Let’s Talk Website Strategy: Should You Be Building A Website … A Podcast … Or An Educational Brand?

For many teachers, the arrival of warmer weather brings thoughts of the summertime.  We begin to think about how we can work on our websites for summer conferences and presentations.  With these thoughts comes several major decisions:

• Should we update our website or start over complete?
• Am I creating a website for my blog or am I creating a website to promote my resume?
• What is the first thing I should be doing once I make my decision?

Today, we are going to be taking a look at not just your online presence but your entire website strategy.

So …. first let's ask the question; Do you HAVE a website strategy?

In our last two posts, we learned how to create an Avatar and come up with a focused content strategy based on the needs of your Avatar.

Today we are going to talk about your Website Strategy. Sit back … this could be the start of a great adventure!

What is a Brand?

If you think of companies like Apple, McDonald's, or Nike … what do you think of? You might think of computers, hamburgers, or shoes. But you also might think of the messages surround each of those companies. The concept of “Just Do It!” is a globally recognizable slogan that is simple to remember and powerful enough to make a lasting impression on you even if you aren't in the market for new footwear.

Learn how to turn your website or podcast into a globally recognizable brand with these 4 simple steps today!Click To Tweet

How Do You Create Website Strategy For Your Brand?

This is the Number 1 question that I have received since I started helping teachers over the last few years. In 2011, I didn't set out to create anything special. I had an idea to start a podcast with some friends and the next thing I knew, I was having others recommend me as “the guy to talk to” when it comes to educational podcasts. In my case, I didn't necessarily set out to grow a brand. I often say that the brand grew around me.

On the other hand, it's easy to come up with a game plan to carve your own niche and build your brand.

This often starts by following our first two steps:

• Identify your Avatar
• Create a content strategy around your Avatars needs

If you are consistently working your content strategy around a topic and hitting pain points for your Avatar, you will over time be thought of as a recommended place to turn to for answers on your given topic. This then makes you an “authority” on the topic … and authority … equals $$$.

What Goes Into Creating A Brand?

Building a recognizable brand isn't easy, but it doesn't have to be difficult either. When working with other educators, we always start by discussing what it is they are hoping to provide to their Avatars and work from there.

We then discuss important topics such as:

1. Websites
2. Social Media
3. SEO
4. Images

If these are foreign concepts to you, don't worry .. they will be covered in future emails.

If you have any questions ahead of time, don't hesitate to reach out by email or voicemail. I'm happy to help you with your goals.

Creating A Strategy To Grow Your Brand

As you can see, taking your online ideas and turning them into a globally recognized brand isn't an easy thing, but it doesn't have to be difficult.  The majority of the planning and processing is often best done off the computer using pencil & paper or a nice sized whiteboard.  No matter how you plan out your project, it's important to follow these four steps.

Identify Your Goals

Always have a plan both short-term and long-term that you want to accomplish.  Don't try to leap before you learn how to jump.  Identify a few small goals that can be wrapped inside of a larger goal.  Write down your goals and put them up on your wall so you see them.

Design Your Digital Hub Around Your Website

It's important when coming up with your website strategy to think of the entire picture rather than just a stand-alone feature.  When we look at our websites, they should be thought of as our Brands core.  Everything else should be thought to revolve around it with spokes poking into and out of it like a bicycle wheel.

Understand How Your Avatar Fits Into Those Goals

No matter how many spokes come out from your Digital Hub, they should be created with your Avatar in mind.  Just as we wrote about previously, all content strategy should be created once you have created your Avatar's character study.

A/B Test Your Promotional Materials and Methods

Did you know that for each blog post written on TeacherCast, I actually create up to FIVE unique titles?  On top of that, I create several variations of tweets and Facebook posts. It's important to not only try different strategies to see what works the best but to come up with your own A/B strategy for testing out content, titles, and hashtags.

What Do Other EDU's Use As THEIR Website Strategy?

• Erin Kiger: Keep it Simple and use your website to add information to your podcast.
• Sheldon Eakins: Consider your website as an extension of your social media presence.  I use my website as the central hub to my brand and use my social media accounts to drive traffic to it.

Enroll In Our FREE Online Course Today To Learn More!

If you are visiting this post, you probably fit into one of two categories:

1. You have a passion project you are working on and would like to get it to the point where you are making money from it.
2. You have an idea for a passion project and would like to learn how to make it profitable.

Does this sound like you? If so .. we would love to invite you to join us for our Build Your EDU Brand Online Course. Through this course, you will not only be able to interact with me 1:1 but will be given a host of additional worksheets and videos to help you with your goals.

Download Our FREE Branding Checklist

When building a brand, it's always important to have all of your thoughts in front of you. For this reason, we created a pretty awesome Branding Checklist. If you haven't yet had the opportunity to download it and go through it, you can access it by signing up for our online course (above).

Let's Work Together To Turn Your Dreams Into $$$'s

If you haven't had the chance to fill out our Branding Survey, please take a moment and let us know a little bit about yourself today. In our next email, we will be looking at the reasons why you need to have a website for your brand and will discuss several key ingredients that go into turning your average website into a digital hub for your business.

Don't be afraid to reach out with any questions you may have. We are all in this together!

I'm excited to be a part of your journey and look forward to working with you!

See you soon,

Jeff Bradbury