Got your EdTech marketing plan in place? Great! Does it include multiple channels, or focus on one or two big ones? While there's no right or wrong answer, we think that diversifying your marketing strategy is key to marketing to educators and ensuring presence in your customer's buying journey.
Diversification and a strong presence in your customer's journey - whether online or offline - are important in building brand awareness and loyalty, regardless of external factors.
Here are 3 reasons why Square 32 believes diversifying your EdTech marketing strategy is non-negotiable:
1. It helps you address your target customers’ needs at each stage of their customer journey (marketing funnel).
Every business should know that there is no one-size-fits-all marketing strategy, especially when marketing to educators and education leaders. What works for one brand may not work for another. What's key is to tailor-fit your marketing strategy in a way that doesn’t just give you visibility across various channels, it also matches your customers’ buying journey.
A good place to start is to understand who your target audience is, what their needs and frustrations are, and how you can address those needs. Define your customer persona, not just demographically but also emotionally – what are their aspirations, inspirations, and feelings looking for a product like yours?
Try to walk hand-in-hand with your customers throughout their journey by diversifying your messaging and value offerings. For instance, if a customer is still at the Awareness stage, then talk more about possible solutions than selling them a product. If they are already looking to buy, give them glowing testimonials from your existing users instead of explaining solutions to a problem.
A good rule of thumb is to put yourself in your customers’ shoes and internalize what they go through looking at your product.
2. It helps you avoid dependency on any one marketing channel.
Imagine starting a YouTube channel and growing a massive following in a few years’ time. All of a sudden, the education space starts chattering about the newest platform, the newest community and your YouTube audience starts to dwindle. Or perhaps the algorithm changes and less people are finding your content organically.
In such a dynamic world where multiple platforms have become available for marketers, it’s almost a crime not to have an omnichannel approach. It’s great to have a strong presence on a third-party platform, i.e. Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube. But make sure to complement this with promotions in another relevant channel, say an “owned” platform like a blog or website.
Remember, each platform has its own strengths – Instagram for e-commerce, LinkedIn for thought leadership, Facebook for content and community engagement. And your customers don’t just strictly use one channel.
In relation to #1, be present where your customers are. Diversifying your marketing strategy requires you to be on a platform they frequent, depending on where they are in their buyers’ journey.
3. It helps you generate more traffic and improve Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Your website’s traffic comes from different sources. They can come from socials, ads from Facebook or Google, even organic or direct (people typing up your URL instead of clicking it from somewhere else).
Diversifying your traffic sources allows you to get more customers to convert from your website. When we say “convert,” we mean performing an action you want your users to take. For instance, a conversion can be in the form of a form getting filled, an email/newsletter subscription, or an e-Commerce transaction/purchase.
When you have strong visibility on multiple channels, you are more likely to generate more traffic from converting users. Furthermore, you get to perform link-building, which is a big part of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Successful SEO ensures that when your customers search for keywords relevant to your products, your website will appear at the top search results. Link building is having external platforms or websites link to yours or use any of your pages’ URLs. According to Google, the more you get external websites linking to your pages, the higher your authority becomes – at least in Google’s eyes. Hence, Google will treat your site as highly relevant and credible so you’re likely to rise to the top of search results.
The less you focus on one channel and the more you tap into various channels like education and EdTech discussion forums, news, and media sites, the higher you will find your company in search results. And more importantly, the more your customers can find you.