Why Your Education-Related Business Should Have a Website

Teachers, by nature, are information junkies. We love to know stuff, but we want our information easily accessible and organized. Which is why having an easy to navigate website, with SEO optimization for education-related key words and phrases, is important if you want to market to educators.

With 40% of the world’s population having access to the internet, chances are your potential customers are already searching the web. Over 50% of Americans purchased a product online in 2015, and we were fourth behind the UK, Germany, and South Korea (wearesocial.com). Imagine how many potential customers you are missing out on if you don’t have a website!

Considering the average internet user spends almost 4 ½ hours on the web each day (wearesocial.com), here are some benefits to having a dedicated website for your business:

• a website increases your credibility, visibility, and accountability
• a website promotes your brand awareness
• a website promotes your business 24/7
• a website allows you to compete with your competition

How does all this translate to the education arena? The same benefits apply as with any other business, small or large, but the education field is becoming more technologically driven. We are tapping into myriad social media platforms and technological tools, so keeping up with current trends is important if you want to market to this field.

Having a hard time visualizing an education-based website? Here are links to three popular and successful websites that cater to the education-minded:

• Edutopia: Edutopia offers myriad resources, both video and written, for educators, administrators, and parents. The website has multiple avenues for visitors to research a specific topic, making it accessible.
• Scholastic: Yes, the company behind the little book magazines you took home as a child has a fully-functioning, dynamic website, where teachers, administrators, librarians, parents, and students can go for information and inspiration.
• Education World: This website is more geared towards educators and administrators. It provides information on all things current in education, from Presidential Candidates’ views on education to non-profit organizations that help students and families.

These are just three examples of education-related websites. To find one that reflects your product or service, simply conduct an internet search of your company’s key words.

Having a website doesn’t guarantee its effectiveness, though. You have to market your website with the education field in mind. Here are some suggestions for marketing your company’s website to the education arena:

• Blog: Add a blog to your website and post regularly. Sharing your blog posts on social media sites, such as Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin, will drive more traffic to your website.
• Online Discussion Forums: Join education-based online discussion forums, such as The Educator’s PLN. Visiting discussion forums focused on your area of interest allows you to collaborate with like-minded individuals. This can then lead to website visits and clients.
• Comments: Many of the websites I have highlighted in this blog post allow for reader comments. Adding meaningful comments to these online conversations can give your business a “voice”, drawing visitors to your website. I have found, one of the most stimulating websites to engage in intellectual conversation is TED Talks. If you are unfamiliar with TED Talks, please click on the link! You will be inspired, educated, challenged, and, hopefully, engaged. Consider one video, “To This Day…for the bullied and beautiful”, in the education archives generated over 600 comments! You don’t want to participate in these types of conversations for the single goal of promoting your website, though. Instead, you want to engage in intellectual conversations that allow you to share meaningful content, as this will establish your authority on education-based topics and build your brand awareness.

What does all this mean for you? Put simply, a website lays a solid foundation on which businesses can build their online presence and promote brand awareness. If you don’t have a website, you don’t have the groundwork to build a successful business.

Need help writing content for your website, or do you have content that needs optimizing? Contact me to see if I can help!

References

We Are Social (2015). Retrieved from http://wearesocial.com/uk/special-reports/digital-social-mobile-worldwide-2015

Making In-roads Into the Education Arena with Marketing Brochures

Case Studies and White Papers aren't the only marketing avenues into the education field. Whether you provide a product or a service, the power of a well-written marketing brochure will inspire prospective clients to take action and do business with you instead of your competition. 

There are two types of brochures: corporate and product- or service-oriented. For most companies looking to make inroads into the education field, the latter proves most effective. 

This type of brochure highlights your company’s product or service, with the purpose of selling to potential clients. When trying to reach potential customers, you want to not only present the features of your product or service, you will also want to share the benefits. Presenting the benefits of your product or service will tap into potential customers’ emotions, a powerful driving force in the purchasing process.

Crafting an effective brochure to market your product or service to the education arena, you will want to consider the following questions: 

• What is the purpose and/or subject of your brochure?
• Who is your audience?
• How many products, or services, will be featured in the brochure?
• Will your brochure be research-based or experiential?
• What is your budget?
• Based on your budget, will you write it in-house or hire a freelance professional copywriter?
• What will the layout look like? Will there be photos, illustrations, and graphs?
• How many pages will be in your brochure?
• Once the brochure is complete, how will you use and disseminate the brochure?

Let's take a look at an example. Perhaps your company sells curriculum materials for English language arts. Your products help educators teach to their students' learning styles by providing hands-on learning experiences, such as Vocabulary Steal the Bacon and Adjective Scavenger Hunts. Your marketing brochure will not only highlight the materials for purchase but also the benefits of using these manipulatives to engage a variety of learners. Using visual aids, such as pictures illustrating the materials, will enhance the selling power of your marketing brochure. 

Need content for your marketing brochure? A professional freelance copywriter, with specialized knowledge of the education field, can help! 

Break Into the Education Arena with a Well-written, Research-based White Paper

Are you interested in expanding your product or service to the education field, but not sure how. A well-written, research-based white paper might be your solution!

Before we look at opportunities to use white papers in the education arena, let's take a look at the anatomy of a white paper. Broken down into its most basic parts, a white paper consists of a problem, a solution, and credible proof to support your solution. Sounds simple, right?

How you weave these three components into one cohesive document, though, will dictate the effectiveness of your white paper. You see, a white paper isn't just about promoting your product or service; it's about providing quality content to potential customers that will establish your company as a leader in the education industry. Once you can do that, you can tap into the $500 billion spent annually in the education field!

Here are five ways you can promote your business to the education sector with white papers:

1. Let's say you are an admissions recruiter for a college or university. You can write a white paper explaining the decisions, and subsequent challenges, one might face when choosing which college to attend. In this document, you will also provide specific solutions to these challenges, focusing on the unique aspects your college or university offers.
2. Does your company provide strategic reading interventions for young learners? Write a white paper detailing the reading process, highlighting specific strategies that will help students at each stage. Of course, these strategies will be aligned with what your reading interventions provide!
3. With the education field ripe for technological tools and resources, companies offering digital experiences, such as class blogs and online presentation platforms, can write a white paper detailing the challenges of getting teachers and staff on board. In this paper, showcase how districts and administration can overcome these resistances with step-by-step training and tutorials, both of which your company provides!
4. An online assessment company, looking to attract the attention of a K-8 school district, can write a white paper on the importance of differentiated assessment. Since your company's online assessment tools take into consideration the variety of learner styles, you are promoting your service by putting together a well-researched white paper that justifies the use of differentiated assessment plans.
5. Are you a marketing company that wants to tap into the education field? Targeting your ideal client with a well-written white paper might be just the in you are looking for. Districts and administrators aren't necessarily interested in the marketing process, though, so you will want to reach out to them with a document on how an online marketing campaign can help them increase their student enrollment.

What you do with your white paper is equally important as how you craft it; so next week, we will discuss how to disseminate the white paper you have just written. 

Do you feel you need assistance writing a white paper to help your company break into the education field? A professional freelance copywriter, especially one with first-hand experience in education, can help. Feel free to contact me to see if we might be a good fit!

How Customer Case Studies are Impacting the Education Field

I was in my second year of teaching, at the elementary level, when a fellow second-year colleague of mine and I decided we wanted to pilot a new computer-based grading program. Up until that time, our district still recorded student grades and progress the old-fashioned way, pen to paper. Many of our veteran colleagues clung to the old adage, “If it ain’t broke!” 

But, as we would all soon learn, the "traditional" way of grading was broken, antiquated, inefficient, and in desperate need of repair!

The grading program I piloted, Online Assessment Reporting System (OARS), was effective and easy to use. Unfortunately, it wasn't marketed in a way that appealed to teachers, especially seasoned teachers. 

Hidden Opportunities to use Case Studies in the Wine Industry

A well-written case study can help potential clients see your business from a familiar perspective - that of another consumer. When crafting a case study, the writer focuses on a specific problem, obstacle, or challenge the potential client might face - one that the company writing the study can help resolve.

Traditionally, case studies have been used in tech companies and the business industry. But, that doesn't mean they won't work in other fields.

Take the wine industry! One wouldn't typically think of the wine industry aspresenting problems or challenges that can be shared in a case study. But, there are! Here are just a few opportunities for using case studies in the wine industry:

• Bottles and labels - You've just finished crafting your most recent vintage of wine and are ready for bottling. How your wine is packaged and marketed matters just as much as the quality of wine inside, so you turn to the internet for options. As with any product or service these days, there are myriad of companies trying to sell you their wares. How do you choose? Check their website for customer case studies. 

Grow Your Business in 2015 with a Successful Social Media Campaign

Are you looking to grow your business in 2015, but not sure how?

I have three little words for you: social media campaign.

Sure, you might already have a Facebook page, a Twitter account, or a YouTube channel, but that doesn't necessarily mean you are running a successful social media campaign.

I would like to share a special report with you titled, “Social Media & the Wine Industry”. In this book, you will learn how vineyards and wineries, large and small, all over the world, are using social media to promote their businesses. From the Outback to the Canadian desert (yes, there are deserts in Canada!) to right here in the good old US of A, you will read about vineyards and wineries who are using social media to attract new customers, nurture existing relationships, and build their brand awareness. Just sign up on the right for your complimentary copy of “Social Media & the Wine Industry”!