There are a lot of reasons why those trained as teachers make highly effective content marketers. Here is a list 15 reasons with short explanations.
- Teachers have to differentiate instruction in the classroom, so know how to differentiate content to produce for different audiences.
Any teacher worth their salt will tell you that it’s through approaching the same material in a variety of ways that allows for the greatest learning gains for their students. Visual aids, kinesthetic manipulation of symbolic objects and auditory engagement all should be used to obtain the highest possible learning gains. Great content marketers are able to determine how visual engagement through artifacts such as infographics, videos and graphics can synergistically be combined with text and audio to convey information pertinent to their buyers journey.
- Teachers have to repackage and repurpose materials for their lesson plans, so they know how to reuse content.
Teachers are faced with an ever-changing audience, and one lesson that might do great for a particular group of students may not be so effective for another. Recognizing the same is true for their publications, great content marketers will create material for a variety of different marketing personas.
- Teachers have to track student progress over time, so they know how to quantify progress for marketing,
Before students learn new material they use pre-assessment strategies in order to determine the depth to which certain material is already understood. Once they have determined a baseline, they are able to build upon that knowledge – a process known as scaffolding. Great content marketers recognize that not everyone is not at the same point on the buyers journey and is thus able to create a number of sign posts to help them get to their destination.
- Teachers have to document their daily and weekly lesson plans, so they know how to prepare work reports.
Managing a classroom is but one side of the coin of teaching. The other, lesson planning and record keeping often takes up nearly as much time as that spent with students. Through the latter component, teachers are able to document gains. Great content marketers do the same to share this information with clients.
- Teachers have to prepare multiple week lesson plans on various units of inquiry, so they know how to organize and enact a publishing schedule.
A good teacher knows that they can’t possibly achieve the most out of their classroom time unless every minute is accounted for with corresponding activity. Many teachers use formulas on the daily level – such as beginning of the class reviews the previous lesson plan, explanation of key words and concepts to be addressed that day, learning activities and end of class reflection – as well as on the unit level – such as pre-assessment strategies, lessons plans and formative tests. Great content marketers are able to create material that is valuable unto itself and that can also be an element of keystone content – longer form content that lowers PPC costs and helps to establish a business as a thought leader in the industry.
- Teachers have to give precise instructions to students lest uncertainty cause problems, so they know how to work well with other marketing staff.
Having to explain unclear directions or a test questions is both embarrassing and a waste of classroom time. Good teachers recognize how imprecise language can lead to confusion and consistently seek to avoid such situations from arising. Good marketers always keep their messages clear so that similar loss of productivity within a collaborative work environment doesn’t occur.
- Teachers have to come up with interesting ways to present their material lest students lose interest, so they know how to make compelling marketing content.
Having differentiated methods of teaching is certainly important, but without the initial student buy in teachers are fighting an uphill battle. Whether it is through a displaying an image that fascinates student’s attention or asking a provocative question, it is often the first few moments that determines whether classroom participation will be active or passive. Great content marketers know not only how to present information in a variety of manner but how to immediately gain the interests of various marketing personas and to hold it.
- Teachers have to stay abreast of current best practices, so are used to viewing work as a career requiring continuing education.
In order to maintain their status as certified teaching credentials, teachers must attend in-service training or take college level classes in order to stay abreast of the latest research-based best practices for teaching. Great content marketers must do the same sort of research in their field as changes in the manner in which search engines operate have and will continue to cause content markets to adjust their strategies and tactics.
- Teachers are savvy cultural consumers and disseminators, so they can apply this in creative endeavors to help build brand value.
Once brand awareness has been established, brand association is the most important factor that will create brand loyalty to consumers. Images, symbols, attributes and values associated with a brand – their use helps to elicit feelings within the customer beyond the fulfillment of their immediate need for a specific product or service. Teachers apply this knowledge in the creation of the educational guises that change based upon the composition and subject area content of their classes. Great content marketers are aware of this as well and exploit this via their marketing products.
- Teachers have to apply rubrics in the classroom to determine which methods work and which don’t, so they know how to apply the principles of A/B testing.
Teachers not only test their students, but test their tests in order to determine whether or not certain material they covered was effective at a statistical. If all students miss questions five through nine, for example, certain material was not presented in an appropriate manner and should be covered differently in the future. Great content marketers engage in the same practices in order to determine which aesthetic or message is most compelling.
- Teachers in humanities present content that is written at the grade level most Americans read at, so they know how to produce content that is not too complex for their readers.
Teachers that stop lecturing or a classroom discussion to explain a word lose their momentum. While teaching vocabulary is certainly an important component of teaching it must not be an activity that is unnecessarily frequent. Great content marketers write according to their audience’s reading abilities. While the level of content complexity will shift based upon the outlet for the content, they certainly know how to keep things single enough so rapport is established.
- Teachers have to stay professional when parents are dissatisfied with their child’s grades, so they know how to respectfully communicate with and manage the expectations of clients.
It’s commonly recognized among teachers that while parents once blamed their own children for their poor grades, they now seek to place blame on those that give them. Passive or active aggression has lead to many contracts to include clauses that allow teachers to have administration present when dealing with hostile parents. Great teachers, however, are able to defuse such situations in a way that they need not involve others. Over a long enough time frame even the greatest content marketers will too deal with such expressions of concern over failure as unlike with direct marketing, inbound marketing can sometimes take a longer period of time to see returns. Calmly explaining the situation, respectfully addressing any questions no matter how they are worded and reiterating that both parties desire the same things from the relationship can go a long way to maintaining client satisfaction.
- Teachers have to follow State and Federal Educational Standards, so can easily abide by the guidelines set by clients, search engines, news outlets and content platforms.
Teachers operate under an incredibly large number of regulations on the methods and goals informing their work. Adherence to them is often the difference between those that stay in the field and those that don’t have their contract renewed. Great content marketers are able to follow the explicit guidelines of their clients as well those set by the outlets that their content is hosted upon.
- Teachers are highly skilled in researching their subject area, so can apply these abilities to others areas for content development.
Teachers in the humanities transmit a variety of subject area content as well as critical thinking and communication skills. They also know how to find the information that they don’t know. Great content marketers do extensive research into the informational and promotional outlets of goods and services before they write their first piece and from this are able to produce better work and can see which content topics aren’t being addressed that could be useful to clients.
- Teachers know how to work in groups, so can bring that to a marketing team.
While teachers seek to create the greatest learning gains through their lesson plans, it’s sometimes the brief one-on-one contact that allows for students to obtain those “A-ha!” moments that will stick with them for the rest of their life. Great content marketers working together on a project don’t seek to compete with one another for recognition but to co-operate with one another on behalf of their client.
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If you are interested in learning about how the content marketer/teacher who wrote this can help out your business, please contact me!