The Education Business Blog

Numbered lists on blogs are all the rage, particularly at the turn of a new year.

Since mid December my RSS feed has been stuffed with 10 best if 2011, 20 ways to do that, and 12 things to look for in the new year. Oh February please come soon.

If you find yourself falling for this brand of year-end-birdbrainery consider the following 5 points.

4. Lists Are Cliche

At this point there is nothing original in banging out a list. Do you want your blog to stand out for original content or do you want to be just another hamster on the wheel?

2. They Are Cheap Salvation

Reading a list about making your life better is just like making it better - only quicker and easier. Right?

5. They Are Arbitrary Link Bait

I scanned "30 Ways to Make Your Life Better" and wished the authors had taken the brain power to consolidate down to 3. Instead they dumped a truckload of self-help books in a messy pile.

Yeah, shame on me for clicking on it.

3. Forwarding Them is Passive Aggressive Advice Giving

If you want to make your point with barbed humor use the content over at Passive Aggressive Notes. We are all Amy Misto.

1. There Is More - buy why bother.

Don't say you weren't warned. Now, where is my TPS report?

Alright kids, get off my lawn.

OPOL

eBooks, iPads, and the Kindle are changing the fundamental structure of the publishing industry. From a strategic perspective they are having the largest impact on the development and pricing of products. In other words it is affecting the "what" deeply. The "how" has not changed all that much, regardless of whether you are selling print and/or technology.

There are four fundamental strategies for a growing a company in the K12 sector because even in the best of times K12 is (mostly) a zero sum game. In 2008 I wrote a post about this competitive dynamic:

In normal times education budgets grow at 2%-5% a year. Most start-ups or new products need to grow at a huge multiple of that - 30% to 300% or even more. Mathematically in order for you to grow someone else is must lose out.

We are most definitely not living in "normal times" these days. Any growth strategy in today's market is fighting gravity as school budgets are expected to fall next year after the stimulus has expired.

K12 Growth Strategies

How does a company go about "stealing" share from other players in the market? Below we look at innovation, distribution, acquisition, and diversification.

1. Innovation - This is the most obvious - if you build a better product people will flock to you while ignoring the tired offerings of your competitors.

The best example in the market today is interactive white boards which are now in over 60% of classrooms (70% is considered market saturation for most technologies). This has mostly happened over the last 5 years.

Since this platform is now ubiquitous a new innovation frontier is content for these devices like Saddleback's excellent math programs.

PCI published our award winning PCI Reading Program - the first research based comprehensive program for intellectually disabled students in decades. It is designed for today's Special Ed population, including a much higher number of students with autism. Tellingly it is a combination of print and software. This product line has seen explosive growth in a rough market.

Success requires a clear vision of market needs and how to apply new tools to those needs in an economically efficient way. Easy to say, really hard to do.

2. Distribution - Distribution is the achilles heel of all K12 start ups. If you have something innovative making more people aware of your innovative solution will drive new business. The problem is that there are 3.8 million teachers in the US and they are bombarded with marketing messages. Cutting through that clutter at that scale takes time and money.

The largest publishers have actually contracted their distribution networks in the last five years. They collapsed their supplemental teams into their core basal teams with the predictable result that the supplemental business has shrunk. There is a fair debate on how much of this shrinkage is falling demand on the customers' side and how much is publisher neglect. What is clear is that the publishers' actions have fueled the fire at some level.

This has created opportunities for mid-market players with niche distribution networks to fill the gaps at both ends - with their own products and as distributors for larger and smaller players. As I noted last fall:

"...[in the attention economy] access to expertise becomes very valuable and companies that can help their customers make informed, relevant, and effective decisions will thrive."

An investor once asked me what it took to build a distribution network in K12. My answer was most definitely not what he wanted to hear - 10 years and a lot of patience. Most new companies don't think in that kind of time frame but the survivors will all tell you that the trick was a long term bloody minded dedication to the challenge. There is no quick fix here.

3. Acquisition - Between starts ups innovating new learning technologies and mature mid-market companies seeking exits Education is a target rich environment for those seeking acquisitions.

The core challenge has more to do with investor expectations for returns on capital and the speed at which the education market moves. Due to the stickiness of education solutions once they are adopted they pay out nicely over a long period of time. Put another way - the payoff is there in this market but most investors are not patient enough to earn it.

Right now the larger publishers seem to be sitting this out but people looking to enter the market - like News Corp - are active. Private Equity groups are circling as well but many probably see education as a low risk hedge rather than a core investment. The VCs are quite active - but they are investing in small innovative start ups.

One of the more interesting plays may be marrying the playbook of the PE and VC camps. Leverage the distribution muscle of an established player than can reach across the market with the disruptive innovations coming from the smaller players through creative acquisitions. Culturally and operationally there are significant challenges in this approach, but the payoff if done correctly is a dramatic reduction in the time to market for innovations at a time of disruptive change.

4. Diversification - Another approach is branching into new markets. There are opportunities in corporate learning, education systems in other countries, tutoring, trade publishing, home schoolers, etc. for publishers who currently sell just to schools.

This mistake that may company's make is underestimating both the changes in product design and the distribution challenges associated with moving into other markets.

Does your box say "program" instead of "programme"? At a minimum you will need a new box if not a complete page review and spelling update for the guts of your program if you want to sell it in the UK or Australia. Are you ready for the rough and tumble of trade publishing or corporate learning?

Moving into new markets requires sustained discipline as you learn the rules of the road and a willingness to invest over a long haul. If you are looking for a quick hit don't waste your time on this approach.

Summary

If you are thinking about how to grow your business (rather than just holding on in tough times) then some combination of the four approaches outlined above is where you will probably end up. Your vision, access to capital, and discipline will determine what the right mix is for your company.

I've probably missed some obvious alternative to the four core growth strategies outlined above. Feel free to drop me an email or comment and we'll update the list.

I just got back from two weeks off, really off as in "I read 6 books" off.* The whole family sat on a chilly island in the Northwest and just let the old mazooma roll in. I highly recommend it.

My time away generated the germ of a couple of meta posts about publishing in the era of social media. But, before we get to that I saw the worst use of social media on on my flight out. If there were social media police these guys would be doing hard time.

I use an off-site parking lot when I travel. They get all the fundamentals exactly right - there is always space, you are always picked up within 1-2 minutes, they are clean, drivers are pleasant etc. etc. They normally bring their A game to everything they do.

But as I sat there groggy at 4:30 AM on the shuttle bus I noticed a poster in the shuttle bus that made my jaw drop. The photo below isn't all that good so I'll summarize the headlines here.

"We're Social

• Like Us!
• Tweet Us!
• Watch Us!
• Connect with Us!
• Check In Now!
• Show Us Love!"

What is missing from this picture? Certainly not exclamation points.

Not once do they mention the customer or give them a reason to do anything - it is all about them. Why would I tweet them? People who tweet at the level of "just parked my car" earn the ignore button. Why would I watch them on YouTube? Seriously - are they giving lessons on how to park? To save y'all the pain I actually looked up their YouTube video and as I suspected it is nothing more than an advertisement.

This is the old media mindset at work in the new media. You can just see the cigar chomping VP of Marketing shouting "Get me eyeballs!" and the team scrambling to get webstats showing traffic, any traffic.

But social media is a two way street. You must give people a good reason to interact with you and you need to conduct a respectful conversation with them when they show up. Nowhere should you be taking about yourself.

So in the spirit of bringing solutions rather than just whining here is what I'd do. Each of these suggestions could be employed by any company.

• Focus on the services most likely to generate business - on this list only Yelp really comes to mind. Send an email to frequent parkers the day after they get home with a Yelp link asking for a review. Then respond to the reviews (good and bad).
• Tweet regularly on airport conditions - busy, calm, delays, etc. - give customers a reason to pay attention to your feed.
• Allow the members to link their frequent parker cards (yes they do that well) to social media and then give them awards for every 5th or 10th use of the card that is broadcast to their network. Give your customers bragging rights.
• Create some videos with truly useful information for travelers (links to cool packing software, tips on how to pack light, information on when the best times of the day are for security lines, etc.). Skip the ads, provide a service.

This isn't that hard - but you have to get out of the "me me me" mentality of advertising.

Now, go make yourselves useful to a customer....

--------
* For the curious this was true vacation reading not high lit - 1 from Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus series and 5 from the Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell.

There is a profitability model for companies promoting themselves on Facebook and Twitter. There a lot of people making good coin from the incessant flogging of companies and organizations in social media. It just isn't the companies themselves who are profiting.

Here is how it works in four easy steps:

1. An executive is at the dentist's office and sees the plea to friend and follow them. A dim light bulb goes off - "we should do this too." Lemming marketing almost never works, particularly when you are following behind your Dentist.
2. Someone in Marketing with an advertising background is assigned the task of building a following in "social media." This is so important that they are given a bonus. The performance metrics are the evil stepchildren of the "brand impressions" school of marketing metrics. Quantity over quality.
3. A campaign of whinging pleas to friend and follow ensues. We see this in every piece of literature the company products (annual reports - really?), at trade shows ("it only takes a minute!"), and even on flashing freeway signs ("great idea, let me do that while I'm driving..."). Logrolling and sock-puppetry are rampant - many of the "followers" are marketing people at other companies playing the same game.
4. The metrics are hit, the bonus is paid. PROFIT!

This whole scenario is so wrong on so many levels it makes my teeth hurt. Here are some thoughts to help reframe this approach that map back to each stage of the process above.

1. Any executive who is in a position to affect social media policy must be an active participant themselves. This doesn't mean a LinkedIn account with 8 connections. They should be on at least 3 different services. A deeper understanding of how social media differ from traditional media has to be earned through experience - it is the only way. Put another way - they should intuitively grasp how empty the Dentist's little social media campaign is.
2. If you are going to build metrics organize them around engagement not exposures. The advertising paradigm of quantity over quality is precisely the wrong mindset to bring to this gunfight. Social media is all about a small number of high quality conversations not a bloated mass of easily ignored screaming.
3. Social media should be all about attraction rather than promotion. DO things that contribute to the on-line community and you will be rewarded with a growing network. "Followers" is failure - remember this is about engaging in a two-way dialog. You have to make a real investment to make a real contribution.
4. Everyone involved has to show a little more patience than they are used to in a transactional marketing model. If you are used to big bang marketing events you need to see how 2 new followers a day over the course of a year add up to a hell of a lot more than 100 leads from a trade show. It isn't as dramatic, but the impact is far greater.

Go forth and prosper.

What could be nerdier than a huge ed-tech trade show? It has technology, teachers, curriculum, and lot of gee whiz bang products. I'm sure a couple of the hotels had mad D&D sessions going late into the night.

I'll tell you what is nerdier - judging the marketing efforts at said trade show. Welcome to my world.

Most K12 education technology companies launch new products at ISTE. Companies go all out to put their best foot forward which means it is the fairest opportunity we have each year to pass judgement on the quality of their marketing.

The esteemed Panel of Judge (ahem) spent several hours wandering around casting jaded eyes on this year's offerings. It won't surprise close observers of the market that the mad scramble around Interactive White Boards is where the most intense competition and best marketing are happening. Both winners are in this space.

Best In Show

Proving that great marketing doesn't have to cost a lot of money this year's winner is eInstruction's Mobi View. Their t-shirt (two views below) captured the entire core messaging. I didn't even need to see the product to know EXACTLY what it did. Brilliant, elegant, fun, memorable, plus cheap. All the things that make great marketing captured in a stack of $10 t-shirts.

This proves that in the Interactive White Board scrum where behemoths like SMART and Promethean are dominating the messaging that a scrappy and creative team can get noticed without blowing the budget.

Most Questionable Use of Marketing Budget

Proving that spending a lot of money doesn't translate into coherent marketing, Polyvision takes the prize for their booth fountain. It was pretty, but in most classrooms I've seen sensitive electronics and open water don't share the same space. It wasn't clear what the take away from this stunt was - if there was a product related message in the fountain it wasn't obvious to me.

I like Polyvision's technology and I'm sensitive to the need to do something to stand out in a crowded field. But eInstruction is in the same space and managed to that without resorting to this kind of empty showmanship.

About the only positive thing I can think of is that is created a zen like space of reflection and calm amidst all the jangling advertising going on across the floor.

Now if I could just find the World of Warcraft LAN party....

OPOL

Email marketing is pretty simple - as much as possible communicate with people who want to hear from you. But a subset of these folks just don't get it.

If I go to the trouble of clicking "unsubscribe" please do not send me ANOTHER FRICKING EMAIL CONFIRMING I NO LONGER WANT EMAIL FROM YOU.

It insures that I move from the "mildly annoyed" column to "actively pissed off at your company" status.

I'd put their names up - but that would only encourage them. No links for dinks.

Sheesh.

One of the annoying parts of running a blog are the spam comments from people who want to surreptitiously sneak a back-link to their site on your blog. Askimet handles most of this automatically (thank you - thank you - thank you) but every day one or two servings of spam get past the filters.

Normally the posts are pretty lame "Great post - please write more...blah blah blah" hoping that your ego gets in front of your ability to see that the website link is "buy-cheap-crap.com."

Today was different. Whoever was at the other end of the intertubes was clearly making an effort to at least amuse themselves. While I won't post the link I will share the content of the comment for your amusement.

This post reminds me of when I was a boy growing up in Louisville. My grandfather used to say "When life give you lemons, make lemonade". But he was a hopeless alcoholic who never made much sense so I never paid much attention to him. Have a great day!

Not only did they make me smile - they wished me a nice day - with an exclamation point!

This just goes to show that ANY job, no matter how meaningless and annoying to other people, can be done with panache. We all end up in career cul-de-sacs during our lives - when you are there take heart from this example. The bad job will end one way or another - but self-worth can be wiped out if you let it get to you. Resist!

My hope for the poster is that he/she can find a more productive use of their talents - word problems for on-line math homework helpers perhaps?

Is it just me or is everyone else sick of getting "wishing you a merry christmas" emails flooding their inboxes?

I know, I know - we're all hella busy and this is the time of year we are supposed to reconnect, so sending an on-line card or email seems like a quick solution.

But it reeks of insincerity. And its spam. So stop - pretty please?

Say what you will about the post office but the physical act of writing something - even your name - and applying a stamp forced people to put some kind of filter on who they sent holiday cards to. Now we are all a wrist flick away from a list of 600 people you "care" about.

If you really care about me stop cluttering my in-box with holiday flavored spam. Just so you know - these emails are kill-on-sight for me - I don't even open them.

Social Media Meets the Holidays

Good social media is personal, sincere, and conversational. These on-line cards don't meet any one of these criteria. It is an old broadcast mentality hijacking the new technology.

Normally the Curmudgeon doesn't make suggestions - he just gripes and the world moves on ignoring the muttering figure in the corner with the askew elf hat and a fistful of cookies.

• Take the same minute you would have to write a physical card and send a personal note to those you truly care about. Ask them a question - start a conversation that will last into the new year. Write from the heart.
• Go on to Facebook and scribble on the walls of your real friends (you know - the ones who would help you move on an hot August Saturday).
• Pick up the phone and call already.

Oh - and to all my friends out there - Happy Holidays. I mean it - really.

If you want to be taken seriously in the age of social media you have to speak authentically or people won't believe you. Your marketing messages are a promise. I've written about delivering on that promise. Today I want to focus on the words.

For the promise to be taken seriously the words you choose are just as important as the message they carry. If you dress it up too much you sound like you are selling - and almost no one is buying that any more.

Being authentic is scary. We have to reveal something of ourselves. We become accountable to others. But in an ocean of hype authentic voices are winning the day (blogs, wikis, Twitter) because people are hungry for genuine human connections.

In the end it comes down to respect. If you respect your customers you talk to them like adults (even when they are kids).

Consider this choice:

Company A - "Our Business Associates drive for extraordinary customer delight and win-win synergistic partnership solutions."

Company B - "When you buy from us we want you to be happy. If you are not, here are three ways you can let us know about it..."

Who ya gonna call?

In the education market people fall into this trap when we tie ourselves in knots trying to satisfy every politically correct usage we can think of. A lot of our marketing copy reads like it was written by a committee of committees. Strive for making clear understandable promises in authentic language - and then focus everything you have on fulfilling those promises.

That is the path to success today.

What set me off this time? In the San Antonio Airport this morning a promotional announcement about the Riverwalk made reference to "Tex-Mex Cuisine." Tex-Mex is grub, eats, cocina, hell it is just plain "food." But cuisine? Please don't put tacos and beans in a leotard and white face. Fake words = fake promise.

While we are on the subject of Tex-Mex if you want the real deal visit El Mirador the next time you are in San Antonio. Steve Gatland of MDR swears by their smoky salsa.

And another thing about false promises - to the folks at Boingo Hot Spots [no link for annoying morons] - the forced advertisement we have to see before we pay 10 bucks for your buggy wi-fi is not a "Welcome Screen." You've managed to take an annoying "monetization" of our time and insult us as well.

Idiots.

Another entry in our sporadic series on bad marketing.

This video is hilarious. I love the "my daughter didn't get it" and "we've love it but have some minor tweaks." I've been known to say the latter.

From the target market definition to the creative it skewers slack thinking and over-engineering.

If this is how you manage your marketing - please stop.

http://view.break.com/542649 - Watch more free videos

This is why small companies will do OK in tough economic times - their available resources force them to make tough market driven decisions. The company in this video is anything but market driven.

This video spoofs the phony voice of marketers and advertising. It is "office safe" so don't worry about the volume. Enjoy.

Does your marketing sound like this? You might have been able to get away with this 15 years ago but since social media has allowed people to opt out this kind of insincere over-dramatization you need to be careful.

For education publishers you also need to remember that many teachers teach critical thinking skills - if you are talking down to them they won't react well.

Just like those idiots in the Houston Airport I wrote about last week.

To drive home the point here is another video (props to Microsoft).

It is time to start building an on-line persona for your brand and company that is based on sincerity, honesty, and mutual respect. You can start with the copy on your brochure-ware site - but I strongly encourage you to wade into the world of blogs, Facebook, and We Are Teachers to build a true Socratic Marketing culture.

If you wouldn't say it to someone's face don't say it in your marketing materials.

Bad marketing comes in two flavors. There is poorly executed marketing that no one notices. Then there is insincere, dishonest, and misleading marketing that everyone notices. The first kind is a waste of your money, the second kind gives marketers a bad name.

I've written elsewhere on finding a good target market, selecting a winning brand promise, and engaging in conversational Web 2.0 marketing. If you do those things well you can largely avoid execution error.

Today we focus on an example of the second kind that was so breathtakingly awful I had to backtrack and take a picture of it.

This idiocy was on display outside of a jewelry store in the Houston airport last week. I'm not going to name the store - it would only encourage them. Lets look at what is wrong with this.

First - they actually have a stunningly simple promise - and that is powerful. Everyone likes a deal and if you have been away from home for a week or two a little jewelry would help ease re-entry. Of course one's next thought is that they just jacked up the price on everything by 50% - so as promise it rings of insincerity. This is one step above the rug store in my old New York neighborhood that attracted tourists by "Going Out of Business" for the entire two years I lived there.

Second - they trumpet their insincerity with the "a few exclusions apply" small print at the bottom. They picked a promise they had no intention of actually delivering on - and they are open about that. This is a really bad idea.

Good marketers, sincere marketers, pick promises that the company can live up to. The goal is find something that you can organize the entire business around - even if it doesn't end up as your slogan or in your advertising. McDonalds does affordable family food really well. Wal Mart delivers low prices. Pearson has one of everything you might need in a classroom (or they will buy it soon).

If these weasels really wanted to deliver on this promise here are a couple of things they could do to live up to it.

1. Actually price things at roughly 50% of their competitors - and have display ads the show comparisons to prove it to you.
2. Get rid of the items they are excluding - that way they can eliminate the small print retraction.
3. Have a price guarantee - if you find it at another jewelry store at list price for more they will match whatever half of that is.

I would rewrite the add to say "Lets keep it simple, half off everything. We'll prove it and we guarantee it."

Barring these actions all we have here is the kind of sleazy marketing that gives all marketers a black eye. If they can't live up to this then they should keep looking for another promise that meets an urgent need of their target market. I guarantee there is something else they could do.

My guess is that the lie is so transparent that the campaign isn't even working very well for them. What a waste.

Advertising isn't working as well as it used to. In an age of information overload people are tuning out distractions as a matter of survival.

Here are two visuals to help make this point.

1. It is far more important to be found when someone is looking these days than to be visible when they are just scanning. To visualize this look at the graphic below

When someone is scanning (watching TV, reading a magazine, walking a tradeshow floor) it is relatively easy to fall into their visual field. When they are seeking (googling, reading blogs, using RSS) you have to be right on point for them to see you.

2. Don't believe me - take this 20 second test.

As people adapt to the world of information overload they will scan less and seek more and advertising will become increasingly difficult to justify.

As usual Seth Godin sums it up nicely:

"Media rule of thumb: if people wouldn't miss your ads/content/noise if it went away, you should find somehting else to sell to advertisers. Not because it is ethically wrong to annoy people just because you can, but because in a world with a bazillion channels, people just ignore you if they choose to."