Putting the cloud to work for you!
Hello and thank you for your time. Any decent sales force is going to run into
quite a few pitfalls in regards to setting up a project and managing
communication between a customer and your sales staff. By utilizing cloud based
tools and software designed specifically for client communication we can
achieve the goals of your company by expanding your market. My name is Mike Calvert, I am an internet
marketing expert and I would like to present a series of solutions that can help you achieve success
in your market space!
Project Management Team – Unit 2
The success of any project is always based on the quality of
work produced by the team. With that it
is crucial that you assemble a team of people who will get the job done for you
right the first time. In the past I’ve
put together an excellent team of individuals who will help guide any project
to success. See below for a complete list of candidates:
Michael
Calvert – Marketing Lead
Melody
Calvert – Designer
Howard
Roberts – Project Manager
Troy Bakken
– Marketing Lead
Tim Gunn – Social Media Expert
Tom Bergeron
– Accountant
SaaS Software – Unit 3
In order to collaborate between team members I would suggest
we setup a SaaS environment in the cloud to have a central document
location. The most secure and reliable
service that I use is called Google Drive, in which you can create
presentations and documentations on the internet. While each individual section of this
marketing project is crucial, nothing is more important that effective
communication. Google Drive offers a
central location to store files as well as a sync functionality to make sure
everyone is working on the latest information.
Animoto – Unit 4
Once we have a top notch team in place and a platform to
send documents back and forth effectively, the next steps would be to create a
teaser video that shows off our intent.
Typically this video can be between 30 seconds to 5 minutes long, and
the idea is to put out an initial buzz.
For a new product launch you may want to include some screenshots or
pictures, or even an animation of the product in action. It should be short, sweet and to the
point. Please see below for an example
of a product video we created using a popular tool called Animoto in the past.
CRM – Unit 5
Assuming they aren’t already, at some point customers will
start contacting you and interacting with your product. Being prepared for
customer integration is a big step towards maintaining excellent customer
communication. I’ve provided a link to a
document that I’ve written up explaining exactly why we believe Microsoft
Dynamics CRM is an excellent choice for a customer relationship management
tool. This tool written by Microsoft has
stellar support as well as a cutting edge package that provides mapping and
file tracking to keep your staff informed of your customer’s needs.
Constant Contact – Unit 6
Your customers will want you to take the reins on keeping in
touch with them. Often times it is
difficult to create reoccurring customers because it is tough to find the time
to update them consistently. Our
solution to this problem is a marketing newsletter tool called Constant
Contact. Constant Contact lets you
create a circulated newsletter that is both easy to maintain and scalable to
any product through templates. When you
have settled in on a design you can simply opt-in customers by default and put
a form on your website that allows them to opt-out or sign up. From here you can schedule an automatic email
campaign that sends updates to your customers as often as you would like. The most powerful component in this tool is
the template engine. See below for a
screenshot of the engine and how it can be used for your needs.
Prototyping – Unit 7
In the software industry, and almost any industry, a
customer typically runs into a problem with a product in development because
they cannot help design it. Usually a
customer will deliver specifications or a requirement and a developer will try
to hit them and then deliver his or her solutions. We’ve found that by using a prototyping tool
you can show a customer the expected results of the development process and
allow them to make any tweaks the process prior to development. I would like to present you with a cloud
document that walks through an excellent prototyping tool that does just
that. It is called CogTool, and the main
advantage of using this tool is that it allows you to place an automated
attendant in the application to test for any issues prior to sending it to your
client.
Web Blog – Unit 8
Almost any marketing professional will tell you how
important it is to have an interactive website available for your customers to
find you with. The best approach to
doing this it to have an interactive blog and update it frequently in order to
keep search engines and customers engaged.
The website that you are reading currently is a blog created through
Blogger, a Google blog hosting product, which allows me as a marketing
professional the ability to provide you with rich content like this. In the back end of the system you are given a
very feature rich editing system to create your content and keep your website
and blog updated. See below for a
screenshot of the blogging engine.
Privacy & Browser Compatibility – Unit 9
Web 2.0 is a great movement in the industry, and it allows
us to interact with our customers on a social level as well. Sites like Facebook and Twitter provide us
with the ability to send out our information and market to customers in a new
way, as well as interact with them to ensure they have an excellent experience.
Many social sites are leading the way when it comes to privacy and
compatibility because they are forced to ensure their users are safe regardless
of their browsers or computers. When
dealing with any web design we should be sure to include a well written privacy
policy as well as keep the best intent with standards in order to support
multiple browsers. If Blogger is used as
recommended many of these problems are handled for us as the themes have been
tested by Google themselves. In order to
get an idea of the importance of cross browser compatibility we have written a
paper on the difference from simple sites such as Blogger and Google itself.
Timelines
See below for a sample timeline that can give you a sense of
what it takes to run a successful marketing campaign.
II. Create a cloud environment for holding all of our files
III. Implement a CRM to handle all customer communications and information
IV. Create a web blog that holds some of our key customer landing points
V. Prototype our software to get it to the right stage
VI. Create a video demonstrating our product to our customers
VII. Send out newsletter information about our product release
VIII. Monitor traffic for quality and browser related issues
Closing
Our goal as marketing professionals is to put the best light
on your product and move you forward in the digital age. The main focus behind our system is a cloud
based approach as it allows us to react and move efficiently in our environment. My name is Mike Calvert, and I am an internet
marketing expert. Drop me a line if you have any questions!
