PR Mama: Marketing to Go! September 2006
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In This Issue
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PR Mama Perspective: Understanding the Homeschool Market
I am a homeschool mom. I am a homeschool support group leader. I work for a homeschool magazine. I'm around a LOT of homeschoolers. Although homeschoolers are very diverse, we do share quite a bit of common ground. Most of us are totally crazy about our kids and enjoy spending time with them. Most of us laugh at the notion that our kids are missing out on anything by not being in public school. And most of us value our children's innocence and reap the benefits of that.
This week, however, I've come across a couple of people that I realized just totally didn't "get" homeschooling. One was a local person that we invited to speak to our homeschool group about some activities that she thought our kids might enjoy. She lost most of her audience when she talked about having social workers available for counseling on how to get through the rocky teenage years and educating our children and ourselves about drug use. Most homeschoolers prefer to shy away from social workers and government involvement rather than looking to them for help.
Another was a table magician that approached us at a restaurant as we were dining with another homeschool family. His sense of humor would have fit right in with the usual primetime viewing audience, but we would have preferred his routine without the subtle drug references and innuendo. Maybe he thought he had toned things down for our crowd, but I was left thinking, "Surely those things weren't for the kids. Did he think he needed to toss in a little spice for the adults there? Wrong audience, pal."
As homeschooling gains attention, many companies will jump in and try to get a piece of the pie--whether they are genuinely interested in homeschooling or not. While they may see homeschooling as merely an educational alternative to the Christian homeschool market, homeschooling is so much more. The companies that will succeed are the ones who truly understand homeschoolers and homeschooling itself.
Now, let's get down to business.
Nancy Carter, Editor
PR Mama: Marketing to Go!
Changes Coming! Be the First to Hear the News!
As our PR Mama readership has grown and we've begun talking to more and more people about marketing to homeschoolers, we keep hearing one question, "Why do you call it PR Mama?" Well, the short answer is that "PR Mama" was a nickname Gena gave our Public Relations Director back when we were first getting our marketing team going. However, the name doesn't seem to fit us quite right. Our newsletter isn't JUST about Public Relations, and we don't want people to think that it's only for mamas either.
So we're working on a name change. Next month be on the lookout for our e-Newsletter title to be The Homeschool Marketer. That's really what we're all about--marketing to homeschoolers. We'll be freshening things up on our blog and looking for even more great information to share with you. It's going to be great!
Market Research on a Home Business Budget By Danielle Chonody
Market research is the process of learning what consumers want, quantifying the size of the market, discovering the number and nature of the competitors, and finding collaborators or organizations that exist in the market that are interested in your success.
In the life of your business, there will be many critical points at which you'll want to take the time to research your market, but the two most important times are:
1) before you start a new business, and
2) when launching a new product or service
At both of these times, you need to discover whether your business idea or concept (or your new product or service) fulfills an unmet need of consumers and also whether there are enough potential consumers of your product or service to allow you to make your revenue targets.
To ensure that you get the best results from your market research efforts, you should decide upfront what information would prompt you to (a) go ahead with your idea, (b) fine-tune it, or (c) take it back to the drawing board.
Some questions to get you thinking are:
- Who are my customers and potential customers?
- What kind of people are they?
- Where do they live?
- Can and will they buy?
- Am I offering the kinds of goods or services they want--at the best place, at the best time, and in the right amounts?
- Are my prices consistent with what buyers view as the product's value?
- Are my promotional programs working?
- What do customers think of my business?
- How does my business compare with my competitors?
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So how do we find this information? As home business owners, most of us don't have the budget to hire a consulting firm to prepare a market research report, but there are many other ways to research the market ourselves.
- The Internet is a goldmine of free information. You can find a wealth of facts and figures in various industry directories, government abstracts, and other reference guides. The major search engines are a good place to start searching for useful sites. There are also several government sites that collect statistical information:
US Census bureau: http://www.census.gov/
Department of Labor Statistics: http://stats.bls.gov/
Office of Economic Research: http://www.sba.gov/advo/research/
Federal Agency Statistics: http://www.fedstats.gov/
- Conduct your own survey by speaking directly to customers, prospects, friends, and family.
- Visit your local public library to search periodicals and reference texts.
- Find industry associations related to your business.
- Visit your local Chamber of Commerce to pick up business directories and other local statistics such as population, median income, home prices, etc.
- Scan through the Yellow Pages directory to find out if there are large numbers of similar businesses already in the area. If there are, this means you have competition, but it also means that your product or service has high demand in your area.
- Become a customer of the competition by shopping there yourself or enlisting the help of a friend.
- Look at the advertising and websites of similar local businesses to see what types of services they are offering and their prices.
When you are examining the market, don't forget to keep an eye out for gaps, or consumer needs that are not being met by competitors, as these are opportunities for you to add a product or service to your business that will differentiate you from the competition.
It may be laborious at first to research the market thoroughly, but once you have this information, you can use it to make business plans, formulate advertising strategies, and select the best networking groups. In the end, good upfront market research will help to eliminate wasted time or unfocused business activities.
Danielle Chonody is a successful home business owner and entrepreneur. Her FREE business-building e-zine provides marketing, management, and motivational tips for small business owners and business opportunity seekers. Sign up for your copy at http://www.homebizhow-to.com and receive her FREE special report "25 Low Cost Marketing Ideas to Explode Your Business".
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The Trivium Pursuit Story By Laurie Bluedorn
Thank you, Old Schoolhouse Magazine, for allowing us to tell your readers about how our family launched a book writing and publishing business.
It was shortly after our first child was born in 1975 that we latched onto the idea of homeschooling. After some investigation, we began with a formal homeschool curriculum in 1980. Four children later, in 1989, the Iowa homeschool association asked us to speak at their convention and to give seminars on teaching the subjects of classical education: Latin, Greek, and logic. We decided to rent a booth in their exhibit hall, so we wrote up a small catalog and sold a few Latin and logic books. Shortly after, Harvey published his "Greek Alphabetarion" and continued to test and revise "Homeschool Greek", which we published in the early 90s. About the same time we published "Vocabulary Bridges from English to Latin and Greek" and "Handy English Encoder Decoder", which we have revised several times.
Each year during the spring and fall we would travel extensively, speaking at numerous support groups and homeschool conventions (in 44 states total), and during the winter months we would write books and curricula, including a periodical on classical education applied to homeschooling. In 2001 we published "Teaching the Trivium", which was the compilation of twenty years of experience, seminar notes, articles, and correspondence. We followed this with "Ancient History from Primary Sources" in 2003 and "A Greek Hupogrammon" in 2005.
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Sometime in the mid 90s, I assigned Johannah (our oldest daughter) the task of making a little book about the Greek alphabet, using calligraphy and her own style of illustrations. She has now published several other children's picture books. In 2002 our two sons published their first book, "The Fallacy Detective", followed in 2005 by "The Thinking Toolbox". Lord willing, our daughter Helena is producing her first full-color illustrated book this year-- "Little Bitty Baby Learns the Alphabet".
Our business has been an extension of our homeschooling. What we learned we wrote about in order to help others to learn. We encouraged our children in the areas in which they excelled and helped them with the task of producing tangible items which they could later market. Our initial products were simple and rough, but as talents have matured and various skills have sharpened, so have our products (we hope).
One warning to young parents who would like to start a home business: Don't allow homeschooling to take a back seat. It is too easy for the mother to become so involved in the day-to-day details of the business that it saps the energies she needs to be a good wife and mother. The husband needs to carry the business, and the children can be involved in the business as they are able. We have seen many home businesses so absorb the time and energies of the mother that the parents end up putting the kids into a classroom school.
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We would encourage entrepreneurial-minded families to consider self-publishing the books or curricula they produce. With the development of the Internet over the past ten years, self-publishing has become not only possible, but altogether the publishing method of choice--and it is especially suited to homeschooling families. Dad, Mom, and kids can share the duties. Writing, illustrating, editing, manufacturing, storage, marketing, and order fulfillment can all be done right at home, as skills develop.
The marketing aspect of self-publishing has become particularly easier with the Internet. Ten years ago when we had a book written and printed and ready to sell, our marketing avenues were limited to advertisements in homeschooling magazines or to the lecture circuit. Those were hard years--traveling many thousands of miles and speaking at support groups and homeschool conventions. Today, your "marketing package" will still include speaking engagements, but that will only be a small part. Blogging, gathering reviews, e-letters, a variety of advertising options, Amazon, and much more will make up the modern marketing plan of any self-publisher. We encourage you to join the 350 self-publishers in the Christian Self-Publishing Yahoo Group, where you can learn all the ins-and-outs of modern marketing.
Product Review By Nancy Carter
"Your Guide to Marketing Books in the Christian Marketplace"
by Sarah Bolme
Crest Publications
PO Box 481022
Charlotte, NC 28269
704-277-7194
www.crestpub.com
info@crestpub.com
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Packed with up-to-date, practical advice, Your Guide to Marketing Books in the Christian Marketplace is an absolutely wonderful resource for authors or aspiring authors. The author, Sarah Bolme, co-founder and director of the Christian Small Publishers Association, gives a great overview of the Christian marketplace with specific resources for promoting in our unique market.
For most writers, the writing is the easy part. It's figuring out how to market their books that gives cause for pause. What's wonderful about this book is that it hones right in on the Christian niche market! It gives information on everything from getting involved in various publishing/writing associations to finding a distributor, announcing your book and getting reviews, pursuing book awards, and reaching Christian bookstores.
Writers will appreciate the contact information available in the Connect with Churches and Access Christian Consumers chapters. It will save you so much legwork. Tips are given about how to harness the power of the Internet (I'll give you a hint. I'm not the only one encouraging you to have a blog!), dealing with overstocks, the homeschool market, e-books, and even Spanish books.
Priced at $17.99, Mrs. Bolme's book will pay for itself time and time again as it equips you to market your product to the growing Christian marketplace. This would be the first book I would recommend to aspiring Christian or homeschool authors.
Review by Nancy Carter, Public Relations Manager, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, LLC
"In this business, you can never wash the dinner dishes and say they are done.
You have to keep doing them constantly."
-- Mary Wells Lawrence, advertising legend
Should I Buy Advertising? By Mari Almon
"Can you tell me how much traffic my ad will get if I buy this advertising?"
I get this question a LOT! These words are usually followed by something similar to "I don't want to waste my money. After all, we have a limited budget." or "We are developing new products this year and need to use our money wisely. We just aren't sure if we should advertise." Concerned business owners want to do what is best for their company. They all want their product or service to succeed in the marketplace. My answer is always the same: "No, I can't tell you how much traffic you will receive directly from this ad, BUT I can tell you exactly how much traffic you'll get if you don't buy advertising." I don't say this to be disrespectful, but this is true anywhere you go. What you put in, you get back out.
Your market has got to see your product name and logo or picture OFTEN before your product can succeed in the marketplace.
Only after repeated viewing will consumers consider whether they have a need for your product and whether your product or service is a real purchase option. Advertising should be thought of as essential, not optional.
Great advertising is much more than placing a single ad in a magazine and then waiting to see what happens. Without continuous advertising, your product or service may experience small spurts of growth, but it won't experience any significant growth. Make it your goal to get your product in front of as many people in your niche market as you can for as long as you can. Continuous advertising of a quality product or service will yield exponential growth over time.
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Pick the best advertising you can afford.
Who's going to represent your product the best? Whom do you want to align your business with? How many people in your market will be reached? Try to avoid purchasing by the issue, month, or quarter. Avoid purchasing advertising just because it's "cheap." This is the single most important investment you will make. Consider one-year prices; generally they are discounted. Make it a point to pay for the advertising up front so that you can take advantage of all the discounts and freebies associated with one-year ads. You'll be happy you did. The size of your ad is not nearly as important as the consistency with which you keep it in front of your market. You can bet the competition will advertise year-round. You should too.
Get out there and educate your market!
Once you've purchased your one-year block in print or Web (or both) in the places you consider to be the best exposure for your product or service, here are some great ways to complement and maximize your advertising investment dollars. First, get out there and educate your market! Run a couple of well-written educational articles anywhere and everywhere you can get them placed. Describe the need (higher scores in math or science, special needs, college savings plan) and then go on to describe how your product meets this need better than anyone else's. Send out press releases. You might even consider blogging to get people dialoguing with you. Take the opportunity to network through support groups pertinent to your product, both on and offline. Teach classes in the community to get your product or service in the spotlight. Network through clubs and associations and conventions. Your local TV and radio stations may want to interview you--let them know you are available. Think nationally as well as locally. If you want a big business, treat it like it's big. Soon it will be!
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Out of Sight -- Out of Mind
Think about McDonald's--they STILL advertise, right? If you, as a perspective buyer of fast food, were to see too many other great choices apart from McDonald's, you might consider going somewhere else, even though there's still a McDonald's on just about every corner.
You want to think long-term about advertising. You want sales every day! You wanted sales yesterday, you'll want them today, and again tomorrow, and way into the future. The products you sell in the future must be promoted today. If you fail to keep your product or service in front of people, they will forget about you and shift their attention to some other product or service. People may even think you went out of business. The old cliché is true: What is out of sight IS out of mind.
Mari Almon provides sales & advertising support for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. She and her husband Steve live in Marietta, Georgia, with their two children--Jon, age 17, who is currently homeschooling, and Liz, a homeschool graduate. You can contact Mari at MAlmon@TheHomeschoolMagazine.com
Remember to email me at PRMama@TheHomeschoolMagazine.com with your suggestions for upcoming issues or to have your company highlighted. We hope that we've helped to equip and encourage you. Be sure to visit us online at www.HomeschoolBlogger.com/PR Mama, and we'll see you in your inbox next month!
Have you enjoyed this issue of the newsletter? If so, you'll want to take a look at all of the free e-Newsletters TOS offers to guide and encourage you during your homeschooling journey. Be sure to stop in to see which ones are best for you and your family! Click here for more information: www.TheHomeschoolMagazine.com/devotional_door/subscribe.php
You may forward this e-Newsletter to your friends in its entirety.
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