Become a Marketing Guru

Why is Marketing important?  According to an article in the Houston Chronicle, The Importance of Marketing for the Success of a Business, Marketing is the heart of business success.  Marketing is essential to business growth. An understanding of Marketing and relationship building is crucial for delivering a company’s values and mission, defining and “speaking” to the target audience, and establishing a strong customer base.

Marketing vs. Advertising

Advertising is only a small part of marketing.  Marketing encompasses: defining the product, the manner and strategy of sales, conducting market research, manufacture and distribution logistics, public relations, customer support and, yes, advertising.  Marketing is about building a relationship between an organization and its consumer.

Company Reputation

The success or failure of all business rests on the foundation known as Reputation.  Marketing helps companies communicate with their targeted audiences.  It is a way to convey the values and mission of the company.  It sets an expectation that will be delivered to the consumer and when the expectation is met or exceeded—reputation and business grows.

Find what Works

Sounds simple enough, but it requires forethought and strategy.  According to Udemy, The Importance of Marketing: 10 Reasons You Can’t Afford Not to Market Your Business, there are many ways to market and while testing the marketing waters, you will not only build a social asset for your business, but you will discover what really works for your business, as well as,  where to invest your time and money.

Ready to become a Marketing Guru? Give our Marketing Principles course a try!

Recently added to our course library, Marketing Principles explores the ways in which marketing has developed over time. If you want to learn the various facets of marketing and how marketers accomplish their goals, this is the course for you. Discover how to locate the target market, do customer research, identify the components of the product, and promote that product. Gain the necessary tools to market your products and your brand more effectively.

To see the entire course outline click here.

Ready to Sign Up? Go NOW

Watch a free lesson: http://youtu.be/cM6Upqi43tE

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E-Learning: A Solution to the Skills Gap Dilemma

Results from ManpowerGroup's Talent Shortage Survey, conducted last year among 40,000 employers worldwide, revealed that employers find that a lack of available skilled talent and the persistent need to fill vacancies has a negative impact on the performance of their businesses.

Employers cited lack of essential job skills, the technical or hard skills and workplace or soft skills, as reasons for vacancies.  These are skill deficits that have increased since the last survey.  A hard skills deficit increased by eight percent since 2012, to 48 percent in 2013.  The soft skills deficit increased by seven percent since 2012, to 33 percent in 2013.

More than half of employers surveyed reported that skills gaps impact their ability to serve clients to a medium (35 percent) or high (19 percent) degree. Employers also believe these shortages reduce the company’s competitiveness and productivity.  With 39 percent of employers citing a reduced ability to serve client’s needs and 34 percent reporting a reduction in competitiveness and productivity, what are employers doing about it?

According to the survey, 23 percent of employers are developing their existing team by providing training and development.  It makes sense that with the lack of a skilled work force, employers are turning to training, and e-learning is quickly becoming the way to go.

In a recent report, The Value of E-Learning, IBM estimated that 40 percent of traditional training costs were spent on travel and lodging.  Other considerations include: employee salary and business losses from downtime.  The report cites some important benefits of e-learning which are: reduced training costs and impact on business, the ability to provide training to multiple students in multiple locations, exposure to expert knowledge and top instructors, and the accountability provided through e-learning tracking.

If you are facing these challenges, perhaps it is time to consider the e-learning solution.  KnowledgeCity has training courses in Business, Computer Software and Safety Compliance.

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Online Learning: Is it for YOU?

Just type "online education" or "online learning" into your Internet search browser and you'll see the same conclusion pop up everywhere: the number of people taking online courses is increasing.

This makes sense, considering our current economy where universities and colleges are cutting back on staff and increasing tuition costs. Why pay all that money to get expertise you can find elsewhere (and for lower cost)? (Granted, many people are enrolling in online programs through their universities, so costs are still high, although students are able to enjoy the benefits of learning online).

If you aren't looking to obtain a degree, or you're thinking of taking a few courses to supplement your degree, or even just want to enjoy learning about a specific topic that you've always been interested in, then learning online outside of the university structure may just be the perfect fit for you.

Besides low cost, one of the great benefits of taking a course online is the ability to learn individually and at your own pace. This is difficult to achieve in a classroom setting, where teachers instruct 30, 60, or even 100 students or more in some university courses, all with varying levels of proficiency.

How many times have you been frustrated by a teacher who is moving through the material way too fast? Or bored by an instructor who stays on the same concept for hours, one that you are already familiar with?

Plus, online courses outside of the university allow you to leave a course and come back to it, days, weeks, or even months later (and you can retake sections as well—that's right, rewind, pause, and fast forward your learning). No time constraints! You are accountable only to yourself.

So keeping all that in mind: What do you think of learning online? Is online education right for you?

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Online Training: 5 Reasons Corporate America Favors Online Training Courses

It’s no surprise why corporate America fancy’s web based e-learning over traditional universities. According to an article featured on USA Today, “Online Courses the Rage in Corporate Training,” employers spent $57 million to train their workers. There are numbers or reasons why corporate are trending away from the traditional university model, the top five being:

1. The current economic situation necessitates the need to economize—any discovery to decrease expenses are welcomed by most corporate companies and with so many e-learning platforms that offer affordable monthly subscription based services, distance corporate training and development programs can help companies save millions of dollars each year.

2. Companies perception of training employees as an unredeemable cost has changed—unlike before, corporate do not view expenditures to develop the human potential a wasted investment anymore, but a worthy cause with infinite potential in return. The return on training improves performances and attitudes from employees necessary to achieve organizational growth.

3. Online training allow learners to learn at their own pace—Whether learners are required to learn technical work related training, complete full degrees or certification programs, web based e-learning allows learners to work at their own pace without having to wait for others.

4. Corporate training institutes has removed the need to travel—by removing the need for learners to join together to learn and study reduces a significant amount of cost in lost time and opportunity for companies by not having their employees away from their responsibilities for extended periods of time.

5. Online training is learner-centered—online corporate software training can deliver the concept of group learning and collaborative problem solving right to the employee’s home. Allowing learners more control with course pacing, sequencing and styles, online training is learner-centered.

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