Why is Digital Learning Day Important for Educators, Policy Makers, K-12 Publishers and EdTech Companies?
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Yesterday was the first-ever national Digital Learning Day organized by the Alliance for Excellent Education headed up by former WV governor, Bob Wise. 15,000 educators and 1.7 million students from 39 states participated in this remarkable event. In addition, an untold number of education advocates, enthusiasts, reformers, policy wonks, journalists, consultants and K-12 vendors also participated via web broadcast and social media.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski kicked off the national town hall meeting with an announcement that the Obama administration wants digital textbooks to be implemented in every U.S. public school within 5 years. Yes, 2017. Continue reading
Social Proof: What is It and Why Do Educational Publishers Want It?
Wikipedia defines social proof as a psychological phenomenon where the actions of others are indications of correct behavior around a particular situation.
In social media, social proof is reflected in the number of Twitter followers you have; the number of fans on your Facebook page; the number of RSS readers your blog has; the number of views for your YouTube videos, etc.
Why is this important? It’s a clear indication to your prospects that you have content worth reading – that your opinions will be important to them. Continue reading
Does the New 80/20 Content Rule Apply to Educational Publishers?
Yesterday I read that companies should plan to give up to 80% of their content away for free and generate sales and profits from the remaining 20%. As publishers, that seems an unrealistic metric.
Content is our stock and trade. We've invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in developing the best-of-category, and now we should give it away for free?
How is that a viable business model?
Yet more and more companies are allocating larger amounts of their resources each year to this effort as reported by the Content Marketing Institute. Continue reading
What exactly IS an attraction strategy?
Now we know that the role of marketing has shifted from broadcast mode to networking mode. We can see this playing out all around us both in publishing and in other industries.
The way we communicate with customers and prospects is now more interactive and multidimensional.
Marketing has shifted from interruption mode (broadcast) to invitational (attraction).
But what does this mean to K-12 marketers in a practical way?
ATTRACTION STRATEGY = INBOUND MARKETING = CONTENT MARKETING
No matter what we call it, this new way to market products and services is about providing value and earning customer loyalty. Continue reading
Authentic Marketing 101 for K-12 Publishers
Teachers have long been savvy consumers of educational products.
They can spot marketing jargon and marketers from 100 feet away, and do what they can to avoid both.
K-12 educators don’t generally have a lot of brand allegiance. Their primary concern is - does the product work in the classroom?
Given that educators are particularly resistant to marketing, how should educational publishers begin the marketing and sales process? Continue reading
Interruption v Invitation Marketing for K-12 Publishers
The seismic shift that has occurred in marketing is that we have moved from an interruption model to an invitational model in marketing our company messages.
For years, the interruption model was effective in using broadcast and advertising media to inform prospects of a company's goods and services. Now, despite the channel, prospects are experts at dodging and ignoring broadcast and print ads.
The new effective method of marketing is through an invitation model where a company builds relationships with its community and freely shares content that is important to that community. Companies accomplish this through outbound communications such as newsletters, white papers, videos and social media while letting prospects know they are ready to serve when the prospect is ready to buy. This is called content marketing. Continue reading
Follow Us!