Interested in a Course in Marketing Strategy?

The Marketing Strategy Course is now live here.

I am considering running a short course in Marketing Strategy, and would like to get your views on it.

In brief, here’s the plan I have in mind.

• One recorded video presentation per week for eight weeks (probably).
• All the recorded sessions will be FREE for everyone to access (based on the views I made clear here)
• In addition, and if there is enough interest, I may also run one or more premium live workshop sessions each week over the 8 weeks.
  • Here you get to explore the material in greater depth, and get direct support to apply it to your own situation.
  • The live workshops would be ideal for those who want to take marketing strategy further, whether to go in depth for your own business’s strategy, or to develop your skills for client service.
  • There would be a fee for these sessions, say $25 per week ($200 total).
  • These sessions would be recorded and shared only with the premium group.
  • Numbers will probably be limited to 50.

Why Marketing Strategy?

The importance of marketing strategy is explained pretty well in “Web Design is Dead”. If you haven’t read that, make sure you’re on my email list. But here’s a quick summary.

1. Marketing strategy is about knowing where a business, brand, or organization wants to get, and why. It is absolutely central to business strategy, and ultimately, success. It answers the questions: “What does it mean for us to succeed, and how will we get there?”
2. Any campaign that is based on a well-thought-out and articulated strategy knows exactly what it needs to do and what needs to happen to achieve that. As a result, the campaign will be far more effective and less wasteful.
3. Marketing today is more complex than ever before, because we have far more options, channels, tactics, and advice. (And much of the advice is misleading!) That makes it confusing to know how the heck to proceed with any certainty.
4. Many of the options open to us today make it far easier to burn through a pile of money without seeing a return on your investment. This is true for education programs, consulting and other professional services, as well as marketing channels like pay-per-click.
5. All these factors mean we could be getting to a crisis point for business owners. They will cry out for help to know how to move forwards, but have been burned enough by service providers and so-called experts who peddle “cure-all” solutions that their trust and confidence are at an all-time-low.
6. That’s where a new profession of Marketing Strategist comes in! A Marketing Strategist is an independent consultant who has the skills to interview a client about what they want to achieve, then help put together a plan for getting there before they think about investing in platforms or creative and technical services. A professional Marketing Strategist can advise on how to roll out a strategy, and even help manage the project, but will (importantly) remain independent from specific service providers.

People, the world is ready for talented and committed professionals to step up as Marketing Strategists. It is very early days, and if you’ve been around online marketing for long enough, you’ll know that’s exactly the best time to get involved.

I want to help launch this new profession, and to do that I need good people. You don’t need to know it all, because nobody CAN know it all. There’s simply too much to know.

Is This For YOU?

• Do you genuinely enjoy working with clients to help turn their visions into reality?
• Are you a high-level thinker, who prefers the big picture to day-to-day details?
• Do you prefer planning and communication over technical delivery?
• Is it in your nature to explore, to ask questions, to think bigger, or think differently?

If you answer “Yes” to these questions, the next question is: “How do you feel about being one of the first of this new breed?” If you answer “excited” or “inspired”, read on.

Marketing strategy has been one of my main roles for a few years now, and I love it! Why? Because it suits me! It’s the perfect match for the kind of person I am, the way I think, the way I communicate, and the way I want to serve clients. It challenges me in the way I love to be challenged, and it allows me to avoid the tasks that I don’t enjoy so much (and therefore don’t do so well).

And that all means I can deliver more value to more clients more of the time.

I know that now is the time to formalize the role into a well defined professional service. That’s why I have been working on turning my strategy development process into a step-by-step system that others can follow and help develop.

This is only the first phase in a significant strategy that I’m rolling out (with a few partners) over the coming months. (It’s too early to share details now, but this could be BIG. I’m talking about developing this into a recognized profession, complete with on-going professional development, certification, marketing and lead-generation, etc.)

All I need to know is, are you interested enough to know more? I don’t need a commitment yet, but please comment below, including your email address, and letting me know…

1. If you’re just interested in following developments
2. If you’d like to take the free course.
3. Or if you’re also interested in the live training program.

Thanks,
Ben

Also see

• My post: “Why Marketing Strategy is the Future” (2016)