Marketing University: Intensive
August 26th, 2006 by Dominic Canterbury
Join me for the first ever D/C Strategic Marketing University Intensive.
The goal: take 12 indie professionals and turn them from confused and out-of-date marketers to lean mean Word-of-Mouth MACHINES… in just 30 days.
The Intensive will consist of four two-hour sessions over the course of a month. To maximize your progress, you will be given an assignment before the first session and after each subsequent session.
Here’s the Syllabus:
Phase I: The Niche
- Good marketing/Bad Marketing
- What works and what doesn’t
- Why you must target
The Niche: Characteristics of a good target market
- Existing communications network
- Nodes and supernodes
- Competition
Who is YOUR ideal, wildest-dream target market?
Assignment: Write a list of five dream-target markets.
Assignment: Is there effective competition for this niche?
Phase II: The Product
September 20th
- Characteristics of a word-of-mouth-worthy product/service.
- What do people actually want?
- What actually motivates people?
- What makes something remarkable?
- On its own
- Relative to the competition
What would make your product remarkable to the target market?
- Branding
- Delivery
- Services
- Cross-promotion
- Strategic Alliances
Assignment: Design the product
Assignment: Talk to your targets
Phase III: The Path
September 27th
Characteristics of a strong path
- Levels of involvement
- Balanced incentives
- Who are your primary targets? (Supernodes)
- How would they want to hear about you?
- How would they want to talk about you?
- What are the necessary steps they would have to take?
- What changes do you need to make to your existing marketing?
- What strategic elements do you need add to make the path smoother and more enticing?
Assignment: Create a map/storyline of the path from stranger to client.
Phase IV: Synthesis
October 4
This is where we put it all together, work out the kinks, sand it down, polish it up and send you away with a game-plan.
We’ll cover:
- Finalizing the plan
- The who, what, why and when of hiring professionals
- Timelines
- Goal setting
- Evaluating progress
- Strategic adjustments
NOTE: If this event fills up and you can’t get into the first one, send me an email and I’ll put you on a wait list. The location is currently TBD, but it will be on Capitol Hill.
You can sign up through Biznik. You’ll find it on the Events page under Marketing University: Intensive. Yes, you do have to be a member, but membership is free and it’s must for all indie professionals.