My SEO Lead Generation Conference Review

Photo source: Janette Toral

When Ms Janette Toral sent me a message of invitation via Facebook for this SEO Lead Generation Conference, I was in the middle of vacation in my hometown in Bicol. I already booked a flight Legapzi – Manila route and it is going to be on Aug. 3rd.   

I am not even expecting to be invited by her personally because I don’t even know if she still recognizes me.  I have been to a number of events she organizes but I could not remember I had the chance to talk to her one – on – one in person that can make her remember me.
This two - day event will happen on July 12th – 13th so the schedule is way, way out of my plan. I was on the verge of deciding to let this pass but because I regard her as one of the few names in the Philippines who is known in the online field particularly these things that I have deep interests: blogging, seo, social media, online marketing et cetera, I decided to give it a go. 

Me sipping a cup of tea during a break

I quickly checked our local airlines for the cheapest flight (one hour ride) but I have not found one maybe because the date is so near so I decided to take a bus instead which I have not done after so many years.  Well , the  12 – hour butt – numbing ride is all worth it as I have learned more things about digital marketing. I have never been this aggressive to know more about how search engine results work until I owned an online hop for local tours so this is definitely something I should not miss.   

The reason is all because of the speakers : 

Mannix Pabalan : SEO, Web Design, User Experience, and Funnel Optimization 

For such a long time, I always wonder who is the brain behind Ayosdito.ph who had the balls to rival against the country’s leading giant online store. The reason is almost every day while online, I stalk what are the biggest online players / personalities in the country to get ideas I can incorporate in my own ways. Ayosdito.ph is one of those. 

I also loved what he said which I will always remember as an owner of a small business online “There is no small or big in the eyes of a customer searching for a thing online so long as his need has been answered.  Everything is equal.” I agree with him. So thank you to this conference, this is the man!  

 Sean Si : SEO and E-Mail Marketing

I have heard him speak in a previous iBlog event and this guy is awesome when it comes to seo. As a matter of fact, I followed him on Twitter right after to learn more of him.  I learned about email marketing that it is still the number one compared to other forms of marketing.  I actually have tons of emails from clients. Though I don’t plan to spam them or sell them, this gave me so much ideas to make an initiative that can be done through email marketing.

Fitz Villafuerte : Buyer Persona Creation 

I admire this guy when it comes to finance literacy talks! But in this event, he shared his story as the founder of 199jobs.com. He pointed out the importance of doing surveys to customers. He mentioned about the business pain points like “what is the problem that they want to solve?”, “which led  them to your business?” and “what are the things they value the most?”. So far I don’t send feedback forms to my clients yet so this is really something that I need to look forward to. I am a one – woman team right now so hope I find another hand to help me with this business I started from scratch.

Genesis Reonico: Building and Sustaining a Lead Generation Community
I always encounter the words "virtual assistants" since then from Jomar Hilario  to Chris Ducker of Cebu.This is actually a title I have not owned as someone who makes a living online.  Through his talk I got a few insight of what VA's are and even added on Facebook a fellow participant in the event who is a VA. I'm now reading her website about what she does because she said there is a lot of opportunity for blogging in the VA world. 
    

Mark Acsay: SEO and Crafting Your Unique Selling Proposition

Okay I admit this is the one I find very technical … speaking about funnels and unique selling proposition! I admit this one is a very tough topic to share. With all those complex formula, the takeaway is there are always basic patterns of solutions that we can incorporate to each of our online goals. There is nothing that we cannot crack online so long as it is done in the right way or the one that they say white hat SEO.

Carlo Angelo P. Gonzales : SEO and Content Marketing

SEO and content marketing always work hand in hand. In laymans terms, this is all about spreading an engaging story. No matter how the content is so damn good, if it is not brought out in a way that it catches  the right audience it is a waste. By the way that picture of the smiling actress, really caught   the attention of everyone, especially the guys. That’s a perfect example for the topic!

Paul Agabin : SEO and Social Media Marketing for Lead Generation

Whoa! I have never encountered a speaker in an event who talks while there is a music playing.  I laughed so hard and so is everyone. He knows how to capture the audience’s attention. He saved us from afternoon’s drowsiness!

Last but not the least, Ms Janette Toral shared about lead generation. She said that nowadays the competition online in search rankings are no longer based on whose keywords get the highest position on search engines. From my understanding as this is a new term to me as well, this all about the process of finding the right people who has the mindset of choosing or already in the decision of purchasing your product or service.  Once you find them, this is the time that you begin the selling point.