Doing Business Digitally: Competitive Strategy in the New Marketing Landscape
When and Where
Course Duration: 1 day (9:00 - 17:00)
Johannesburg - 1 November 2010
Contact us for future dates
Fourways City Lodge
Cnr Monte Casino Boulevard & Witkoppen Road
Fourways, Johannesburg
Tel:   +27 11 244 6000
Cape Town - 22 November
Winchester Mansions Hotel, Sea Point
211 Beach Road
Sea Point, Cape Town
Tel: 021 434 2351
Durban - Contact us for future dates
Venue to be confirmed
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Your E-marketing Course Leader
The course is lead by Godfrey Parkin, author of Doing Business Digitally and the international hit Digital Marketing: Strategies for Success. He is a twenty year veteran of the European and US internet marketing industry, who previously ran the global business services operations of market research giant A.C. Nielsen. He has run several successful pioneering businesses in the digital space; in the 1990s he created North America's best-selling enterprise-wide elearning series E-biz Insights and built the world's largest Project Management e-learning company. Godfrey has advised many global organisations ranging from giants like American Express, Honda, Nestle, Credit Suisse, Cisco Systems and the Georgia Institute of Technology, to large consulting firms and small start-ups. He helps companies to develop brands and implement strategies for global online markets, often overseeing the entire process from concept through launch to ongoing market development. He is a faculty member of the University of Stellenbosch - Executive Development (USB-ED) , and manages several online social networks, including the E-learning Forum of the American Society for Training and Development. He is a permanent member of the judging panel for the international Brandon Hall Learning Excellence Awards and Technology Excellence Awards, and speaks at conferences around the world. More about Godfrey
Why do you need a competitive strategy for the new marketing landscape?
A viable competitive strategy is critical to the success of your business, no matter what markets you operate in. The internet has forever changed everyone’s marketing landscape, connecting your customers with each other, giving them easy access to product information and reviews, putting your competitors a click away, and effectively eliminating geographic location from the marketing mix. Emarketing is now a mature requirement, not an early experiment. It’s not just about building a website any more, and it’s a lot more than simply advertising and selling online. It is an integral part of your overall business strategy, and its focus is developing and leveraging sustainable relationships with online consumers.
The internet is nearly 30 years old. There are now more than 1.8 billion active online consumers worldwide. In economies where the web has been around for a while, half of all companies get more than half their revenue through their online marketing activities. More than 5 million South Africans have regular web access, and the numbers are growing every day. Collectively, these consumers already represent the primary target markets for many businesses, but their needs are not being addressed. There are competitive opportunities – and threats – everywhere.
The global explosion in marketing innovations is largely driven by consumers, whose expectations, attitudes, and purchasing decision-making processes are all changing dramatically. For any business the internet presents unlimited opportunities to improve services, find communication synergies and efficiencies, conquer new markets, develop brands, build loyalty, excel at customer service, and grow profits and market share. You need an effective competitive strategy to make it happen.
Why Should You Attend?
Whether your customers are businesses or consumers, to thrive online you need focused strategies, smart processes, disciplined but creative marketing, and the ability to deliver compelling and ever-improving online customer experience.
Doing Business Digitally is business-focused, practical, and inspiring. It provides insight into the concepts and culture of online consumers and markets, and lays out, step by step, the ground rules for success in strategizing, planning, and implementing the initiatives that will drive web visitors to your site, build customers and brands online, and open an essential channel to your offline business.
Well-illustrated insights into vital issues like long-tail marketing, web 2.0 and social media are woven into core topics such as trust, advertising, search engine marketing, buzz, email and customer service. You’ll also learn how phenomena like YouTube, Facebook, Google, and mobile can be used to gain vital competitive advantages in increasingly fickle markets. The course provides critiques, examples, and lessons learned from businesses in South Africa and abroad who have “got it” – and those who have not.
The internet has arrived in South Africa and anyone in business who does not understand it, does not respect it as the juggernaut agent of change that it is, and does not have a competitive strategy to harness its power is going to have a very rough ride. Get it right, and the rewards are immense; get it wrong, and you could do irreparable damage to not only the loyalty of your customers, but to the future of your business.
You will take away full course documentation as well as a brilliant workbook to guide you through development of your own digital strategy!
Who Should Attend?
This course is a must for anyone who makes tactical or strategic business or marketing decisions, or has to interact with those with online responsibilities, including:
- marketing managers, product & brand managers
- business or government strategists
- new product development people
- advertising, marketing services and agency executives
- website developers, information architects, and creative professionals
- marketing communications and PR professionals
- e-commerce and e-marketing project managers
- customer service management
The course is crafted for non-technical business people as well as those techies who want a commercial competitive emarketing perspective.
South African companies whose participants have given Britefire courses rave reviews include MWEB, FinWeek, Exclusive Books, Clicks, Makro, GCIS, University of Stellenbosch Business School, Struik, Hunt Lascaris, Distell, Standard Bank, Delloitte, and Media 24.
What Will You Learn?
You will leave this course not only with a great understanding of how digital business and emarketing and its many processes actually work, but also with a practical ability to create your own online competitive strategies and tactics.
What is more you will be equipped with an arsenal of best practices, inspiring and enlightening examples, and guidelines for staying in tune with developments in the future. You will learn:
- how critical emarketing processes work
- why the internet and web 2.0 are vital components of any competitive strategy
- what impact the web is having on consumers, and how you have to respond in marketing and customer service
- how to develop an effective integrated digital strategy
- the basics of search engine marketing, email marketing, and online advertising & PR
- how to avoid the hype and focus on high-impact tactics
- the key features of successful emarketing operations
- a host of hints, tips, tools and best practices for competitive emarketing success
- how to put together and execute your own ebusiness and emarketing strategy.
And you'll be totally psyched to take charge of your own digital business initiatives!
Detailed E-marketing Course Contents
The new marketing landscape — South Africa, international
- Global trends in consumer behaviour
- What "change" looks like and why it matters
- Opportunities from the “long tail” in South Africa
- The 21st century customer: what’s hot, and what’s hype
- Online South Africa vs online USA/Europe/Asia compared — lessons and opportunities
Competitive digital strategy, planning, and implementation
- Digital vs business as usual — the differences that matter
- Cutting through the techno-hype
- The marketing characteristics of great digital businesses
- The 10 stages of digital business evolution
- Building a competitive emarketing strategy
- "Got it" and "Not it" — examples from home and abroad
Leveraging core competencies
- 10 golden rules for going online
- Change agentry and corporate culture
- Re-engineering your vision mission and values
- Alignment: vendors, partners, relationships
- Who is still relevant? Dealing with disintermediation
- Build, buy, lease, or outsource?
- People, skills and attitudes
- Policies, privacy and trust in a two-way street
Emarketing strategy
- Engagement and “experience branding”
- Setting strategic emarketing priorities
- Implications of South Africa’s bandwidth burden
- Where your best web traffic should come from
- Internet marketing vs traditional marketing
- Components of an integrated emarketing strategy
Web 2.0 and Marketing 2.0
- What is web 2.0 and why it matters
- Social networking, Facebook, YouTube, mobile
- Web 2.0 examples in practice
- Blogs, RSS Feeds, Podcasting in PR and marketing
- Leveraging User Generated Content to build brands
Groundrules for success in key operational areas
- Strategies for search engine success
- Best practices for maximising email open rates and click-thoughs
- Beyond banners: what works in internet advertising
- Website design, navigation, and user experience
- Landing pages and conversion funnels
- 7 step methodolgy for developing a website
- Metrics for improving effectiveness
Your competitive emarketing strategy
- Defining your digital goals
- Alternative strategic approaches for your business
- From strategy to implementation: project management
Recommended reads and RSS feeds
Download info sheet
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Fee
Fee: R2,600 incl VAT (includes lunch and refreshments)
Discounts:
Two people/Two Courses per booking: 5 % off both registrations
Early Bird Discount 5% for payment >1 month prior to course date.
Terms and Conditions (read full Terms and Conditions)
Participation in the course is subject to payment recived prior to the course date.
In the event of a cancellation, for whatever reason, the following will apply:
- Reschedule Fee 7 days or less prior to course day - R500.00
- Cancellation 7 days prior to course day - Full payment will be due as a cancellation fee
- Cancellation 14 days prior to course day - 50% of payment will be due as a cancellation fee
Register For This Course
You can Register for this course in any of the below ways:
Fax: Print out this registration form (DOC 55kB) and fax it to us at 086 693 3575
Phone: Call us on 021 790 0303 and we'll take your details.
Online: Select your desired course dates in the below box, hit the Register button and follow the simple process to register online in our secure environment.
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