Monthly Archives: March 2012
Grow Your Business with Online Professional Learning Communities
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K-12 educators receive encouragement from their school districts to seek out online professional development opportunities. There they can form professional learning communities (PLCs) or a professional learning network (PLN). While some districts provide direction and a platform, other districts encourage teachers, librarians and administrators to find and participate in a PLC of their own choosing.
Earlier this week I had the privilege of presenting a free webinar called “Growing Your Business with Online Communities,” for K-12 education publishers sponsored by edWeb.net, a professional social network for the education community, and MCH Strategic Data, an education data company. Continue reading
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3 Terrific Resources to Learn More about Content Marketing
Most marketers in the K-12 education industry have now at least heard the term content marketing. Many educational publishers have been doing content marketing for a long time – telling success stories with their customers as the hero.
Content marketing is fundamentally a way to attract or pull your customers and prospects toward you with great storytelling instead of pushing out traditional sales messages. There are many practitioners in other industries that have blazed the trail like Rebecca Lieb who talks about the difference between advertising and content marketing. Continue reading
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The Role of Storytelling in Effective Marketing
Human beings have been sharing stories since the dawn of time. It’s the way we connect with each other. Stories that create a heart connection are the most successful – when we can imagine ourselves in someone else’s story.
Good marketing has that same effect. Think of Hallmark commercials, for example. Their sweet and nostalgic vignettes strike an emotional chord. Other common responses to ads and commercials include laughter, irritation, or a sense of disbelief.
But whatever the reaction, the marketing has succeeded to some degree because it evoked a response. We saw ourselves, even for a moment, in that story. The reason videos go viral is because those stories successfully capture a moment and trigger a response. Continue reading
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Three Basic Elements of Successful Customer Engagement
Earlier this week we talked about the difference between social media marketing and content marketing. What they share at their core is the idea of authentic customer engagement.
So what is the essence of successful customer engagement?
First you must to listen with genuine interest to your customer. You have to hear what their concerns, issues and goals are.
Second, you must understand how to help them solve their concerns with what you have to offer which is relevant to them.
Third, you must respond to them in an authentic and transparent way supporting their need for individual attention, additional information or the move to the next step of the process. Continue reading
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