Mediaboss Marketing

International Trade

TO GROW EXPORT SALES, INVEST IN BETTER TOOLS, PLATFORMS, AND APPS: They will simplify and enhance distributor management and allow you to move to Exporting 201.

Companies that have had some export success selling though distributors often reach a point where their sales growth flattens or stalls. This series outlines the key steps needed to truly make your export business strategic, with sustainable group.

But warning: this is not an easy process, and requires some investments that may take a little time to pay back, as well as a bit of faith. Take comfort that many companies have made this shift, and have never looked back.

In our previous articles, we discussed the importance of changing your mindset, the way you find and invest in distributors, and improving your skills sets and processes.

In this installment, we examine another key step that companies need to make to move their export business to the next level to Exporting 201 and that is: upgrade your tools.

When companies first start exporting, theyre not sure if it makes sense to invest much in things like tools, software platforms, or apps. Business plans consist mostly of projected sales forecasts. Sales vs. forecasts are tracked with excel spreadsheets. Outlook or Google calendar may suffice for scheduling business reviews.

But by the time youve signed up several distributors, the whole support process can become difficult to manage. Key pieces of information about your distributors and that your distributor need reside in different places and systems. Its often a challenge to track down promised sales tracing reports. Keeping new personnel trained in a timely manner and even keeping on schedule with business reviews can become difficult. Providing several distributors with requested information such as product data and marketing collateral on an ad hoc basis becomes time-consuming and distracting.

To effectively manage a network of indirect sales partners, distribution managers need centralized information and automated processes.

Here are some key tools that Exporting 201 companies invest in to more effectively manage their distributor network and to make them easy for their partners to deal with:

A Customer Relationship Management (CRM ) platform with customization or a module to specifically support distributors. There are even specialized Partner Relationship Management software packages that combine some or all of the functionality below.

Learning management tools. This might include a formal Learning Management System platform, or assistance creating on-demand learning modules. A learning platform allows exporters to help train distributors and new personnel quickly and consistently, as well as track training progress, verify learning effectiveness, and ensure any certifications for installations, repairs, and upgrades are maintained.

A dedicated partner portal/central content management system. This is generally a web/cloud-based application that provides a central content management system for partners to access things like product pricing, marketing collateral, company policies and procedures, current business plan, training materials, demo videos, product information, and communications. A partner portal eliminates version control issues, and minimizes one-off requests from distributors.

Contract management software. This allows suppliers to track key contract terms, dates, and goals.

Supply chain software to improve forecasting, track shipments in transit, better manage inventory and order fulfillment, and consolidate shipments to reduce costs and improve service.

Apps, including current price and product availability, shipment status, product information, and other key information from mobile devices.

Local-language website pages to help support foreign sales; ideally, these are locally-hosted and optimized for SEO in each language.

True, its sometimes difficult for an export manager to convince management to make significant investments in technology platforms. However, most or many of these tools also will make the companys direct sales force more effective, and often benefit other company functions. Even small investments in apps can help automate processes, standardize data, and make it easier for distributors to do business with you.

To truly grow your export sales, make the move to Exporting 201 by investing in better tools, platforms, and apps to simplify and enhance your distributor management.

Doris Nagel is the CEO of Globalocity, and has 25+ years of hands-on global experience, focusing on strategic partnering, indirect sales channel management, and market entry. Shes a frequent speaker and author, and is currently working on a book on international distributor networks.Join Globalocitys upcoming webinar, where well show how the distributor onboarding process enables your distributors sell better and faster, and stay more engaged.

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2015 Global Trade. All rights reserved.

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Move to Exporting 201 - Global Trade Magazine (blog)

Fake It To Make It is a game that puts you in charge of a website devoted to creating and spreading fictional and/or sensationalised online "news" articles. It has been put together by someone who clearly knows how online media works, and that makes it more than a little frightening.

Amanda Warner, the game's designer, says Fake It is primarily inspired by "the Macedonian teenagers who profited from fake news leading up to the 2016 election in the United States".

The game takes place entirely within the confines of a publishing platform, where you're tasked with either writing or copying (like, literally copying) sensational news pieces, pushing them out onto the internet and making sure you get paid for your work (or lack thereof).

An overview of the main game screen, tracking things like your income and story performance.

As someone who spends 9-10 hours a day looking at a platform like this, and who despite ten years in this job still gets a little queasy at the disconnect between how easy it is to hit "publish" and how many people end up seeing your stuff, playing the game was a weirdly queasy experience. Very much a "there but for the Grace of God" moment.

Always game to try different emotions.

The platform you use looks real. The methods you use for maximising your audience looking at what's "trending", what people are into and who is talking about it are real. Even the game's focus on keywords, Twitter followers and SEO tags are grounded in online publishing.

This is where your Facebook Uncle's posts come from.

It's fictional and abstract, then, but so is actual online publishing. While most tags are short, sharp and comedic, they're also so close to actual "bad content" that the whole thing ends up coming across as a simulation as much as a commentary.

Indeed, the whole thing feels so authentic that as Warner admits, she's aware that it could almost be used as a training tool.

I'm willing to take the risk, because I think the potential for positive change in players is worth it.

My hope is that by making players more aware of how and why fake news is written and distributed, that they will be more sceptical of what they encounter in the future. In general, I think that better understanding how and why we are manipulated by others, for profit or power, is worthwhile knowledge to have.

Ideally, these are the actions, attitudes, and beliefs I would like to see in players of this game.

You can play the game in your browser here.

That first approach seems to always work. And while political scandals might seem like they'd dominate proceedings, there are still plenty of celebrity scandals and puppy videos to work with as well.

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My Mass Effect playthrough was the most straight-laced, male heterosexual journey you could imagine. I boned Ashley, despite her space-alt-right leanings. Then I boned Miranda, because I mean, I'm only human. Garrus was just my mechanic. The guy stuck at the bottom of my ship fixing shit. But then I discovered something. Women dig Garrus. Like they really dig Garrus. Despite being a bird-insect-alien with mandibles, women really want to bone the ever-loving heck out of Garrus. I had one question. why?

Everyone's favourite real-time strategy game is getting a face-lift. As Blizzard president Mike Morhaime announced at this weekend's I <3 StarCraft event in South Korea, the original game and its Brood War expansion are both getting an HD overhaul and being repackaged as StarCraft. Remastered, due out later this winter.

Originally posted here:
Fake News Video Game Is A Little Too Real - Kotaku Australia

An Altrincham company is giving local businesses the chance to win a new website package worth 3,000.

Digital marketing agency JAW Digital, which moved into new offices on the corner of Stamford Park Road and Ashfield Road in November, is offering the prize to a business located within 15 miles of Altrincham.

The winner will receive a bespoke website design worth up to 2,500 and initial search engine optimisation (SEO) worth 500. Runners-up will receive a half-day of SEO training and an email marketing campaign set-up respectively.

The competition is open to any registered business, whether self-employed, sole trader or limited company.

JAW Digital, which works with clients including Cosatto, Gallaghers Gym and Baines and Ernst, was set up by Wayne Berry and Julaine Speight and provides a one-stop digital marketing solution, including web design, search engine optimisation, social media marketing and ecommerce.

Wayne said: When we started our business, one of the biggest commitments in terms of time and money was our website. Now were into our third year in business, we want to give something back.

This determination has only been strengthened by the recent budget, which seems set to make it even more of a struggle for many entrepreneurs and small businesses.

So we very much welcome entries from businesses who really feel they deserve a break and will benefit from this one-off opportunity the most.

If your current website is looking a bit dated or is not mobile-friendly and you simply dont have the budget to build one, this is an amazing chance to put that right for free!

Entrants simply need to upload a picture of their business card (or other document with a contact number and name on) to JAW Digitals Facebook wall here.

The winner will be drawn in a live stream on Facebook at 10am on Monday April 10th.

Read more:
Altrincham company launches competition to win a new website worth 3000 - Altrincham Today

The hot new eCommmerce training Build My Store has just been released.This training course covers everything marketers need to know about successfully building a powerful Shopify store. It was created by a former waiter and his ex-shop assistant partner.

eCommerce today is one of the best business models for entrepreneurs. Marketers do not need to create courses or build any affiliate programs to get sales. Marketers often choose to sell physical products at retail prices and easily get traffic. However, getting eCommerce to work is not always so simple. Austin and his partner Devid have together created an amazing new training called Build My Store. In this training, two marketers will reveal exactly how they have both get massive revenues with Shopify. In only four months, they covered practical methods to leverage the power of Fb Marketing for their online business. Some of them are how to source products and fulfill orders, how to setting up pages and categories right to sell more products or ranking site fast for free search engine traffic.

Build My Store is brand new Shopify / Fb Ads / SEO training with over 1.5 million dollars worth of proof.

People can find more key features of Build My Store here

Most eCommerce training out there focuses just on driving traffic from FB ads. The potential of paid traffic is incredible, but there is a missing traffic link, it is free search traffic. Using Build My Store training, not only will users discover how to crush it with FB ads, but BMS also reveals SEO strategies for ranking eComm stores fast and easily. The training gets users walked through exactly how to setup their store pages and categories to generate free traffic.

Following are some prominent features that users will discover inside Build My Store course

Four little-known secrets users need to know to grow their business with Shopify

The secret arbitrage system that made over $20,000 selling necklaces, bracelets, watches and earrings

The secret SEO tricks that appear on the first page of Google every search

Scaling top secrets that ensure users campaigns continue to earn profits on autopilot

The way to create Ads from complete scratch to dominate any physical product niche. Also, a simple secret that all the gurus do not want them to know.

The one missing element that is so easy a child can do it.

Build My Store training help users subscribers get amazing results by showing them step by step how to setup profitable stores on Shopify one after another one using Fb ads to sell products and drive massive amounts of traffic to their stores. Plus with their powerful techniques, users will be able to optimize and automatically skyrocket their stores to the 1st page of Google in minutes.

Concerned readers can find more detailed information at: Build My Store Review and Bonus

Media Contact Company Name: Uzumaki & Assistants Corp. Contact Person: Gerald I. Smedley Email: support@crownreviews.com Phone: 415-277-4030 Address:1176 Lowndes Hill Park Road City: Los Angeles State: California Country: United States Website: CrownReviews.com

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Build My Store New Ecommerce Course Assists Marketers To ... - Digital Journal

What does the future hold for marketing agencies? Its an increasingly urgent question as a variety of factors such as technological change, pressures on margins and tighter time-scales prompt agencies to reconfigure the way they work. Everything is on the table and up for renegotiation, from operating models to remuneration and approaches to talent.

These issues are explored in a new report entitled The Future of Agencies by the IPA and Marketing Week sister title Econsultancy, which is based on a series of in-depth interviews with a range of senior agency and marketing professionals. The findings will be discussed on a panel at Advertising Week Europe today (23 March) hosted by Marketing Week editor Russell Parsons and featuring a mix of agency marketers.

One of the reports core considerations is the potential conflict between systems and empathy within agencies and how this dynamic could shape the future. It notes that there is a great deal of value that agencies can offerclients through the application of systems such as data, technology and technical delivery at scale, but also value in the empathetic qualities that they can bring, such as human-centred insight and creativity.

Systems-empathy is not a binary choice for agencies, the report says. Those interviewed for it echoed again and again the need for agencies to have awareness and degrees of understanding right across this spectrum, and to consider carefully how they bring these two very different dynamics together to create propositions and positioning.

The report suggests there is already evidence of convergence between the two qualities, with various large consultancies that specialise in systems and professional services looking to acquire creative agencies. This includes Accenture buying Fjord and Karmarama, and Deloittes acquisition of Heat. At the same time agency holding companies are beefing up their data and technology expertise to combine it with their creative capability, the reportstates.

WPP goes on an ad tech company acquisition spree and sets up new technology units across Group M focused on addressability across all media. Publicis acquires SapientNitro and brings it together with Razorfish. Left brain is meeting right brain in the industry. This is the dynamic that will shape the future of agency capability.

Too many agencies have reneged on their obligation to train. I dont think thats good enough any more.

Amelia Torode, former chief strategy officer at TBWALondon and a speaker on the AWE panel, says most traditional agencies veer towards empathy and that getting the balance right with systems-led capabilities requires training and professional development. In this regard, she believes many agencies have failed.

For the last decade, too many agencies have reneged on their obligation to train and have basically said, this is a brave new world, let people learn on the job. I dont think thats good enough any more, she says.

Agencies have to recommit to putting money into really professional training. If they dont, I think we will lose considerably to consultancies that do invest in training.

Torode also predicts that the agency world will see an outflux of talent over the next five to 10 years as the most talented people extricate themselves from big, clunky, networked agency structures in favour of picking their own projects as freelancers. Agencies must trial new operating models to avoid this and to make themselves easier [for clients] to buy, she says.

The smart people are getting fed up of big agency politics and I think their eyes have been opened, adds Torode. Its very possible to create what you might call a portfolio career where you pick projects or partner with different strategists and app developers and makers, and create a way of working that feels much more 21st century. Many of the agencies were born in the last century and some are starting to creak.

Self-storage company Safestore has radically redrawn its relationship with agencies as it wasdissatisfied with existing models. Last year the business created several new in-house roles including digital outreach executive and content manager as it looks to end its reliance on agencies.

One of Safestoresprimary targets for 2017 is to bring anything it can in-house. All content campaigns, outreach and PR is now carried out in-house and the business has also started producing video content, sometimes outsourcing the work to freelancers.

Tiffiny Franklin, who joined as digital outreach executive, claims the company is seeing far greater results for a fraction of the spend. One of Safestores biggest gripes with agencies was their failure to understand its business model and communicate it to consumers.

Safestore is quite a tricky product [to convey], says Franklin. We were finding that a lot of the creative agencies were trying to shoehorn in creative content campaigns and use creative ideas that had worked for other clients they had worked with. They were trying to put a square peg in a round hole because we dont quite fit into the same B2C customer relationship that other brands do.

Agencies are going to have to offer more bespoke packages to people and offer better value for money.

In addition to cutting down on the number of agencies it uses, Safestore has renegotiated the retainer for SEO services that it still hires from a digital agency. Chrissie Saunders, who joined as in-house content manager last year, argues that all agencies should show greater flexibility in their contracts with clients.

I think agencies realise now that more clients are in a similar position to us and they need to be more flexible with their retainers and say OK, you dont need the full package, we can just do the SEO for you, or we can just do other bits and pieces depending on what you need, she says.

Agencies are going to have to offer more bespoke packages to people and offer better value for money.

This view is reflected in the IPA and Econsultancy report, which identifies a notable shift towards more agile working practices in many agencies. While two years ago these approaches were restricted to the most progressive agencies, it is now apparent that this way of working is emerging as an underlying trend shaping the future of agency-client engagement, it says.

The increasingly important role of technology in agency propositions is a common theme throughout the report. It states there are clear opportunities for agencies to deliver benefits to clients by not only making sense of new technologies, but also by helping to operationalise and then optimise them.

The customer experience revolution requires marketing and communications to be integrated seamlessly into wider brand experience and a broad set of touchpoints facilitated by technology and increasingly automation, the report notes.

More and more agency partnerships are built around technology. Last month, online investment service Wealthify appointed creative agency Isobel to produce its first advertising campaign. The fintech business claims to have a mission to democratise investing by offering a simple online process through which anyone can sign up and create personal investment plans that they can manage on their phones.

READ MORE:What marketers can learn from the fintech disruptors

Sally Allan, chief marketing officer at Wealthify, says Isobels understanding of technology and its business model was an important factor in choosing the agency from the pitching process. Assuming that creative and planning excellence are a given, as a tech startup and digital business we want to work with agencies that understand the digital landscape and proactively search out new channels and opportunities for growth for our business, she adds.

On the agency side, meanwhile, Isobels managing partner Paul Houlding agrees that tech has become critical to the way creative agencies think and work with clients. He adds, though, that there remains no such thing as a catch-all client.

Its not been easy for anyone but agencies will only thrive in a rapidly changing market if they can clearly understand what value they offer clients, he says.

Excerpt from:
Agencies of the future must be defined by 'systems and empathy' - Marketing Week