According to
Hubspot,
"lead generation is the science of converting site visitors into leads. In inbound marketing, visitors become leads once they fill out a form in return for some sort of offer on a targeted landing page. These leads can then be qualified and distributed to the sales team who will work to convert them into customers."
We work a lot with school districts in various ways to assist them in their marketing and communications efforts. We're also a Certified Hubspot Partner. So, it just became a natural progression to question whether lead generation can work in school districts. Let's start answering this question by looking at the first 2 parts of Hubspot's definition and apply them to school districts.
Lead generation is the science of converting site visitors into leads.
School district websites, the good ones, typically have a high volume of traffic. Especially if the district is constantly creating compelling, search optimized content. Many districts don't capitalize on their high traffic volume for one simple reason. They're not focused on generating leads. Why? Because a school district believes it isn't selling a product or service, which isn't entirely true. School districts are in the business of educating young people and equipping them with the knowledge or skills required to graduate, maybe go to college, or in some cases, enter the workplace. So, a district is selling a service; education. Career technical centers kind of understand this idea because they have to actively recruit students into their programs to survive. However, traditional k12 schools are missing a huge opportunity because they don't see the education they're providing as a service to their students or the students' parents. Traditional k-12 schools should focus on lead generation for no other reason than to increase the reach of their e-newsletters and social media efforts.
In inbound marketing, visitors become leads once they fill out a form in return for some sort of offer on a targeted landing page.
The whole idea behind inbound marketing is to pull your best customers and prospects to your website by creating great content, promoting that content through social media, and then converting site visitors to leads. I talked about it earlier. School districts that are creating great content are already pulling their "customers" (students, parents, alumni & community members) to their website. They need to take the next step and create calls-to-action that link to landing pages. These landing pages need to offer the visitor something they don't typically get by visiting the website on a regular basis. So, if a school district is utilizing e-newsletters, they need to create a call-to-action (CTA) and place it on the web pages that are getting the highest amount of traffic. Place the CTA above the fold of the web page, and link it to a landing page where visitors can sign up to receive the district's e-newsletter. Tell the visitor exactly what they're going to get from receiving the e-newsletter, how often they'll receive it, and reiterate your privacy policy that you're not going to share their personal information with anyone, and that it will be used for the sole purpose of keeping them informed about the district and its activities.
Can school districts use inbound marketing? Absolutely! While districts aren't trying to sell a product or service like a business, they are selling themselves to a specific group of customers who have a strong emotional connection. The idea of using inbound marketing techniques to grow a district's e-newsletter database is just one example.
What other ways can school districts use inbound marketing in their marketing & communication efforts? We'd love to hear your feedback!
On the night of April 18th, 1775, the most important message of the United States was delivered on horseback under the cover of night by Paul Revere. His simple "1 if by land, 2 if by sea" system gave the American forces time to rally and eventually defeat the British Army.
Fast-forward to 103 years later...
In 1878 David Hughes noticed that sparks could be heard in a telephone receiver with a carbon microphone. Hughes developed his carbon-based detector further and eventually could detect signals over a few hundred yards. Radio later became the media outlet on which Adolf Hitler made his famous declaration of war.
Fast-forward again, this time 131 years...
On Tuesday, January 20th
2009, the world witnessed the inauguration of the first African-American President of the United States of America. Over 23 million people watched the inauguration... ON THE INTERNET!
Let's review. What have we learned from our brief history lesson that pertains to school district communication?
At first glance is doesn't look like much, but hear me out!
Imagine trying to explain to Paul Revere the concept of a computer. Or maybe you would like the task of telling Hitler that there would someday be an African-American President of the United States. In either case, both messages would have been met with tremendous uncertainty.
The message I am trying to convey is simple. If school districts are going to survive in the ever changing world of communication, THEY MUST LEARN TO ADAPT!!!
This is not a knock on any specific school district, or even any particular demographic of citizens. Instead, think of this as a request to all people in charge of school district communication. Our schools are too important to let their communication slip by the wayside. Students across the country are excelling in ways like never before, yet negative stories dominate the headlines concerning today's education system.
Today's traditional and social media outlets have spoiled audiences. People no longer rely on the Sunday paper to fill them in on what is happening in their community and around the world. Today's media audiences want their information on their terms, and they want it now.
One way cutting-edge districts are combating this problem is by infusing user generated content (UGC) into their communication efforts. (Look here for a great example www.hipointjourneys.com) With the demands of today's media audiences, user generated content allows students, staff and even alumni the chance to provide positive messages about their respective districts.
However, user generated content is not the "end all be all" for school communication, and that is exactly my point. Confused yet?
User generated content is not new to the communication world. Unfortunately, it is still relatively new to school districts across the country. This only further reinforces the significance of my previous request. Lagging behind most other organizations can't become a trend with school districts. Schools, especially public schools have an image problem. The only way to combat this problem is by becoming as transparent in communication efforts as possible.
To bring this post full-circle, nobody knows exactly what the future holds for school district communication. But then again, nobody knows what the future holds either. What we do know is that the most successful industries and companies are the ones who best communicate with their target audiences. Just imagine the fate of the United States if Paul Revere would have tried delivering his message on his own two feet. The results would have been catastrophic. A similar fate can't be shared by our schools, they are simply too important!
Start Your Journey Today
Start your journey today to become an Inbound Marketing Certified Professional with resources from IMU and Rock Solid Media LLC.
While many Ohio school districts are still avoiding social media, there are several that have embraced the revolution. Two districts cited by Shane Haggerty (follow Shane on Twitter), Marketing & Communications Director for Ohio Hi-Point Career Center, include Pickerington City Schools and their involvment in the "We are Pickerington" Facebook Fan Page. The other is the Cincinnati Public Schools' "I Am CPS" campaign. Shane also discusses why many Ohio school districts are not utilizing social media, plus he shares some advice for school districts considering the implementation of social media.
We hope you've enjoyed our 3 part interview series on school district social media. Visit our YouTube Channel to view all 3 videos.
If there's a topic you would like to learn more about related to social media, lead generation, email marketing or any other aspect of inbound marketing or communications, please contact us and we will work to bring that topic to our blog!
Start Your Journey Today!
Start your journey toward becoming an Inbound Marketing Certified Professional today by accessing Rock Solid Media's IMU Resources!
In a previous blog post, we provided a quick review of school district email marketing practices for several large districts in Ohio. The review quickly examined four areas of the districts' email marketing efforts:
- Content
- Personalization
- Design
- Images.
Over the course of the next several weeks, we're going to take a deeper look at each of the afforementioned areas. This post is all about personalization and includes recommendations for improving personalization in school district email marketing.
More than "Dear John"
Personalization isn't just about "Dear John". Personalization also includes interest areas, geographic location and demographic information. School districts, especially larger districts, can serve a huge geographic area with a wide range of demographics. All school districts have one thing in common. They have multiple opportunities to engage stakeholders because these individuals have different interests in school district operations. Parents, and young adults (25-45), want to know what the district is doing to enhance educational opportunities for students. Grandparents, and older adults (45 and up), want information about the decisions school boards are making that may have an affect on their financial well-being. Some district residents have a strong affinity for the district's athletic programs and want information about wins and losses. And, unfortunately, there are district residents that don't want any information about the district. The challenge for school districts involves three areas.
- Identifying potential stakeholder interests
- Capturing stakeholder data
- Managing stakeholder data and expectations
What Do People Want?
This is one of the biggest challenges for any organization, especially school districts because most work within a very restrictive budget. However, there are options for uncovering stakeholder interests in your school district. If you have a subscriber database for your current email marketing efforts, you can create a survey using Survey Monkey to determine current subscribers' areas of interest. We would recommend using your current email marketing efforts to drive traffic to your survey. Use the survey to help you develop different segments for your larger subscriber database.
Once you've developed these segments, send another message to your larger database asking them to update their information preferences. Use an incentive to drive subscribers to update their information. Partner with a local business to provide a product or service as the "carrot." Plan on sending multiple messages over a period of time. You should always "take the pulse" of your subscribers to make sure you're providing them the information THEY want to receive, and not the information YOU want to give them.
Now, go forth and email!
Change is difficult, especially when dealing with creatures of habit. And those of us with experience in education know there are no greater creatures of habit than school administration and personnel. That being said, not all change is for the worse. Making the decision to bring new technology into your district or not, should be just like making any other decision, well researched and thought out. The big problem many school districts face is they are not sure how or why they should use social media and other interactive marketing outlets.
1) Identify Your Needs - School districts are as unique as the communities and students they serve. What works for similar sized districts might not be the best approach for yours. The first question you need to ask yourself is simple; how can we better communicate with all of our stakeholders? From parents, to businesses, to senior citizens, all of a district's audiences need to be taken into consideration when identifying communication needs within a district. Other questions to ask yourself during this step include: Are our current communication efforts effective? How do we know if those efforts are effective? What do our stakeholders expect from our district in regards to communication?
2) Do Some Research -This may sound like a simple step, but it is the step that will make or break the whole process. Over the past 4 years, countless social media outlets have emerged, everything from basic outlets such as Facebook and Twitter, to more niche outlets like Yelp and Foursquare. The important thing about this step is to try to and keep it simple. There is no reason for schools to use unique outlets just because they are the "flavor of the month." Stick to what you think would work best for your district. Our suggestion; a multi-faceted approach. Facebook allows districts to set up their page as an extension of their district website. If it is important enough to have on the district site, it is probably worthy of being mentioned on the district's Facebook page. However, that is simply our suggestion. Remember, your district is unique!
3) Make A Decision - Your needs are identified, and you know what you want. Maybe your district has decided to keep it simple and just launch a Facebook page, or maybe your district wants to try and bring in everything but the kitchen sink. Either way, you need to make a decision! In dealing with school administration, decisions often take long periods of time to turn into results. The earlier your district can make a decision to use new marketing outlets, the sooner that decision can result in action.
4) Hire The Right Help - If you have made it this far don't negate all your hard work with the wrong help. When trying to decide what kind of help to hire, look to the amount of technology and marketing outlets you have decided to utilize. If your district is keeping it simple, paying a district staff member to take on the extra work may be the right direction to go. However, if your district plans on undertaking a communication overhaul, you should probably look at hiring a person or persons from outside the district. There are many firms beginning to break into the education industry with specific concentration on communications and marketing. Like everything else in this process, your help is specific to your district and your fiscal situation.
5) Stick It Out - This change is not going to yield earth-shattering results over night, it will not save your district from a financial disaster and it will not improve test scores. It will, however, ensure improved communication within the district, open two-way communication between the district and its' shareholders and do it all in a very cost-effective manner.