So you want to jump into the EdTech market\arena. Godspeed! EdTech is a growing space with ample opportunity and countless challenges. Learners and organizations around the world are on a restless hunt for solutions to challenges big and small. It sounds promising, and it is. For the most part. As more entrepreneurs jump in, a bit of inevitable chaos and noise puts tidy strategies at risk. Only a clear grasp on your brand, your message, and above all, your value proposition, can help you chart a course across the tides and stormy weathers.

Complexity is inevitable. But not necessarily a cause for
failure.

Here are some of the issues young entrepreneurs, and a few veterans who’ve fallen prey to the inertia, tend to overlook when venturing into the digital marketing arena. Find a unique response to them, and you just might have stroke gold.

Measure, measure, measure

I have to begin with this one because it is a perennial paint point of mine and many. I keep on my years-long search for a centralized dashboard. One that allows me to track operational, learning and financial data, all in the same place. A man can dream: I want to be able to make correlations and estimate benefits, cost reductions, or a random scenario.

Will I have to settle for an enterprise-level Business Intelligence system?

What I definitely should not do, nor you, is to use that as an excuse not to keep track of what’s going on in learning. That goes for the business side as well. Every new consulting project includes, at the very least:

While I keep on looking for my dream dashboard, I am not beneath dusting off my spreadsheet skills. It is, after all, the one place I can actually merge multiple sources of data and play around with summaries, correlations and visualizations. You might have more fun than you would expect playing with Excel scenarios!

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Mind your benefit-per-dollar advertising

It is one of many common traps for ambitious innovators. And unfortunately, one with no easy answers. You do need to spend some time and money in promoting your product. You do need to find a “sweet spot” in timing: Too early and you risk coming off as amateur or unprofessional; too late and you risk building a product dissociated from their real users.

And above all, you do need to keep an eye on costs, as
studies show advertising spending too easily follows the herd rather than the
pot of gold. If you failed to get a basic graps on your metrics (see previous
section), chances are you end up following everyone else mistakenly thinking
that’s what works. When in reality, there’s several reasons why it might not:

Don’t pitch your tech, pitch your understanding

Whether you create proprietary or open source software, the core rules of engagement in today’s digital world are more or less the same. Apps and cloud-based software have taught us to expect continuous improvements and new features.

Be careful, though. I’ve become painfully aware of how certain words, including “features” and “improvements,” pop up indiscriminately across websites and landing pages. It’s taken me to automatically suspect and ask: Improvement how? Their tech could be top notch, but are they really making things better in a way that benefits me? (*cough*) So your tech is Free and Open Source, what’s in it for me whether you are going to GNU heaven? As a believer in unabashed openness, I’m also painfully aware of the inordinate presence of holier-than-thou attitudes in the community, which only succeed at turning people away from our core values.

As a rule of thumb: Build Open Source to get your message
across. By which I mean: The message you want to send.

I still have many unanswered questions about open source, especially from an economist perspective. But I know the most valuable tool is that which is, you know, put to use. And there is few better ways to put tools in the hands of people than engaging in their community. I will not always benefit directly from the value generated by my work on the Open Source movement and technologies, and that is alright.

Don’t fall asleep on steady water

We have entered an age of trending buzzwords. It is an art
to be able to tell, let alone benefit from, the flurry of terms and ideas that
fill everyone’s feeds and inboxes. Remaining on top of the conversation while
staying true to your core values is a matter of fine-tuning your message, your
risk appetite, and your ability to leverage technological quality to address
short-term.

Feel welcome to veer into the darkness of content marketing, but get ahold of a star map:

Network your way out of paid traffic

Paying to put your ads on top of people’s feeds can be an equally positive and perilous effort. Many of the reasons why are related to the issue before. Before we summarize, let’s make sure there is at least one clear takeaway: Always deliver value. From the first interaction with your potential customer all the way through, make sure your message, and later on your technology, generously reflect your experience and insight.

By all means spend to your heart’s content on ads and show up on top of people’s feeds. But:

We want to hear from you. How is your 2019 Digital\Content Marketing strategy? We’d love to help, or feature you in an article! Reach out at any time.