Internet Marketing Conference Tips: Heather Lloyd-Martin

SES San Jose week is nearly over one might say we’ve saved some of the best internet marketing conference tips for last with the ever enthusiastic and insightful Heather Lloyd-Martin.

Heather is Chair, DMA’s Search Engine Marketing Council and President of SuccessWorks. She also blogs about copywriting at SEO Copywriting.

Attend all the “search marketing site labs” or “search marketing clinics” you can find. During a site lab, a panel of experts review Web sites on the fly and discuss how to improve them for search positioning and conversions.

Here’s why they are so cool:

1. If your site is reviewed, you get free consulting from the best minds in the industry. Search marketing experts charge anywhere from $250-$500+ an hour. Even if a three or four-person panel spends just 15 minutes reviewing your site, you are seeing remarkable value for your money. I’ve seen panels suggest one site tweak that ended up making the company thousands of dollars.

2. If you are too shy to have your site reviewed, simply sitting in the sessions is a great learning experience. Chances are, you’ll pick up quite a few actionable tips and ideas for your own site.

Go to the networking parties. Sure, you may feel like you have 1,000 things to do after being away from work for a day. But it’s amazing how much business actually takes place during these things. If nothing else, walk around with a glass of water (or your beverage of choice) and try to talk to as many people as you can. By the end of the conference, you’ll have formed some fledgling business relationships that you can develop later. I’ve seen people hired during networking parties, I’ve seen partnerships formed – I’ve even seen a group of folks brainstorm a new business idea. The parties are definitely worth it!

You’ve got to love advice that explains specifically how you can get more than you’re money’s worth from an internet marketing conference. Excellent tips Heather.

As SES San Jose winds down, another value packed set of tips is coming your way this afternoon from Michael Brito, Social Media Program Manager at Intel.

If you’re attending SES San Jose this week, what tips can you share with our readers that will make the next SES even more productive for you?