The first Marketing University turned out so incredibly well that we’re going to jump right into another one. And this time, thanks to the D/C Philanthropy department, we’re offering one free space for one lucky first-year indie.

That’s right - if this is your first year as an independent professional, you just might be able to attend Marketing University FREE! To throw your name in the hat, just send me an email to let me know. The name of the lucky newbie will be selected at random and announced on October 10th.

The goal: take 9 indie professionals and turn them from confused and out-of-date marketers to lean mean Word-of-Mouth MACHINES… in just 30 days.

Who is it for? The Intensive is for anyone running a business — massage therapists, real estate agents, tech startups, etc. Every business, no matter how ordinary, has the potential to generate word-of-mouth.

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

October 17

Overview:

• 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: Describe your dream-target markets.
Assignment: Is there effective competition for this niche?

Phase II: The Product

October 24

• 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: Describe the product that would WOW your target market
Assignment: Talk to your targets to see if it would actually WOW them

Phase III: The Path

October 31

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 steps your targets would want 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

November 7

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

The event location is TBD but but I can tell you it will be decided soon and it will be on Capitol Hill.

You can sign up for Marketing University through Biznik. Yes, you do have to be a Biznik member, but membership is free, it takes about two minutes and it’s must for all independent professionals.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS