ANPI and RTG Join Forces to Provide Comprehensive Value to Customers

In the last stretch of finalizing the agenda for ANPI’s upcoming Annual Meeting, a partnership was formed. What amazes me about this partnership is the ease of which it all came together. It’s one of those rare moments in business where two organizations just “make sense” to combine efforts.

Today is an exciting day around my office because we’re pleased to announce enhancement to ANPI’s 2009 Annual Meeting. ANPI and Rural Telecommunications Group (RTG) will co-produce several sessions at the upcoming customer event set for May 4-5 in Scottsdale, Arizona. Every year ANPI hosts an Annual Meeting for shareholders and customers, and for the first time we’ve expanded the agenda focus to include sessions that address the needs of wireless providers. It is ANPI’s Annual Meeting that will now serve as a joint customer meeting for both ANPI and RTG.

I think the opportunity for our customers was summarized best by Dave Lewis, ANPI’s chief executive officer, when he shared during a planning meeting, “It has always been ANPI’s goal to provide meeting topics that are both educational and relevant to our customers. Since many of our customers either operate wireless divisions today or are considering entering the wireless market, RTG is a natural fit to include in this meeting. RTG’s contribution to the agenda and speaker lineup solidifies a program that is timely and relevant for our respective organizations.”

RTG’s executive director, Jerry Wilke, added, “RTG’s members are small businesses serving or seeking to serve secondary, tertiary and rural markets, and this is exactly the market that ANPI has so effectively served since 1996. We believe combining our efforts will result in an event that benefits both organizations immensely.”

Why are the organizations such a complement to each other? ANPI provides wholesale voice and data carrier solutions to a diverse and growing number of ILECs, CLECs and Wireless service providers with the goal of utilizing the organization’s scale and collective resources to maximize multiple business opportunities for our customers. While RTG’s members provide wireless telecommunications services, such as cellular telephone service and Personal Communications Services, among others, to their subscribers. RTG is comprised of both independent wireless carriers and wireless carriers that are affiliated with rural telephone companies.

Gene Chohon, vice president of sales and market development for ANPI, said it well, “RTG’s participation in the upcoming meeting is a great step towards a mutual goal for both organizations. That goal is to provide customers with a forum that brings together industry leaders and experts in a common setting that is conducive for attendee and speaker interaction. I think we’re going to accomplish exactly that with ANPI’s and RTG’s joint efforts.”

The new co-produced sessions will address the growth of wireless opportunities in rural America including the availability of spectrum and creation of the business case to light it. Other discussions include new wireless technologies and what they mean for service providers and their competitors. Sessions will also include discussions for shared wireless infrastructure, Capex realities, nationwide networks and peering. RTG’s members can check out meeting details and register via ANPI’s website.

Pamela White
Director of Marketing & Communications, ANPI

Slides from ANPI’s Marketing Workshop Preview Webinar

ANPI’s Marketing Workshop in Scottsdale, AZ is a mere 45 days away and yesterday we held a webinar to introduce you to the main topic of the workshop — Inbound Marketing. Sara Hertrampf, Sales and Marketing Manager of Alpine Communications said, “Great webcast today!! Mike Volpe did a great job putting everything into perspective. I’m so inspired!”

The webinar was just a short preview of the workshop scheduled for May 5 — an afternoon focused on your inbound marketing and how you can help your company “get found” by people shopping for the services you provide. We will spend 5 hours evaluating and improving your very own online marketing strategy, plus introduce you to tools that will have you measuring your marketing success in no time.

To quote this year’s Marketing Workshop leader, Mike Volpe, “If you’re a marketer and you’re not tracking your marketing with metrics, you’re not trying hard enough.”

Mike Volpe is the Vice President of Marketing at HubSpot, an Internet marketing software startup, where he leads the company’s lead generation and branding strategy through inbound marketing, including blogging, search engine optimization (SEO), video marketing and social media.

Below are the slides from yesterday’s sneak peek presentation of the ANPI Marketing Workshop. We hope you’ll be able to join us in Scottsdale on May 5.

A Sneak Peek Webinar of the Upcoming Marketing Workshop is scheduled for March 19

In today’s economy the pressure is on marketers to prove ROI. As an introduction to Inbound Marketing, the main topic of ANPI’s Marketing Workshop scheduled for May 5 in Scottsdale, we’ve planned a complimentary webinar for marketers interested in knowing how Web 2.0 marketing tactics can be implemented to successfully promote your products and services.

Think tactics like blogs, SEO and social media don’t apply to you? Let the expert show you how they do. HubSpot’s Vice President of Marketing, Mike Volpe, will conduct a webinar that will introduce you to Inbound Marketing.

After this exclusive preview webinar, you will better understand how lessons learned at the upcoming ANPI Marketing Workshop will enable you to shed ineffective tactics and have the confidence to move forward with a new strategy of Inbound Marketing.

Intro to Inbound Marketing Webinar
Thursday, March 19 • 10:30 AM Central
Register for the “Intro to Inbound Marketing Webinar”!

Inbound Marketing Expert to Lead ANPI’s 2009 Marketing Workshop

Too many meetings — too little time (and budget). As director of marketing at ANPI, I know the pain. Not a week goes by that I don’t hear about another conference that is a “Must Attend”. I’m admittedly growing cynical and tired of digging through agendas that are more of the same. So when I plan ANPI’s Marketing Workshop — I keep everything in perspective of the busy marketer who is invited to a different meeting each week and I picture myself — luckily that isn’t hard to do since I know me fairly well. This self-awareness comes in pretty handy as we kick around ideas. I’ve been a marketer long enough to experience the transition from “Traditional” to “New and Scary” marketing tactics first hand. Although, if you’re someone who has ever paid a few thousand dollars on a mass mail campaign only to hear crickets chirping, you know all about “scary”.

I am a firm believer that inbound marketing tactics are more than a trend. We all hear of plenty of companies adopting successful web marketing strategies, yet sometimes it is difficult to picture how their success could parlay to our own. The reality is budgets are tightening and pressure is increasing. So how do you tap into the power of Web 2.0? I am just like you, operating a marketing department with increasing responsibilities and without an increasing staff or budget. Time and budget limitations have pushed me out of my comfort zone of “traditional tactics” and into an exciting new world.

I say inbound marketing is exciting for several reasons:

1. It is fluid.
Because it is ever changing, your information and tactics can adjust accordingly.

2. It is real time.
No more sitting around awaiting mail processing so we can guess if there is an uptick in activity. We know it — and we know it quickly.

3. It is scalable and affordable.
With constricting budgets and growing expectations of results, inbound marketing makes sense for me.

4. It is proof old dogs can learn new tricks.
I’ve learned more in the past 1.5 years since meeting David Meerman Scott (author of the #1 best seller New Rules of Marketing & PR and World Wide Rave) than I have in all my years as a marketer.

I realize and appreciate that trying new is scary. Trying new when under the gun is petrifying. Since 2007 I’ve studied the actions and lessons of others — becoming a follower of thought leaders such as Seth Godin, David Meerman Scott, Charlene Li and Mike Volpe (to name just a few).

So back to the announcement at hand — ANPI’s Spring Marketing Workshop. When we were kicking around ideas we started thinking — what has improved our lives as marketers? What is different about today than last year or the year before? What have we learned since diving into the dynamic world of Web 2.0? And then the message was clear. Let’s not try to be the expert. Admittedly, we are very much still students ourselves. Let’s get someone that is an actual expert — doing this day in and day out. That my friends was our ah-ha moment.

We are thrilled to have Mike Volpe from Hubspot join us in Scottsdale to run the most intense, hands on, cut-the-fluff-it’s-all-action marketing session we’ve ever hosted. Mike is one of the foremost experts in inbound marketing, and within 5 hours he will show you exactly what needs to be done and how to do it. This isn’t a theoretical discussion at 10,000 feet. This is a bring-your-laptops-and-login to work on your information in real time. You will leave this session educated, empowered and enthused about the new tools you have available at your fingertips. Attending this session is a small investment of time and money that will pay dividends in your 2009 marketing successes.

Register today so we can do proper research on your company, and customize the presentation to address your current marketing efforts. I’m not saying this is another “Must Attend” but I will say — if you are interested in becoming a smarter marketer with the confidence to adjust your current tactics — this is the meeting for you.

Pamela White
Director of Marketing & Communications, ANPI