Content Marketing: Why it Matters for Your K-12 Sales

By Glen McCandless

Glen is an expert on selling and marketing products to schools.

For over 25 years, he has provided the best sales advice and business development services to the education industry.

Content Marketing is Critical

• Why is Content Marketing (CM) important for driving sales?

• Is CM a priority for you?• What is an appropriate CM budget?• How can you get better CM results?

Stay tuned: over 20 years of experience with CM below

Content Marketing is a Century Old…

• In 1895, John Deere Corporation wrote valuable insights for farmers in a magazine called The Furrow.

• This established John Deere as experts on farming

• This first content marketing produced results – look at John Deere today!

(It won’t take you 121 years to get yours)

…So Why the Reluctance?

• Most senior management teams are hesitant to invest in CM, they lack the patience required

• Marketing budget is limited and centered on conference exhibits

• They say they can’t afford CM, wait for it to produce results, or are skeptical it will deliver sales

Yet these same managers struggle to establish their company brand and attract customers!

How I Became A CM Evangelist

• I was part of the Education Marketing Team at Apple in 1987

• We began a CM program called Syllabus, which: – Positively impacted sales– Established the Apple brand with Educators, and

most importantly– Positioned us as thought leaders in the emerging

world of Ed Tech

I’ve been sold on Content Marketing ever since.

For Educators, Content is KING… Speak To Them In Their Language

• Educators are in the content marketing business

• They thrive on all sorts of content: print, video and graphics

Teaching and learning is all about content from subject matter experts

Content Marketing On Steroids

• New opportunities arise each day to supercharge both the range and distribution of CM.

• As CM takes off, the “noise level” of the market and complexity of creating and sustaining an effective program has increased.

The devil is in the details: lack of strategy, shortcuts in production and budget constraints

can cause CM to fall short of expectations.

What are You Doing to Tap into CM?

Cost-effective technology tools are making CM • Easier• More effective • More affordable • More relevant

So what are you doing to benefit from this incredible business driver?

The End of Cold Calling?

A CM program should be built on a strategy that:• Aligns with sales goals• Actions your brand • Very softly sells the value

of your product or service

When done correctly, CM means the end of cold calls and a lot less dead ends with potential customers.

Adopt a CM Mindset For All Your Promotions

• Continue promoting your product in traditional ways

• Find ways to fully integrate CM into what you already do

• Make every interaction an opportunity to create and/or share content: conferences, email campaigns, sales presentations, and more

How much of your demand generation and marketing budget should go toward CM? Nearly 100%!

Here’s a Specific Example

In 2012, one of my clients contracted me to develop their CM strategy:• It took almost 6 months of planning to map out their program

• Four years later, tens of thousands of targeted school administrators are engaged

• Hundreds of new customers were reached

• The program was so effective it even won the industry’s highest marketing award!

I Practice What I Preach• Content marketing has been a reliable and consistent source of

new clients for me, through:• Articles on my website• Interviews with industry experts on my radio channel • Discussions on the LinkedIn group• Views on this SlideShare channel

Content marketing has helped expand my business, as it has helped businesses for more than a century.

And it will do the same for you!

Please read the full article at: (LINK)To read the full article click here

To listen to the radio program click here

Additional Resources

• For more free sales and marketing advice, click here.

• For a free 30-minute expert consultation, click here.