Taking Action

This week has been about setting the base to get things up and running. We've been working on setting up Webinars to allow participants to learn more about the approach and content of CoachingOurselves. Since I have a limited IS background, this process was unfamiliar to me when we first started working on it. We have now managed to have the webinars open for registration at http://www.coachingourselves.com/en/webinars and have figured out the logistics of syncing it with Cisco Webex.

Now that the webinars are up on the website, I can begin my promotion of them. But how? How can you attract interested managers to sign up? My promotion needs to begin with those who have taken action to express their interest in CoachingOurselves. I have started this process at our social networking sites: LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. These are very important places for promotion because there's a pretty good chance members of your groups on these sites are interested in learning more about your company, in my case CoachingOurselves. Next, I can turn to our CRM system. People who have expressed an interest in learning more about what we have to offer would probably be interested in attending a half hour free webinar for this exact purpose. By setting up the webinars and then contacting those who have expressed interest in the past, it shows that we are reaching out to our customers, providing them with the information they need.

Another thing I have been focusing on this week is reaching out into untapped markets. The marketing proposal I spoke about last week was about finding associations and organizations in need of management development and then figuring out a way to reach them. I figured out the way to reach them is through continuing education units. Certain professionals need to earn a specified amount of CEUs on an annual basis in order to maintain their certification with their particular association. Bingo! I have noticed several associations may have a need for management and leadership development. If I can reach these associations through the offering of CEUs, we will be that much closer to "changing how management is practiced!" I have been spending some time researching and approaching these associations in order to figure out the best way to go about helping them with professional development. I have heard back from a few and am excited to see where this path will take me.

Marketing success story of the week: reaching outside of your usual clientele to identify a new market in need of what your company has to offer, and creating a larger target market in the process!