DeMaio Digital Marketing

26/09/2022

Seems like the most robust marketing conversations are happening on LinkedIn...

Feel free to connect with me over there, as well, for some great discussions.

Marketing scope creep can be dangerous... It's easy to think that doing more is better. In a lot of cases, it is. There's always something else you could...

26/09/2022

Using lead magnets to bring in new leads for your school or community; in brief.

Step one:
Determine valuable content or experience that your leads need. (Customer research!)

Step two:
Create valuable content or experience that your leads need...

Step three:
Add this piece of content, or access to this experience, onto your website. Create a landing page and a form, specific to this offer.

Step four:
Create a follow up email, that sends the content or instructions to access the experience, to the leads inbox.

Step five:
Automation. Create a workflow that automatically sends above email to whatever email address was entered in the form.

Step six:
Contextual outreach. Knowing what we know about this lead now (contact info, piece of content they are interested in) we can reach out with other relevant information or experiences.

Nudge them down the sales funnel... If they downloaded your brochure, maybe the next step is a virtual tour... If they've taken a virtual tour, maybe the next step is a phone call or an in-person meet... so forth.

I recommend automating this process as well. You can get as intricate as you want with this--basing future outreach on the responses you get throughout the email series...

Bonus:
Promotion. There are countless strategies for promoting your lead magnet. Paid ads on different platforms. Organic outreach. Cold outreach via email etc. SEO.

You'll want to start by making it easy to access this lead magnet on your website. Create a button on your home page or your main navigation. Utilize a pop-up form on certain pages. Add CTAs to relevant blog posts, etc.

Next you can focus on building out a content environment that supports the SEO of this lead magnet.

Anyway--hope that helps.

23/09/2022

If you want folks to trust your website, you need to get serious about social proof.

You can start by pulling in customer reviews from around the web...

But eventually you'll want a system to "farm" user generated content.

Reviews. Testimonials. Use cases. Case study input. Interviews.

I advocate for a combination of automated outreach (good for basic reviews) and personalized outreach (good for identifying folks who might provide more thorough feedback).

Social proof isn't set it and forget it. Testimonials, reviews, etc. have a shelf life.

You need an ongoing effort to bring in more information from your customers (and prospects) if you want your website to build trust.

22/09/2022

Quick note on conversion rate optimization and admissions/sales alignment...

We filled out 100 "Contact Us"/"Get More Info" forms.

The majority of those forms required a phone number.

Of the organizations that required a phone number... only 37% ever got in touch via phone.

Asking for a phone number nearly always lowers conversion rates. If you don't plan to use that phone number, you're hurting your conversion rate with no upside.

Sometimes it makes sense to require the phone number. If phone follow up for certain leads converts frequently, then sure, require a phone number for that particular bucket of leads.

Aligning with admissions/sales will help you understand when it's worth it.

20/09/2022

Marketing automation should enhance what your sales/admissions team does well. (Connecting with leads!)

The goal is to create engaged, informed, and qualified leads for your team to connect with.

Think about it this way:

A good marketing plan will bring in additional traffic and additional leads...

A great marketing plan will also bring in better traffic and better leads...

The best marketing plan will bring in better leads, while qualifying and nurturing the leads that aren't ready to convert yet.

Admissions/sales should have a consistent pipeline of qualified, ready-to-convert leads. Not a glut of folks who interacted with a piece of content one time...

16/09/2022

Here's how I generate LinkedIn content for schools, senior living communities, and beyond...

Identify a few THEMES that set your organization apart.

What do you do differently when it comes to each of those themes? (Get specific enough that you actually set yourself apart.)

Identify the different TYPES of content that speak to that theme...

Think...

Interviews with residents
Interviews with staff
Industry research summaries
Case studies
Reshares from relevant groups/accounts
Anecdotes from the community (with photos)

Develop a simple template for each content type. (These will evolve as you get a better feel for what resonates with your audience.)

Begin filling each of the content type "buckets." Focus on one type at a time, but grab a handful of examples for each.

For example... grab a handful of staff members during a professional development day and film quick interviews with each of them. (These can be repurposed into blog posts, podcasts, etc.)

If you can identify 5 themes you want to focus on... with 5 content types that make sense... and then come up with 4 pieces of content for each of those types...

You've got 2x a week of content for a year. (But you've really only had to come up with 5 ideas.)

Anything else you come up with throughout the year is gravy.

14/09/2022

Here's how we use LinkedIn differently:

Most of the advice out there talks about sprucing up your company profile, posting regularly, using imagery, tagging followers, etc.

These same articles usually focus on "building community" on LinkedIn.

But they focus on connecting with folks who are already part of your community. That's where we go one step further.

By highlighting the right themes and empowering your staff to build badass personal brands...

You're doing more than building community.

You're teaching...
You're building online equity...
You're retaining...
You're prospecting...
You're recruiting...

Highlighting themes that your organization and your staff can align on... coaching and supporting staff to write impactful copy... and then proactively and deliberately working together to grow each other's reach...

There is so much upside. People want to be involved in an organization that displays that sort of support, gravitas, and teamwork, at all levels.

12/09/2022

Quick win for school marketing:

Minutes to set up. Increases leads and traffic to high conversion pages...

Add products to your Google Business Profile. Even if you don't have physical products to sell.

The products section is just another way to get your conversion-generating content out front.

When someone searches your brand and your GBP shows up, give them options beyond the defaults (call, website, directions).

Remove the barrier of having to navigate to the website in order to look for what they need. Think about linking...

Case studies
Floor plans
Pricing sheets
E-books
Virtual tours
Schedulers for demos, tours, etc.

Grab those conversions.

09/09/2022

Consulting on content marketing sometimes means throwing a bucket of cold water on a client's ideas... in a nice way.

Folks love jumping in and creating things. Which is great.

But, your content marketing needs:

A goal...
An audience...
Then a strategy.

Sometimes the goal isn't lead generation. Content can be used for increasing lifetime value of a customer... retaining staff... shortening the sales cycle... etc. Each of these goals has a distinct audience, and requires a very different strategy.

Definite your goal. Define your audience.

Then start talking strategy, tactics, and topics.

07/09/2022

Thinking it might be time to release version 2.0...

Private schools definitely still have a void to fill on LinkedIn, but it's going to close soon.

Grab some of that digital real estate and make the algorithms work for you.

Not just for tooting your school's horn...

-Recruitment
-Student retention
-Hiring
-Staff retention
-Thought leadership

But, I've got some new tricks up my sleeve as well, that will help as things get more competitive. And maybe a nicer cover... Stay tuned...

Turn LinkedIn into your school's most valuable outreach platform. LinkedIn is the most underused and undervalued social media platforms among Independent K-12 schools. Beyond that—it's massively underused in general! Learn how to leverage your personal LinkedIn page to support your school'...

05/09/2022

A lot of SEO work just comes down to...

Give the people what they want.

Make content that is helpful.
Make it obvious what they'll get from that content.
Make it easy to find.
Make it current and up-to-date.

Don't mislead people...
Don't lie to people...
Don't make people do extra work. (That's a big one...)

Of course, that's easier said than done, and takes quite a bit of research to get right. But... always consider the human element.

Search engines are getting smarter but their main goal is to give people what they are searching for. So, give the people what they are searching for! And make it easy!

02/09/2022

Repurposing your content and knowledge is more than just posting a thought to multiple social networks.

Each place that you distribute content has differences--that's why they exist! Different formats, different user interfaces, and different audiences.

Even if you have crossover between audiences on different platforms, those folks expect a different experience depending on where they are interacting with you.

Repurposing = finding another purpose for your content. Not just another place for it.

Businesses and individuals can both benefit from understanding their audience, and developing a "content waterfall."

There isn't a specific "right way" to do this. Some people love making long form content, via blog post, podcast, case study, etc. If that's the case... start there. Let your long form content "waterfall" down to other media and platforms.

Some people love starting with a little thought... a tweet maybe... and building it out into a series of tweets, which inform the next blog post, which grows into an ebook, etc.

Find the content waterfall that works for you, and tailor it to your audiences (plural!) across other platforms.

(Repurposed from a LinkedIn post.)