From the category archives:

Marketing

What if you were the Dyson of your market?

No, I don’t mean your education should suck.

Rather, I have in mind that obvious and yet amazing claim for a vacuum cleaner manufacturer to make:

Our vacuums have strong suction and they don’t lose it.

How could you claim the same for the educational experiences you offer?

It might be something along the lines of: our seminars deliver high quality, actionable knowledge that learners retain and use.

Same for conference sessions.

And Webinars, etc.

Of course, it’s easy enough to see what a Dyson vacuum cleaner does. And what’s more, the company backs up its claim with a substantial guarantee.

How might you do something similar?

[click to continue…]

How do you score on these 4 elements of effective promotions?

When prospective learners land on your Web site, open your conference brochure, skim you latest e-mail, or pull your most recent seminar postcard out of the pile of mail on their desk, are they seeing words and images that make your offer irresistible? Will their interest be sparked? Will they feel compelled to take action?

If that doesn’t sound like the kind of impact your promotional materials are having, grab a few examples of your latest efforts and take them for a spin through the classic 4-part “AIDA” formula for effective marketing promotions: [click to continue…]

If you love [your org's name], prove it!

January 17, 2012

One of the proven marketing techniques I find so many organizations do not take full advantage of is social proof in the form of good testimonials from customers and members. This is particularly surprising in the case of membership organizations, where a sense of affiliation and loyalty are absolutely essential for generating sales of educational [...]

Read the full article →

What Can You Learn from Scalpers? Dynamic Pricing and Association Learning

September 28, 2011

The following post, written by Celisa, was the main article in the August issue of our monthly Association Learning/Technology Digest. Each digest also includes a wealth of links to news and resources. We put a new issue out today. It’s free, and if you aren’t already subscribed, you can get the latest issue sent to [...]

Read the full article →

Webinar Strategy – The Inform/Perform Distinction

August 31, 2011

One of the issues with which we routinely see organizations struggle is how to compete with free Webinars in their market place, or related, how to justify charging for some Webinars while offering others for free. One of the strategies we often suggest is to make use of the distinction between inform and perform training [...]

Read the full article →

Marketing in Full – Considering the Other Ps

August 23, 2011

I’ve noticed over years of working with clients and conducting research that there is a widespread tendency to confuse marketing with just one of its components: promotion.  I have a theory that this seemingly small bit of confusion is the key reason most marketing initiatives fall short. The other three parts of the classic “marketing [...]

Read the full article →

The Amazing 1% Price Increase

July 20, 2011

When I was speaking earlier this year at Great Ideas I made a comment about pricing that obviously caught the attention of the attendees. It had been my intention to post it here, but I forgot about that intention until this morning when I was reviewing an article I wrote a while back on pricing [...]

Read the full article →

The Science of E-mail Marketing

February 17, 2011

I thought I’d continue the marketing theme from my last post on Google AdWords by pointing out a good resource on e-mail marketing. Unlike AdWords, most associations are using e-mail to market their educational offerings, but few of us – myself included – have it fully mastered. This free Webinar from Hubspot will move you [...]

Read the full article →

Cut Through the Google Adwords Clutter

February 16, 2011

You are using Google Adwords to promote your online education offerings, right? You know, those ads that show up off to the right, and sometimes at the top of the page, whenever you do a search? If you are like most of the respondents to our 2008 and 2010 association sector e-learning surveys, the answer [...]

Read the full article →

eFront – Welcome and Introduction

November 28, 2010

Our friend and colleague Ellen Behrens over at aLearning has been kind enough to suggest the Tagoras blog for inclusion on eFront’s list of The Most Popular and Updated E-learning Blogs. For any readers who might be clicking through from eFront and discovering Tagoras for the first time – welcome! Our main focus here is [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries