(Also a course module of the E-Marketing Professional certificate, Services SETA Accredited, No. 2612, NQF6)
Learn how to be strategically competitive and reposition your business to a customer base that uses the web as its decision-making tool.
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. This course gives you the skills and insights to build a powerful online strategy. For any business the internet presents unlimited opportunities to find communication 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 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.
To thrive in a world that has gone online, you must:
- change how you engage with customers
- develop focused strategies
- explore new organisational structures
- liberate your marketing
- provide compelling customer experiences
The course will get your business strategies up to speed and focused, so you can accomplish all this and more.
Why this course?
- It’s commercial, practical, inspiring
- centres on the culture of online consumers
- clarifies the digital landscape and its ground rules for success
- maps out how to get a strategically sustainable edge over competitors
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!
The Doing Business Digitally course is led by Godfrey Parkin, a digital strategist, e-marketer, author, USB-ED faculty member and international internet business veteran, who has advised some of the world's largest corporations. Godfrey’s primary expertise is in creating and implementing business strategies that build profitable relationships with the online consumer.
What is covered in the course?
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:
• Global trends in consumer behaviour
• The online customer and their power to change you and your brands
• Cutting through the techno-hype
• The 10 key steps of an e-marketing strategy
• Competitive digital strategy, planning, and implementation
• The stages of digital business evolution
• The 10 golden rules for online success
• Setting strategic e-marketing priorities
• Where your best web traffic should come from
• Internet marketing vs. traditional marketing
• Budgets, metrics and performance
This essential course helps you conceive the right vision, and develop the strategies to attain it.
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:
A must if you make or advise on strategic business or marketing decisions!
• 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 participants have said:
‘The course provides a holistic overview of marketing in an online environment. It provides an excellent foundation to anyone who has fragmented knowledge or a limited understanding of online marketing and doing business online.’ C. Laroque
‘I find Britefire courses practical and current. The information I receive is always useful in my day-to-day work. I have completed a course here before and the course benefitted my department immensely.’ E. Wessels
‘Online business is the future - all management in a company needs to understand it. Excellent outline of ecommerce. Very well explained - simple but detailed.’ M. van der Heever
‘Well presented. Interactive and most importantly relevant and informative.’ M. Compton, Multichoice
‘Content enlightening and refreshing. Feel so much more informed and empowered.’ V. Kotze