Which version of John Smith would you want to talk to?
Which version of John Smith would you want to talk to?
In this blog, John looks at how to ensure you strike the right balance when adding the personal touch to your marketing to schools.
In this blog, John looks at how to ensure you strike the right balance when adding the personal touch to your marketing to schools.
I’ve always championed a highly personal approach to marketing, whether that’s when I’m creating marketing for Sprint Education or creating emails for our clients’ marketing to schools strategies.
People want to buy from real people, not faceless businesses. Therefore, I’ve always tried to ensure that the personalities of the Sprint Team are pushed right to the fore with our marketing.
But what sort of picture of myself am I looking to project to potential (or existing) clients?
Who is John Smith?
Am I the job role John Smith?
“John Smith, Lead Strategist at Sprint Education who has worked on 1500 digital marketing campaigns for clients since 2013 and specialises in planning and executing multi-channel education marketing strategies on behalf of our clients.”
Or am I the slightly humorous and eccentric John Smith?
“John Smith, perhaps the World’s biggest Columbo fanatic, an avid gardener despite the fact that everything he plants is dead by the following spring, and a passionate champion for the great British pub which he celebrates with his own online blog.”
Or could I be the experienced John Smith?
“John Smith joined Sprint Education in 2013 and worked as the lead copywriter for our clients’ campaigns until, after 2 years, his knowledge of how to captivate teachers became so encyclopedic that he became the go-to guy within the company for planning successful client strategies.”
Or perhaps even the ultra-personal John Smith?
“John Smith, lifelong resident of the sleepy Gloucestershire village of Bredon where he spends much of his time entertaining his three young nephews, and frequent traveler to the Spanish city of Valladolid where his fiancée, Beatriz lives.”
Which John Smith do you prefer?
Each of these short bios are true to life, but which one would make you most comfortable and excited to pick up the phone and speak to me?
It’s worth thinking about when looking at your own website or marketing assets because a teacher’s initial impressions of you will play a fundamental role in their decision to get in touch with you or not.
Therefore, it’s really important to consider what image of yourself you’re trying to project when writing the bio for your Meet the Team page, creating the introductory page of your brochure/free report, or adding the personal touch to a blog article or marketing campaign.
Which John Smith do I prefer?
In all honesty, I don’t think any of the examples above hit the right tone. When pushing myself (or any other member of the Sprint Team) into the spotlight, I’m really looking to strike a nice balance between the personal and the professional, and none of these do that particularly well.
It’s important to convey your experience and make sure teachers know why they should sit up and listen to what you have to say about your industry. However, you certainly don’t want to sound like a robot and adding a few personal details really helps to break down some of the barriers and make yourself seem approachable.
Likewise any industry jargon or tech-speak needs to come out so it doesn’t feel too highfalutin.
Aim for a mixture of the job role, the humorous, the experience, and the personal when projecting yourself through your marketing or website.
How about something like….
“John Smith, lifelong Columbo fanatic and playmate in chief to 3 young nephews, who joined Sprint Education as a copywriter but developed such an encyclopedic knowledge of marketing to schools that he became our lead strategist – managing over 1500 successful client strategies to date.”
This feels more like the right balance to me.
This is just a short bio of course. However, the ethos behind it can be incorporated into multiple areas of your marketing.
After all, we all love reading about other people and revealing just a few personal snippets about yourself can be quite engrossing for others while also making you seem more human.
So, take a look at your website and marketing. What does it really say about you and your team?
Tags
Emailing Teachers
How to Sell to Schools
Marketing to Schools
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