Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Michael Calvert - Internet Marketer


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.



There is also a very nice theming engine which comes with many predefined themes for your blogs.  These can be utilized to get your site up and running quickly without any hassle.  Here is a screenshot of a few of the themes that come out of the box.



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.

I. Assemble marketing team
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!

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