After a grueling two-hour drive in, I finally made it to the DMA's Search Marketing Forum just before it began. (Which was helpful, considering we were sponsoring and I had our marketing materials in my car!)
The event, which was held at the Marriott Marquis in NYC, was better attended than I'd expected, and it went really well. I was impressed by the high-level of the content provided -- this was definitely a 200-300 level course. I kind of pity any newbies who decided to go, in fact.
Our own, brilliant Scott Delea stole the show, of course. He led a panel with Diane Rinaldo of Yahoo Search Marketing (formerly Overture. And don't call it Overture again!), Brett Goffin of Google, and Pattiann McAdams of Avon. The four of them fairly overwhelmed the crowd with solid info.
Pattiann brought up some interesting points about brand protection online, and shared the fact that Avon has dropped its keyword buy from several thousand to about fifty. They found that it wasn't worthwhile to buy keywords like "eyeliner" and "lipstick." When people are searching for Avon products, the keyword they tend to use is - AVON.
A good reminder to all to test, test, test - and track and analyze your results. She probably saved Avon a fortune with that nugget.
There were other useful sessions throughout the day, but the one I really wanted to see was a late addition on RSS & blogging and their affect on SEO. Sadly, I had to bolt out before it began, but I'll be emailing Amanda Watlington, who led the session, for a copy of her presentation.
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