Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Have you overlooked a $520B industry?

5:36 PM | Posted by Wes Stalcup | | Edit Post

The Thorpdale Primary School was founded in 1889.Image via Wikipedia

I've mentioned in this blog and on twitter, the U.S. school districts face challenges similar to those of business. Of course there are differences, but the similarities are striking. Public schools in the U.S. are a $520B "industry". A district superintendent is equal to a CEO. Principals are Senior VP's. They all report to a board. They have customers, known as students and parents. There are shareholders, known as taxpayers. They have to deal with regulatory authorities, usually the state.

There is a great need, nationwide for public school districts to adopt well designed communications plans for their audience. Who is their audience? Again, it's the people who drive their results. It includes, but is not limited to: students, teachers, parents, those paying school taxes, community and state officials. Seem like a lot of different people. That's one level of complexity. What to communicate and how are others. Nearby you there is probably a district that could use some assistance in building a unified communications plan that leverages the best tools the internet has to offer.

Here's why...

Public schools district are funded (at least in Texas) with tax dollars. It's a fixed amount per student. So, the top line revenue is very predictable and you can't just create another product to grow. You can only grow the top line by getting more students.

In Texas, districts can sell bonds, which is debt. Many people assume if a district holds a bond election and it passes it, that it means a tax increase. It doesn't typically, unless the state has authorized the increase for all districts. If a tax increase is not authorized in parallel, the only way the bonds can be sold is for the tax base to increase, because the district is likely spending every authorized dollar. Tax base increase then only happens by local growth - new neighborhoods, businesses, etc. Bond money is often used to build facilities. The reason is simple: If that money were pulled from district operating funds it would impact salaries, supplies, etc. Often a bond election is only the authorization to sell bonds in the future when there is room under the cap.

In our area, constituents complain about the constant assessment testing or preparation for same. Turns out most schools would just as soon skip it and focus on teaching/learning in others ways with other metrics. Problem is that ratings are derived from test scores. Those ratings then influence people's decision whether to live here or there. If ratings drop so do move ins and thus revenue. So the schools have to do the testing.

I'll continue this topic with other complexities faced by public schools. By now, if you are a marketing person, a taxpayer or a parent you may be getting a sense of how there is more to it than you thought. If you missed the link on some school stats it's: http://tinyurl.com/school-dists there you can find U.S. stats for public schools from 2006-7. Check the numbers.

For almost every district, increased communications with their "results drivers" will no doubt lead to outputting a better "product" - educated, well balanced kids. More on this soon.

To learn more about applying technology to communications problems like this or your district, sign up for Grow! - The eCourse
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Wednesday, March 25, 2009

It's the same - only different

8:26 AM | Posted by Wes Stalcup | | Edit Post
Recently, I've had the chance to visit with business owners, a school district superintendent, a school board president, university leaders, church leaders, scouting leaders, Rotary club leaders and to look in the mirror.  

The challenge of growing or managing growth turns out to be pretty much the same for all of them and us.  Sure, there are often different constraints imposed by the type of organization.  

For example, an organization which relies heavily on state funds or tax dollars, may not have the luxury to add a new product to the portfolio to grow the top line.   Tough choices about programs are made within fixed budgets and the rationale needs to be communicated.  Perhaps bond programs need voter support.  

An organization which relies on donations needs it's members to either contribute directly or help drive the fund raising from donors.  Both the member and the external supporters need to value the output.  How are they kept up to date?

In government, the customer is the constituent and to stay in office, an elected official ultimately has to serve that audience.  How does that audience know they have been served?

A business needs not only it's customers but also it's employees to fuel the engine of growth.  Customers have to "know" they want & need the products in order to be motivated to buy them.  They have to know you even have products. How do they find out?  Employees have to agree on the strategies that produce the product.  Do they agree?

The questions are effectively the same.

All of those organizations also interact with a value web of suppliers, bankers, accountants, and community to name a few.  The only real way to grow is to build relationships with all these "target" markets.  Markets?  A term referring to a group.  A group of what?  um... That would be... people!  Individual persons.   At some point you need their "buy-in" to what you are doing - individually.  You need convey you expertise, your intention, your status, plans and more to secure that buy-in

 For centuries, a really good way to reach people has been, and still is, to get face-to-face.  A drawback to that approach are the limitations of time and space.  We all have the same hours in a day and can physically can only be in 1 place at any given moment. So it limits how many people you can reach.  A perhaps obvious solution (to some) is to use technology more efficiently to connect with people.  We've all become attached to our technology.  Even dependent. Addicted?  You know who you are. ;-)  These attachments are the way for your organization to find people - internal or external - where they are.   It won't be the same for everyone.  The way to reach one person, may not work for another.  Your message may not play well in all mediums.

You know what? Nearly every organization I've encountered are under utilizing and missing the leverage of the power of technology available to them.  We really need to fix that.

That's why you need to build an interconnected network of your own to communicate your results, your expertise and relevant things about your organization.    

The 30 second formula is this:  I recommend websites serve as hubs.  Then use email, blogs and social networking tools such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.  These - when all connected and cross linked - can serve as an organic growth engine. Then layer on affiliates, Pay per click, auctions, classifieds and other advertising approaches as appropriate for your organization.   Chapter 2 of "Grow! - The eCourse" starts to look at websites - from very basics to the activity around them.  Other elements are covered in later chapters.  

Wes.


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Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Luck of the Irish?

11:36 PM | Posted by Wes Stalcup | | Edit Post
Tis St. Paddy's day. It's been a busy few days preparing to take a couple of days off with family. It's "sproing" break. Of significance on the Grow! side of things is completion of the first chapter of "Grow! - the eCourse" and staging of a new email campaign via Aweber to handle subscriptions and sending out the eCourse - automatically. I love that service. and blogger too. We are lucky and blessed to have such tools at our disposal.

To learn how you can use these or others, check out "Grow! - the eCourse" by signing up at TTXW You don't even have to be Irish!

All though you'll feel more lucky if you are. and yes, I'm at least 1/4 Irish, 1/4 Scot. We're not 100% sure about the Stalcup line. The story is Swedish
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Saturday, March 14, 2009

It's a lot like fishing...

11:13 AM | Posted by Wes Stalcup | | Edit Post
The other day, I was privileged to give a short talk to my Rotary Club. The group consists of mostly local business owners and community organizations. The topic was, of course, growth. More specifically the idea of using some of the plethora of internet tools available to us all to get our expertise and message in front of as many people as possible to maintain and grow our organization.

I showed a new concept diagram I am working up, which perhaps I will call the wheel of growth... or maybe the circle of growth. I'll share it here soon. Anyway, by using all the tools in concert, the odds a gaining Share of Mind (SOM) with your target market or audience go up dramatically. Now in internet marketing circles, that is fairly common practice. However in more traditional spaces - most non-web based organizations - it is not as widely applied. That's who my company, TTXW, INC, is helping.

The next morning I got up early and decided to watch some fishing shows. Watching fishing shows is not a regular occurrence - it a sometimes thing. I was actually looking for some of the old farm shows that used to be on. Finding none any more and with spring break next week and the prospects of taking the kids fishing - some fishing motivation seemed like a excellent choice. My 2nd grade daughter joined me, so even better.

What I saw was enlightening. A lot was explained about fishing and my results, but more relevant to this blog on growth, is a new simile I now have to compare the message from the recent talk with fishing.

The show followed two professional bass anglers during a full day of fishing on lake that was new to them. Each fished alone in their own boat. It compared their style, lure choice, location choice, etc and results.

Here is the first lesson - this explains a lot about my past bass fishing success (or lack thereof) - each man cast their lures into the water an average of 144 times per fish landed. I've never seen these kinds of stats before. Think about the implication. I've always thought if I didn't catch anything in 20-30 casts there weren't fish there or they weren't biting. If someone had told me you have to present the bait a lot more times, it might have helped all these years. Now in sales, we all sort of recognize you need leads to convert and conversion rates are only a small percentage in most cases. But, maybe you need 5-7x more than you think to grow.

The second lesson was found in the two different approaches to the task. Both these guys have made considerable money fishing and are well sponsored as proof. Both are knowledgeable guys when it come to fishing. This day, one guy did a quick study of the maps, found some areas that fit his style and beliefs about bass behavior, went to those spots and went fishing. The other, looked at the maps and also spent time studying his "electronics" - i.e. used sonar and gps to profile the underwater structure, look for schools of fish, and so on. He actually spent A LOT of time doing this. By midday, he was way behind on casts and fish. It looked like a case of spending to much time "fixin' to fish" versus "just get fishin". You've heard the saying "fish or cut bait"? I have a friend who likes to say, "perfection is the enemy of good enough" In this case, putting the bait in the water was answering more questions and producing more results than continued detailed analysis did.

At the end of the day... the deep detailed analyst had cast less than 400 times and caught 3 fish weighing a total of 5-6 lbs. The other guy had cast over 1000 times and caught 6 fish weighing a total of 15-16 lbs. A bit more than 2X the casts, 3X the results (weight-wise)

The takeaways seem pretty clear to me.

The simile is this... put your expertise/value in front of more & more people and catch more growth. Use as many ways as you can find to cast your lure.

Don't forget a key advantage you have over a solo fisherman. You can put a lot of lines in the water at one time AND point your market back & forth between the lines - letting them choose their favorite. Much of what you try may not work. That's OK. Some will. Just get fishin'.

I'll be back to look at some of the ways you can put more lines in the water. From basics on through to the latest... website/email, newsletters, blogs, social networking (huge opportunity here), affiliates/referrals, paid ads and more.

My Best,
Wes.




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