Matrix Group International

Month: January 2019

  • How to Make Your Conference Speakers Feel Special

    How to Make Your Conference Speakers Feel Special

    MicrophoneI get asked to speak at industry and professional conferences throughout the year. While I appreciate the opportunity provided by every organization, I want to give a shout out to the International Foundation of Employee Benefits Plans (they call themselves the International Foundation, let’s call them the Foundation in this blog post).

    I don’t get paid a big speaking fee by the Foundation, but I always enjoy speaking at their conferences for one simple reason: I feel special, extra special, in fact. Here are some of the things the Foundation does really, really well for their speakers:

    • While I handle my own travel, they handle registration and hotel reservations, which reduces some of the friction associated with being a speaker.
    • I’m always assigned a designated moderator and that person always reaches out to me ahead of time to get to know me, brief me on the conference, answer my questions, and ask how I’d like to be introduced. I always, always ask for a brief introduction because long, boring introduction take the energy out of a room.
    • I get demographic information about the attendees, and the results of any industry surveys recently done. For example, I’m speaking at the Foundation’s Institute for Apprenticeship, Training and Education Programs this week, and a week ahead of time I received a copy of their most recent survey: Top Trends in Jointly Managed Apprenticeship Programs from 2018. This survey is gold; I will be able to better tailor my remarks to my audience!
    • When I check in, I’m warmly welcomed. I get a special thank you from the Director, who makes a point of telling me that his attendees attend his conferences because of speakers like me. There’s a speaker ready room, and there’s a speaker thank you reception the first night of the conference.

    I bet it doesn’t cost the Foundation very much to do these extra things for their speakers, but they go a long way toward making me feel welcomed and valued.

    So shout out to Tom DeRoche, Director of Educational Programs, and his team at the Foundation!

    Since so many of you say that it’s the educational content that draws people to your conferences, what are YOU doing to make your speakers feel special?

  • Make These Your 2019 Resolutions for your Website and Web Marketing

    Make These Your 2019 Resolutions for your Website and Web Marketing

    strategy planning in notebookIt’s the start of a new year. Did you accomplish all of your digital goals from 2018? Did you complete every project? If you like Matrix Group, or most of my clients, you didn’t meet all of your goals, but you gave it a good try. As you ponder the new year, I hope you’ll think about adding these resolutions to your digital to do list for 2019.

    Evolve Your Website.

    If the idea of a full website redesign scares you, why not consider evolving your website instead? Here at Matrix Group, we tackle a section or feature of our website every quarter. We might redesign just one page, redo a form, or update the language on a bunch of pages. Last year, we:

    • Updated my blog home page
    • Updated our Contact Us form
    • Redesigned our Recent Projects page
    • Updated our presentation template
    • Refreshed our About Matrix Group blurb, and
    • Changed our webinars to have co-presenters from outside the company.

    Because we tackled these initiatives in pieces, it didn’t kill us and we got a lot done.

    Tidy Your Website Content.

    If you’re friends with me on Facebook, you know that two years ago, my husband and I read “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up” by Marie Kondo. If you haven’t read the book, watch the show on Netflix. And this year, resolve to declutter your website so that only the content that will spark joy in your members and customers will be on your site AND your search will work better.

    Look at Your Analytics!

    I know, seems obvious, but many organizations don’t look at their analytics regularly. If you don’t, how do you know what content is connecting with your audiences? To get started, just do these three things:

    • Look at your analytics once a week
    • Never, ever send out a link without Google UTM codes so that traffic on your site can be attributed to your campaigns
    • Put in annotations and note when you send out mass emails, mailed out your magazine, or ran an AdWords campaign.

    Get Started with Marketing Automation.

    Marketing automation refers to software and technologies that automate the often repetitive tasks involved in cultivating prospective and current customers and members, and do it in a way that allows for personalization based on time, an individual’s demographics, and/or an individual’s actions. Marketing automation can be used to create personalized members journeys via email and on the web for new members, new primary contacts, prospective members, etc. If you’re not already using marketing automation in your organization, make this the year you explore how it can benefit you.

    Revamp Your Content.

    If your content strategy hasn’t changed in the last decade or even half decade, it’s time for an overhaul. Your customers are mobile, they are time constrained, they are busy, they are distracted, and what you’re offering is probably available for free somewhere on the web. Take one thing and redo it. Change the format of your webinars, rethink your e-newsletter strategy, convert text to video, consider a nano learning format, get rid of your paper directory.

    2019 is the year to test new ideas, be bold, and learn. What are YOU going to do differently in 2019?