Businesses are established to achieve two main goals; to provide a solution to a particular problem, and to make profit. As a school owner, you cannot focus on the latter alone and expect to get more parents to enroll in your school. Your first objective as a school is to provide educational needs to students, if you then do this perfectly well, you, in turn, gain more prospects and applicants. They Ask, You Answer (TAYA) shows you how much parents have changed in their search for the right school, and how you also must evolve your marketing skills if you want to reach them. They Ask, You Answer is a book written by Marcus Sheridan, where he gave the story of how he was able to save his swimming pool company (River Pools and Spas) from the economic collapse of 2008.
As a school, your own economic meltdown might be the decrease in the rate of enrollment and the reduction in that rate at which prospects are converted to applicants. Growing a school is not an easy thing to do, every business has its pit moment; that moment when they are going through challenges and problems (mostly lack of money and customers). TAYA is one of the first content marketing books that was written for sales, marketing, and leadership teams. It comprises an easy-to-apply tool for marketers and business (school) owners around the globe looking to truly see how they can become the most trusted voice in their industry while obsessing over the way their customers think, act, talk, and search as they move through the buying process.
TAYA makes use of a business philosophy known as “Content Marketing”. Content is one of the drivers for businesses, and it is needed to help push your business outside to people. Content can be in the form of blog posts, images, videos, and infographics. Creating content has to do with having a creative mind, and you have to seize the moment. There is no perfect time for it, having it done is better than perfect. When reaching out to parents with your contents, ensure they have the following features:
Be clear with your messages.
Style of messaging, be intentional in that and let them know you are serious about it.
Marcus spoke about honest teaching, which includes providing answers to every customer (parents) questions with online content. Especially the Big 5 questions companies try to avoid, such as:
What are the price and cost?
What are the problems and what could go wrong?
How does your product compare with competitors?
What do customers think about your work?
Who are your best competitors?
Ostrich Marketing Strategy
Avoid embracing Ostrich Marketing; why is it called so? When an ostrich is faced with a problem, it buries its head in the sand with the hope that the problem will go. The same thing happens when you refuse to answer questions from your customers. Doing that does not make the questions go away, but addressing it will help build your brand and you gain the trust of your clients by doing that.
The whole idea is this: when you distribute educative information about your brand to people, those who are interested will read it, and get back to you. Which simply means if they love you, they are much likelier to buy from you, and if they hate you, they are a bad fit for your business.
