Strategic Marketing in a 21st Century World...Business Can Be Way Better... When Your Horses Are All Pulling Together

This morning what's on my mind is strategic marketing in our now 21st century world ...and how much better business will be for my existing and prospective clients, once I help them add more "horses" to their marketing communications "mix" and get them all pulling together. The good news is that there is now a whole lot that can now be done marketing communications-wise ...in The New World Communications Landscape... even on a shoestring budget... that can make business a whole lot better. 

Here are just some of the powerful new "horses" that can be "harnessed" to all pull together...in a strategic marketing way....moving business phenomenally forward both for you as well as for your clients:

• Web Presence - Most websites I see are old and and out of date with not much "sizzle" to them. Most people are not even aware that our technology-driven web presence marketplace has now radically changed,  or that more capability can now be had for less money spent. Browse our new website on www.NewWorldCom.com developed with new Google architecture to get an idea of some of the newer possibilities. We can even have people meet and train with us..."inside" our website. What about yours? We also are not paying a dime for web hosting. How much are you still paying for yours? And if you are a non-profit, what is managing and developing donors costing you now...by still not taking fullest advantage of new membership-based hosted web application architectures that can even manage tiered membership plans as well as be "extended"...with all the "goodies"...virtual learning and conference center, web television channel, Amazon-powered store, Google e-commerce, etc.
  
  
• Television Channel - That's right.. "television" that we produce, program and distribute across the entire Internet using radically new and radically powerful low cost  but high quality video technology. See our New World Television Channel page on our own website...to get an idea of where we are now going with the new web television and leveraging our television systems, programming, and distance learning background.
  
  
• Blogging Campaign - Multiple stakeholders...including you are benefiting from mine already. Blogs are great for creating mindshare and search engines love our tags. Also the Google-owned technology we use (Blogger)...also easily sends my post to Facebook and to Twitter ..with just one click... See us on Facebook and on Twitter as well ..with very little extra effort.... Nice.
  
  
• Virtualized Meetings -  Instead of crying the blues about declining memberships and loss of revenue, membership-based business associations and non-profits can phenomenally grow their memberships, raise funds and develop their donors... increasing their revenue ... by adding a virtual world toolset - e.g. affordable web conferencing, and low-cost almost no cost web television. See this recent blog I posted about this -  "Need to Grow Your Membership and Organization's Bank Account?...Start by Virtualizing Your meetings"
  
  
• Critical Conversations & Virtual Focus Groups - These same associations and organizations could be way more effective if they also "virtualized" their conversations about topics of mission-critical interest and used big reach, learning rich web conferencing and web television to do it. In this way, they could "frame the conversion", creating more mindshare, gaining more focus and influencing many more people in many more key places.. at home, at businesses, in public school systems, and in government... locally and regionally and even nationally and internationally.
  
  
• Remote Consulting, E-Learning and Webinar Series - Most small business owners, not-for-profit, and government stakeholders I know could also phenomenally benefit from online coaching, remote consulting and various online training modalities that can be delivered via an innovatively architected and instructionally-designed approach. Development of a world-class remote consulting and e-learning practice that offers online courses and workshops as part of a professional development curriculum can also add a "net new" streams of revenue. If implemented innovatively, the same green communications and learning platform can to utilized to do distance learning facilitating enterprise-wide systemic change - See my recent blog about this.
  
  
• Virtual Conferences & Virtual Trade Shows - Fewer and fewer stakeholders have budget or time to travel to and participate in local, regional, and national conferences and trade shows. Using the same set of affordable web conferencing and web television...and value innovation.. as the "secret sauce" it is possible to do multi-day conferences and trade shows... completely online.... Integration with social media  e.g. Facebook, Twitter can still allow people to socially interact and connect. They can even do this face-to-face using webcams in special virtual lounges and chat rooms. For more info see my recent blog
  
  
• Twitter Marketing - Twitter is one of the more recent mini-blogging technologies that few people I know are leveraging or taking fuller advantage of. This is because they have not yet learned how to leverage it. A webinar about leveraging Twitter, delivered by one of the nation's experts on Twitter could change that...performance-based training works!
  
  
• Facebook Marketing - Facebook can be a professional time-waster if approach to it is not disciplined by a strategic marketing approach. Newer features such as new Facebook Groups however can filter out the time wasting content. Again a series of webinars about how to best take advantage of Facebook...without wasting so much time.. could do it.
  
  
• Physical World Networking - Finally there is the strategic question about how to make the best use of time and resources networking with people... instead of wasting precious time and resources at countless physical world meetings where nothing meaningful happens. Again some strategic planning combined with some of your own strategic networking initiatives doing business casuals and saving money using GroupOn.com coupons could better leverage your time and money, while moving business forward sooner... rather than later. There are also MeetUp.com and Biznik.com opportunities worthy of consideration. 

The bad news is that most small businesses, non-profits, and government clients are still not taking fullest advantage of these resources, getting all these "horses" to pull together. The BEST NEWS, however, is that New World Communications has now arrived to help change all that.. and help you move forward in a most strategic, more cost-effective... and more joyously energetic and positive way. For more information, let's connect and talk about moving forward...together. Call me today a 425-780-6872 and let's get started. 

The Ideal Marriage...Like Two Peas in A Pod...Marketing Communications and Instructional Design

Wow! This morning a lot is own my mind as I think about marriage, on multiple levels. At one level, there is the marriage to my lovely wife and entering into a new phase with her as "empty nesters", after we helped our youngest child move into her college dorm room this week. On the other level, there is the ideal marriage of two things continually on my mind as I strive to develop my consulting practice...Marketing Communications and Instructional Design.

Then the thought came to me .. they are like ...two peas in the same pod....Then BINGO! I searched Google Images and found this great image of a wedding favor..a wedding candle of two peas in a pod ...that I could do a little PhotoShop magic on...adding my two powerful concepts.

Many of the people that I work with don't even have "Marketing Communications" or "Instructional Design" in their vocabularies, yet an understanding of them both...practically applied to developing all aspects of their business is what they seem to need most. A case in point... like how can a website "make the mark" and be on target with customers if the the self-proclaimed "web developer" himself or herself is completely in the dark about practically applying these two inter-dependent approaches? It is therefore no wonder that so much time, effort, and money is wasted, while opportunity is missed.

Market Communications understanding can change all that, illuminating the path, every step of the way.  It can strategically inform and shape every thing you do:  1) From setting up virtual file services and working with virtual applications and collaborative documents using Google, 2) to developing your product/service offering, 3) to developing your website, 4) to informing your blog, 5) to even strategically informing your Facebooking and Twittering approach. 6) It can even inform how you develop and program your own television channel on your website.. like I am doing. It can be part of a strategic plan.

Marketing communications strategic planning can also 7)  inform how you reach people in the physical world marketplace via your phone calling, your appointment-setting, your business networking, your organizational membership affiliation, and even your volunteerism. Good marketing communications involves taking steps to learn about what people want and need, developing and positioning your product/service offering so that they can get that they get their needs met from you because you helped them so well. That's also where good instructional design comes in.

Instructional Design understanding is closely related to marketing communications understanding because learning needs to be designed into each marketing communications step. What we need to understand, particularly in today's highly competitive, and now very technology-driven marketplace is that today's customer is also today's learner...profoundly challenged by explosive technology change...and information bombardment. Not only does today's business owner need to continually learn, but so does his or her entire staff... even before he or she can take fullest advantage of what you provide. 

A well-crafted instructional design approach is like a good marketing communications plan in that it: 1) Analyses what the client's learning need is. It then 2) Designs what the learning approach should look like. In a 21st century world, the learning can happen in the physical world as well as online...like in  reading this blog, or even via a web television channel, or webinar series that informs and empowers. 

Even the creation of a virtual learning and conference center that uses now affordable web conferencing is possible to create...even on your website. 3) Development, the third step...informed by the analysis and the design then results in the development of the learning product/solution ...which in most cases can be through marketing communications venues themselves  - e.g. via your website, via your virtual print collateral, via your social media approach, even via your web television channel . Then comes the fun parts, 4) Implementation that with a road map can be rapidly done. Finally there is the 5) Evaluation ...piece to this... like how your product/serving offering "makes the mark" and actually generates new business...by educating the customer.. as part of the solution. 

Marketing Communications and Instructional Design...can do that and really are "two peas in a pod", and the marriage of the two in one consulting approach is what I strive to provide. Wow! Is it great how the universe responded with just what I needed to express that. 

Now let me work in the other marriage...my wife is calling me to take her shopping. Call me and let's connect if you'd like to learn more how to be more strategic and more on target with everything you do....illuminated by an integrated marketing communications and instructional design approach.   425-780-6872.