Online Marketing Basics - Part 1 of 3

During the crucial planning year, you need to get your marketing game on. After all, the most important measure of your success is student enrollment. And unless you are deeply connected to your proposed student population through some other non-profit association or group, that means doing some good old fashioned marketing.

There are many ways to do marketing and I don’t pretend to be a marketing expertise. My experience with those who make such claims is not favorable.  However, when it comes to the basics of online marketing, or marketing driven primarily by the Internet, there are some reasonably well established ways of doing this.

Let’s consider three areas you might want to review with respect to your Internet oriented marketing strategy, we’ll review one each week:

1. Your website as a marketing machine
2. Email marketing and online communications
3. Social media sanity

Your website as a marketing machine

 

The notion of a “well designed” website is a bit  subjective. It starts with artistic style, design elements, and color combinations created by an experienced design team. But it also assumes an underlying quality of hosting platforms, server technologies, and functionality. And it assumes dynamic and current information that is relevant to your potential site visitors.

 

There are several articles on this blog addressing website construction, but let’s set that completely aside and focus on your website purely from a marketing perspective.

 

From a marketing perspective your objective is pretty simple. Help potential students (or their parents),  find your school online, make it easy for them to engage, develop a relationship with them,  harvest or gather their contact information, and develop a process to follow up and answer their questions and guide them through enrollment. You will want to automate this process as much as possible to keep costs down.

 

Improving the ability for potential students to find your school on the Internet is often referred to as search optimization. Doing search optimization well is an ongoing challenge and consists of two general categories of activities – paid optimization (such as Pay Per Click advertising) and native or organic optimization. In my mind free is always better, but good optimization always comes at a cost. You either spend money for search optimization advertising, or you spend time placing high quality content on your website that produces high organic search results. In real life you will probably want to do both, this is particularly true for new schools.

 

One of the most frequently overlooked features that will improve organic search results is to place video on your home page. A recent study I found suggested a 1200% increase in search results by using this technique alone. In addition to that you will want to tag (label) or provide keywords called meta data on each page, use sufficient headers in your articles, label each and every image or video on your site with accurate and descriptive words,  and of course write useful content. All of these things will make it easy for search engines to properly index your site. Indexing is an ongoing process by which search engines crawl or evaluate your site and quantify relevance of your content, these measurements will determine your placement on their service.

 

There is an entire industry on the Internet, indeed an inexhaustible supply of individuals and groups who claim to have expertise in Search Engine Optimization. No doubt someone out there has to be an expert, but in every case (and we have tried more than a few) that we have hired these so called “SEO Experts”, they have collected a lot of money and without exception delivered little in the way of improved results.

 

Google and the other search engines closely guard the metrics associated with search optimization, in similar fashion Coca Cola closely guards the formulation of their products. And they (search engines) are continually changing the formula for search optimization to produce better results. Good quality content that is fresh and relevant and linked to other sites and networks will eventually produce good organic search results, in the interim you may want to do some search word advertising.

 

Want to take a simple test to see how well your school does in organic search? Just open a fresh browse and clear all of your cookies and cache, then type in a few key words that you would use to find your school (hint: don’t use your school name – that’s cheating and a prospective student would not know that information). Now count the pages of results and if you don’t appear on the first few pages, you have work to do.

 

Bottom line is that a free web site put up by one of your parent volunteers, while an admirable effort, may not garner the kind of organic search optimization you need. And with that quality of website construction, you may need to spend significantly to buy search optimization.  This of course, assumes the volunteer is not one of those hard to find SEO experts!

 

Measure your progress

 

Google analytics is no doubt the industry standard tool to measure your site traffic. But many website authoring frameworks provide their own measuring tools, often in the form of raw page counts. However you choose to measure your website traffic, do so regularly. Even with just basic page counts, you can quickly determine which content on your website provides the most interest for site visitors.

 

Don’t forget the mobile platform

 

The statistics associated with mobile devices as a share of Internet search makes a very compelling argument to optimize your website for mobile devices. Mobile access is the fastest growing segment of Internet traffic. Accordingly, it would be a very good idea to ensure that your website is mobile friendly.

 

There are several ways to do this and the techniques are outside the scope of this article, but a good start is to take a look at your website through your mobile phone or smart phone.  Then enlist your friends, with different brands of phones to do the same.  Taking a look at your site and attempting to navigate it will provide you a great deal of insight into what works and what does not.

 

The simplest way of managing the mobile access on your website is to use the right technology in the first place. Mature open source platforms, such as Word Press or Joomla do a very good job of mobile optimization right out of the box. “Build your own website” tools on many of the popular hosting companies may not do an adequate job.

 

If your budget allows, it is possible to place code on your website that senses a mobile device and redirects site visitors to a portion of your website that is designed specifically for mobile web browsers.

 

Summary

 

Your online marketing begins with a well designed and constructed website with fresh and relevant content, particularly video. Your website should be the communications hub, much like a bicycle wheel, that serves as the end point for all of your Internet communication. Invest the time and money necessary to develop the search results you need. This may include paid search word advertising, Facebook Ads, and other venues. And don’t forget the ever growing audience of mobile users.

Next week we will address email and other forms of communication that will improve your marketing reach.

New Math – How 75% = 90%, and why you should do this calculation

I have a confession to make. After 4 years of expounding the merits of the eRate program, I realized last week that my calculations were way off – well sort of.  In a recent teleconference with two new Charter School who are considering the merits of filing for Priority 2 services, the subject of discount rates came up. And my math was wrong – is yours?

The general criterion for eRate reimbursement is a measure of the free & reduced lunch population at a given school. Although this number can often be improved upon significantly, by doing household income surveys, many schools simply don’t bother.

The thinking, I presume, is that with reimbursement thresholds hovering around 90%, there is little chance of getting reimbursed for Priority 2 items – which typically include the big ticket expenditures for servers, network gear, and connectivity. Only problem is that 75% equals 90%, at least according to eRate!

Say what??? That was my reaction, too.

Yes indeed, that equation is actually correct! According to the USAC discount matrix, if 75% of your student population is economically disadvantaged (as evidenced by free and reduced lunch counts, or household surveys) then you are at a 90% discount rate!

If only my test scores in college worked on the same principal!

And consider one other interesting report. In 2010, there was no discount criteria applied to any Priority 2 services. Indeed, every school that properly filed for eRate reimbursement for FY2010-11 received that reimbursement, regardless of their discount rate.  Unconventional, yes;   possible again in this fiscally stimulated administration? Perhaps …

 Now were talking quantum physics, not just math!

So what does this have to do with your particular situation? Well, precisely nothing if you follow the normal mode of ignoring eRate reimbursement for your school.  Astonishing as this seems, that is exactly what many Charter Schools are doing – nothing.

If soomeone were to offer you a 40%-60% discount on groceries for the school cafeteria, by filing a few forms. You would surely jump at the chance. What is the logic that keeps you from doing the same for your technology expenses?

Let’s review a general list of services eligible for reimbursement:

Priority 1 Services: (always reimbursed without discount rate considerations)

•  Fiber optic internet connections
• Telephone, fax, cell phones, and other types of internet access (DSL, wireless, etc.)
• Website hosting
• Email services
• Installation and configuration of the above

Priority 2 Services: (reimbursed according to a discount rate threshold)

• Internal Connections – equipment used for transport of digital information (excluding endpoints)
• Network components – routers, firewalls, switches, decoders, hubs, etc.
• Servers – email servers or servers providing an eligible service
• Wiring – wire and cabling to connect your eligible services
• Wireless Access Points and controllers
• Basic maintenance for all the above

Both of the aforementioned schools were under the impression, that there was no point in filing for eRate – aside from the Priority 1 services that are reimbursed to all schools. It is worth noting that their perception was shaped in some measure at a state eRate training event. (And no I don’t suspect a conspiracy against charter schools.) Even more puzzling is the fact that both schools serve minority populations with normally high economic need!

 

So what have you got to lose? Well, possibly thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars. And the unfortunate reality is, due to allocations across fiscal years and other moving measures at USAC, you will ultimately only know your eligibility by filing.

 

In these difficult financial times, it seems extraordinary that reimbursement for technology services would be so inadequately managed. No doubt that eRate is a complex, time sensitive, form intensive, and deadline driven process. But that is not an acceptable excuse.

 

Perhaps a dose of good old fashioned determination is in order. One of my favorite quotes is “That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do; not that the nature of the thing itself is changed, but that our power to do is increased. (Heber J. Grant) Can you really afford to not manage this opportunity?

 

But then that brings up another favorite subject – informal logic. Why go through the trouble of filing for eRate, if you can outsource it for less than the cost of the reimbursement you will receive? If you would like to have a conversation with an eRate expert, call us. And then we will refer you to an expert!

 

USAC rules prohibit service providers, which we are, from providing certain eRate functions to ensure a fair bidding process.  So I conclude with this disclaimer. The above information is intended to be general in nature and for educational purposes only. Please contact your certified (yes this is a professional designation) eRate Management Professional for information regarding your specific circumstances.

 

And you might want to do that sooner than later, the eRate filing window will close in a few short months!

 

For the official list of eligible services, go to http://www.usac.org/sl/applicants/beforeyoubegin/eligible-services-list.aspx

OneNote – The Swiss Army Knife of Collaborative Work

Being a good Boy Scout, I appreciate having a single piece of equipment that serves so many purposes. And growing up in the troop, I always admired the Swiss Army Knife with so many functions in one little package.
 
Enter OneNote, a versatile and clever piece of software that does many things on many platforms.

As you go about organizing your digital assets, there seems to always be something that doesn’t quite fit. Over the years I have attempted various ways to track snippets of information I knew would come in handy, but did not have a rational way of organizing it. And for about the same number of years, I have noticed this little program in the Microsoft Office suite – OneNote- that I really did not know what to do with.

Recently my need to organize and my curiosity, compelled by a couple of glowing reviews, caused me to take a more serious look at OneNote. Now I use it every day and it has become an indispensable tool.

One Note is a free form (this is not insignificant) program to collect, store, and share information of every imaginable type. It can do text, images, links, tables, video, and all the variants of digital content of which I am aware.  It can be designated public or private, and can be shared with as many or as few individuals as you like in a number of cloud based storage/sharing platforms.

Free form simply means that you can place your pointer on any location on a page an add content in the exact location you desire. Unlike Word, where you start at top left and work your way down the page adding words and images as you go.And once your information is upon the page, you can easily rearrange it without difficulty
.
OneNote is similar in function to an old fashioned Notebook, which has tabs or dividers, and pages. And it is useful to think about it in this manner. You can use it as a scrapbook to collect newspaper articles, photographs, handwritten notes, and drawings. You can use it as a small database to track all of your user names and passwords (and make it password protected). You can create tables which will actually calculate totals, much like a spreadsheet.  Then you can organize the various pages where this information resides in a hierarchical fashion with sub pages.

All this is good, but the most impressive feature of OneNote, for me, is the ability to synchronize my collection of information across all of my endpoints. It does little good to take notes on my iPhone, that are not synced to my laptop, my desktop, or iPad. And when I make changes to a notebook in OneNote while working at my desk, I want that information available on my mobile devices as well.

And now we arrive at the point where, with a little background, you can begin to see the potential of this program in the classroom. Imagine creating an instructional document that you wish to share with your students. You have a great teaching platform with OneNote, especially if you want to collaborate with your students on the document. And I don’t mean just share the document, I refer to real time collaboration, where notes and ideas from each individual in a group are simultaneously experienced by the rest of the group.

OneNote has deep integration into the Windows desktop, with special tools that allow you to take snippets of information from your screen and place them right into one of your OneNote pages. Just press the Windows logo key on your keyboard, followed by the letter “S”. Once you define the area you wish to save, the utility prompts you to select a OneNote location.

Another handy ‘built-in’ feature is the “Print To” function within windows, which allows you to redirect any print output into a OneNote page. This is very handy when you need to make a printed copy of something, but are without a printer.

And finally, the wide variety of “Save As” functions provides a way for you to save OneNote pages in a wide variety of formats, including .pdf.

Microsoft Word is great at composing and editing documents, Excel does a great job of organizing rows and columns of numbers, and PowerPoint does a superb job of creating slide shows. But sometimes you just need a place to organize a few paragraphs, a small group of numbers, a few pictures for clarity, and then add hand written notes. Then you need the ability to share your content with others and gain valuable feedback.

OneNote is the one program you can use to do a little bit of everything.  I ignored it for years, but now use it every day. And unlike the trusty Swiss Army Knife, you can actually get OneNote through security at the airport!

Give it a try, you'll be impressed!

Tis the season to do eRate, File-a-li-la-la the forms today!

I love the Christmas season, now termed the Holiday season by those more politically correct. As a technology provider for schools, it marks the start of the annual gift giving season by the Universal Services Administrative Company for eligible technology hardware and services.

The gifts are in the form of reimbursements through the eRate program, and you might not be getting your fair share!

Like me, you may not generally favor government largesse; but  the eRate program is reasonably well run, self-funded, and designed to support the most financially disadvantaged student populations (among other institutions). Take a look at your last telephone bill – mobile or otherwise – and you will see a small fee titled Federal Universal Services Fee. That is the source of the funding – everybody pays a little.

Charter Schools, unfortunately are more likely to receive a proverbial “lump of coal” in their Christmas – woops – Holiday stockings, than traditional school's. The reason is simple, it takes a level of expertise and a significant investment of time to wade through the myriad of forms, compliances, and dates associated with the program. Many Charter Schools simply don’t have the resources to successfully do this.

What a shame!

In a nutshell, there are two broad categories of reimbursements you can receive; they are labeled in the eRate program as Priority 1 eligible services and Priority 2 eligible services. Priority 1 services consist primarily of Internet, Telephone, Email, and Website Hosting Services. Priority 2 services consist of hardware components and services used within you’re your building to connect, route, secure, and deliver technology to end users.
 
These expenses are reimbursed at a rate roughly equivalent to your free and reduced lunch count percentages. Priority 1 services are always eligible for reimbursement; Priority 2 services have discount level thresholds, technology plans, and additional requirements.

What is the easiest way to participate in this annual gift giving? It might not be as difficult as you would think.

Here are a few  things you can do to improve your chances of having a Happier eRate Holiday:

1. Identify state eRate consortiums and join them

Check with your state office of education to see if there is an eRate Consortium. If one exists, they will often handle your Priority 1 items.  In fact some states will give you a steal of a deal on broadband AND help you file the eRate forms to boot.
Give yourself plenty of time. These organizations can be quite bureaucratic and move at a snails pace, but the value proposition can be excellent.

2. Verify that your telecom provider has an eRate department

If your state does not offer broadband, your telephone company should have the resource to help you file for your eRate reimbursement. In fact, you might even find a provider that will only bill you for the unreimbursed costs of your telephone, internet, and fax lines. It is common to bundle internet service with your telephone, especially in rural areas.

Be careful, you still must comply with the eRate program for both priorities and you can easily run afoul of the rules when your telecom sales representative gets involved.

3. Don’t forget your email and webhosting costs

While normally not significant, email services and web hosting costs are always eligible for eRate reimbursement, regardless of your discount rate. If you are settling for a third rate website and the crappy email system that comes attached to it, do yourself a huge favor, upgrade your email and website system and get reimbursed for doing so. It makes the cost very reasonable, and you will likely get huge productivity improvements to boot!

4. Outsource the entire eRate filing process to a professional

The adage of “Penny wise, pound foolish” is my favorite description of those who elect not to choose door #4. In the decade of my involvement with Charter Schools, I have seen very large sums of money lost because school administrators thought they could do this on their own.

Freestanding and independent Charter Schools lack the economy of scale to compete on the eRate playing field. Traditional school districts often have full time staffers just for this purpose.
 
The most common mistake is to presume an incorrect discount rate (there are ways to improve it significantly rather than just counting free and reduced lunch percentages), then buy the prevailing wisdom that you do not qualify for the big ticket Priority 2 items. And the results are both predictable and deplorable. All it takes is a cursory search on the USAC website to demonstrate how poorly most charter schools fare in receiving Priority 2 reimbursements.

Did you know that in in 2010, every school at every discount rate received their Priority 2 funding!  There are multi-year adjustments to the funding pool, and even the most seasoned eRate professionals don’t really know where the exact cutoff will fall for Priority 2 funding.

Don't listen to the naysayers that Priority 2 funding is impossible to acheive. It's bad advice!

Summary

When you are faced with critical tasks that require a high degree of specialization, but for only small projects or periods of time, it is usually best to outsource the task. This is exactly our position about the design and engineering aspect of your technology infrastructure.  Likewise, eRate is a highly specialized process, which trained professionals can manage in a fraction of the time you would spend.

Don’t brush this matter off for another year! Locate an eRate consultant, one who is a Certified eRate Management Professional, and invest in their services. You do it for special ed, technology, finance, and many other tasks – why not for eRate.

‘Tis the season to do eRate, and have a much happier holiday… or Merry Christmas, as the case may be by getting your share of the eRate gift giving.