As a marketer, this past year has been an exciting journey for me. We created and launched a dynamic marketing strategy for Master Specialization.  We've created digital, social and demand generation strategies along with compelling content, to help you develop a strong and memorable brand for your company. We want to help you create an image of sturdiness, credibility and a high level of confidence with your customers as they embark on high risk or complex business projects.

You may have heard about our heightened focus and continued commitment to our Master Specialized partners at Partner Summit back in March. Also, you may have recently read about the Master Specialization history, business benefits and the dedicated marketing campaign designed just for you in Steve Benvenuto's blog.

If you are not yet aware, here are 5 key elements that you can immediately take advantage of to build the awareness for your Master expertise and boost your sales:

1) Market Yourself: Subscribe to our Resources and Tools

The heart of your business success lies in your marketing.  Seth Godin, a top marketer, in his TED talk professes that marketing is less about the actual product, and more about whether you can get your ideas to spread. Our Master Specialization website on Cisco Partner Central and Learning Center hosted on CRN offer valuable nuggets of knowledge: videos, success stories, Q&As, informational guides, presentations to name a few, collectively and individually on Master Collaboration, Master Security, and Master Cloud Builder. Download these assets, read through the valuable information, and share the stories, along with your own. Set the groundwork for long term business relationships by raising awareness through marketing.

2) Strengthen your ties: Amplify through Social

Personalize your approach with social interactions to create stronger engagement with your customers. With our social platform on CRN you can customize Master Specialization messaging we have provided for you to help educate your existing and potential customers and build a solid following.

3) Play, have fun and lead: Gamification

Are your customers tired of leafing through hundreds of pages of content? Here is your solution. Tackle content overload, build excitement and boost engagement through gamification. Gamification, if new to you, is an innovative method of advertising with an engagement angle using game mechanics to motivate participation and loyalty of players. Check out our brand new "Master Runner" game, built for you and your customers. Play, participate in the intriguing contest and have fun with it. Take advantage of the rich, engaging, fabulous animation that tells a story, evokes emotion and drives action. -Help your customers understand the expertise you provide as a Master Specialized partner. Encourage them to run with the Masters!

4) Get the word out: Make your customers aware

"People share, read and generally engage more with any type of content when it's surfaced through friends and people they know and trust." - Malorie Lucich, Facebook.

Lead your customers to our new Master Specialization website featuring benefits of engaging with a Master partner, banner links to the game and assets explaining why they should connect with you to solve their complex business needs.

5) Build "your" brand: Tell your customer how you solve business problems

Everyone wants to hear compelling stories about real people who solved real problems. Take the success stories we have built with you and grab their attention. If you have happy customers, they probably have a great story to tell too. Tap into these resources and use them. Watch and share these compelling videos produced with WWT, Cerium and more.

As I was leafing through some articles, I chanced upon this quote from Kasia Miklouk "Some of the world's most well-known and celebrated companies -from Coca-Cola to Apple -have succeeded using two surprisingly simple tactics: making great products and marketing them well". I wholeheartedly agree. Benefit from increased sales and heightened brand awareness that great marketing can offer.  Enchant your customers with a wide variety of modern marketing resources that we have for you, and ignite the desire in them to understand that your Master Specialization is not based solely on what you know, but the number, type, and quality of solutions you have successfully delivered to customers.

Are you marketing your Master Specialization expertise? Do you have a story to share? We would love to hear your narratives, expand our portfolio of strategies and help you go twice along the way to resonate with your customers.