If there’s one thing about marketing, it’s that it never stands still. It’s constantly evolving. On top of mastering and maintaining the fundamentals of good strategy and clear messaging, marketers must keep up with the latest trends and approaches. Today, that ranges from artificial intelligence (AI) and automation to B2B influencer marketing and personalization. Tomorrow, who knows?
Despite the pressure to stay current, marketers only have so many hours in the day, and in B2B technology startups especially there’s usually a long list of higher priorities to deal with first. That’s why bootcamp-style learning is ideal. It’s intensive, it gets to the point fast, and when it’s good it leaves you with practical takeaways you can put into practice as soon as you’re back at your desk.
That’s why bootcamp-style learning is ideal. It’s intensive, it gets to the point fast, and when it’s good it leaves you with practical takeaways…
Bootcamp 101
The bootcamp concept originated in the military context, but more generically it’s come to mean “a program or situation that helps people become much better at doing something in a short period of time.”
Unlike other learning modalities that cover a lot of breadth, bootcamps tend to go deep in one topic. I’ve always thought that, for marketers, the ideal bootcamp would zero in on a specific piece of the marketing puzzle and walk through how to get it done — and get results.
Bootcamps deliver quick results partly through their format — usually short-duration sessions — and partly through their pace. If you’re like me, you’ve probably signed up for online courses in the past and left them uncompleted because even when you do end up with free windows of time, there are just too many modules and the lessons are too long to get through. A good bootcamp divides learning components into ultra-concise lessons for one focused module so that the whole thing can be completed in a few hours.
B2B Marketing Bootcamps
I’ve been reflecting on the bootcamp concept for a while and decided to put it into action by launching an ongoing series of B2B Marketing Bootcamps through Zinc Academy.
Our goal is focused learning that helps marketers become much better. Each bootcamp will be one module with fewer than 10 short lessons you can complete in two to four hours. You can do a whole course in a day if you have concentrated time or stretch it out over a couple of weeks and get it done by simply cancelling a few meetings.
Key to our approach is providing frameworks that can be used repeatedly to develop plans, strategies, messaging, campaigns — all the areas where marketers are on the hook to have impact. Instead of starting over from scratch with every marketing initiative — which costs valuable time and increases the chances of missing something critical — a framework lets you hit the ground running with confidence all the bases are covered.
Our frameworks have been refined through years of real-world experience. You won’t get some theoretical approach that has never seen the light of day. These are tried and tested models proven to work in the smallest startups and global multi-nationals. You come away with templates to put into practice in your company.
It’s that combination of focus on one area, fast pace and battle-tested frameworks that makes our marketing bootcamps unique.
It’s that combination of focus on one area, fast pace and battle-tested frameworks that makes our marketing bootcamps unique.
Our B2B Messaging Bootcamp is coming soon
The first Zinc Academy bootcamp will be the B2B Messaging Bootcamp — set to launch before the end of 2023. We started with messaging because it really is the cornerstone of all marketing efforts and yet companies rarely approach it in a structured manner or give it the time that’s needed.
Our B2B Messaging Bootcamp will teach you how to develop a simple, consistent, and differentiated message using a proven framework that will help you take your marketing to the next level and deliver better results. As we create more and more bootcamps, you will have everything you need to build out your marketing strategy and plan when they are combined.
You can pre-register for the bootcamp today and we will send you a discount code when it launches later this year.
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