – Greeting: Mayor of Duisburg, Sören Link

10:30 am – Speaker: Michael Beverland, Professor University of Bath (UK) “Building brand authenticity habits”

11:15 am – Break

11:30 am- Speaker: Julian Stubbs, Sweden  “Ideas for Duisburg”

1:00 pm – Lunch break 2:00 pm – Speaker: Carlo Einarsson, Sweden, “400 years of company history – Chances and Challenges”

3:00 pm – Speaker:  Raf Stevens, Belgium,  “Corporate Storytelling”

3:45 pm – Coffee break 4:00 pm  – Workshop led by Raf Stevens,  “How to create myths and legends”

6:00 pm – End

For more information and to register for the conference, visit the Global Marketing Conference website.

Global Marketing Conference Registration >>

I hope to see you there!

You’ve probably heard it said…”Email marketing is dead.” Well, don’t believe it! Email marketing is not dead, it’s just evolving.

The truth is, email is an important part of any marketing campaign. When used at the right times as part of an integrated multi-channel approach, email delivers just the right message in a highly targeted and measurable way.

Vendors like Constant Contact, Marketo and Hubspot make tools that not only incorporate email as an essential component to any marketing campaign, but also rely on email to be the closer for social media and inbound marketing efforts.  Email is a valuable and proven way to get your customers back to your site or responding to an offer.

Not convinced? Here are seven signs that email marketing is not dead:

1. 94% of adults check their email every day. (Source)
2. 74% of online adults prefer email for commercial communication.  (Source)
3. 62% of adult US Internet users check or send email on a daily basis.  (Source)
4. Social media users are over 60% more likely to check email at least four times a day than those who don’t use social media. (Source).
5. People. who buy products marketed through email spend 138% more than people that do not receive email offers. (Source)
6. 44% of email recipients made at least one purchase last year based on a promotional email. (Source)
7. Email generates a 2x return compared to other channels. (Source)

Check out this infographic from Marketo that sums it up.