(L to R: Karl Joseph Ufert, Mitra Creative; Eric Rabinowitz, the Nurture Institute; Dean Maire & Tim Freestone, enter:marketing)

Mitra Creative was asked to be part of a distinguished panel of experts on the subject of IT Channel marketing and communications at last week’s New York Chapter meeting of the International Association of Certified Microsoft Partners (IAMCP) (February 19). The event was held at the Microsoft office in midtown Manhattan.

Entitled “Marketing in a Down Economy”, it brought a packed room of Microsoft Partners who engaged in a lively discussion with the panelists which could have gone on for many hours past the allotted session time. Host Howard M. Cohen, President of IAMCP NY (Howard M. Cohen Corporate Copywriting & Consulting Services), invited me – Karl Joseph Ufert, Mitra Creative President/Co-Founder – to join Eric Rabinowitz, President and Co-Founder of the consulting, communications and training firm, the Nurture Institute™ (and leader of the monthly Microsoft Partner Essentials Marketing program Roundtables), and Dean Maire and Tim Freestone, Vice-Presidents of the IT-focused marketing and communications agency (with strong emphasis on Direct Marketing, among other services), enter:marketing, to share our knowledge and ideas.

Much of the discussion focused on:

• Integration of marketing campaigns across a VAR/solution provider’s entire organization from start to finish (including Sales, Marketing, Professional Services) and ensuring follow-up (value for campaign dollars).
• Maintaining marketing focus—speaking to your audience instead of about yourself.
• Utilization of straightforward marketing communications to maintain trusted advisor status with clients—leveraging your unique selling proposition.
• And, especially, the use of Social Media/Web 2.0 to reduce advertising costs and extend reach.

The event was covered by Michele Masterson of ChannelWeb (with contributions by Chad Berndtson). READ THE ARTICLE HERE.

(Howard M. Cohen, IAMCP NY President)

AGENDA

Effective Marketing Strategies for a Down Economy – A Roundtable/Panel Discussion

Location:

February 19, 2009 at 8am at 1290 Ave of the Americas 6th Floor – the NYC Microsoft office.

Panel Participants:

Eric Rabinowitz – Nurture Institute
The Nurture Institute™ (www.nurtureinstitute.com) is the premier channel marketing and customer relationship marketing company specializing in small and mid-market clients. With plenty of proven direct marketing tools to share, your business can’t afford to miss out on our innovative customer relationship marketing solutions.

Karl Joseph Ufert – Mitra Creative
Mitra Creative (www.biztech.mitracreative.com | www.mitracreative.com) is a New York-based marketing communications and interactive design agency focused on providing solutions to IT business consultancies, VARs, software design and integration companies, and technology manufacturers and distributors. Led by Karl Ufert (formerly Sr. Director of Marketing for AMC Computer Corp.), and Creative Director, Vincent Wang, the company produces forward-thinking Websites and Web 2.0/3.0 and social media platforms, other interactive communications and digital video presentations—all leveraging decades of experience in bringing value to the IT Channel.

Tim Freestone & Dean Maire – enter.marketing
enter:marketing (www.entermarketing.com) is a managed marketing services company that supports the marketing initiatives of Value Added Resellers and Manufacturers in the Information Technology industry.  We execute unique, industry leading programs and approach demand generation as a process, rather than a project – a process that manages and cultivates opportunities from the stage of identifying interest to Return on Investment (ROI).

Howard M. Cohen – HMC Corporate Copywriting & Consulting
IT Channel veteran Howard M. Cohen (www.howardmcohen.com) brings his experience, his expertise, and his tremendous network of friends and resources to every project.  Compelling content is the key to sales & marketing success and Howard’s strong, persuasive writing style translates even the most technical concepts into readily readable copy that your business clients will understand and appreciate.  From white papers to case studies to proposals to web content and much more Howard will most effectively convey your message to your audience.

This roundtable/panel discussion will feature channel-dedicated marketing experts included Nurture Institute, Mitra Creative, HMC Corporate Copywriting & Consulting, and others.  We’ll talk about more effective ways to reach, penetrate, and win business from companies facing today’s economic climate.  Learn what IS working in the channel.

Skills Exchange:

Long overdue, this session offers all attendees the opportunity to tell everyone else about their special, unique, and well-differentiated services and how all of us can make money selling them to our customers.  Looking for new services to sell to your existing account base?  Here’s the place to find them.

Hoping that the many of you who were able to make our New Year Celebration had a great time I look forward to getting back to business with more topical, pertinent, timely, high-value content.  This meeting promises to be a great kickoff to what promises to be a challenging year!

PLEASE RSVP via Reply to Howard M. Cohen (hmc@howardmcohen.com) IMMEDIATELY so we get you on the building security list.  I look forward to seeing you there.

Howard M. Cohen
NYC IAMCP Chapter President
US IAMCP Communications Chair
Corporate & Commercial Copywriting
Web Content - Proposal Development
Business Development and Marketing
15 Spector Lane - Plainview NY 11803
516.965.6431
mailto: hmc@howardmcohen.com

Learn more about my writing at www.howardmcohen.com

I had the opportunity to make the kickoff presentation at an important event on Web 2.0/3.0 for Business for the Long Island Software & Technology Network (LISTnet). The event was held on November 13, at the New York State Small Business Development Center on the campus of Long Island’s Farmingdale State College.

I spoke about the origins of Web 2.0 — Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly Media coined the term back in 2005 — and delineated Web 2.0, and, thinking ahead, Web 3.0 platforms, that can be harnessed by IT Business professionals to more effectively build a living interactive dialogue with their clients, partners and the business community at large. These included Social Networks, Content-Managed Websites (built on licensed and open source platforms) and Blogs. I provided very detailed information about the ways that businesses can monetize these platforms and also extend their brand. This presentation was one slightly modified from another I gave in September and October for Microsoft Partners.

My fellow presenters at the event — both of whom are publishing and media veterans — Arthur Germain, Principal of Communication Strategy Group, and John McCormick, Chief Content Officer of the exciting, new, niche-focused social network, CIOZone, focused on context and the value of the content in social media and on direct application of the technologies to audiences and participants.

We were excited to learn that our talk was covered by Newsday and Long Island Business News. This undoubtedly demonstrates the buzz surrounding the topic for businesses both large and small.

Several months of talks of an acquisition of the pioneering search engine, Yahoo!, by Microsoft ended today. On the same day, an announcement was made that Yahoo! signed a deal with the other giant, Yahoo!’s to-date rival, Google. Reports on the deal are that Google ads will now appear in certain Yahoo! Search Results.

The next couple of months should be very interesting to watch.

Story from CNN Money, Thursday, June 12, 2008.

A number of clients and potential clients have been approaching our firm, Mitra Creative, to develop Web 2.0 applications with video components. When video is involved, the “heavy lifting” to build these applications is not in the design of the application itself — though custom creative design is by no means ”off the shelf” — but in storing and moving the content across the Internet. The most important element of scalability for these applications comes with awareness from the start about the issues of uploading and downloading video and ensuring that the materials are highly available. This may seem like a rather obvious point, but when we are approached with questions about building these applications and we reply with the consideration of CPU and http and digital traffic, our clients/prospects’ mouths are usually agape.

Scalable multimedia storage and fast, efficient bandwidth does not have to be a prohibitive cost. It simply has to be considered as a part of any business plan when an entrepreneur wishes to incorporate the sharing of video, audio, photos and other rich media into the mission of a social networking site. There are many options, including the utilization of co-location facilities where storage, availability and maintenance can be, essentially, ”rented”.

As Web 2.0 grows in scope and its applications vastly increase, it is critical to know that usability is the principal mission of any social networking site… and when it comes to multimedia, usability virtually equals availability.