Randall Craig

Thought Leadership? While most professionals work hard at becoming trusted advisors, becoming a “thought leader” is far more difficult – and in today’s world, more strategic than ever. If you do really think that you are a Thought Leader, test yourself. In this presentation, Randall Craig will challenge you with ten tests and then share different ways to improve your thought leadership on each dimension.

Randall will explore the two fundamental frameworks that underlie marketing your expertise: the Trust Curve and the Price/Expertise/Trust model – and describe how they can be used by individuals, groups, and the organization overall to support a thought leadership and trusted advisor strategy. The presentation will also describe the changing role of content as evidence of thought leadership – and how to build content that parallels the client’s journey from awareness to engagement to referral. Finally, Randall will explore how thought leadership can be leveraged through the strategic use of technology – marketing automation and CRM – to save time and improve efficiency.

Based on the research in his books, Randall will share some of the newest thinking on how to use content, social media, and marketing automation to increase influence – and build sustainable competitive advantage. He explains how to do this without wasting your time or blowing your budget.

The concepts in this presentation can also be delivered in a coaching format for senior executives, professionals, and experts. Every presentation is completely customized for the audience and can be delivered as a keynote, workshop, virtual presentation, or master class.

Every day there is a new announcement about Generative AI – how do you keep up? And how does it fit with your strategy? Yes, you’ve figured out the web, social media, mobile, and you’ve gotten through COVID, but is Generative AI (ChatGPT, Bard, Stable Diffusion, etc) truly a game-changer? Can it provide strategic competitive advantage, or is it just another tactic that can improve productivity? How can AI be embedded within your organization, beyond marketing and content generation? And most importantly, how can you avoid the “dark side” and protect against high-risk activities, IP theft, and public embarrassment?

In this presentation, Randall provides practical and timely insight into the promise of AI, the practical realities, and what organizations should do today to position themselves for success. Learn more about AI strategies to grow your business, reduce costs, and avoid the risks. (Marketing, business development, innovation and product development, recruiting, internal collaboration, risks and policy, and governance.) Harnessing the power of AI to improve member engagement, development and marketing, cost reduction. (Stakeholder engagement, fundraising, content development, risks/policy, governance, and event marketing.)

Randall provides strategies and policies to implement a successful AI initiative – at the firm and individual levels. (Profile building, business development, proposals, content development, recruiting, and risk.) He delivers practical strategies on how to translate personal profile to business growth online. (Profile building, thought leadership, business development, content development, and risk.) With AI becoming a major way to improve business growth for campaign development, tools and techniques, workflows, content development, cost management, Randall also explores the risks of open source platforms, different software programs that can be efficiently utilized and how to mitigate the risk for reward.

Do you really trust Facebook? Do your customers really like email spam? And would they be fine knowing about everything that you track – every interaction and sometimes even their physical location? Each digital touchpoint either moves your organization up or down, the trust curve; yet so many organizations have never strategically looked at how to take control of this important lever.

In this presentation, Randall introduces several models that can do this, along with examples, both good and bad, funny and sad.  While the underlying frameworks remains the same, depending on the audience, the take-aways and content may be quite different.

Marketing or business leaders: The focus is on where digital can be used to improve the marketing, sales, and service dimensions while at the same time identifying trust-killing digital activities.

For Entrepreneurs: A greater focus on low-hanging fruit – ideas that can be implemented quickly and inexpensively to build trust, reduce risk, and drive new business.

For Professional Service firms: Includes an exploration of the different roles and opportunities for partners, practices, and the firm as a whole.

For Associations and not-for-profits: Specific examples of using digital trust strategies for improving member engagement and retention. As well, an exploration of the linkage between digital trust activities and driving event attendance.

For Technology leaders (and all leaders, actually): Building trust from the ground up, including data privacy, nudge techniques, reward loops, age-appropriate design, dark patterns, and price manipulation. Building trust – or not – with machine learning, AI, and big data, and bias. Partnership ethical due diligence and making the case for ethical data and digital practices. Rebuilding trust when things go wrong.

Every presentation is completely customized for the audience, and can be delivered as a keynote, workshop, virtual presentation, or master class.

From augmented reality to social-CRM integration to machine learning and AI, new technologies are changing the competitive landscape. At the same time, pressure to cut costs, deliver greater value, and be more responsive are forcing organizations – and leaders – to work far differently than before. All of this is happening in an environment of increased cynicism about technology, while governments are increasingly flexing their legislative muscles. Enter Digital Transformation.

Or… is the great “movement” to digital being driven by software vendors eager for sales, self-interested consultants, and the likes of Facebook and Twitter? In this presentation, Randall gives a reality check and describes what is really necessary to retool to differentiate, connect, and engage.

Depending on your particular needs, this presentation can include an entire range of specific content: The case for transformation; Different models of transformation, Engaging the organization, Cost-driven vs opportunity-driven transformation, Disruption, Trust, Where to start, mistakes, New technologies, Building trust. (And more – this is a very dynamic field.)

The presentation will also be customized for your audience: Associations, Large enterprises, Independent businesses, Associations, and not-for-profits. Every presentation can be delivered as a keynote, workshop, virtual presentation, roundtable, or master class.

Are you dubious about the ROI of social media for sales? Are you feeling that your email database, website, and other digital initiatives are not fully pulling their weight? Was your CRM brought in with great fanfare, only to be ignored by those it was supposed to help? And is your big data really a big data mess?

If so, it’s likely because your efforts have grown over the years more opportunistically than strategically. And it’s likely that while the goalposts have moved, your approach – however good – might benefit from new ideas and a fresh perspective.

In this session, Randall shares practical ideas for growing your organization with digital; depending on the audience, topics can include:

• Using digital marketing frameworks to underlie investment decisions.
• Connecting the funnel: from social/email/real-world interactions, through Marketing automation, CRM, and operational delivery.
• Using digital tools to improve loyalty and drive referrals.
• Leveraging both front-line and centralized marketing tactics.
• Building collaborative digital relationships with partnerships.
• Building your organization within today’s regulatory constraints.
• List building and data quality strategies.
• Past client recapture, abandoned carts and plugging other leaks.
• Implementing a practical social media risk mitigation policy.
• Building competitive advantage through privacy and ethics-driven data and interaction practices.

Each presentation is completely customized for the audience and can be delivered as a keynote, workshop, webcast, or master class. The Digital Growth Hacking Lab is designed to produce actionable ideas that can be moved to implementation immediately.

There are over 500+ social media sites – yikes! So how do they fit – or not – into your overall strategy? More importantly, how can you avoid the “dark side” and protect against identity theft, brand hijacking, and other risks? How do you reduce service costs, while keeping up with the seemingly endless requirement to “engage”? And how do you measure results?

In this fast-paced presentation, Randall Craig provides practical insight into these and other timely issues.

• Seven social media strategies to grow your business – and avoid the risks. (Business development, recruiting, internal collaboration, risks and policy, and governance.)
• Harnessing the power of social media to improve member engagement, development, and marketing. Building a community in a post-event zoom-fatigued world. (Stakeholder engagement, fundraising, online PR, risks/policy, governance, and event marketing.)
• Strategies and policies to implement a successful social media initiative – at the firm and individual levels. (Profile building, business development, prospect due diligence, recruiting, and risk.)
• How to translate personal profile to business growth online. (Profile building, thought leadership, business development, prospect due diligence, and risk.)
• Campaign development, online PR, integration with traditional marketing, SEO, Web integration, and marketing automation.
• Advanced strategies for a social media job search. (Reactive and proactive social media; avoiding disqualification, advanced LinkedIn strategies, and avoiding identity theft.)

Every presentation is completely customized for the audience and can be delivered as a keynote, workshop, virtual presentation, or master class.

Who really feels comfortable networking… especially when most of it is virtual? A key benefit of attending a meeting, conference, or convention is to develop relationships, yet the vast majority of attendees report that this is a skill they are not “good at”. And now that so many meetings and conferences are virtual, it is even worse. This presentation is designed to give people practical networking skills that they can begin using immediately – whether it be “live in-person”, or in a virtual setting.

The content from the presentation is gleaned from Randall Craig’s research, coaching, and consulting engagements, along with concepts from his best-seller Personal Balance Sheet, and Online PR and Social Media for Experts, 5th edition. Every presentation is completely customized for the audience and can be delivered as a keynote, workshop, virtual presentation, or master class.