Content marketing has matured over the years – just like wine, cheese, and people.
The right content delivered at the right time is a more effective approach for marketers than the hard “BUY ME!” sales message.
We agree with Marketing and Social Media Expert, Mari Smith
“Content is King but engagement is Queen and the lady rules the house.”
How can you use content to more effectively engage teachers, turn them into eager leads, and finally convert them into loyal customers?
We also love what Jo Badge, the Assistant Headteacher at Catherine Junior School said in one of our Edsocial webinar chats:
Schools are trying out products, platforms, and services they wouldn’t have before. They want to see specific content that speaks to them.”
Top 12 Content Ideas
Make a List
Switch up the value chain by giving instead of taking value from your customers.
Give them top tips and advice about things to avoid, like common industry mistakes. There’s always the temptation to turn it into a ‘Top 10’ – but don’t. Please don’t.
Make it an unusual and interesting number instead. If it’s between reading an article about ‘Top 10 Tips’ and ‘Top 11 Tips’ – you’re going to want to know what that extra one is, right?
Use your odd numbered list to explore your customers’ pain points and what solutions they need – or base it around similar themes and scenarios that relate to your product.
How-Tos
Step-by-step guides which outline how to complete a task in a particular order.
This can be to provide technical instructions – such as using an app, platform or piece of technology. ‘How-Tos’ break down confusing explanations into manageable chunks.
Checklists
Who doesn’t like making lists?
They keep us organised, motivated and productive. Remember how great it feels to tick off a task? Relish it.
Checklists are great to stay on track by showing you what needs to be completed. They also prevent you from leaving anything important out.
What are your ideal customers’ goals? What do they need to do to fulfil their targets when using your product or service?
Share Case Studies
Get in touch and find out what your customers are up to – and how your product has helped.
Have heart-to-heart with them – but remember to focus your case studies on the customer and their achievements. Lay off the sales spiel – make it a celebratory story that resonates with the rest of your audience.
Remember, your customer is always the hero in your story, you’re just the guide that helps them to achieve success.
Survey
Get your own data! Show your customers you’re here for them and you want to know their opinions.
Ask specific questions to build up a profile of your customers, like what challenges teachers are facing, how they’re using your product, what kind of feedback they have about the services you offer.
Not only are you showing them you care and want to learn more about them – you can use the information you get back to improve your future relationship with them and curate more meaningful content.
Stats
We love some stats! What better way to back up your point than with fact-based content?
It’ll give you more of an authoritative tone – and show you’ve swotted up. So, put your academic hat on, roll up your brain sleeves and do a bit of research.
This can be done by collecting data from your own survey, outsourced from a leading consultancy firm, or by checking credible sources online.
Then publish your stats in a blog, infographic, or report online.
Behind the Scenes
Who are you? Who do you think you are? Show yourself! Put faces to names… even if your team isn’t naturally photogenic. We’re joking, of course (kind of).
People want to communicate with people even more so thanks to live-streaming, video conferencing platforms, and FaceTime. At the end of a Zoom chat, we recorded the team waving and turned it into a GIF.
Update your team pages and profiles on your website too. It’s fun for you and for your audience to get to know your brand, and trust who is calling or emailing them.
Feature Webinar
It’s not just a platform for recording training sessions and presentations (but they’re great too!).
Webinars are actually ideal for generating prospects because you receive contact information from prospects who have signed-up to listen to a topic they’re interested in.
After you’ve hosted your webinar – convert the content into blog posts, like Q&As, to reach prospects who didn’t sign-up.
Competition or Challenge
People want to get stuck into something to show what they’re good at – and have some fun along the way.
Set a competition or challenge for students that relates to your product. This could be an online art competition where teachers can set their students to create their own superhero character.
You can also take submissions for the best homemade science experiment videos, enter a short story competition, or set a TikTok challenge.
The next step is to showcase them online in a gallery page or blog post. Plus you can share them across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and community groups.
FAQs
What could be getting in the way of your customer having the best user experience?
Make sure they know how to use your features and services like it’s second nature. Put yourself in their position and provide clear guides and instructions – with plain, logical language – and screen grabs.
Community Questions
Now you’ve answered the FAQs – what questions should you be asking? Think about what people don’t tend to know about. This is a great way to put your survey answers to use too.
People to Follow
Which teachers, brands, online influencers and education ambassadors are doing great stuff that you think your audience should be aware of?
What if they’re your direct competitors? It doesn’t matter! This can spark some ideas and inspiration for your next marketing campaign – or content piece.
Not got time to manage your marketing content and make it work for you? Why not book a growth strategy call with us today?
