New Roles For the Manufacturing Marketer

Marketing communications is going through a major shift. If you're an industrial marketer, you're probably more keenly aware of this than most. The shift is from traditional marketing methods (print advertising in trade journals; industrial P/R through trade journals; trade shows; direct marketing through the mail; hospitality events, etc.) to Internet based marketing tactics such as strategic website optimization; social media marketing; blogging; email marketing; online article and news release marketing; webinars and podcasts; and even video marketing through sites like YouTube.
People still go to both offline AND online sources for information, research, vendor sourcing, and networking. This makes an industrial marketer's job more challenging, and not just because you have to stretch your marketing dollars across a broader range of tactics. Convincing execs to give the thumbs up to less proven methods can be difficult.
If you can relate to this, it may be time to create allies and evangelists in other departments, including your bosses, if you want support for your online initiatives. If marketing is your world, you are probably more educated than those around you about the shift from offline to online marketing tactics. You also have a deeper understanding of the need to reach your target audience at as many "touch points" as possible in order to build brand awareness and credibility and achieve "top of mind" status. If you want to help your company keep a foot in both marketing worlds, you now have two more titles added to your job description: marketing educator and evangelist.
Gain more acceptance for a marketing plan that includes less conventional methods for connecting with customers and prospects by involving people from other departments in your initiatives. By doing so, you'll not only help to educate them but you'll also tap into a wealth of knowledge about your company's products or services that is rarely volunteered. Here are some examples:
1) Production / operation managers in your company can talk all day long about what you manufacture. Enlist their help in producing a short series of videos that you can post on your website, YouTube, and other social media sites. As you meet and work with them on the project, you will have teachable moments when you can communicate the impact that this kind of communication can have in terms of positioning your company as an "expert;" driving more traffic to your website; and improving your search engine rankings.
2) Spend a few days in the field calling on customers and prospects with some of your key sales staff. Take along a camera or video or voice recorder. This will enable you to do two things: 1 - document conversations with established, HAPPY customers that can be crafted into testimonials for your website, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other SM sites and 2 - hear firsthand how your sales team overcomes a prospect's objections or responds to their greatest challenges and then ties your products / services back to their solutions. If you have a voice recorder, you've got some good raw material for blog postings, tweets, even LinkedIn group discussion topics. (Of course it goes without saying that you need to request permission to video or voice record ANYONE.) Soliciting the help of your sales team makes them feel part of the marketing process and gives you opportunities to again - discuss the impact of various online marketing tactics.
3) If your company has engineers on staff, they are a goldmine of information for online marketing. Most engineers are more than willing to write a technical paper covering their area of expertise. Perhaps you could even convince them to do a series of papers dealing with the basics of a multi-step design process. Technical papers can be used for both off and online marketing efforts, so you'll get double duty out of these! Article marketing can be one of the most effective ways of building quality backlinks to your website. If your engineers aren't camera shy, they can also be great resources for webinars, podcasts, and even short videos explaining a certain technical design consideration. The key is to get them involved and while doing so, explain the importance of what they're doing to your online marketing efforts.
4) Educating executive management may be your greatest challenge. Busy VP's and CEO's may be hard to enlist for online marketing initiatives unless they've already started to buy in to the concept. A couple of ideas for including them in online marketing are: short video messages for YouTube and website posts; a blog written in their pen name (this will require you to interview them regularly for blog content); LinkedIn and Twitter accounts in their name (again, more writing for you, so you have to gauge whether or not this is feasible from a time standpoint.) The more they are involved in your online marketing efforts, the more support you'll receive.
It's human nature to want to belong to a group with common goals and to contribute to worthwhile endeavors. The job of the new industrial marketer is to make the world of online marketing a worthwhile endeavor that your whole company will want to rally around. That's why today, it's essential for you to not only implement the marketing strategies, but to also educate and build a community of online marketing evangelists within your organization. You're still being a marketer; but along with your company's products and services you're also marketing a paradigm shift. So much more fulfilling, don't you think?

Internet Marketing and Promotion News

The latest news revolves around Internet marketing. The traditional four "P's " of marketing now with three added for "services" marketing have all revised themselves and included the Internet as a powerful medium and marketing tool and discusses the way it has revolutionized the very function of sales and marketing. Earlier, product, price, place and promotion; the four P's of standard marketing is augmented by people, physical evidence and process concentrated on the core marketing activities ranging from the various internal to external strategies. But today, Internet marketing and promotion has earned all the accolades.
Year 2009 has passed and has bequeathed serious responsibility of economic reforms to the year 2010. Though it has laid a strong foundation on which the year 2010 can visualize a steady growth, yet it is imperative to understand the customers, reach them appropriately and strategize according to them. Due to the increase in e-business, it is wise to research and develop products based on the marketing strategy outside- in rather than inside-out.
Internet promotion is one of the most widely used concepts today, where customers are reached and targeted to the point where services or products can be customized to the best. As the Internet has gained a phenomenal presence in industry, education, mass-communication, social and political segments, promotional campaigns along the Internet medium are proving to be extremely rewarding. Be it online reservations, online admissions, online payments, the Internet has made every transaction extremely comfortable and convenient. Thus if people are not moving out, there is no use of billboards; if people are not reading newspapers, there is no use of print advertisements; if people are not listening to radio, there is no need to go on air.
Internet marketing promotion in news is just because of the increased acceptance of the marketing tool amongst masses, whose power branding and marketing gurus have well realized. Thus it is no wonder if companies stop advertising elsewhere in the near future and concentrate only on this small, yet significant medium.

Prepare Yourself For Vocational Education

Vocational education is a preparation for the skilled jobs, this is the preparation based on manual and practical activities. The learner directly participates and develops expertise in a particular group of techniques or technology and sometimes referred as technical education.
In Philippines, Vocational/Technical Schools and their curriculum were accredited and approved by Technical Education Skills and Development Authority (TESDA). Schools affiliated by TESDA offers a short course that will last for 3 months and for 2 years. Upon the graduation, the students take the licensure examination from TESDA to obtain a certificate or diploma. Some courses for this are automotive technology, electronic technology, nursing aide, hotel and restaurant management, computer technology, drafting. Short courses may choose from housekeeping, culinary, food and beverages, welders, etc. Before, these vocational courses associated with the activities of lower social classes. But not for now, as Vocational Education has been developed and opened a lot of potential jobs and opportunities locally and abroad.
Nowadays, we are experiencing and battling on crisis. Many companies had been closed due to recession. Thousands of people lost their jobs. Even the OFW's are affected. Vocational trainings and education had been the answer for them to start a new career. Government released a scholarship program for out-of-school youth and for the students that cannot continue their college. This scholarship has been the demand of many parents. Many believe that diploma and certificate from short courses can be use in advantage and for competencies.
As a matter of fact, if you will try to search a job online, you will notice that there are wide list of skilled jobs vacancies on certain job sites. Countries like Australia, UK, Canada, Middle-East's countries are in high demands for skilled workers. The problem for this, is most of the skilled workers can't afford the high placement fees and papers processing of the job agencies. Good news, that there's a few that offers a salary deduction. The other thing is you can search for a job site that will give you the information of the employers, through this, you can apply directly.
Preparing yourself for skilled workers opportunities means a better chance of rewarding and well-paying career that you can be proud of.

Anti-Drug Education

Illegal street drugs, their use and abuse, arguably, can be considered the nation's (if not the world's) number one societal problem. So what can we, each one of us, do to assist in the slow-down and prevention of druggie influence in our lives? And what is the singular thing that we must do to stop the drug culture from its selfish goal of foisting its dangers upon our youngsters and other friends? We know we must slow down and prevent the growing abuse of such drugs as marijuana, ecstasy, meth, heroin, PCP (angel dust), and LSD, to list only a few.
Marijuana, alone, contains 400 chemicals in its smoke, 60 of which are proven to cause cancer. Two things happen to a pot smoker: 1) There is an immediate burn-up of vitamins and minerals in the body, and 2) The nervous system changes and the nerves in the body go numb. Unless treated, these unhealthy body and mental conditions remain a lifelong problem.
The key goal is EDUCATION.
We can spread the word about the tragic effects of street drugs upon the mind and bodies of all who use them. The first thing we need to confront is to take ownership of the problem. We need to realize that the problem of the presence of drugs in our society is OUR problem. It is not confined only to the "other guy," such as school teachers and administrators, hospital personnel, or those in troublesome, run-down neighborhoods. Each one of us has to face the reality that "It's my problem" and what can I do to help, even in some small way?"
There is a valid analogy here between today's problem of curbing the growing use of illicit drugs in our society and curbing the unchallenged habits of excessive smoking that existed some 25 to 30 years ago. As the bad habit of excessive smoking was more and more challenged (in other words, as more people got behind the fight against smoking), the decline of smoking began to take hold. And as we look back and analyze the progress we have made in the anti-smoking campaigns over these past 25 to 30 years, we can say with pride, "We did it, we all did it. Each in our own way." We confronted the problem head-on. We did not allow ourselves to think "it's not my problem, it's the problems of the schools, the hospitals, the police stations, and the courts across the nation."
The good news is that we can readily and easily educate, and re-educate, right from our own homes, businesses, clubs, churches, or charities at a very low cost to each one of us? Society's goal must be to fight against drug trafficking, which leads to lives of despair, depression, violence, incarceration, and even murder and suicide. "It can't happen to me," we say. The statistical fact is that there is no community in America in which drugs are not a pervasive problem.
Almost all drugs affect the mind. When a person thinks of something, he gets a mental image picture of it. A person on drugs no longer sees those pictures quickly and clearly. Instead he becomes stupid, blank, and irresponsible. He becomes "wooden," unfeeling, and unable to do things. He believes things that are false.