What Great Teachers Can Teach Us About Great Marketing

The winners of the UK National Teaching Awards were recently announced and it got me thinking about what really makes a great teacher - and how small business can put that to use in their marketing.

Content-based marketing makes use of content in any format to attract new prospects, retain existing customers and develop businesses as trusted resources in their markets. The majority of that content is likely to be informative and educational.

Informative content could be an article in the paper, a white paper, a recorded product demonstration or a live workshop. Informative content helps showcase expertise and addresses customer issues - making it marketing that people want to see, not advertising that they can' wait to get away from.

If content-led marketing is largely informative then it stands to reason that content marketers are, in their way, teachers too. And what really sets the great teachers apart from the rest is their infectious enthusiasm for the subject at hand - and the ability to spread that enthusiasm to those they teach.

For example, I remember a High School science teacher who had made up oddly memorable songs about the planets and periodic table. He picked out a few notes on his guitar while the class chimed in with the lyrics - lyrics that I can still remember to this day. Although admittedly, the fact that 'the sun is a mass of incandescent gas' has, so far, played little part in my daily life.

Were those songs detailed in the approved school curriculum? Not likely. Did they teach important topics? Sure. Did they make you want to pay attention to the serious stuff a little more? Certainly.

Of course, that was the point. Teachers who are genuinely excited about what they teach are the ones that make you sit up and take notice.

So what can we learn from that, in terms of marketing our businesses?

Firstly, if you are going to invest in content-led marketing then just about the worst thing you could do is to make it dry and overly corporate. You need to allow your enthusiasm for the subject - and your own unique voice - to come through in what you create.

Secondly, although you certainly need to know what you're talking about, delivery is often as important as the raw information itself. Poorly delivered information - marketing or otherwise - doesn't stick. Make your content memorable with examples and personal experience. Make it relevant by being clear about how your audience can put that information to good use.

Finally, teaching is much more than just standing at the front of a room and reading from a book - it's about interacting and engaging with those you are trying to teach. As businesses we should invite people to interact and engage with our marketing content in much the same way. We should invite our audiences to ask questions, to share their point of view and perhaps, even to disagree with us.

That's what a great teacher would do.