Why your school needs to be like Alexa

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The advent of digital assistants is having huge impact on our culture but Google and Alexa also account for larger shifts in how we engage with brands and technology. Those shifts are influencing the way parents engage with independent schools and are shaping their expectations. To be successful, schools need to pay attention and adapt to a changing marketplace. With that in mind, here are two reasons that your school needs to be like Alexa.

1. Your voice is more important than your logo or any other visual communication.

In a September 2017 Fast Company article, a CMO commenting on the rise of digital assistants said the following: 

“What will brands look like in a more-voice-oriented world? Is there a post-logo world there? It’s just so interesting to think that the visual world may be less important and what that means.” 

While the CMO was clearly talking about the voice of digital assistants, the reality is that schools have a voice as well. It is reflected in the language used in communication as well as in its tone and style. Your communication makes a statement about who you are and what’s important to you. In short, your communication is the voice of your brand and one should be as unique as the other. In fact, in an increasingly competitive environment, your school’s voice is a key differentiator.

In the same Fast Company article, an agency creative officer said, “…we shouldn’t be going at people with what we sell, we should be telling then what we believe in. Get them to buy into your brand by understanding what it stands for.”

The reality is that what you say and how you say it is more important then what it looks like. Content trumps design. That applies to everything from websites to email to print to video. Let's face it. The most popular YouTube videos are often shot on smartphones.

The design of the Amazon Echo is attractive but purposefully unobtrusive. It is a vehicle, a platform for its voice. And when you hear that voice, you know its Alexa.

An interesting test would be to give someone something written about your school that contains no give-away references. Would they recognize it as referring your school? Would your school’s voice be as distinctive as Alexa’s?

2. Customer expectations are being driven higher than ever.

Digital assistants are all about the user. A recent Google blog post presented results of a study of voice assistant owners. These are the reasons that people use voice-activated assistants:  

1. It allows them to more easily multitask.
2. It enables them to do things faster than other devices.
3. It empowers them to instantly get answers and information.
4. It makes their daily routine easier. 

Me. Me, me. In fact 41% of respondents said that using their voice assistant felt like talking to a friend.

So, here’s the obvious question. Is your school as customer focused as Alexa? Voice assistants are empowering, enabling and responsive. They answer the questions they are asked and, by the way, admit when they don’t know the answer. They provide the information you need to be better at what you do. They tell you what you absolutely need to know on any given day. They don’t hide facts and they make no assumptions about why you are asking a question. Alexa is never short or condescending.

You can also extend the capability of your voice assistant so that you can control your thermostat, lights or choose TV channels. Are you equally anticipating the needs of your customers and extending your capabilities? That could be before and after school care, parent education programs or financial planning seminars.

Just as was the case with social media, ongoing technological advances empower customers and raise expectations. They also put a premium, both literally and figuratively, on the voice of your school. There is no turning back. To be successful, schools must meet the challenge and be more like Alexa.

Big data for not-so-big organizations

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Read any business, marketing or management publication these days and you're almost certain to find an article about Big Data. The natural conclusion is that big data is for big organizations. That could be because just the term "big data" will leave those responsible for smaller organizations either terror-stricken or in a boredom induced coma. But concluding that not-so-big organizations have nothing to learn from the lessons of big data is a big mistake.

First, let's deal with this big name, "big data." While its true that there are companies that are combing terabytes of data to develop the algorithm that will predict the buying patterns of consumers in Wichita, those organizations represent the vast minority. Don't be intimidated by references to big data. Rather, consider how increased use of data can help you make better decisions.

Quoted in a CNN Money post, Sheryl Pattek, a principal at Forrester Research said, "It's not really a question of big data as much as it's a question of the right data. It's about turning data into insights that you can act on to drive business."

In other words, when it comes to data, size doesn't matter. However the value of data is irrefutable. As a recent report from Teradata concludes, "The evidence is proving that companies that act quickly based on data-driven decisions are succeeding over their peers."

This is particularly the case with marketing efforts. As the same report says, "data-driven marketing bridges the gap between what you do and what customers want."

So, where to begin? What data should you be sure to be assembling and how can you use it?

Contact information. This may sound ridiculously obvious but an e-marketer report on big data (ironically titled, Using Big Data Still a Challenge for Marketers) concluded that contact data was the most important for marketing success. Do you have an email address, or better yet, the most current email address for every customer or constituent? Do you have a program in place that makes it easy and encourages people to update their contact info? Once you've dealt with those questions, shift the analysis to prospective customers or donors and ensure that you have complete information for them. For example, do you have a first and last name to go with every prospect email address? Without that info, you eliminate the possibility of email personalization and the chances of converting that prospect into a buyer become slim.

The e-marketer report also presented the most valuable data that execs said was unavailable to them. Those data categories are essential to organizations. These are some of them and what you can do about them.

Web behavior. You better have Google Analytics running on your site. If not, stop reading this post and immediately contact the person responsible for your site. There is a ton of information that Google Analytics makes available to you that in turn will give you insight into the behavior of visitors to your site. Some examples: Where are they coming from? Is it from searches in a browser and if so what are the keywords that are delivering them? Alternatively, is there an external link that is responsible for referrals? What pages are people looking at on your site? Are they the ones that are important to purchases or donations? Should you re-jig content to increase conversions? The list of questions and resultant actions is endless. Google even provides a bevy of success stories that you can learn from.

Demographics. Hopefully you have lots of information about the people you engage with - whether as prospects or buyers. This includes age, income, location, maybe even marital status, number of children and other data that might be uniquely important to your organization. For example an independent school may want to know what schools siblings attend or attended. You should be able to construct the profile or profiles of your archetypical buyers. Then the question becomes where do you find more just like them.

Purchase (or donation) history. If you can track not only what people have committed to but the path they took getting there, you have powerful information. Combine this with demographic data and you could build powerful personas that you you can use to target marketing and messaging. For example if you discover that people with a particular combination of demographic markers are more likely to buy (donate/apply) when presented with certain information, you can target that segment and get them that information sooner or exclusively.

You can see that the same big data that C-level execs are looking at can benefit any organization - even those that aren't so big. The CNN post referenced above said that big data "seems to mean everything and nothing at the same time." That may be true but there is no denying that, as I said in a previous post, the discipline of data is the foundation for marketing innovation. No matter how large your organization don't dismiss the big ideas behind big data.

What do you think? 
How are using the premise of big data to further the success of your organization? What did I miss? What advice do you have?

Save your marketing dollars. Focus on fundamentals.

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My suggestion to most schools is to stop whatever marketing you are doing and re-consider everything.

The impetus for this unusual advice was the plethora of independent school radio ads I heard this year. It seemed to me that twice as many schools as last year were running radio spots. They weren't very effective but there were lots of them and they were undoubtedly very expensive.

Of all people, I understand that the independent school marketplace is incredibly and increasingly competitive. That in turn, drives schools - almost desperately - to ratchet up marketing efforts using as many channels as they can think of or afford. The result is ads on buses, bus shelters, national newspapers, billboards and yes, radio. It's an ad rep's dream but do they really do anything? After all, these are wide-net advertising vehicles being used for narrow target markets.

In addition, there are now more "education guide" type publications than ever before. Here in Toronto, there are four or five of these. This has created two other dynamics. First, schools are scrambling to get their ads in these publications – in many cases for fear of being notable by their absence. That produces the second effect which is the need for pithy headlines and taglines. These gems of copywriting may keep some of my colleagues in business but they do nothing to differentiate. Here are some examples:

• Be yourself. Be great. 
• Be remarkable 
• I am limitless 
• Dedicated to Developing the Whole Child 
• Become. Go Beyond. 
• Confidence. It's Who We Are 
• Igniting A Passion for the Art of Learning 
• Learning for Life. Creating the Future. 
• Education with Balance 

Let's be honest. Each of those could apply to any one of about 50 schools. They become meaningless – as does much of the marketing effort I've described above.

All of this marketing activity – with its accompanying expense – is more mystifying when every piece of market research that I have ever done or read clearly indicates that word of mouth is the principal driver of the decision to choose any independent school.

So, as I said, it's time to stop and re-discover the fundamentals. How? For that I turn to a great social fresh post from the beginning of the year that presented tips for 2014 from marketing pros. Here are the ones that make the most sense for independent schools.

1. Focus on the product. I always tell the educators with whom I work that my job is to take their great work and put in on a pedestal. But there has to be great work. The social fresh post goes even farther. "90% of companies would see more “marketing” success if they focused that energy NOT on marketing, but rather on improving the product or the service. Doing something worth talking about is more difficult."

2. Create and sustain buzz. Fuel and enable word of mouth through effective ambassador and communication programs. The marketing tip puts it this way: "Nurture advocacy! And instead of creating marketing campaigns, build movements around your brand. Only brands that focus deeply on building and nurturing long-term relationships with their true advocates will see sustainable business results."

3. Treat your parents like customers. My previous blog post provided some advice on how do that but here's what social fresh says. "Focus on customer experience. Brands like USAA, Amazon, Apple, and Google don’t succeed in social media because they have better content or social strategies, but because they offer great experiences and let customers do the talking for them."

4. Make social media a two-way channel. It's your opportunity to learn, listen and really be able to empathize. Or as the experts say, "social Media is not just a news broadcasting tool. Engage with your fan base: it is a blessing to have fans and customers, so treat them as such."

5. Stop, take a breath and do a reality check. Then, create (or re-create) a plan. The expert advice goes like this: "Re-evaluate everything. Do you think you know who your customers are, what they need, and how they are getting their information about your products?"

The irony is that sometimes it's harder to stop what you're doing and re-evaluate its effectiveness. It's easy to get caught up in the vortex of needing more marketing – and more marketing dollars. Smart school marketers will find a way to stop the cycle and re-focus on fundamentals.

What do you think? 
Is independent school marketing out of control? What are you doing to stay focused on effectiveness? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

David and Goliath meets Social Media

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Here’s an interesting David and Goliath story about the power of social media to transcend the rule of law. It’s also a cautionary tale for any business or organization about the power of social media.

The “Goliath” in this story is Lassonde Industries Inc. of Quebce that sells a line of fruit juices under the name Oasis. Lassonde is a major corporate concern reporting about $750 million in sales on its website. Our “David” is a small local producer of soap products that had the misfortune of choosing the name Olivia’s Oasis.

So, in 1995 the battle begins when Lassonde sues the smaller Oasis for trademark infringement – presumably because they are worried that consumers might somehow confuse the locally available soap products with their national brand of juice products. In 2010, a Quebec court rules that Lassonde’s trademark claim is without grounds and orders Lassonde to pay the little Oasis $100,000 in costs and $25,000 in damages. But Lassonde can’t live with that. They appeal and low and behold the Quebec Court of Appeal rules in their favour, reversing the previous decision. Battle done. Winner declared, right?

Wrong. Within hours of the decision being made public, a popular Quebec TV host tweets his 100,000 followers and I bet you can almost guess what happens next. Yup, the (Goliath) Oasis page is besieged with thousands of negative comments including calls for a boycott.

To give the company a little credit, they react quickly and dispatch a senior executive to meet with the owner of the little Oasis and offer to pay all her costs. You can get the full details from the story in the National Post.

So here’s what I take from this tale of biblical proportions:

1. The rules have changed. In effect, social media rendered the decision of the court meaningless. It means that in the future, companies making similar decisions will have to consider not only issues of law but also how those issues will play out in the online world.

2. Organizations have to get smarter about the power of social media. Amazingly, Lassonde’s COO was shocked by the social media onslaught Lassonde but I’ll be that most people reading this could have predicted the outcome. This has cost Lassonde far more than what they will pay to the “David” Oasis and their own legal costs. Even after their attempt to make things right the comments today on the company’s Facebook page are overwhelmingly negative.

3. You can’t hide under the radar. Businesses or organizations have to assume that every decision will be subject to the scrutiny of social media and they have to be prepared to be judged in that court. That may mean taking a different course of action or proactively deciding how the story will be told. Recent controversy at World Vision and the Komen Foundation prove that even nonprofits are not exempt.

4. Social media will always side with the underdog. If you’re considering how a story will play out, you have to take that reality into consideration.

Social media is causing a major shift in the modern day battlefield between David and Goliath and smart companies are studying the revised biblical tale.

What’s your take? What are the implications of this story? What are you doing about your social media strategy? Any David and Goliath stories to share?

“Wow” is not the “how” of brand building

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Last week I read a post on the HBR blog that described two “wow” customer experiences. They really were amazing. One involved a tech company customer service rep who was on a very long troubleshooting call and upon hearing the client say that he was hungry, had a pizza delivered to the client’s office. The other involved an employee at a restaurant chain who delighted a three year old with a “ride” on his mop.

So your first instinct might be to think about all the ways you can create those kind of “wow’” experiences for your customers (or donors or parents). But here’s the thing. If you’re relying on those kind of out of the ordinary experiences to distinguish your brand, you’re making a big mistake.

The reality is that you can have an amazingly successful organization without ever having created one of “those” moments. Let me illustrate by looking at things in reverse. Let’s say you have a company that delivers a sub-standard product with salespeople who are generally less than attentive and one day one of your reps does something truly heroic. Guess what? You’re still going to have a lackluster brand that doesn’t get much attention.

The latest installment in John Moore’s Talkable Brand video series makes the point. The video tells us if you want people to talk about your brand, it has to be loveable.  And what makes a brand loveable? Things like always doing the right thing by customers, consistently delivering more than promised and keeping promises even it means losing money. These are all exercises in consistency. Great brands are defined by what they do every day – not just on a good day.

So what is the “how” of delivering a great brand experience? Whether it's for a business, a nonprofit or an independent school, I believe it revolves around three things:

1. Quality – you have to have the best possible people delivering the best possible product or service. Period. Good marketing can’t compensate for mediocrity.

2. Know your brand and make sure that everyone in the organization does as well. Seth Godin defines a brand as “[a] set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships…” Make sure you know the expectations you’re meeting, the memories you’re creating, the stories you want told and the relationships that you want developed.

3. Be consistent. Develop the systems that make it possible for your organization to distinguish itself in every interaction every day.  This involves things like quality control, research, staff training, professional development and incentive programs.

Counting on exceptional experiences to distinguish you brand is like developing online content designed to go to viral. They’re both not going to happen. Being strategic by knowing your target market and how to meet their needs – every day – is a much better approach.

What do you think? Is it really the “wow” experience that makes a difference? And if not, what are your “hows” of brand-building?

7 Reasons why Print isn’t Dead

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Yes, it’s true. Despite what the social media and content marketing gurus tell us, print isn’t dead.

I still get tons of direct mail, lots of junk mail and my newspapers (yeah I know I’m a dinosaur) are still overflowing with inserts and flyers.

What’s more interesting is that many of our clients report that customers are still asking for printed material. Even some independent schools that are targeting a younger demographic say that prospective parents are asking to have a kit mailed to them.

On top of that, I just read a really interesting and persuasive piece on the virtues of printed annual reports by Tom Ahearn - who is a true expert in nonprofit communication. He demonstrates that print accounted for a $10.7 billion dollar investment by Warren Buffett and a small fortune left to the Rhode Island Foundation.

So now that we have determined that news of print’s death has been greatly exaggerated, the question is - where does print fit into a marketing mix?

For starters, you should be using print differently than you use online marketing. Don’t just replicate in print what exists on your website. By the way, the corollary of that is that your online content should be more than a series of print pieces rendered as pdfs.

Print can deliver user experiences that online content cannot. Take advantage of them. Here are some of the unique properties of print and seven reasons that print is still alive and kicking.

1. Think big. A large print piece provides more real estate and potential visual impact than even the largest monitor. The brochure that folds out into something larger than life or a well-designed poster has an incredible wow factor.

2. And small. A small teaser piece can, in the right setting, deliver more impact, more quickly than any smartphone. Whether it’s being put in the hands of pedestrians or comes with your mail or is included with a purchase, small print pieces make an impression.

3. Texture. You cannot provide texture on an electronic device. This can refer to traditional linen or laid finishes or rougher “recycled” finishes. It also encompasses smooth or high gloss finishes. The thickness (or thin-ness) of a piece also contributes to the experience. The feel of a printed piece delivers unique sensations that make a distinctive statement about a product or organization.

4. Shape. Paper can be cut into a range of configurations that is limited only by the imagination. Think about pop-up greeting cards or print pieces with windows that reveal something on the other side or a business card with rounded corners. Even something as simple as a presentation folder can only be rendered in print. Consider the myriad possibilities for saying something unique about your company.

5. Colour. Admittedly, a monitor delivers incredibly vivid images but the web is limited to 256 colours. Print can incorporate an almost infinite array of colour that, combined with great design, will yield pieces that are beautiful and eye catching – and stand out.

6. Fonts. Same issue as colour. If you want your online copy to be indexed by search engines and readable on most computers, your choice of fonts is quite limited. There are tens of thousands of available fonts and print allows you to use them to their fullest potential.

7. Personalization. Everyone loves to see his or her name in print (even if they won’t admit it). Technology, like variable printing, has made personalization in print painless. Whether its something as simple as a personalized letter or a more impressive personalized book or proposal, printing someone’s name will increase affinity and better get their attention.

So there you have it. The strategic use of print is still an effective way to distinguish your organization from your competitors and that is the reason that print is not dead.

There are many other unique properties to print. Please comment and tell me about how you have used them in your marketing mix.

Shared content beats paid content and what you can do about it

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OK, now we have the proof of what we all thought was true in the first place.

Content delivered through social media sharing is more effective than the same content delivered through paid advertising.

A piece from Ad Age Digital summarizes a study conducted by GE using the social media site BuzzFeed and facilitated by Vizu, a digital advertising measurement firm. The “GE Show” was distributed on BuzzFeed using both paid advertising and sharing. Attitudes of those who watched it each way were tested. In addition, a control group that had not seen the online piece at all was tested.

All three groups (sharing, advertising, control) were asked the question, “"What comes to mind when you think of General Electric (GE)?" Overall, 77% of those who saw the content via sharing had positive responses to the question compared to 55% who saw it via advertising and 42% who didn’t see it all.

The study also measured something called “brand lift” by specifically measuring the number of people that responded to the question using the word “creative.” The calculation reported wasn’t clear to me but the contention is that there was a brand lift differential of 138% between those who were exposed via sharing and those not exposed at all.

So what do businesses and organizations that are just a wee bit smaller than GE do about this?

I looked at some of the content. It’s pretty slick. Great quality video combined in some cases with neat interactivity. And it’s on message. Not the kind of content that’s within the budget of most marketing departments. It makes me wonder that if the content was good but not amazing would there still be a 20 point spread in positive reaction between those who viewed it via sharing and those via advertising. Probably not but its an academic point for most of us.

The message for most businesses is don’t worry about paid advertising. Just start creating content – white papers, video testimonials, case studies, how-to guides, handy reference material. Don’t bet on your content going viral and being seen by millions (hundreds would be very good). You’re better off concentrating on developing content that is of value to your target audience and then distribute it using a well-planned social media strategy. Better yet, find ways to have your customers participate in content creation. There are tons of online resources that will help you with all of that. If that doesn’t work for you, I can connect you with a very creative marketing firm that can help.

The results of the GE study are hardly startling. Research shows that word of mouth is more effective than advertising every time. You may not be able to duplicate GE’s results but if nothing else this study should tell you that if you’re not thinking about content marketing, it’s time.

That’s my take on this research and how it relates to the majority of organizations. What’s yours?