The vision for this program is to describe the new, more accountable marketing communications environment. This is a course designed for people marketing products and services, B2B or B2C, working on the client side, working in advertising, direct marketing, digital marketing, sales promotion, PR, event marketing, or other professional services.

Now its in third week, this new program has more students than seats in the room. It combines full-time MBA students working toward a degree and professional students simply trying to improve their skills. All of these students are trying to increase their marketability in a tough job environment, while learning about tomorrow’s marketing communication’s future.

I could go on about this course for another 30 paragraphs. But I am biased. I helped with the curriculum, while working with a committee made up of some of Chicago’s smartest marketers.

I won’t go on about this anymore. I do recommend that you take a look at the web site. The curriculum, course work and text books are all there. The good news is that with the initial response, my friend Steve Kelly at DePaul University is considering offering another section of this course in the Spring Quarter ’09. Not bad for something that was just an idea less than six months ago.

Click onto this link to learn more. And, please let me know what you think!

An overwhelming trend is the development of webinars, demos and case studies to complement business-to-business marketing activities. We are finding that this form of marketing can help act a surrogate to the sales process but also can be used for lead cultivation and relationship building. Most sales organizations want individualized control over the communications their prospects will receive, but they generally “love” excuses to communicate with people.

Demos are the leading area that seem to have the greatest uncontested use for the webinar format. Users expect to find “how-to” content on the web in a self-serve format without having to pick up the phone. Whether it is a demo for lead generation purposes or a demo for ongoing customers/users, webinars seem to be key in the marketing/sales mix. We also are currently working on a resource analysis for a client to “prove in” that the webinar could reduce the need for certain FTEs. Sometimes the appropriate metric is the lift in leads, in this case it was cost reduction and using webinars provided all of the cost savings they needed.

Probably the greatest area we have seen gaining traction is with webinar-based case studies. I think it’s human nature to want to learn from others’ mistakes and successes. Case studies satisfy that basic human interest to know what others are doing. I am amazed by how simple or sophisticated the content can be executed. YouTube has made “raw” footage very acceptable. Many camps will argue that in the future, YouTube will be the most utilized searchable source of information sometime in the future. When video footage is out of reach, still shots with voiceover and music can often appear as interesting and engaging as video. And stock video can usually supplement the need for original footage.

Are you using webinars, and if so for what? Please go to my linkedin page  and take the webinar quiz. I will be reporting the results in a future blog.

From this standpoint, search engine marketing is directly related to social media, and other parts of the upfront part of the “funnel.” It’s undeniable that the majority of people search and seek out information as a first step in their purchase process. In an ideal world, we like to look at all the places a prospect or customer will seek information, to create the most comprehensive touch point plan. The process however needs to strongly consider direct and indirect channels.

This includes consideration of paid and unpaid media, and all places a prospect will gather information during their initial process. Technology and analytics help us determine what all the appropriate sites are that need to be considered, however it generally takes more than one data source. Generally, we use a combination of web analytics, search engine analytics and our social media monitoring platform to create the comprehensive picture.

We recently worked with a client that focused on their paid search engine marketing efforts but didn’t consider their organic search or what other sites were influencing prospects opinions of them. We explained to this company that:

• In focusing only on paid search, they were ignoring their organic search, which meant that they were not maximizing the relationship the two have with each other (I will talk more about this relationship in a future post)
• That users consider multiple avenues in doing their research; therefore, it is essential to identify paid and non-paid outlets, including social media outlets
• Organic search has a high level of credibility and needs to be the touch point map design
• Content is king, and therefore educational and thought leadership content will help complete the circle and deliver a vehicle to drive engagement leading to the next stage of the “funnel”
• Even though their brand isn’t always the focal point of discussion, their category does have some discussion that could be influenced

Using our social media monitoring platform and search engine data we were quickly able to identify the sites that have the greatest traction and areas of opportunity. In designing the touch point map, it turns out only a handful of sites currently drove the majority of the traffic, which in turn drove the focus of our plan. Even where the breadth is greater, we are able to easily isolate which sites have the greatest presence, priority and require the greatest investment. A great example of how combining analytics and behavior helped deliver a streamlined and effective contact strategy and plan.

More to come on analytics, the changing funnel and information harnessing in future blogs. I would love to hear your thoughts so please feel free to comment below.

Okay, it seems a little too promotional to make my first blog post about the book that I am co-author of. It is. Sorry. But, I have to start somewhere. And, yes it is available at Amazon.com

In the future, I will be writing about issues that are important to multichanel direct, database and digital marketers. Until then, read about the book. It is a good, thorough and an accurate reflection of contemporary direct marketing practice, although I know that I am biased.

Look what others are saying about it…

“The most thorough, straightforward, and informative book available on direct marketing…As the industry continues to grow, it is essential we have one central resource to fall back upon which clearly states the defining principles, practices, and applications of the direct marketing discipline. This book represents that one key resource for clients, agencies, and students of direct marketing.” —John R. Goodman, President, Pareto Marketing, Inc.

“A totally current, authoritative marketing corpus for students and executives alike… Stone and Jacobs present a compelling guide to understanding and profiting from the shockwaves of change that have shattered the mass market into pieces as small as a single customer, driving relevancy in marketing and rewriting all the rules.” —Daniel Morel, Chairman and Global CEO, Wunderman

“…Bob Stone and Ron Jacobs have done an excellent job of laying out the requirements for the new era of one-to-one marketing online.” —George S. Wiedemann, CEO, UMarketing

“The single most comprehensive and contemporary tool in direct marketing. It is rich in its coverage of the expanded direct marketing landscape…I can’t imagine anyone in direct marketing not finding it indispensable.” —Jerry I. Reitman, former Executive Vice President, The Leo Burnett Company, and author of Beyond 2000: The Future of Direct