Charlene Blohm, President & CEO of C. Blohm & Associates (CBA), is a PR, marketing, and sales specialist who has worked with education brands for over 30 years. She sits down with Elana, CEO of Leoni Consulting Group, and provides best practices for branding, PR, content marketing, earned and paid media, and much more. While it's challenging to summarize such a nuanced topic with so many moving parts, we hope that the following highlights give you a taste of this specialized and necessary piece of the engine that drives the EdTech market.
Schools And School Systems Are A Unique Market
Charlene specializes in B2E (business to education) which uniquely addresses, among other things, school district purchasing, the academic year's rhythm, and the relationships between teachers and administrators. For example, consider the audience for your EdTech marketing efforts:
"There's a committee of people who make decisions. Your brand has to be resonant with teachers as well as the administrators to sign the purchase orders. You can't have one audience and not the other. You have to make sure that everybody can approach, understand, and embrace your brand."
For the education sector, Charlene suggests that content marketing is at least as important as more traditional PR:
"Content marketing is about identifying, creating, and sharing assets that help address problems, hit on those needs that the marketplace has, and then create interest in your company's product."
Additionally, keep in mind that even though they're not making the purchase, students are the ultimate end users.
"I would say that being loved by teachers, that's important, but it's not as critical as the academic performance piece. Think about how your brand can deliver."
Identifying And Generating Stories Are Both Parts Of Branding
Because authenticity is so critical in successful B2E marketing, understand the roles that earned media and paid media can play in your strategy. Charlene explains:
"Earned media is when you take a piece of information that's timely, significant, and relevant, that's something that you want to share with the market."
In other words, your product or service is already part of a story that educators will care about, and you're shining a spotlight on it.
"Paid media is about getting your phraseology, your company information out and posted in an article that you control. Sometimes it's called native advertising. You still have to write within the parameters."
Charlene adds that paid media, while overtly promotional, must be unique to whatever outlet is carrying it, rather than lifted directly from your web page or brochure.
The relationship between these two practices isn't either/or. Earned and paid media, effectively used, are both critical parts of raising awareness and driving traffic.
How Did Your Marketing Initiative Perform?
In B2E, as with any marketing model, we need a framework for measuring our strategies' effectiveness. Charlene offers three ways to look at key performance indicators (KPIs): output, outcomes, and business results.
"An output on a PR program could simply be: how many pitches went out the door? Were they personalized? If you can get 10-15 out in a month, you're probably doing really good. Your output could be a news release, a statement about something that's happening in the industry. How many journalists did you engage? How many interviews were completed as a number that you're counting?"
"Outcome is not just the quantity of coverage, it's also the quality of the coverage. Is there a key message alignment? Have you media-trained your executives so that when they do the interviews they are delivering the key message? Sometimes it's about the relevancy to your audience. Did it have an SEO impact? How many leads did you get out of it? More established companies should definitely be looking for net promoter scores."
"On the business results, it's about leads that have been converted, satisfaction, retention, renewal, and money. How much of what did you sell to whom? We all have goals that we're trying to meet, and how did the brand awareness of the public relations channel push people into the next piece of their decision-making pie to know that in the end, we got the actual revenue?"
This is challenging yet rewarding work. Done right, it can make all the difference for EdTech companies and the schools and students they serve.
Here's the full transcript of Charlene’s podcast episode.
What We Talked About
Use this to jump to parts of the conversation you want to listen to more closely.
[00:51] Introducing Charlene Blohm
[05:10] Branding and efficacy for EdTech vendors
"If you can show to an administrator that you have an appreciation for the big picture priorities that they have, that you're solving their needs, your brand is going to do so much better."
[16:01] Earned vs. paid media
[20:14] Practical examples of earned and paid media, and how to leverage it
[25:18] Content marketing: what it is and why it's important
[33:00] Content marketing vs. PR
[37:32] Key performance indicators (KPIs)
"You can have a great interview with an administrator, but it misses and it's in some outlet that's more about parents, and that's a mismatch. You want to make sure you've got relevancy to your audience."
[47:58] Elana sums up the conversation
[49:59] Charlene praises and encourages teachers at a difficult time
[52:36] What’s inspiring Charlene
[58:12] How people can get in touch with Charlene
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
B2E Materials From CB&A
Five Keys to Cutting Through the Noise in the Education Market, Charlene shares CB&A's guide to B2E marketing best practices
Education Content Marketing Checklist, Charlene shares CB&A's eight steps to creating highly compelling content that meets your B2E marketing goals
2022 Education Marketing Trends & Insights, Charlene shares CB&A's report on the current state of the B2E market
Industry Terms
PESO Model (paid, earned, shared, and owned model), Charlene introduces this acronym when discussing the differences between paid and earned media
Recommended Media
Strategy-Making in Turbulent Times, the Harvard Business Review article inspiring Charlene right now
Free Agent Learning: Leveraging Students' Self-Directed Learning to Transform K-12 Education by Julie A. Evans, a new book that Charlene is eager to read
Data, Evaluation, and Impact in EdTech: A Conversation with Jason Torres Altman, Elana refers to this LCG podcast when discussing efficacy studies and evaluation
For All Mankind, an Apple TV+ Series inspiring Charlene right now
All Things Charlene Blohm
Elana Leoni, Host
Elana Leoni has dedicated the majority of her career to improving K-12 education. Prior to founding LCG, she spent eight years leading the marketing and community strategy for the George Lucas Educational Foundation where she grew Edutopia’s social media presence exponentially to reach over 20 million education change-makers every month.
Charlene Blohm, Guest
Charlene Blohm, President & CEO of C. Blohm & Associates (CB&A) knows how to take businesses to the next level. Since founding CB&A in 1991, she has partnered with organizations of every stripe to deliver bottom-line value. From early-stage Davids to multinational Goliaths, she has a knack for seeing what others often overlook. Charlene has earned accolades individually and on behalf of the agency, and she’s a frequent guest speaker on all things marketing, PR, and sales in the business-to-education (B2E) arena. Her know-how in journalism, public relations, strategy, and content development established strong networks that she continues to cultivate. Charlene and the CB&A team host the monthly Expert Series of webinars to share B2E knowledge and insights with the education industry at large. In addition, she operates the monthly Ed Industry Chat and is a founding member of the Education Technology Advisory Group. She’s written, contributed to, or published more than a dozen books for the EdTech market. On summer weekends, you’ll find Charlene paddling a canoe or peddling a bike.
About All Things Marketing and Education
What if marketing was judged solely by the level of value it brings to its audience? Welcome to All Things Marketing and Education, a podcast that lives at the intersection of marketing and you guessed it, education. Each week, Elana Leoni, CEO of Leoni Consulting Group, highlights innovative social media marketing, community-building, and content marketing strategies that can significantly increase reach, relationships, and revenue.
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