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Marketing Your Small Business
Access recorded sessions through December 2012!
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When you're marketing a small business, your budget and human resources are often limited, but your ideas and goals are still as big as they come. That's why MarketingProfs University is offering Marketing Your Small Business, an 11-class course tailor-made for small businesses and your unique needs. We'll help you whip your marketing program into shape in two short weeks, so you can reach your goals regardless of your budget or team size.
With experienced instructors like Stephen Denny, Tim Calkins, Bill Baker, Rich Brooks, Gini Dietrich, Ian Laurie, DJ Waldow, Charles Erickson, Heather Whaling, and Ivana Taylor, you're sure to be a marketing expert by the time you complete the course. Check out the class descriptions below and register now to get your small business marketing program working for you!
Each class can be viewed on demand, so you may watch (and re-watch) at your convenience. In addition to the recorded class (streaming), the course materials for each class include the class slides (PDF), audio track from the class (MP3) (so you can listen to the lectures on other devices), the class transcript (PDF), and a Cheat Sheet for the class (PDF). Once you view all of the classes, you can download a Certificate of Completion (PDF). As part of the course, you'll also get access to our course-exclusive Facebook group to network and share your own questions and insight with MPU students, staff, and instructors.
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As a Marketing Your Small Business student, you'll get these free course materials (an $813 value):
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Marketing Your Small Business includes these 11 classes (each 60 or 90 minutes long):
- COMPETITION: Killing Giants—Outmaneuvering Larger Competitors
- PLANNING: Creating Marketing Plans That Work
- BRAND: Why Small Businesses Need Brands and How to Build Them
- WEBSITE: How to Build a Website That Builds Your Business
- SOCIAL: Why Social Media is Necessary for B2B
- SEARCH: SEO, Search Analytics, and Pulling It All Together
- EMAIL: From Subject Line to Signature
- PPC: Pay-Per-Click Advertising on a Shoestring
- LEAD GEN: Engage Your Community, Grow Your Business
- PR: Public and Media Relations in a Social World
- CAMPAIGNS: How to Create Your Action Plan
Plus, you'll get these 5 bonus classes from our 2011 program:
- NEWSLETTER: Seven Essential Tips for Better E-Newsletters
- ECOMMERCE: 10 Essential Strategies for E-Commerce Success
- CASE STUDIES: Creating Results Envy with Great Case Studies
- PRESENTATIONS: That Resonates With Me! How to Persuade Any Audience
- FACEBOOK: How to Take Your Facebook Page from Meh to Amazing
Killing Giants—Outmaneuvering Larger Competitors
Speaker:
Stephen Denny—Competitive Strategist, Marketing Consultant, and Author
Your competitors can often seem bigger than you, better armed, and in a better position within your industry. But bigger isn't always better—learn to turn your competition's lack of speed and agility to your advantage. This class will provide a general framework as well as specific tools you'll need to topple the Goliaths in your industry.
You will learn:
- How to develop a culture of speed in your organization
- How to enlist the aid of stakeholders
- Questions to ask yourself when trying to win business away from industry giants
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Creating Marketing Plans That Work
Speaker:
Tim Calkins—Clinical Professor of Marketing, Kellogg School of Management and Managing Director, Class 5 Consulting
Marketing plans set the course for a business. Without a plan, marketing can become a series of unrelated tactics. This class will highlight why marketing plans are so important, review best practices for creating marketing plans, and provide the framework for building a powerful plan that will drive results.
You will learn:
- Why marketing plans are so important
- How to address typical problems small businesses encounter when creating a marketing plan
- A blueprint for creating a simple, powerful, and effective plan
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Why Small Businesses Need Brands and How to Build Them
Speaker:
Denise Lee Yohn—Speaker, Author, Consultant
A strong brand differentiates a company, focuses its energies, and engages its employees—it's an organization's most valuable tool for growing business. In this practical and instructive class you'll discover tools, frameworks, and approaches for building a strong brand, no matter the size of your business.
You will learn:
- How a well-defined brand can help grow your business
- How to craft a strong brand name, logo, and messaging
- How to develop a brand strategy that connects with customers and provides a competitive advantage, including three ways to differentiate your brand
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How to Build a Website That Builds Your Business
Speaker:
Rich Brooks—Founder and President, flyte new media, and Co-founder, Social Media FTW
Your website is where the rubber hits the road; it's where you gather leads and make your sales. In this class, you'll learn how to increase your online visibility, drive qualified traffic to your site, and convert prospects into customers. Whether you have an existing website or are starting from scratch, you'll learn techniques to engage your visitors and increase your conversion rates as well as critical metrics that you can use to measure your success.
You will learn:
- How to create website content that gets you found by your ideal customers
- How to get visitors to move further down the sales funnel on your site
- Which metrics you should use to measure your success
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Why Social Media is Necessary for B2B
Speaker:
Gini Dietrich—Founder and CEO, Arment Dietrich, Inc., and Founder, Spin Sucks Pro
With so many social media choices, how can you tell which social networks are right for your business? This class will demonstrate how social media can work for business-to-business organizations, its return on investment, and how to make small changes to incorporate social media into your daily plan.
You will learn:
- Best practices for incorporating social media into your business growth plan
- How to add video or audio (or both) to your social media content
- Which social networks to use for your business, how to set social strategy, how to get started, and what to measure
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SEO, Search Analytics, and Pulling It All Together
Speaker:
Ian Lurie—Chief Marketing Curmudgeon and CEO, Portent Interactive
Effective use of SEO tactics can ensure that your site will be found, but search analytics can sometimes be complicated. This class teaches you how to use SEO data to tie your tactics and analytics together for online marketing that works for your customers.
You will learn:
- How to optimize your website for Google's Panda algorithm
- Important "offsite" ranking factors—it's about more than just links
- How to use data to drive content strategy, keyword choices, and overall online marketing
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From Subject Line to Signature
Speaker:
DJ Waldow—Founder and CEO, Waldow Social
Email marketing continues to have one of the highest (measurable) returns on investment of any online marketing channel—it's the digital glue that holds marketing programs together. This class will cover email marketing from the subject line to the signature.
You will learn:
- How to grow and maintain an active, healthy email list
- How to ensure optimal subscriber engagement
- What email metrics are really the most important
- How to incorporate social media into email marketing campaigns
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Pay-Per-Click Advertising on a Shoestring
Speaker:
Elizabeth Marsten—Director of Search Marketing, Portent Interactive
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a powerful tool for driving inbound leads and revenue. You don't need to spend a fortune to win PPC keywords for your industry, but you do need to make sure you have a solid budget and clear goals in mind. Learn how to make the most out of your budget, from setup to continued management, and see for yourself how PPC can help grow your business.
You will learn:
- Whether PPC is right for your company
- Tactics for setting up an account and creating campaigns for success
- Tips on stretching your budget and how to keep your PPC running lean and mean
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Engage Your Community, Grow Your Business
Speakers:
Charles Erickson—Co-founder, Small Business Beanstalk
It's time to shift focus away from simply getting customers through the door to building relationships and having an active presence in your community. This class will provide strategies for turning customers into fans and getting people to become evangelists for your business.
You will learn:
- How to put a creative spin on promoting a business using traditional marketing outlets
- How to use simple, low-cost guerrilla marketing and event-based initiatives to drive customer awareness and traffic
- How to help turn customers into passionate, loyal advocates for your business
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Public and Media Relations in a Social World
Speaker:
Heather Whaling—Owner/President, Geben Communication
Are you tired of seeing your competitors’ names in the media, but not yours? If you're ready to raise your company's profile and amplify your message through targeted media (traditional and online) placements, this class is for you. Learn how to incorporate blogger relations into your PR strategy and boost your outreach efforts to ensure these media placements support key communication objectives.
You will learn:
- How to parlay emerging industry trends into valuable media coverage
- Tips to use social media to increase your media relations success
- The five Cs of blogger relations and how this approach can lead to online editorial coverage
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How to Create Your Action Plan
Speaker:
Ivana Taylor—Publisher, DIYMarketers.com
Are you plagued with good marketing ideas that your company isn't prepared to execute? This class will show you how to organize your marketing ideas via worksheets, templates, and tools so you can get marketing tasks done with minimal effort and maximum results.
You will learn:
- How to organize your marketing ideas into a one-page plan
- How to adjust your product offerings to differentiate yourself and be chosen by your ideal customer
- How to integrate your marketing plan into your daily to-do list
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Seven Essential Tips for Better E-Newsletters
Speaker:
Christine Chariton—SVP of Product Management & Supplier Marketing, GlobalSpec
This is a Best of 2011 recording. You can play it as soon as you register!
Inexpensive and easy to implement, e-newsletters can successfully enrich a company's overall marketing program. In this class, you'll learn how to build a better newsletter that engages your clients and prospects and establishes your company as a thought leader, while promoting your company, its products and services. Whether you are just getting started with e-newsletters or already have an established program in place, this class will help you take your e-newsletters from ordinary to extraordinary.
You will learn:
- How to develop content that your subscribers will want to read
- Best practices for testing your e-newsletter to generate audience interest
- Delivery mistakes to avoid
- Key metrics that every e-newsletter program should measure
- How to build a healthy and engaged subscriber list
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10 Essential Strategies for E-Commerce Success
Speaker:
Brandon Eley—Interactive Director, Kelsey Advertising & Design
This is a Best of 2011 recording. You can play it as soon as you register!
Are you looking to increase e-commerce sales without pouring more money into driving traffic to your website? Is your e-commerce website not turning visitors into customers, and you're not sure why? In this class, you'll discover design factors that make it easier for customers to purchase, what works in terms of cross-selling and up-selling, and much more. You'll walk away with usable advice to drive more sales immediately or build into your future e-commerce strategies.
You will learn:
- How to optimize your e-commerce website to increase conversions
- How to significantly reduce shopping cart abandonment
- The secret to knowing what's not working on your e-commerce site
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Creating Results Envy with Great Case Studies
Speaker:
Gail Z. Martin—Owner, DreamSpinner Communications
This is a Best of 2011 recording. You can play it as soon as you register!
Good case studies tell a story. Great case studies are so compelling that they create results envy—the listener's desire to have the study's results for themselves. Great case studies keep listeners on the edge of their seats. Learn how to use techniques borrowed from fiction and drama to craft successful case studies that evoke powerful emotions and lead to sales.
You will learn:
- Why a success story alone isn't enough
- How to re-think your story for maximum impact
- How to create results envy and leverage it to turn a story into a sale
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That Resonates With Me! How to Persuade Any Audience
Speaker:
Nancy Duarte—Founder, Duarte Design
This is a Best of 2011 recording. You can play it as soon as you register!
If you say, "I have an idea for something," what you really mean is, "I want to change the world in some way." Look around you. Your clothes, language, furniture, house, city, and nation all began as ideas—visions of change—in someone's mind.
Presentations are the currency of business communications, and those who master communicating with them rise faster than their peers, reach more customers than their competitors, and turn grassroots causes into a groundswell.
This class will demonstrate how to apply the methods from the book Resonate: Presenting Visual Stories That Transform Audiences to build meaningful connections with audiences that compel them to action. This class will show you a new way of structuring a presentation and connecting with an audience.
Changing the world starts with transforming an audience and an audience will change only if you resonate with them. This session is for leaders who are tasked with communicating clearly and persuading through verbal communications.
You will learn:
- How to leverage the hidden story structures inherent in great communication
- How to connect with your audience empathetically
- How to create captivating content and craft ideas that get repeated
- How to inspire enthusiasm and support for your vision
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How to Take Your Facebook Page from Meh to Amazing
Speaker:
John Haydon—social media strategist and cofounder, Inbound Zombie
This is a Best of 2011 recording. You can play it as soon as you register!
Having a Facebook page for your business is no longer a nice to have, it's a must have. But it's not just a matter of "build it and they will come," it takes real work to make it an interesting, engaging destination people want to visit. This session will give real-world examples of how you can make your Facebook page stand out from the crowd, and content strategies that will allow you to use the platform to the fullest.
You will learn:
- How companies are using Facebook to achieve real results
- Key elements of a successful Facebook page and strategy
- How to leverage content to make your Facebook page rock
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Get Started Today
Start taking this course right now for just $595.00
Price includes all online learning materials and classes needed for the course. Youll receive a downloadable Certificate of Completion at course end.
Course Instructors
Brandon Eley
Brandon is the interactive director at Kelsey Advertising & Designan advertising agency with a strong focus on digital media. With 10 years of experience in online marketing and e-commerce, he is the coauthor of both Online Marketing Inside Out (SitePoint, 2009) and the SitePoint Tribune, an email newsletter that reaches ... more »
Charles Erickson
Charles Erickson is the co-founder and director of development for the Small Business Beanstalk. Also known as The SBB, it is a community-oriented "shop local" program that in just two years has amassed a membership of more than 400 businesses and reaches nearly 100,000 active consumers in the central Ohio ... more »
Christine Chariton
With more than 20 years of extensive experience, Chris Chariton is a proven authority in the field of industrial marketing. Currently, she serves as senior vice president of product management & supplier marketing for GlobalSpec, a specialized search engine, information resource, e-publishing, and online events company for the industrial sector. ... more »
Denise Lee Yohn
An established speaker, author, and consulting partner, Denise Lee Yohn has been inspiring and teaching companies how to operationalize their brands to grow their businesses for more than 20 years. World-class brands including Sony, Frito-Lay, Burger King, and Nautica have called on Denise for her expertise in brand-building. more »
DJ Waldow
DJ Waldow is the founder and CEO of Waldow Social, a company that helps businesses leverage the power of events, email, mobile, and social media marketing to grow their community and turn prospects into fans, evangelists, and clients. DJ has spent more than six years in the email, social, and ... more »
Elizabeth Marsten
Elizabeth Marsten is director of search marketing for Portent Interactive, an Internet marketing company in Seattle, WA. A Google Certified Individual and a Microsoft Advertising Accredited Professional, she manages the PPC, search engine optimization, link building, and social media teams in a variety of industries. Elizabeth is co-author of Web ... more »
Gail Z. Martin
Gail Z. Martin is a bestselling author, international speaker, and marketing expert. As the owner of DreamSpinner Communications, she helps small businesses improve their marketing results in just 30 days. Gail is the author of 30 Days to Social Media Success, 30 Days to Online PR and Marketing Success, and ... more »
Gini Dietrich
Gini Dietrich is the founder and CEO of Arment Dietrich, Inc. and the founder of Spin Sucks Pro. The author of Spin Sucks, the 2010 and 2011 Readers Choice Blog of the Year and an AdAge Power 150 blog, Gini has delivered numerous keynotes, panel discussions, coaching sessions, and workshops ... more »
Heather Whaling
Heather Whaling, owner/president of Geben Communication, develops and implements communication strategies that integrate traditional and digital PR tactics. Specializing in media/blogger outreach, her clients have been featured in a host of national publications, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fortune Small Business, Associated Press, the Huffington Post, TechCrunch ... more »
Ian Lurie
Ian Lurie is chief marketing curmudgeon and CEO at Portent Interactive, an Internet marketing agency he started in 1995. At Portent, he leads and trains a team that covers search engine optimization, pay-per-click, and marketing strategy. Portent clients include Lucky Brand Jeans, Princess Alaska Lodges, Advertising Age, AutoWeek, and Attachmate. ... more »
Ivana Taylor
Ivana Taylor is the publisher of DIYMarketers.com, an online marketing publication that provides marketing advice and shortcuts for CEOs with no marketing department. She is the DIY Marketing expert and book editor for Small Business Trends and a contributing author to AMEX Open Forum. Her strategic consulting firm, Third Force, ... more »
John Haydon
John Haydon is a social media strategist and cofounder of the consultancy Inbound Zombie, which helps non-profits increase awareness, amplify engagement, and get more donations through social media and online marketing. He transitioned to the non-profit world as a partner at SocialBrite, a consulting organization that helps any sector adapt ... more »
Nancy Duarte
Since 1988, Duarte Design has created more than one-quarter of a million presentations. Clients include Apple, Cisco, the Food Network, Facebook, GE, Google, Al Gore, HP, Nokia, TED, Twitter, and World Bank. She released Resonate: Present Visual Stories That Transform Audiences (Wiley, 2010), which identifies hidden story structures inherent in ... more »
Rich Brooks
Rich Brooks is founder and president of flyte new media, a Web design and Internet marketing firm in Portland, Maine. His newsletter and blog focus on Web marketing topics such as search engine optimization, blogging, social media, email marketing, and building websites that sell. He is an expert blogger for ... more »
Stephen Denny
Stephen Denny is a competitive strategy and marketing consultant helping brands in technology, consumer products, and clean energy define their competitive positioning, communication strategies, and implementation plans. He is the author of Killing Giants: 10 Strategies to Topple the Goliath in Your Industry (Portfolio US & Penguin UK). Stephen ... more »
Tim Calkins
Tim Calkins is the clinical professor of marketing at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and serves as academic director of the Kelloggs branding executive education program. He's the author of Breakthrough Marketing Plans (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008) and co-editor of Kellogg on Branding (Wiley, 2005). As managing director of ... more »