This week my students were introduced to the principles of inbound marketing, and in this domain, CONTENT IS KING! Therefore, this first week is spent teaching them about inbound marketing and their project. Through this process, I help them conceptualize the need for inbound marketing, since most business aren’t currently deploying this strategy (like we discussed in last week’s post).
Additionally, I help them start thinking about what they want to create for their individualized project this semester. This project is so much better for students if they complete it on their own, rather than in groups. This way they learn the whole process, rather than just parts of inbound marketing. I have had tremendous feedback on the individualization of this project. First, because they have so many other group projects in every other class, they are just tired of working with lazy group members. But most importantly, they have their own functional asset at the end of the course. Yes, they EACH leave with a fully functional online asset, complete with website, SEO keywording, social media channels, an email campaign, a functional CRM database, and a sweet LinkedIn certification with evidentiary portfolio available to future employers. What is so cool about this project is our website retention rate, that is, 90% of students are keeping their websites active through the first year and 50% through three years post-completion of the course. These numbers and qualitative feedback indicate they are proud of what they are creating and are using this asset to demonstrate their learned skills to land internships and jobs after the course.
In this first week however, students realize they do not have a product or service to actually sell in this class, which is why I get them thinking about a content area the first week of class. Since all of them will be building their own website, developing their own content, and sharing this content through social media and email marketing channels, they must quickly become thought leaders in their chosen topic. I suggest that they start working through ideas for which they already most familiar. I ask them questions like “what do your friends ask you advice about?” or “what are you truly passionate about?” I also suggest that this would be a good opportunity to start the pre-launch of a business idea they may want to monetize in the future. Since they are going to be creating and curating content for eight weeks of the semester, they better know the topic thoroughly, or they will be spending as much time learning content as they will be writing content. If they choose something they are already passionate about, then the content creation and curation process will be much less time consuming and much more enjoyable.
Learn more about our live practicum by visiting our demo.
0 Comments