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Results for: 'marketing plan'
12 items found:
New Marketing Action Planning Tool. This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
New Marketing Action Planning Tool
I have been working with Palo Alto Software for almost a year now to write a marketing plan software based on the Duct Tape Marketing system.
I am thrilled to be able to announce that Marketing Plan Pro powered by Duct Tape Marketing is now ready to [...]
(08/21/08 09:00 PM)
I Hate Business Plans. Okay, anyone who knows me at all knows that I don’t really hate anything, and I don’t really hate business plans, what I dislike is the way people think about, and then consequently use, business and marketing plans.
To me, a plan for anything is an action plan. If fact, the first step in creating a [...]
(07/15/08 09:01 AM)
Eight Ways to Integrate Webinars Into a B2B Marketing Plan. B2B sales happen over a period of several months as trust builds between the prospect and the seller. Webinars may be used not just to bring new leads in the door but also to move existing leads through the pipeline to a final contract.
Rather than a one-hit approach, you need to determine where webinars fit into the overall sales cycle.
(06/24/08 09:00 AM)
How Complex Should a Marketing Plan Be?. To get to the heart of the question in the title I guess we first need to agree that a marketing plan is an important small business tool.
I think it’s essential and here’s why. Creating a marketing strategy that really allows you to build marketing momentum and then surrounding that strategy with the right tactics [...]
(06/18/08 09:00 AM)
9 Guerrilla Marketing Answers. A few weeks ago I was on an Austin Technology Council panel for the topic of Guerilla Marketing (YouTube Videos here). I’ve always loved Guerrilla marketing, and wrote a book on Guerrilla and Word of Mouth Marketing in 1997 with foreword from Jay Conrad Levinson, the "father" of Guerilla Marketing. I also have this unpublished book of 193 Clever marketing ideas ... I’m not going to do anything with it, so I posted it to Scribd for people to read for free. I made a few notes to answer the questions the moderator was going to ask for the panel. I’m on a long flight back from London right now...a good time to expand these notes and publish them... 1. What criteria do you use to choose where to spend marketing dollars for new technology companies? Start with sales first. You need very little marketing in the beginning. They are the most productive form of research and recon for the market, because they're selling at the same time, adapting the message and learning what works. From this intelligence you build your foundation for the marketing plan and priorities. The bulls eye spend is on establishing outside credibility, typically through press and case studies. Also identify the customer objections from the sales team and work on overcoming those first. Finally, build and leverage partnerships. Leverage their spend and be associated with brands that are larger and more credible than yours (for now!). 2. What is the most efficient way to get...
(04/21/08 09:01 AM)
This is the article that I wrote this month for adotas. The idea here is that so often, marketers are consumed with all of the media and hype around them that we neglect to setup proper boundaries and filters for ourselves and for our teams to ensure that we're truly able to focus on our marketing mission, only letting that which will truly benefit our organization onto the marketing plan.
â??Donâ??t fence me inâ?? is the mindset of most marketers and creative
members of your team. The last thing we typically want is to have
boundaries on our time, creativity and choices. Boundaries, however,
are what keep you and I focused on the business of marketing and others
focused on sales and still others focused on finance and operations.
The ability to set, express, and maintain boundaries is an essential
part of any healthy marketing department. Boundaries build â??win-winâ??
relationships by making clarifying needs and limits, while opening the
field on what options are available for meeting marketing objectives.
More specifically, setting marketing boundaries around both new and
legacy marketing tactics allow you to focus on those things that matter
and only pursue those ideas that pass through your well-established
marketing boundaries, ensuring a higher degree of success.
What do marketing boundaries look like, and how can you know where and how to set them?
Peter Block, author of Flawless Consulting, says that â??If you canâ??t
say â??no,â?? your â??yesesâ?? donâ??t mean a thing.â?? Thatâ??s so absolutely true.
In marketing, if we canâ??t say â??NOâ?? to those things that seem to beg at
our budgets and demand our time, weâ??re hamstrung in trying to
accomplish those things that weâ??ve already said â??yesâ?? to. In order to
keep our yes and no categories in check, there are five key boundary
setting techniques that I recommend for all marketers.
Learn to say The Positive â??NOâ??: Yes, you can say
â??noâ?? positively. Knowing that your â??noâ?? answer leads to increased
energy and focus on the â??yesesâ?? youâ??ve already committed to. To get a
feel for this, look at where you should say â??NOâ?? right now. Sit down
right now and identify the emerging demands on your marketing team,
plan and budget. Identify 5-10 â??NOâ??sâ?? you need to say. Then, for each,
ask yourself, â??What would I be willing to say â??Yesâ?? to in this case?â??
Choose wisely - only what you are willing to do, and can do with the
same energy and focus that youâ??ve committed to apply to your existing
â??yeses.â??
Establish â??gate criteriaâ?? for new marketing vehicles and ideas:
Thereâ??s a tool used in product development called the â??Stage-Gateâ??
method that includes a set of predetermined steps from idea to launch.
By implementing a similar set of procedural steps in reviewing new
marketing ideas, tools, tactics and technologies you will gain a clear
understanding of what you should allow into your marketing mix and
whatâ??s destined for the â??NOâ?? pile. Just as you have a systematic
process for evaluating candidates that you hire onto your marketing
team, you need to establish rigor in what ideas make it onto the
marketing plan.
Equip your team with boundary setting tools: The
best boundary setting tools are of little benefit to an organization if
all of the information and minute decisions are still run though the
head of marketing. When working through the exercise on the â??positive
NOâ?? and setting up your gate criteria, walk you team through the
process and gather their input. When you get to the next iteration,
walk through it with your team again and point out where their input is
included. Repeat until complete.
Transfer ownership of boundaries to your team:
Working through step 3, â??equip your team,â?? will set the stage for
ownership transfer. Once youâ??ve settled on an initial â??NOâ?? list and
have your gate criteria and process established, it should become part
of everyoneâ??s job to ensure that everything is vetted through the new
process and â??NOâ?? test before it comes up for discussion. This way
youâ??ll have a team thatâ??s always focused on the securing the win for
each of your committed â??yesesâ?? but that also knows how to spot a
genuine opportunity when it comes along.
Keep your freedom to choose: When youâ??re not clear
on what you should say no to, itâ??s equally challenging on what to say
yes to. By setting marketing boundaries, youâ??ll free up your thoughts
and energy to focus on what matters most in achieving your objectives,
while simultaneously freeing yourself to make smart choices using your
new â??power of NOâ?? and ideas evaluation methods.
Once youâ??ve established boundaries, a system and criteria for new
marketing idea review and delegate boundary management to your team,
youâ??ll find yourself with more focus, energy and initiative behind
those decisions that you have committed to and will have a fool-proof
system for staying in step with the newest marketing trends without
feeling like youâ??re being carried away on a tidal wave of runaway
marketing ideas.
Today's service industry organizations depend on deeper and more relevant customer connections to drive loyalty, retention, referrals and reactivation within their coveted client base. These companies don't just need technology however, they need a systems perspective on how to integrate the ever changing world of social media, social networking and Web 2.0 into their core business infrastructure to meet their customers in their medium, now and in the future.
The Latest Internet & Marketing Technologies that can Impact Your 2008 Marketing Plans
Your copy of the Marketech 08 Guide PDF will show you how to put these technologies to work for you.
This guide includes a service-organization perspective that will help you:
Utilize relevant marketing & customer service technologies that today's leading service organizations employ to connect with their customers. This includes an overview of tools from social networking via Facebook, organic corporate networks and customer community programs to communication vehicles like blogs, online video and podcasting.
Integrate with existing common customer loyalty, retention, referrals and reactivation initiatives.
Identify benefits and risks associated with these techniques and technologies such as lower cost to service and increased referrals vs. loss of central control and the increasing customer control of your brand reputation.
Discover who's doing this already examples and how is it working for them. We'll look at a myriad of case examples with learning's and action items than any organization can apply.
This eBook is available as an
Instant Download in Adobe PDF
*** Full disclosure: I wrote the e-book as part of a project for the AMA in late 2007 and retained the rights to publish. The response to the guide in my TechnoMarketing sessions and other speaking engagements has been so positive that I've decided to offer the item for sale.
(04/04/08 09:00 PM)
Marketech 08: Using Emerging Media in Marketing. Marketech 08: Using Emerging Media in Marketing - AMA Members-Only Webcast
Today's service industry organizations depend on
deeper and more relevant customer connections to drive loyalty, retention,
referrals and reactivation within their coveted client base. These companies
don't just need technology; however, they need a systems perspective on how to
integrate the ever changing world of social media, social networking and Web 2.0
into their core business infrastructure to meet their customers in their medium,
now and in the future.
The Latest Internet & Marketing Technologies
that can Impact Your 2008 Marketing Plans
You'll also receive a complimentary copy of the
Marketech 08 Guide PDF that shows how to put these technologies to work for you.
This program includes a
service-organization perspective that will help you:
Utilize relevant marketing & customer service
technologies that today's leading service organizations employ to connect with
their customers. This includes an overview of tools from social networking via
Facebook, organic corporate networks and customer community programs to
communication vehicles like blogs, online video and podcasting.
Integrate with existing common customer loyalty,
retention, referrals and reactivation initiatives.
Identify benefits and risks associated with
these techniques and technologies such as lower cost to service and increased
referrals vs. loss of central control and the increasing customer control of
your brand reputation.
Discover who's doing this already (examples) and
how is it working for them. We'll look at a myriad of case examples with
learning's and action items than any organization can apply.
Date: December 6, 2007
Times: Session 1 - 10am PST/ 11am MST/
12pm CST/1pm EST or Session 2 - 12pm PST/1pm MST/2pm CST/3pm EST
Thanks again to all of your who were in New York on the 20th! Due, in large part, to the super-positive feedback that we received from the event, Toby, Bill and I will be doing a total of six events, with the three in 2008 as the latest additions to the mix.
But, before we get to the dates, don't take our word for it, look at what one of the attendees from New York had to say:
I wanted to thank you, Toby, Bill and Dana for a fabulous conference. It was truly the most valuable professional development conference I have ever attended. I really appreciated the thoughtful presentations, specific case studies and valuable insights that all the presentors had to share. And the small group setting really allowed for dynamic and interactive discussion that made it possible to apply the learnings to your own work.
Please keep me on the list for any future web 2.0 professional development conferences that you give, and similarly I hope that Toby, Bill and Dana will keep me in mind if they are ever doing conferences (especially in the washington, dc area).
7:30 ... 8:15 a.m. Registration and Continental Breakfast
8:15 ... 8:30 a.m. Setting the Stage
8:30 ... 9:00 a.m. Social Media Defined
9:00 ... 10:00 a.m. The State of the Industry: Where Do You Stand?
10:00 ... 10:15 a.m. Break
10:15 ... 11:15 a.m. The Social Media Landscape
11:15 ... 12:15 p.m. RSS, Widgets and Social Syndication
12:15 ... 1:15 p.m. Lunch
1:15 ... 2:30 p.m. How Do We Measure This Thing? Social Media Metrics & ROI
2:30 ... 2:45 p.m. Break
2:45 ... 3:45 p.m. The Social Media Marketing Plan & Social Media Process
3:45 ... 4:45 Marketing Makeover: Applying Social Media in Two Parts
After several hours of exploring the ins and outs of Social Media and Web 2.0, now it's time to put our education into action!
Finally, we'll conduct a series of 'marketing makeovers' with willing participating companies in the audience. We'll dive deep into specific, emerging or hypothetical marketing challenges where Social Media tools and tactics will provide a competitive marketing edge, illustrating precisely how the Social Media tools discussed throughout the day can be applied to your individual marketing challenge.
As many a marketing manager and media planner turns their focus to 2008 (in fact, I'm better that a fair number of you have already turned in some preliminary budget numbers for '08, if not your entire budget and marketing plan) we're all challenged with where we're going to allocate dollars for our anticipated returns and ROI.
An intriguing post over at Get Rich Slowly and a story on NPR about David Swensen, who, for the past 21 years been Yale Universityâ??s investment portfolio manager, garnering an average 16 percent annual return! This is astonishing in that most of us are fortunate to sneak by with an average 7 percent across our investment and retirement stockpiles.
What's more interesting is the connection that's made in the blog post between what David feels is a intuitively balanced portfolio and the types of index funds (ETF - Exchange Traded Funds) that the everyman (or woman) could safely invest in and secure a comfortable return.
The chart below represents Swensena's basic formula for creating an investment portfolio likely to give you good returns while still managing risk: (via Get Rich Slowly)
This got me to thinking, what's your marketing portfolio look like? When you look at how Swensen's investment percentages break down with 20% in Real Estate and another 5% in Emerging Markets, I can't help but think that there are parallels in our marketing portfolio to things like brand building and awareness (long-term, stability investments) and new media and social media (emerging markets, high risk, potential for high return) and the list goes on..
ACTION ITEM: What's your marketing portfolio look like? Do you have enough invested in stable, slow growth areas like branding and awareness building for the long term or have your been bit by the latest marketing trend bug and shifted your investments into higher-risk marketing vehicles? Are you investing enough in customer retention, referral and reactivation like we invest in government bonds to renew our country or have those areas fallen out of favor because of their seemingly modest returns?
Take another look at your marketing portfolio before the ink dries on next year's budget!
As many a marketing manager and media planner turns their focus to 2008 (in fact, I'm better that a fair number of you have already turned in some preliminary budget numbers for '08, if not your entire budget and marketing plan) we're all challenged with where we're going to allocate dollars for our anticipated returns and ROI.
An intriguing post over at Get Rich Slowly and a story on NPR about David Swensen, who, for the past 21 years been Yale Universityâ??s investment portfolio manager, garnering an average 16 percent annual return! This is astonishing in that most of us are fortunate to sneak by with an average 7 percent across our investment and retirement stockpiles.
What's more interesting is the connection that's made in the blog post between what David feels is a intuitively balanced portfolio and the types of index funds (ETF - Exchange Traded Funds) that the everyman (or woman) could safely invest in and secure a comfortable return.
The chart below represents Swensena's basic formula for creating an investment portfolio likely to give you good returns while still managing risk: (via Get Rich Slowly)
This got me to thinking, what's your marketing portfolio look like? When you look at how Swensen's investment percentages break down with 20% in Real Estate and another 5% in Emerging Markets, I can't help but think that there are parallels in our marketing portfolio to things like brand building and awareness (long-term, stability investments) and new media and social media (emerging markets, high risk, potential for high return) and the list goes on..
ACTION ITEM: What's your marketing portfolio look like? Do you have enough invested in stable, slow growth areas like branding and awareness building for the long term or have your been bit by the latest marketing trend bug and shifted your investments into higher-risk marketing vehicles? Are you investing enough in customer retention, referral and reactivation like we invest in government bonds to renew our country or have those areas fallen out of favor because of their seemingly modest returns?
Take another look at your marketing portfolio before the ink dries on next year's budget!
Thanks again to all of your who were in New York on the 20th! Due, in large part, to the super-positive feedback that we received from the event, Toby, Bill and I will be doing a total of six events, with the three in 2008 as the latest additions to the mix.
But, before we get to the dates, don't take our word for it, look at what one of the attendees from New York had to say:
I wanted to thank you, Toby, Bill and Dana for a fabulous conference. It was truly the most valuable professional development conference I have ever attended. I really appreciated the thoughtful presentations, specific case studies and valuable insights that all the presentors had to share. And the small group setting really allowed for dynamic and interactive discussion that made it possible to apply the learnings to your own work.
Please keep me on the list for any future web 2.0 professional development conferences that you give, and similarly I hope that Toby, Bill and Dana will keep me in mind if they are ever doing conferences (especially in the washington, dc area).
7:30 ... 8:15 a.m. Registration and Continental Breakfast
8:15 ... 8:30 a.m. Setting the Stage
8:30 ... 9:00 a.m. Social Media Defined
9:00 ... 10:00 a.m. The State of the Industry: Where Do You Stand?
10:00 ... 10:15 a.m. Break
10:15 ... 11:15 a.m. The Social Media Landscape
11:15 ... 12:15 p.m. RSS, Widgets and Social Syndication
12:15 ... 1:15 p.m. Lunch
1:15 ... 2:30 p.m. How Do We Measure This Thing? Social Media Metrics & ROI
2:30 ... 2:45 p.m. Break
2:45 ... 3:45 p.m. The Social Media Marketing Plan & Social Media Process
3:45 ... 4:45 Marketing Makeover: Applying Social Media in Two Parts
After several hours of exploring the ins and outs of Social Media and Web 2.0, now it's time to put our education into action!
Finally, we'll conduct a series of 'marketing makeovers' with willing participating companies in the audience. We'll dive deep into specific, emerging or hypothetical marketing challenges where Social Media tools and tactics will provide a competitive marketing edge, illustrating precisely how the Social Media tools discussed throughout the day can be applied to your individual marketing challenge.
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