“Old Marketing” v. “New Marketing”
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First published September 14, 2008
Traditional marketing is still very much with us in K-12 publishing. Because of the institutional nature of our market, we still operate in “push” mode with direct mail, outbound sales, either in person or by phone, conferences, etc. For most K-12 publishers, sending occasional customer emails and offering online webinars and demos is as Web 2.0 as it gets. For educational publishers, it is still very much about filling the sales funnel moving prospects to customers through a multi-step process.
But even in educational publishing, this traditional model is giving way to something new. In traditional sales, the company was in charge of moving the process forward, and in the Web 2.0 world, the new driver is the customer. Continue reading
4 Guiding Principles for Navigating Uncertain Times
First published October 16, 2008
Even the financial pundits have admitted they do not know when the market lurching will end and national and international markets will settle down. With the intercession of the government, there is a general belief… Continue reading
What if we don’t use the bad economy for an excuse?
First published February 27, 2009
This interesting question is posed by David Brock. He tells of one company that has made it a policy for their salespeople and their sales are up 10% this year.
As I'm heading into three… Continue reading
The Cost of Fear and Uncertainty
First published March 25, 2009
As I've listened to the presenters at the Executive Publishing Conference and Expo this week, it occurs to me that in all this talk about the recession and who is navigating the economy well and who is still on the sidelines trying to figure out what to do, that there is a real cost to fear and uncertainty. And, in addition to real costs of inertia or non-engagement that there are also opportunities lost along the way.
Someone said yesterday, "if the new up is flat, then we're up." It's a bit of black humor that gets to the heart of today's business climate and that is, if you haven't lost ground, then you're doing pretty well. After listening to publishers' experiences these last two days, it seems to me that even jumping into the fray, investing-scrapping-reinvesting yields more benefits than inertia. The worst outcome for a company is losing relevance to its community while sitting on the sidelines. Continue reading
Online Marketing & Sales 101 – Teach Don’t Sell
First published August 6, 2009
In the continually evolving world of online marketing and sales, it is those experts and websites that share reams of content with their audience around common areas of interest that are the most successful. Hands down; no contest. Continue reading
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