In a shining example of how a high-quality blog post can generate attention for years to come, I want to share something I found when I was researching "How to Write So Readers Will Learn," for the Content Mastery Action Day Presentation call.
Tech writing expert (and fellow Typepad user) Kathy Sierra posted Marketing should be education, education should be marketing back in February 2007, and actually stopped posting to this blog just a couple of months later (but that's another story).
Kathy's blog, Creating Passionate Users, was designed to explore how the science of learning could help tech writers (and others) make "users" (of products/services) more passionate about the product/service, as well as the rest of their life.
I really loved the case that this post made for marketers and educators to borrow from each other's techniques for the good of all. I can certainly see the potential for getting kids excited about learning.
I also appreciated the reinforcement of the idea that educating readers about our services and products will help us to make a deeper connection.
Check out Kathy's post and let me know what you think!
Marketing should be education, education should be marketing
Update (September 16, 2011): Here is a new video by Kathy Sierra, that I found on Tim Grahl's website about online marketing for authors.
I’m a “formally” trained teacher and I taught elementary school for 8 years from 1972 to 1980. I also have an MEd from OISE. Ever since I started “teaching” marketing and became a marketing coach, I’ve used my teaching knowledge and experience.
There are a lot of “former schoolteachers” who have their own businesses – they need to know that their teaching fits really well with marketing – and vice versa 🙂
Trudy
Thanks for the comment, Trudy. It’s wonderful to hear the insights of a trained educator.