It was interesting, intense, tough, and at the end of the day, very rewarding. The MarketingExperiments optimization team condensed 7 weeks of email optimization coursework into one day with a one-hour test.
Those who started the nine-hour day frisky and positive left a little less frisky, but the consensus was the jam-packed class (450 attendees) today at the Intercontinental Hotel Miami got exactly what they signed-up for: Expert understanding of how to optimize email capture, envelope fields, body copy, and landing pages (but in reverse–those who are “in the know” will understand) for their companies.
Malli Gero, principle, Gero Communications, who has worked in marketing and PR for 25 years, summed it up for me: “As a solo practitioner, I have to choose carefully what I sign up for, so I was excited about this summit. When I told my clients where I was going, they were really excited. My mode of speaking to the media is only through email, so writing that subject line is critical.”
Eric Choi, manager of database marketing for Citrix Online, said he likes “the scientific approach” MarketingExperiments takes to professional certification courses. “The typical marketing approach is to go with your gut.” Anyone who attended the Marketers’ Intuition Revisited Web clinic in December knows how wrong that is. The majority of marketers who attended were wrong every time Dr. Flint McGlaughlin asked them to pick which landing page, which PPC, which email, etc. did the best in our tests.
Karen Imbrogno, customer communications manager for Insurance.com, was keen to add yet another ME stripe to her qualifications. Imbrogno has an Online Testing Professional certification already, and other members of her team have Landing Page Optimization certifications.
Karen told Dr. McGlaughlin and the class that her team “follows your advice religiously.”
While we wait for the results of our tests, I think another of Gero’s comments best sums up the day: “It’s been great – it really adds a lot of value. I hope I remember it all!”
Me too, Malli. See you tomorrow…
