Part two: directory publishing
Yesterday in this series of articles on the way that some firms aim to trick companies that want to advertise to schools, I mentioned the approach that focuses on a change in government legislation. The argument was the government is changing the rules on how you can advertise to schools, so
if you are not part of the new service, no one will see your web site.
In this piece I want to turn to a different topic all together: directory advertising and its associated issue, sponsored articles in once a year journals.
Every industry has directories, and education is no different – and there is nothing wrong with directories.
But the questions we must always ask are
a) Are the directories paid for or sent out for free
b) If paid for where was the directory advertised last year
c) If for free, how are they distributed? What warehouse is used?
d) Is this the first year? If not, can I have a copy of last year’s?
The point is that if you start asking questions like these you are either going to be given no information at all, or else you are going to get answers which lead nowhere. And if you do get a set of good answers and the directory or reference book looks genuine, you can then go and ask a few schools if they use the book. (If fact if you are totally bemused let me know and I might be able to explore the matter for you.)
There’s also the issue of logic. Why will a teacher use this book? If it is to find products or services then the question is, where is the book kept? If one copy is sent to a school free of charge, how does an individual head of department go and get it and look at it
And come to that, would that person bother? The average head of department receives product material through the post and via email, and is aware of sites such as our own www.top5.org.uk which lists a lot of suppliers of different subjects. What’s more it is not beyond the wit of any teacher to go to Google or Bing and type in whatever it is that the person is looking for.
The con of course can be that hardly any copies are printed, and very few are distributed, so the money is wasted. If you think you are looking at a genuine journal or reference book or directory, there should be a lot of entries from many people (including teachers) on the internet, not just those under the company name.
In short I would say, look for a long established publication, try to get support to show that the directory is published, and most of all, get a copy of last year’s edition and ask yourself “would a teacher ever use this?”
This is the second in this series – the first article appeared at http://www.blog.educationmarketing.org.uk/2010/07/26/selling-into-schools-all-the-con-tricks/