Aaron Weiche

I'm headed out to Spokane, Washington tomorrow to sit in on the one day Local University put on by GetListed.org.  This local search focused workshop is being headed up by David Mihm, Matt McGee, Mike Blumenthal as well as some other great small business Internet marketing minds.

As much as anything I'm looking forward to hanging out with David and Matt.  Those two guys are on my short list of great local and search marketing minds, write blog posts I read frequently and worth a follow by any business on Twitter. I have had the chance to interact with both of them over the years via email, social media or projects as well.

One other goal besides the knowledge, networking and beer(s) ... is working with David to bring one of these Local University sessions to Minneapolis.  It would be fantastic and of great value to the business community here. 

I'll post pics and a round-up later this week.

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When visiting the Minneapolis Star Tribune this afternoon I was bombarded with a page of ads for email marketing services.

Both iContact and Vertical Response were serving up banner ads on the newspaper's home page.  It could only mean one thing, Minneapolis is the place for email marketing.

In all seriousness though, it shows how widely accepted email marketing has become. Business big and small, non-profits, interest groups, associations and even neighborhoods use email marketing to communicate, market and sell.

Though widely accepted and used, there still lies a great distance between using email to market and greatly leveraging the tools capabilities. List building, segmentation, purposed messaging and performance measurement can all be taken to great lengths with email marketing when done right.

Email marketing offers a lot for sure, but it's also important to see past just "doing it" and really unleash its power.

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As a Minnesotan, I'm well used to the "snow hype" we seem to put into rumored snow storms.  Each one starts with initial forecasts of 2 to 4 inches, then somehow through TV news, gossip and other ingredients, it ends up being a forecast of at least a foot of snow.

What if you can grab onto that hype and join the spin?
I was surprised to get an email from a local hotel where I live in Buffalo, advertising a "snow rate" of $69 for the night.

I applaud them for jumping into the topic of the day and using it to put their name into the mix.  It's a great and clever marketing strategy that offers both branding and a call to action.

Here is another example of snow storm marketing, Green Mill Restaurants via Twitter.

Now I'm wondering why the ski and snowboard hill near me doesn't send me an email telling me what I should do with my day tomororw?

Video from me out in Snowmass, 2009

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I put together a blog post on the Five Technology blog that looks at ways any business can improve their website through their content.  Where many businesses focus on features and benefits, I try to help companies look outside of that.  There is often more value in many other content angles than the normal f/b structure.

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I had the opportunity to speak to the Buffalo Chamber of Commerce in April regarding Internet marketing, search engine optimization and web content.

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