ChiefExperts.com now offering 72 hours of Chief Architect training on DVD

In today’s economy it more important than ever to stay on top of your game and staying educated helps. I’ve been busy the last few months learning website techniques and rethinking how my membership site ChiefExperts.com can help.

In the last 2 years I’ve done a lot of online classes about Chief Architect as well as other construction industry topics. The content was growing and I had to find a better way to get it to those that can really use it. So here’s what I did.

The Chief Architect Training DVD

I’ve compiled and loaded 62 topics, 72 hours of training in 967 segments onto a Training DVD. (That’s right one DVD – “Thanks Technology”) and have created a Detailed Search-Able Indexso you can find what you want and get to it quickly. It works great. With that everything is also available online along with a bunch of other topics that I’ll soon start organizing. The DVD and a 3 month membership is only $295.00. You can learn how it all works here.

Free Training and Tutorials

If you’re still using Chief V10 there is over 21 hours of online training available for you. You can access it here for free and you don’t need a membership to view it. In fact the Chief Tips and Ttutorials and Other Tips and Tutorialsare also available for free.

Free Forum for Chief Architect Users

I don’t have any dilusions of trying to out do the ChiefTalk forum. Chief offers a great forum for all users to collaberate. If you haven’t checked it out you should. What I hope happens at the ChiefExperts.com Forum is that we can build a small community of loyal contributors that will share ideas, offer help and just get involved. Together we can help each other do better in our efforts to produce better plans and run a more profitable business. Please join in the conversation.

More Online and Live Classes Coming

In the last 3-1/2 years I’ve only done a couple of live, in-person clases. In fact those were done this year. It was great to be with real live people again. With that in mind I’m planning on offering a couple of in-person classes each month along with many new online classes. I’m still working on the schedule for the rest of 2009 but you can get an idea of what’s going to be available on my New Events Calendar. I’m wide open for feedback on what classes you would like and where you would like the live classes to be held. Let me know.

How can I help?

Like I said earlier we’ve all had to make changes in the way we do things. My goal is to make ChiefExperts.com an open community that everyone csn benefit from. I have the tools to bring many things to the Chief Architect and Design community. Let me know what you need or if you have something to contribute.

Dan Baumann

Great Post Card Marketing Help

If you’re looking to jump start your marketing in 2009 (and who isn’t), there’s a company that I want to tell you about – Postcard Mania.

We first identified them as a resource for direct mail marketing for contractors. They offer outstanding industry specific marketing pieces, free post card samples, free marketing newsletter, free marketing advice like this: “Ten Ways To Grow Your Home Improvement and Remodeling Business Using Direct Mail“, website design services, and really interesting weekly emails. I mean it, they send a great email. This is where I discovered their post card design critiques. 

I really enjoy watching and have learned a lot from their post card design critiques. Anyone can send them a sample post card (or marketing brouchure) and ask for their critique. They are very honest about what they like and don’t like about the design, pictures, wording, logos, etc. Watch the post card design critique videos here. You do need to register (for free) on their site to view them, but it’s very easy and you get access to tons of other marketing information.

You can learn a lot by watching a few of these and then apply that same critical eye to your own marketing pieces or you can always send them your piece and see if they’ll critique it for you.

You should check out Postcard Mania, whether you’re looking for a direct mail service, marketing advice, marketing ideas, or an honest critique of your marketing pieces. They really seem to know what they’re talking about and in these tough times, we all need to be smarter in our marketing.

Good luck with your marketing!

Caron
ChiefExperts.com

Website Review Webinar

Last Friday was a great day at ChiefExperts.com.   We hosted a webinar addressing the new world of marketing and how critical websites are to your marketing efforts.  We had a very informational session with over 100 people enrolled.  Dan Baumann led the discussion on marketing as it evolves from the traditional 4P’s of - Product, Price, Place and Promotion to the new world of social marketing and the 4R’s – Reveal, Reward, Respect and Retain.  He also discussed all the mental triggers that your marketing efforts, especially your website, should address. 

We also offered to review your websites and offer our advice on areas of improvement.  Wow – we were overwhelmed by your response!  We had over 50 requests to review your websites.  We loved it and have really enjoyed visiting your sites and giving them a critical eye.   We have seen some excellent sites and some not so great sites.  We talked about a few during the webinar, with much more to come.

There is so much contractors and designers can do on your website:

• highlight amazing galleries and portfolios, 
• promote your awards,
• video testimonials from clients, subs, employees,
• photos and bios of your staff,
• private client areas,
• your contracts,
• education for your clients,
• your community involvement,
• & blogs, of course. 

The list keeps growing every day, it’s really exciting.  Your website is a great place to differentiate yourself in the competitive construction industry.   

If you want to hear the whole webinar, current members can check it out at ChiefExperts.com, it’s very interesting and will get you thinking about how you can adopt these new marketing strategies and enhance your website to make it more effective.

Good luck!