Today, Coherent Marketing is officially four years old, although in real terms, activities began in 2011. Birthdays provide a milestone in time to think back at where you came from and what the road ahead might bring. Used strategically, reflection has the ability to improve what's working further, cut what isn't and improve practices and habits.
I'd like to thank all my clients for choosing my company; I now count many of you as not just colleagues but also as friends. I've always tried to give the best possible service, along with options and my reasons for a course of action or solution. For my #smallbusiness clients, this approach has been empowering, because it has allowed them to factor that thinking into their other strategic decision-making. Giving options and their implications has also been especially important when I have been called in to consult on and troubleshoot failed communications approaches.
My company has clients here in NC, in various locations in the US, in Canada, the UK, and Africa. Among my successes I count a statewide advanced manufacturing workforce development initiative that attracted more than $1.8 billion in new capital investments and expansions in rural counties. That project also saw these areas create more than 6,600 jobs - a massive ROI for their communications budget.
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- Written by: Norman Smit
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A communications project with which Coherent Marketing was involved for four years is at risk. The visibility our communications afforded the initiative attracted more than $1.2 billion in new investments and expansions to North Carolina in the advanced manufacturing sector and helped create more than 6,000 new jobs. You could have read about it on the website, but the website is down, returning a Fatal error.
At the heart of the project was a website that supported the advanced manufacturing training departments of 10 community colleges. The statewide training initiative showcased the specialized equipment, close collaborations with industry, instructor credentials, and technical curricula. It also provided successful examples of how graduates and students were placed as interns in the workplace at facilities across the state. This information gave industry a risk-free method to find candidates for advanced manufacturing positions - a win-win for both candidates and industry. In the same way as complex multi-axis machine tools need maintenance, so too do websites based on database-driven content management systems.
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Many community colleges have extremely limited communications budgets and personnel and have not invested in the capacity needed to provide communications and positioning that results in transformative economic development in their communities. A project with which Coherent Marketing has been involved for several years shows how smart, sustained strategic communications can dramatically impact economic development in 21st Century job sectors.
The North Carolina Advanced Manufacturing Alliance received an $18 million US DOL grant to upgrade equipment and curricula for specialized advanced manufacturing training at 10 community colleges in largely rural counties that had lost jobs to offshoring. Integrated Media Strategies was brought on early in the project in 2011, and provided branding, marketing and communications support. We developed a website and social media accounts and worked with college instructors and staff to sustainably create content in line with strategic positioning goals.
In September of 2015, the return on investment (ROI) on the $18 million has been more than $1.3 billion in new capital investments and expansions in the counties the colleges serve and more 6,600 jobs created.
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- Written by: Norman Smit
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Each year, the African Leadership Institute picks some of Africa's top up-and-coming young leaders for an intensive week-long leadership programme. Coherent Marketing arranged for all of the 25 Fellows to be interviewed on topical leadership issues and the challenges facing Africa. Those interviews now form the basis for an integrated communications campaign that will assist in promoting the work and legacy of the institute, as well as the personal profiles of the Fellows themselves.
The interviews have been broken up into short, bite-sized interviews covering a single subject, topic or issue. These are being uploaded to YouTube and will then be embedded in individualized video pages on the institute's website with all the usual SEO associated with these kinds of pages. These pages will then be shared on social media over time in a staggered roll-out, providing sustained interest and content for the insitute. In total, about 70 videos will be produced, so the rollout over social media will last at least three months.
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- Written by: Norman Smit
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Coherent Marketing is providing strategic and tactical communications support to the prestigious African Leadership Institute. The patron of the institute is Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel Peace prize winner who is known for his ethical and courageous leadership. The mission of the institute is to promote dedicated, visionary, thoughtful and self-aware leaders across Africa, which as a continent is challenged by political, economic and climate difficulties, to name a few.
The role of Coherent Marketing will include upgrading the technical capabilities of the Wordpress website in line with a strategic content marketing plan; to develop a strategic voice for the organization in its communications and to integrate communications across the various communications channels it uses; to revamp its social media output and harmonize it with branding and positioning; and to assist with the day-to-day tactical stuff that happens in an organization that is based in London and Cape Town and works with Tutu Fellows across the continent and the world.
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- Written by: Norman Smit
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Anyone who has been to an Anglican or Episcopalian service can't nap in the aisles. The service calls for standing, sitting, kneeling, reading responsively - and juggling the Book of Common prayer, hynmal, leaflets with the Collect and readings and the notices. For a new member, it's daunting and can be embarrassing losing one's way. Working with Grace Episcopal Church in Clayton, North Carolina, Coherent Marketing has been developing a methodology to put the entire order of service in the palm of congregants' hands. Since most congregants own a wifi-enabled smartphone or tablet, it made sense to develop a process to make the Sunday service hand-held and friendly. No more juggling. Navigate to This Sunday's Service and everything is there. Just scroll down as the service proceeds.
The process to deliver a simple solution was not without its challenges.
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- Virtual Camelina extension service
- Economic development specialists
- Communications & social media integration
- DFATD - Invest in Canada
- Bellwether Lifesciences
- The art of marketing specialized workforce programs for economic growth
- NC BioImpact
- Biofuels integrated media campaign
- Public information and education campaign
- NC Advanced Manufacturing Alliance
