Bottom-of-the-Funnel Content Breakdown Posted on June 16, 2020June 20, 2022 by Natalie Slyman Your product or service can be the best in the industry, but it’s still not going to sell itself. For that, you need an effective sales team — and plenty of high-quality targeted bottom-of-the-funnel content. Marketing automation software provides your brand with a more effective way to understand your leads and provide them with conversion-worthy content, but to get the full utility out of it, you have to put in some of the work yourself. As part of our series on what content marketing looks like at each stage of the buyer’s journey, we’re breaking down what you need to know about making your bottom-of-the-funnel content as productive as possible, including the types of content that you should be focusing on. That’s right. We’ve talked about top-of-the-funnel content and middle-of-the-funnel content. But now it’s time to address content that can make or break a sale. Understanding the Bottom-of-the-Funnel The bottom-of-the-funnel is a good place for your leads to be. At this point, they’ve gained sufficient awareness of your brand’s solution and how it relates to their problem, and they’ve compared it to other options to ensure it’s a good choice. However, they haven’t quite sealed the deal yet. For leads at the bottom-of-the-funnel to pull the trigger on their purchase, they’re going to need a bit more information about what you can offer — which is where your content comes in. Keep in mind that bottom-funnel leads aren’t all the same. Some are new leads, while others are previous customers you’re trying to re-engage. Ultimately, you can break down these leads into three separate segments, each of which will require uniquely targeted content: Decision Loyalty Advocacy Leads in each of these groups are in need of more information to guide them to the finish line, but how you get them there is going to vary. What’s similar, however, is that your content at this stage should be driven toward addressing any lingering hurdles that are standing in the way of a sale. Sometimes that will mean positioning yourself as the obvious preference in light of your competitors; other times, it means giving them the clearest picture possible of what your product or service can do for them. And always it means empowering your leads to make the most productive decision. Bottom-of-the-Funnel Content Ideas: Decision Bottom-funnel leads in the decision stage are considering partnering with you. By this point, they’ve typically been enrolled in your email campaigns and have received personalized, educational content that’s gotten them to this point. They just need a little bit more convincing before they’re ready to close the deal. Content varieties to focus on here include: Email campaigns/drip campaigns Case studies Demos Testimonials All of these types of content can be sent in ongoing, personalized emails to help your leads overcome any lingering objections and to provide brand advocacy for your company. Bottom-of-the-Funnel Content Ideas: Loyalty Leads here are already customers. What you want to achieve with your bottom-funnel content at this point then is to retain them as customers, sowing brand loyalty so that you’re always the first place they go for a solution. Content varieties to focus on here include: Email newsletters Drip campaigns Promotions Use marketing automation software to segment your existing customers so that you can send content specifically geared toward increasing brand loyalty. Sending out the same content you share with non-customers could devalue your relationship, so it’s important that you acknowledge these leads have already made a purchase and that your content is intended to help them make the most of them it. Bottom-of-the-Funnel Content Ideas: Advocacy You’ve got the decision, and you’ve got the loyalty. What you want now is for your leads to become advocates for your brand, sharing their experience with others and spurring on your lead generation efforts. Content varieties to focus on here include: Email newsletters Drip campaigns Testimonials See how you can make these content varieties work together. Drip campaigns, for example, can be designed to ask your leads for their testimonials or a quote or to provide incentives to share your product or service with their friends. Meanwhile, your e-newsletters provide an excellent platform for re-engaging with current customers and providing them with content that can keep their experience positive. These leads are ready to take action, so make sure that all of your bottom-of-the-funnel content has a clear call to action. Collaborate with your sales team on ideas so that your bottom-funnel content best meets the needs of its audience. Not every single lead who makes it to the bottom-of-the-funnel is going to convert, but if they are, great content can only help.
How to Be a Team Player While Working Remote Posted on June 11, 2020June 5, 2020 by Jonathan Herrick With social distancing came some changes. I’m sure a lot of people are adapting to working remote. With it being such a prolonged period, the highs and lows may be a bit extreme. One of the wonderful things about working at BenchmarkONE is how much we all love being around one another. We regularly eat lunch together, and we have our fair share of team activities. Being apart is hard, especially in times of necessary collaboration. Sure it looks a little different, but just because you’re working remote doesn’t mean you can’t still be a team player. Here are some tips I’ve learned on how to be a team player while your entire team works remotely. 1. Let Your Team Know You’re There We use Slack for all our internal messaging, and since we can’t physically see someone enter the office, it’s a great tool to let others know when you’ve clocked in for the day. We often like to give each other a friendly “hello” or “good morning” when we’re logged on, which lets others know we got our work boots on. Check-in with one another to make sure things are going okay and to see if any of your coworkers could use some help with some things. It’s easy to get siloed into our own projects in the office, but it’s even easier when we’re working remote. Make sure you make yourself available to others by letting them know you’re around and ready to help. 2. Get on the Phone for the Big Stuff One of the disadvantages of emails and messages is that tone and delivery is totally lost. Sometimes you could simply be asking a question and you could come off short or angry to one of your coworkers. What’s more, if you have a big request or need to connect on a more detailed project, it just makes more sense to schedule a quick phone call. The last thing you want with an already complicated project is to deliver direction or feedback that gets lost in translation. 3. Keep Your Schedule Accessible You may already do this, which is a great rule of thumb. But if you don’t, it’s definitely helpful. We’ve all experienced getting wrapped up in our work and forgetting about an upcoming meeting. Luckily, one of our coworkers also in the meeting reminds us of it. But when you work remote, you can’t rely on the verbal reminder, and honestly, you shouldn’t have to. Keep your Google calendar, or whatever calendar you use, pulled up on your screen so you can regularly toggle back and forth from it to check for upcoming meetings. Being on-time for these remote meetings will go a long way and show your team you’re ready to contribute. 4. Take a Break It’s easy to get stir crazy when you’re cooped up inside for weeks at a time. Every day seems like the same, and sure enough, avoiding burnout seems harder and harder to muster. Sometimes, a walk around your neighborhood is necessary for your sanity. Whatever you need to do to take a break, do it. Clearing your head helps give yourself a quick reboot so you can be more focused and attentive later. Make sure you schedule some time for a walk, a short shut-eye, social media break, or a game break so you can give yourself the space you need to be most productive. Just let your team know if you’re stepping away for a moment, so they don’t worry and think you’ve clocked out for the day. 5. If You Have Downtime, Plan Ahead Your schedule might have freed up a bit with the COVID-19 outbreak. Perhaps you had some meetings canceled or projects delayed until further notice. If your schedule is no longer as jam-packed as it once was, look ahead to future projects that could use an early start. You’ll be relieved later down the line when you’ve gotten some of the work done already. Also, reach out to your coworkers to see if you can help lighten their load. Even if they have nothing for you, they’ll be grateful you are making yourself available to them. It can be a pretty isolating time. Make sure you take care of yourself but also do your part to let your remote team know that you’re available and there for them.
Tips for Increasing Parent Digital Engagement Posted on June 10, 2020October 1, 2020 by Jess Lunk For modern educators and school communicators, keeping parents in the know on their children’s important school-related information looks much different than it used to. Long gone are the days of sending students home with letters, updates, and permission slips stuck into disorganized homework folders for parents to sift through. Today, like most things, teacher-parent communications have gone overwhelmingly digital — and there’s a bit of a learning curve, as you might expect. The shift to online and paperless communications has created a ton of efficiencies for most organizations, including educational institutions. But it isn’t always easy to get parents on board and adapted to doing things digitally. So what’s an already overworked K12 teacher to do? Here are some of our top tips for getting parents more engaged when it comes to staying digitally connected with their kids’ schools. 1. Go Paperless If you’re not already, it’s time to try going paperless with your communications. Parents report that email is the best way to reach them, preferring this method to physical forms and other modes of outreach. This is good news for teachers and school communicators since email makes it a lot easier to reach out and to track and manage engagement. Utilize email for all parent communications, not just check-ins and quick questions. There are plenty of additional tools to help you use email to full capacity, including those that help with gathering permissions and payments for field trips, requesting classroom supplies, and easily scheduling one-on-one chats to discuss student progress. 2. Send Weekly Roundups Most parents might prefer email, but that doesn’t mean they’re checking their inboxes as often as you’d like them to. For those parents who aren’t quite connected enough, a weekly roundup of the key information you sent out over the past five days provides a concise breakdown of what they need to know. A weekly roundup is a great way to reiterate your original messages, keep everyone on the same page, and ensure you aren’t emailing too often. Use a marketing automation tool to make your roundups consistent visually, and to create the layout to your liking. You can use formatting and design elements to call out things that need to be addressed right away and provide links to more information where necessary. You’ll be able to cover a lot of ground without overwhelming parents and provide them with information in a more digestible way. 3. Go Social Having a social media strategy is extremely important for K12 schools. Seventy-five percent of U.S. parents are on social media, making it a useful place to go when you need to connect. Running a school’s Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram page gives you a great platform for sharing news, events, and other need-to-know information with parents. It’s well in line with parents’ preferences to have news “conveniently pushed” to them instead of having to seek it themselves. The great thing about social media is that it gives you the ability to offer information to parents often without bombarding their inboxes. To protect student privacy, you can create an invite-only group where parents can congregate to receive and share information, just reference the page regularly in your email outreach so that parents know it’s a resource. 4. Get Feedback The best way to know what works for parents when it comes to digital interactions is to ask them directly. Businesses use customer surveys to make improvements, and the same method can be applied to K12 schools. Send out a survey asking parents what the best way to stay connected with them is and what you can do to make sure they see your messages. Surveys are also a great way to get feedback on classroom initiatives, school events, and fundraisers. 5. Have Parents Opt-In Asking parents to opt-in to your emails from the get-go creates accountability and gives them an opportunity to tell you how to contact them best. Another significant benefit of opt-ins is that they ensure no parents (or students) fall through the gaps due to a lack of digital access. Opt-ins turn parents into digital engagement partners instead of just recipients. By consenting to paperless communications and telling you where to send them, parents take ownership of their role in staying connected with their child’s school. Ideally, it inspires them to take a more conscious approach to engagement. Making Digital Work Just like with students, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to working with parents. That’s as true for digital engagement as it for all other facets of school-parent relationships. Offering a few different channels for online communication increases your probability of making a connection and allows you to see what works. Pay attention to where parents are most engaged and what kinds of messages are making the biggest impact. Is short and sweet the way to go? Are most parents ignoring daily emails but responding to your weekly roundups? The more consistent you are, the more you’ll be able to gather from your methods. If you’re a school communicator looking for an easy-to-use email platform, sign up for our K12 Edition VIP list. Once this feature is released, you’ll be the first to know!
Middle-of-the-Funnel Content Breakdown Posted on June 9, 2020June 5, 2020 by Natalie Slyman Like middle children and middle seats on an airplane, it’s easy to gloss over middle-of-the-funnel marketing. We get it. Top-of-the-funnel content is all about bringing in leads, and the bottom is about closing the deal. But the middle is just as crucial. For part two of our three-part series, we’re diving into middle-funnel content with a look at why it’s so important and how to make sure it successfully moves your leads along to the next stage. Sure it might not be quite so immediately satisfying as lead generation or sales, but the work you put into the middle has the potential to pay off in big ways and is necessary for a successful buyer’s journey. So let’s get to it. Marketing in the Middle The middle of the funnel is where you bridge the gap between the top-of-the-funnel (awareness) and the bottom (decision). Leads at this stage are in the consideration phase of their customer journey, contemplating solutions to their problem and viewing your product or service as a potential fit. And while the bottom of the funnel might be where you finally make your sale, the middle is where much of the magic happens. Your middle-funnel audience is of two varieties: new leads picked up from top-of-the-funnel marketing and current customers you’re trying to urge toward a repeat or additional purchase. With both groups, the content you create and serve at this stage can be the deciding factor in whether or not a sale happens, which speaks to the importance of why you need to get it right. The defining feature of middle-funnel content is that it’s driven toward lead nurturing. Just like top-of-the-funnel content, it needs to educate and help strengthen the brand-consumer connection. Unlike top-of-the-funnel content, however, you’ve already got a leg to stand on — after all, you’ve already gotten your leads this far, haven’t you? Marketing automation is a major part of successful content marketing at this stage. Your middle-of-the-funnel leads vary in terms of quality, behaviors, and preferences, and you need to ensure that you’re distributing the right content to the right group. By segmenting your middle funnel audience through an automated platform, you can make sure that you’re delivering content that’s more likely to convert, and that actually speaks to the needs of its audience. Middle of the Funnel Content Ideas In all stages of the funnel, how you say something is just as important as what you say. You’ll want to diversify your content formats in order to vary your message and outreach, as well as keep your middle funnel leads interested and engaged. Remember, list segmentation is key here. Within your scope of the middle-of-the-funnel content will be pieces that appeal to one segment of your middle funnel audience more than others, and it’s up to you (and your marketing automation platform) to get it in front of them. With that in mind, here are some types of content that can be quite useful at this stage. Blog posts Don’t underestimate the power of a great blog post in furthering your leads down the funnel. For topic inspiration, host a brainstorming session with your sales team to learn what questions and informational gaps tend to stand in the way of a sale, then create content that closes the gap. Case studies A thorough case study elevates the authority of your brand and provides a clear-cut example of success for mid-funnel leads. Link to them on your site, or use them in your email drip campaigns to help move middle-funnel leads to the next stage. Email newsletters If you’re not already, send a regular email newsletter to your middle funnel audience. This helps keep your brand top of mind, which is an important place to be in the consideration phase. Webinars Like case studies, webinars enhance brand authority and provide an additional opportunity to gather information. Host alone or pair up with another brand to get double duty out of your webinar as both a lead nurturing and lead generating content format. Service/product pages Make it as easy as possible for mid-funnel leads to get their questions answered by producing detailed pages regarding your product or service. This can (and should) include guides and resources that show how they can get the most out of it and that highlight its most valuable features — link to this content in blog posts and guest posts to create an easy pathway for finding information. There’s always something to be gained from middle-of-the-funnel content. Whether it’s inching a lead one step closer to a sale or enrolling them in additional nurturing campaigns, the content you produce at this stage is integral to your marketing ROI and worth putting in plenty of time and effort. Meet your leads in the middle, with content that’s optimized for productive conversions.
Tips for an Effective Brainstorming Session Posted on June 4, 2020June 2, 2020 by Jonathan Herrick The quality of the ideas that come out of a brainstorming session is largely dependent on the quality of the brainstorming session itself. And that takes some planning. A lot of people hate meetings. Heck, maybe most of us hate meetings. But they are necessary sometimes, and that includes when you need to put your best minds together to come up with new ideas. Here are six tips to make sure that your brainstorms are productive and worth your time. 1. Have An Agenda Ready to Go Beforehand Trying to wing it is never a good strategy for a brainstorming session — or any meeting for that matter. If your only outlined plan is that you want to come out of the meeting with some good ideas, you’re doing it wrong. If you have no real structure in place for achieving those good ideas, you’re not going to be nearly as successful as you would be if you went in with an agenda. Consider structuring your brainstorming session around a common technique, like mind mapping or word banking, and be clear in your instructions to your attendees. With an agenda in place, you can turn the session into something fun instead of rote and monotonous, and you’ll support more creativity along the way. 2. Set Expectations for the Group Ask each attendee to come up with a few ideas during the meeting. By asking everyone to participate, you open the door to ideas that people might have otherwise kept quiet about. Every single idea has value. Even if an idea is not viable, it might lead to other ideas that are. The more ideas you have, the better, so let your attendees know that everybody will be expected to participate. When everyone contributes an idea or two, it works like wildfire to inspire other great marketing or content marketing ideas to consider. 3. Go Over Each Idea Remember, there’s always value in an idea. Even those that initially don’t seem to have much to offer. To eke as much juice out of every single suggestion, go over each idea that the group brings in. It’s about quantity first, then quality later. To structure your session, segment the ideas into ones that are a priority and ones that warrant more discussion later on. Since time is of the essence in any meeting, stick to the high priority ideas during your initial session and then circle back to the other ideas later, even if that means hosting a follow-up meeting. 4. Fill In Any Gaps As you flush out the best ideas from your brainstorming session, work them over with your team to identify and respond to any glaring gaps. What resources are needed to bring this idea to life? What are the biggest benefits and drawbacks? What marketing goals can this idea help achieve? What’s standing in the way of making this idea come to life? Filling in these gaps isn’t just about pushing ideas into action. Poking holes in your ideas is a key step in an effective brainstorm. It forces you to play devil’s advocate and hone in on any potential drawbacks before putting time, effort, and money into an idea. It’s also a great exercise for looking at your ideas from all angles so you can work out as many details as possible before going all-in. 5. Establish Next Steps Hopefully, by the end of the meeting, you will have at least one or two ideas worth pursuing. To make sure that action happens, you want to establish what the next steps are and designate a point person for each step. In marketing, as in all business endeavors, good ideas aren’t enough on their own. You need to have a plan in place for executing those ideas and making them into a reality. Break down the steps of research and development and assign people to the task so you can be sure your best ideas are actually moving forward. 6. Schedule a Follow-Up Meeting if Necessary Many brainstorming sessions aren’t a one and done thing. There’s a good chance that you’ll need to reconvene at some point to discuss the specifics of putting one or more ideas into action, and going over those ideas that didn’t make it on to the high priority list. You can schedule a follow-up meeting at the end of the first session to create a timeline for next steps, or you can wait to schedule it when the necessary tasks have been completed. Brainstorming sessions shouldn’t be painful, nor should they be aimless. When you go in with the above tips in mind, you give yourself — and your team — the benefit of a set plan and strategy. As for what comes out of it? The sky’s the limit.
Guide to Sales Enablement, From a Sales Rep Posted on June 3, 2020October 8, 2021 by Tegan Arnold Your sales team needs to be enabled if they’re going to do their best, and the marketing department is integral to making that happen. There are four imperatives to successful sales enablement: training, strategy, metrics and resources. And it’s in regards to that last imperative that marketing can really make a difference. Sales rely on content and resources from marketing to assist them in their conversations with leads and, hopefully, guide them to purchase. Marketing-driven sales resources provide customers with a cohesive message and an improved buyer experience, and they’re a great way to personalize the customer journey. I figured I’d give you a first-hand account as a sales rep to know exactly what marketing teams could be doing to create content that supports the enablement of their sales team. Here are my four most crucial tips. 1. Bring Sales and Marketing Together Think of sales and marketing like the peanut butter and jelly of your brand — highly capable on their own, magical when they come together. Aligning sales and marketing doesn’t have to be rocket science. Schedule a monthly meeting where both teams can discuss the various needs and objectives of the content and sales material created by the marketing. Go over the content topics that need to be covered, the objections being encountered in sales conversations, and the materials that the sales team could benefit from having. Also, cover any upcoming opportunities that sales might benefit from attending, such as conferences or webinars. Keeping the lines of communication open means that both teams get more of the information they need to do their jobs well. If you’ve got more work to do in bringing the teams together, opt for weekly meetings instead of monthly until you get where you want to be. 2. Centralize Your Content Create a channel where the marketing team can easily share up-to-date sales material as it’s produced. This can be a Slack channel, a Google doc, a resource library or knowledge base, or anything else that works for you. Salespeople are always on the move, and they need to be able to access the right tools at the right time. When you centralize your content and make it easy for sales to find what they need, you benefit both the rep and the customer, removing the informational hurdles that can stand in the way of a productive conversation. Just be sure to keep your content channel updated, since out of date material is almost as bad as no material at all. 3. Send Content Roundups Lots of what the marketing team writes can be beneficial to sales in some way. Send regular content roundups so that the sales team (and other teams within the company) are aware of what content is available to them, and help prevent different departments from getting so siloed they don’t realize what additional resources are out there. In these roundups, share the blog posts that have been published and give some ideas for how other teams, and especially sales, might be able to use them to their advantage. For example, a blurb like, “This blog post is great for answering questions around how our software enables email marketing capabilities…” is short yet offers just the right about of description. If you want, share content performance metrics too. This will allow sales to see how well certain posts are resonating with readers, which may be useful to them as they determine what topics, needs, and pain points to prioritize with leads. 4. Coordinate on Travel Schedules It’s a good idea to have marketing be in the know regarding any meetings, marketing conferences, or speaking engagements your sales reps have on the horizon. This way, you can help them prepare materials in advance that they can bring with and use to make stronger connections. Marketing is in charge of a brand’s image, but not necessarily all of the ways that image is disseminated. By taking on a more active role in shaping the message that your sales team conveys to leads, you’re able to keep that image consistent, which is highly beneficial for both departments. Instead of thinking of sales and marketing like two wholly separate departments, start looking for all of the ways that you can collaborate and help each other grow. Not only will it be good for your company’s sales enablement initiative, but it will also provide your marketing team with an even fuller picture of who your most qualified leads are and what they’re looking for. So, here’s to teaming up and achieving more — it’s better for sales, it’s better for marketing, and it’s better for your prospects.
Top-of-the-Funnel Content Breakdown Posted on June 2, 2020May 29, 2020 by Natalie Slyman Guiding your leads through the buyer’s journey necessitates high-quality content that’s driven to take them to the next step. It’s why having a marketing automation tool (and using it correctly) is so crucial. The more you understand about your leads and where they’re at in their journey, the better you’re able to create personalized content that’s tailored to their needs. But even before that, you need to have a full understanding of the buyer’s journey itself and the type of content that applies to each stage. So much rides on producing the right content for the right leads at the right time. So, we’re creating a series of posts driven toward examining the role of content in various stages of the funnel. Today, let’s start from the top. Marketing From the Top Down Top-of-the-funnel marketing refers to efforts taken to build brand awareness and engage with prospects who might not yet know much about your brand or what you have to offer. Leads at this stage have established a problem that needs to be solved. Most likely, they’ve already begun searching for solutions. They may have come across your company as one that is somewhat related to their needs, though they’re not quite sure yet that you’ve got the answer they’re looking for. Converting leads isn’t something that just happens on its own, though. Ninety-six percent of visitors that come to your site aren’t ready to buy. But what they find when they get there could be the defining factor in whether they ever do. What’s crucial about content at this stage is that, above all else, it’s formative. Sure, a sale is always the end goal of any marketing content piece, but at the top-of-the-funnel, content needs to educate more than it needs to inspire direct action. Top-of-the-funnel content is all about answering questions, addressing pain points, and establishing the groundwork for your brand to solve a particular problem. Equally important to what you’re creating content about is who you’re creating content for. The pool of leads at this stage is incredibly broad, and your content has to be uniquely targeted to draw in leads who fit your consumer base. Top-of-the-funnel content casts a wide net intending to catch a few valuable fish. Doing so requires you to make it less about you and more about your readers. Top-of-the-Funnel Content Ideas You’ve got lots of variety available to you when you’re creating top-of-the-funnel content. Since your audience pool is expansive, content at this stage should be published on both your content streams (your website, social media pages, emails, etc.) as well as on other reputable platforms. The more eyes you can reach with your top-of-the-funnel content, the better chance you will have of reaching the people who have the highest chance of becoming customers. Types of content that are particularly useful at this stage include: Guest posts Contribute posts to other sites that your audience reads to establish legitimacy and form those crucial first connections. By becoming a guest-contributor, you’ll be able to tap into that online publication’s readership and put your brand and expertise front-and-center. Press mentions Press, news features, and industry backlinks all build brand awareness and help your company make a great first impression. Press mentions, which are when other industry influencers mention your company or brand in their content, are especially helpful. They help you gain third-party credibility from a source that is already reliable and trusted. Webinars Host webinars on your own or with other brands to reach a bigger audience and answer common questions your top-of-the-funnel leads might be having. Webinars are also a great way to generate leads because they allow you to collect contact information from interested parties so you can provide additional content distribution. Blog posts Work on building a robust and informative company blog. This will give your website visitors and leads a valuable resource, as well as provide fuel for your email marketing. How-to videos Create share-worthy marketing videos around popular how-to topics related to your product or service. Put them on a resource page on your site so your site visitors and leads can learn more about what your company does and offers. Remember, when it comes to placing top-of-the-funnel content on outside sites, make sure they’re sites your key audience members visit. Focus on publications aimed towards the industry and professionals that align with your buyer personas. The top-of-the-funnel content that you create could be the link that turns a stranger into a customer. The more great content you have geared toward brand awareness and educating leads, the more likely you are to come out as a clear solution to the problem they need solving.
The Importance of a Social Media Strategy for K12 Schools Posted on May 29, 2020October 1, 2020 by Natalie Slyman Did you know that 54 percent of social browsers use social media to research products? Social media is slowly becoming a reliable go-to for more than just entertainment. It’s where brands and consumers can find one another. And given that people are so engaged on social platforms, social is a great channel to capture attention and build advocacy. But the marketing and branding benefits social media offers aren’t just exclusive to companies and products. Having a social media strategy is especially crucial for educational institutions. Yet, so many K-12 schools find it hard to adopt a social strategy that they can stick with and benefit from. As BenchmarkONE prepares to release its email newsletter software built for schools, we’re thinking a lot about the other various ways school communicators can create transparency, communicate with parents and students, and build awareness. Let’s dive deeper into some of the most compelling benefits K12 schools can see by having a social media strategy. 1. Helps Establish School Brand Each school, whether they fully realize it or not, has a specific brand. They all have a logo and school colors, as well as other brand-defining elements. When schools build up their social media presence, they can reinforce not only their visual brand but also the feelings and impressions they’d like their brands to evoke. In essence, social media allows for schools to build out their emotional brands, too. By sharing footage from pep rallies, the school outreach program, or rehearsal for the spring musical, schools can define their brand and show, instead of tell, what they’re really about. 2. Provides Brand Awareness Schools thrive on enrollment numbers. The higher the enrollment, the more needed and desired the school is. This is why they need to make sure that their key demographics are aware that they’re out there and that they’re a solid institution for consideration. Social media is an excellent channel for expanding reach because it puts schools on a platform where tons of people are already engaged. Ninety percent of Millennials, 77 percent of Gen X’ers, and 48 percent of Baby Boomers are active social media users. By using a platform that taps into a substantial amount of people from three generations, schools will be able to make their presence more known to parents and students alike. 3. Provides Another Channel for Communication For school communicators, keeping parents, students, and their community in the know is their most important job. But it isn’t always easy. They don’t want to inundate parents by emailing too much, which can be tiresome and annoying. What’s more, email newsletters and other traditional outreach tactics can get lost in the shuffle, leaving crucial information missed. This is why having another channel to communicate any important updates or details is key. Obviously, not all updates make sense for social media, so judgment will have to be used. But at least by being present on social, schools can use another way to be available and transparent to their followers, which are both essential for effective communication. 4. Instills School Pride Everyone wants to look back on their educational institutions with pride. Social media can help schools build that pride by keeping alumni and current students up to speed on the fun and creative programs they’re offering. Videos that highlight how schools give back, show graduation ceremonies, or a glimpse into the students’ artistic talent will tap into the heart of what schools are all about. It showcases the wonderful things they’re able to do for their students, and how their students are benefitting from it all. Seeing those kinds of candid and real experiences are great for instilling school pride among students, teachers, alumni, and parents. 5. Can Help with Enrollment Numbers There’s a domino effect when schools take the initiative to give people a deeper view of what is happening behind closed doors. And when doing so also allows them to build more brand awareness and school pride, naturally, enrollment numbers could be positively affected. After all, a social media strategy is part of a marketing strategy, and when implemented well, schools are sure to see an uptick of interest, and enrollment will eventually follow. 6. Can Help Attract Quality Educators Schools are only as good as educators and staff that run them. And most people want to work for institutions that reflect their values, are a fun and enjoyable place to be, and that offer the right kinds of challenges. Having a social media strategy that highlights the educators within the school walls is a great way to attract other quality educators when job openings become available. Some ideas are to have teachers do “account takeovers” where they show followers a day in their lives, peaking into lesson plans, classes, and any other school-related activities they’re involved in. Or schools can highlight one teacher a month, and share fun facts about them and what makes them special. Either way, highlighting what staff life is like is a great way to attract quality talent. These are just some reasons why k12 schools should have a social media strategy. While it can be hard to implement, the effort is totally worth the outcome and can lead to improved communication and advocacy among students, teachers, and parents alike.
7 Top Video Editing Software Programs for Newbies to Pros Posted on May 28, 2020May 28, 2020 by Guest Author The cat’s out of the bag: consumers love video content. Forty-nine percent of people watch more than five videos per day and 86 percent of consumers want to see more videos from businesses in 2020. This is great news because you’re confident in your ability to script and shoot educational videos for your followers. But you’re not a professional video editor, so you need video editing software that can help you maximize your ROI without requiring a huge time investment. Good news: There are plenty of video editing programs out there suitable for beginners and those with experience that won’t cost an arm and a leg, to boot. Even better news: We’re covering seven of them today, starting with one of the most beginner-friendly options. Let’s dive in. Tool #1: Descript The future of marketing is video, and Descript can help you take your first steps toward that future. Descript is a no-frills, affordable video marketing tool video editor that beginners can master in minutes. What makes Descript unique is that marketers can edit transcripts of their videos instead of the video footage itself. Considering that marketers spend a mean of 17 hours to create one piece of short-form content, this feature can dramatically cut down on your video turnaround time and increase your content output. Descript also supports multi-user editing so you and your team can collaborate on each video. You can also use the native timeline editor to clean up your video and audio with fades and volume editing or dress up your video with music and sound effects. You can then export your edited video to Final Cut Pro or Premiere to add additional visual effects. Descript is a simple video editing program that’s great for beginners, but it may be a little too simple for some marketing teams. Our second video editing program is also a good fit for beginners but comes with a few additional elements and features. Tool #2: Camtasia Webinars, demos, and explainer videos are among the most popular video types across channels, and you can create and edit each of them with Camtasia. (Image Source: Vidyard) Marketers can record their screens and edit recordings with Camtasia easily. You can also add text, transitions, annotations, pre-made animations, sound effects, and quizzes, among other elements, to make your videos more effective and engaging. Specifically, if you sell online courses, Camtasia can make it easier to distribute your course content. Besides uploading your videos to Screencast, Vimeo, and YouTube, you can upload videos to your video courses, as well. Even better, Camtasia is available for a one-time fee of $249. Not bad, right? Next up, let’s look at a general video editor that doesn’t skimp on elements and features: WeVideo. Tool #3: WeVideo Want a value-packed video editor that gives you the most bang for your buck? Look no further than WeVideo. Marketers can access over 1 million royalty-free elements like images and music tracks, use a green screen feature, and edit their videos any time, anywhere. Looking to build an empire with social media marketing? WeVideo can help you on your mission. Marketers can produce videos using multiple formats with WeVideo and then upload these videos to Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, among other channels. WeVideo is a fine option for marketers looking for a novice-friendly program with a wide assortment of features. Though if you’re looking for more advanced features without sacrificing an intuitive dashboard, you may enjoy using our fourth editing tool more. Tool #4: Wondershare FilmoraPro Marketing videos can help your business attract new leads and increase sales. Sixty-three percent of marketers said sharing a video on Facebook in the past 12 months led to a new client. Seventy-nine percent of businesses have earned new clients from Instagram, with 73 percent of marketers saying they earned a new client from Instagram Stories (which can be images or videos). Over 40 percent of consumers worldwide have purchased products they discovered on YouTube, too. But to see higher ROIs from your video marketing efforts, you’ll need to make them as polished as possible, so there won’t be any quirks or blips to detract from your marketing message — and that’s where Wondershare FilmoraPro comes in. Wondershare Filmora Pro comes with automatic stabilization to fix shaky footage and noise reduction and audio compression for smoother audio. For more visual flair, brands can add customizable animations, use preset or custom shapes to hide parts of their video, color wheels and auto-correction, and lights and flares, to name just a few features. Of course, Wondershare FilmoraPro isn’t the only editing program out there overflowing with features — our next editing program is, too. Tool #5: Movavi Movavi is a media editing triple threat that can help brands edit video, audio, and photo content and then convert that media into over 180 formats. Marketers can record their screens with Movavi, as well. Movavi’s video editing features don’t disappoint. Creatives can add titles, fades, stickers, transitions, and copyright-free effects and media. Movavi also offers a library of video and photo editing courses so marketers can make fabulous videos regardless of their skill level. Movavi’s features should be fine for most brands looking to improve their marketing videos’ quality and appearance. But if you’re looking for a more cinema-grade video editor, you’ll love our next tool. Tool #6: Final Cut Pro Are you an Apple user with some video editing knowledge? Then allow us to introduce you to Final Cut Pro. Marketers can edit and move clips within Final Cut Pro, and even combine separate video and audio files into one bundle. You can use color grading to tinker with your videos’ color and saturation, sync up to 64 video angles, and reduce unwanted noise. Final Cut Pro is definitely a more feature-rich but technically complex video editing tool, so it’s best for marketers who have some video editing know-how and who are looking for TV- or cinema-grade videos. Even if you’re a video editing greenhorn, it could be worthwhile to spend a few hours each week mastering Final Cut Pro. Millennials and members of Gen Z spend 20 to 25 minutes, respectively, of every hour of digital time watching videos. Investing in more highly produced videos could help your brand be among the lucky few videos these groups — and others — view. If you’re a non-Apple user looking for a program as rich as Final Cut Pro, look no further than our final video editing tool. Tool #7: Adobe Premiere Pro Like Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro is a must-have video editing program if you have some background experience in video editing and are looking to make jaw-droppingly stunning videos. Basically, if you want it, Premiere Pro has you covered. Want to create and release VR videos? Then you’ll want to check out Premiere Pro (and this article on why VR is one of the digital marketing trends BenchmarkONE is looking forward to in 2020). Looking to mix your video’s audio, reformat videos, and altering videos’ color grading? Premiere Pro can help you out there, too. And if there’s something you want to add to your videos that Premiere Pro doesn’t offer, you can use one of Adobe’s related services like After Effects or Adobe Stock. Take Your Videos From Just Okay to Exceptional Whether you’re a video editing novice or old hat, these video editing programs take a lot of the guesswork out of creating visually compelling videos. And if you want to use your videos in your inbound marketing strategy, sign up for BenchmarkONE’s free trial. You can use BenchmarkONE’s software to create beautiful landing pages to house your videos, as well as include them in your personalized email marketing campaigns. Listen, you and your team are bursting with creativity, but you only have so much time to put those ideas into action. But if you try some of the tools we’ve outlined today, we’re certain you’ll be able to execute more of your ideas without breaking your schedule — or your sanity. And that’s a beautiful thing. Author Bio Taylor Barbieri is a content marketer for Podia, an all-in-one platform where online courses, digital downloads, and membership websites — alongside their creators — thrive. Check out our free 12,000+ word guide to creating profitable online courses, even if you’ve never done it before.