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Marketing Monday: Motivation

As you know, business can be cyclical.  Depending on the main focus of your company's efforts, the amount of effort put out and the income generated by it can vary throughout the year.  Those of you who provide products and resources, such as curriculum, to the education market, have seen this in action.  Frequently based on the cycles of the traditional school year, business can go up near the end of the summer and the end of the calendar year, when teachers gear up for the new school year, and when they step back to review the first portion of the year and prepare for the second, over the holidays.

 

While homeschoolers are not bound as tightly by the traditional school year, it is still prevalent to market to these cycles.  "Burn out" appears to happen easily during December, and this time can often be the peak season to try to reflect on the past few months' schooling and attempt to change direction or adjust for the upcoming months' work.  Remaining motivated is a task that each teacher and business person is charged with, in order to best benefit the students and company, respectively.

 

Add to this that the home educator will often use gift-giving occassions as a time to make purchases that are not only fun but educational, and you can see where this cycle remains in effect.  Being a homeschooler myself, I'm acquainted with plenty of folks who use Christmas gift-giving as an opportunity to justify stretching the budget a bit for that educational toy or game versus "plain old textbooks".  (Okay, so I did it myself!)

 

These cycles lead to an opportunity for the homeschool marketer.  Helping parents remain motivated, or lifting them up by helping them get motivated again to face the rest of the school year, can be a daunting but fulfilling task.  If you are just dipping your "toes" into the marketplace that is homeschooling, don't lose sight of the main star...supporting and encouraging the community you are joining.  Home educators are parents first and foremost, no matter whether they work as professional educators, business people, or homemakers.  Remember why they do what they do, and take the time to reflect on it yourself.  By placing their families first, they strive to provide an excellent education and a quality family experience. 

 

By helping to motivate them, and by remaining motivated yourself through the cycles of the educational business, you will provide excellent customer service and hopefully receive the referrals and business profits that come of it.  There is no better feeling than that customer comment that rolls in saying, "You (or your company) always seem to know just what product/seminar/lesson I need at just the right time.  Thank you!"

 

Take the time to learn the cycles and prepare for them, whether by bulking up on fulfillment staff during the holidays and the school year rushes, or by sending out encouraging notes mid-year with each order.  It can, and will, come back to you.

 

 

~Melonie Murray

Director of Public Relations

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, LLC

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