Sales & Marketing

Sales and marketing are the two main drivers of the financial success of your business, and as such, require significant time and investment. You need to decide which customers to target. You need to develop marketing strategies to reach new customers and sales tactics to win them over. You need to make sure that you keep existing customers happy. And you need to continue to review and improve your referral program to increase community leads and stay ahead of the local competition.

Steamoji mandates that franchisees spend a minimum of $20k on initial launch marketing. This includes a Grand Opening event with a videographer and PR campaign, print marketing materials and local postcard drop, as well as 5 months of pre and post-open digital marketing at $2000/month. After the initial launch period, franchisees must continue to spend a minimum of $2000/month on digital marketing, working with our local marketing partner to create targeted ad copy and automate the follow up process.

Overall Philosophy

Show, don’t tell. You cannot rely on paid digital advertising to drive leads to your business. You need to be out in your local community talking to other parents about Steamoji. You need to develop partnerships with schools, community centres and local businesses through networking and community events. You need to be actively recruiting your most loyal customers and friends to spread the word for you through referral-based marketing initiatives. You need to be constantly booking trial sessions and giving tours to demonstrate the value of Steamoji to parents in your region.

Telling the Story

Talking about what we do is important for one reason: every single person that you talk to has at least one potential ‘maker’ in the family. We talk about the problem we solve and how easily we solve it. Simplicity and consistency in messaging is key to conveying what we do and how we do it.

When asked “What is Steamoji?” or “What do you do?” we always have one standard initial response. How we elaborate on this statement depends on the situation, the audience and the amount of time we have to talk about what we do. Let’s start with the basic “what we do” statement, or elevator pitch for the brand:

Example 1: The Quick Answer

When someone asks “What is Steamoji” or “What do you do?”

WHAT DO WE DO?

Example: “Steamoji is a maker academy for kids that trains builders, makers, inventors and entrepreneurs.”

Example 2: The Longer Answer

When you are in a situation with a bit more time, an effective way to answer the question of “what do you do” is as follows:

WHAT DO WE DO AND HOW DO WE DO IT?

Example: “Technological change is accelerating. Many parents feel STEAM subjects (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) are important to help prepare their children for the careers of their future, but see schools more focused on traditional studies. Steamoji’s 400-hour “Build to Solve” curriculum is designed to fill this gap in a structured and reinforcing fashion across 5 subject pathways: fabrication, physical computing, engineering, digital arts and applied design. Students are taught basic skills, then encouraged to practically apply them in a spirit of “Build to Solve.”

Example 3: The Cocktail Party

When you are in a more casual setting and not pressured to answer quickly.

WHY DO WE DO WHAT WE DO?

Example: “I first joined Steamoji because I wanted to expose my kids to STEM skills. STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics and the emphasis on applied design skills really spoke to their creativity. Steamoji is a maker academy where we foster a child’s curiosity and build confidence by exposing them to new technologies in fabrication, physical computing, engineering and digital arts. Really, we add what a traditional school curriculum currently lacks, and that is preparing kids with the hard and soft skills to thrive in the 21^st century. But our real specialty is uncovering and unlocking their passion – and we have a lot of fun along the way! Let me give you an example (quickly recount a story)…”

It’s important to give examples and speak from personal experience when telling the Steamoji story and communicating our value proposition to prospective clients. Talk about the reason you got involved with Steamoji in the first place while hitting home some of our key sales points, such as our unique, 400-hour curriculum, provel model and tech systems to ensure that kids stay engaged while parents see progress.

You need to memorize these statements and practice them over and over and over. That way, when you are asked the question “What is Steamoji?” or “What do you do?” (which you will be asked thousands of times), you will be able to start your answer with these branded statements.

Strategy

Our digital marketing strategy starts with brand awareness and generating leads. As an emerging category of enrichment activity you will need to educate your leads as you take them through the sales funnel. As selling a Steamoji membership is primarily an educational sale, it is your job to demonstrate to parents why STEM skills are necessary for the future job market and something that schools increasingly recognize as being important, yet lack the funding and resources to be able to stay ahead of the curve.

Our sales funnel starts from awareness, nurturing leads with educational content, but ultimately leads to a “show, don’t tell” strategy, in which a family is typically converted once they come in for a tour or trial session at your academy. As children’s supplemental education is a referral-based business and relies primarily on word-of-mouth, every touchpoint a prospective client has with your business is critical to your success in selling memberships.

When getting in touch with your leads, the goal should always be to get them to book a tour or trial session at your academy. If you can get a lead in the door, the “show, don’t tell” approach should result in a conversion approximately 80% of the time. It is much more effective to be able to demonstrate the Steamoji system in-person rather than by email or over the phone.

Digital Marketing

Marketing Website

First of all, let’s talk about the marketing website. https://www.steamoji.com/ is the foundation that we build our “digital house” upon. All roads lead to our website. No matter where our leads are generated from, they all end up at our website. Steamoji.com will consist of a central website that is designed, operated and continuously evolved by Steamoji HQ.

Each Steamoji academy has its own location page that contains the following information: hours, contact information, location map, a brief description, booking link and information request submission form that will send leads directly to you by email.

Good digital marketing is critical to successful lead generation, but it also takes a highly specialized skill set and a lot of time and dedication to get it right. 

At Steamoji, we want you to be focused on other lead generation mediums, like getting out into your community and talking to people! So the website is one area that Steamoji HQ will drive for you, though it’s still important you have a level of understanding of how it works. Let’s dive into the main areas of our digital lead generation platform:

SEO: Search Engine Optimization

Also referred to as organic digital marketing efforts, SEO can be defined as the process of getting traffic from the ‘free,’ or ‘organic’ search results on search engines like Google, Yahoo, or Bing. Essentially, SEO is the process of optimizing our website in order to rank higher for certain relevant keywords on search engines.

Why is this important?  

Effective SEO helps our website appear higher in search engines when someone searches for a key term associated with our service. This can, in turn, drive more people to our website.

How do we improve results?

We have identified and will continue to identify the keywords and phrases people are searching for when searching for our service. We then incorporate these words and phrases into our content on our website, and publish new content (eg. in the form of a blog) that contains these words. This helps build Steamoji’s authority and ranking in Google search results.

A few of the main search terms that we focus on include: 

1. STEM / STEAM Education
2. Makerspace / Maker Academy
3. Coding / Math
4. Science Academy / Science for kids
5. Spring Break Camps / Summer Camps

Blog posts will also be added to our website on a biweekly basis with information on related topics such as new missions, STEAM projects to try at home, advantages of science in early childhood education, benefits of a positive introduction to STEAM for girls, educational articles, posts promoting business partnerships, etc.

We have designed and optimized the architecture of our website and blog to help it rank high in search engine results. Currently we come up as #2 when searching for STEM programs for kids in Vancouver!

Local SEO

You might be wondering “What can I do to increase my own ranking?” Here are some tips and suggestions to increase your presence and maximize your impact:

• Ask local organizations to link to your location page
• Sign up for local directories including Yelp, Nextdoor, local.yahoo.com, etc.
• Sign up for trusted paid local directories like Yellow Pages and bbb.org
• Encourage members to write reviews for your location on your Google My Business listing

SMM: Social Media Marketing

When talking about SMM, we need to split it into two distinct categories:

1) Paid social media advertising

2) ‘Organic’ social media marketing

Paid Social Media Advertising

Paid social media advertising refers to paid digital marketing efforts on social media networks like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Think of it like traditional advertising, such as a radio or newspaper ad. Paid social advertising puts us directly in front of an audience that has been targeted based on general demographic information in order to build awareness around what we provide at Steamoji. However, there is one big difference, which is why this is such a powerful medium for us – the ability to focus on your target audience to get your ad in front of the right person in the right location.

What is the difference between SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and SMM?

They attract different people at different stages of the sales cycle. SMM is strategic when it comes to finding and targeting our ideal audience — even if they aren’t aware of our services yet. Our customer engages with us when they are leisurely scrolling through their Facebook or Instagram feeds.

On the other hand, SEM is strategic when users are ready to buy. These leads are already warm and looking for the best place to part with their resources to solve their problem — which is why SEM ads tend to have a much higher cost per click than paid social media advertising. Custom and lookalike targeting on platforms like Facebook help eliminate the guesswork by pixel-tracking users from your site and comparing that to Facebook’s databases of user information.

Our two main SMM platforms are Facebook and Instagram. Why? Well firstly, this is where a lot of parents are hanging out. Secondly, it is generally a low-cost medium to generate leads. Thirdly, it leverages our highly spreadable, unique, word-of-mouth brand.

A few terms to understand when using Facebook and Instagram: 

Lookalike Audiences: You can create a custom lookalike audience that targets users who are most likely to engage with or purchase something from Steamoji. You can do this by creating a lookalike audience based on your own Facebook Page audience, or mailing list.

Pixel Targeting: It’s in the consideration stage where honing in on proper targeting and retargeting can become a huge factor in the overall success of your ads. Targeting the correct audience can lead to higher conversions and lower costs.

Boosting: One great strategy for increasing brand awareness is to focus on organic social media posting and amplifying your top performing content. Not only is this the most inexpensive form of social media advertising, but it also provides our locations with a way to reach a new customer segment that they might not have been able to reach with traditional ads.

The Process

Steamoji partners with Lopif (https://lopif.com/) on a national level to implement effective digital marketing campaigns for franchisees. Franchisees will work with Steamoji HQ and a Lopif representative to select campaigns, refine ad copy and automate the follow-up process. Franchisees also receive access to Lopif’s powerful lead management system and have regular calls with a Lopif representative to review the leads and make changes.

For use of this platform franchisees are expected to contribute a minimum ad spend budget of $2000 per month. Of this $1500 goes directly into Facebook Ads Manager and is used to bid on lowest cost per click ads on both Facebook and Instagram, including in-feed posts, carousels and stories. There is a $500 management fee for use of Lopif’s platform and support.

While we cannot guarantee a certain amount of leads each month or average cost per lead, Steamoji’s goal in partnering with Lopif is to generate a minimum of 30 digital leads per month for each location at an average of $50 per lead. If you are able to convert 40% of these leads (12 enrollments per month), your cost per customer acquisition will be $125 and allow for a 50% profit margin on membership sales valued at $250 per month.

Digital marketing is all about volume. The Lopif platform allows you to reach a greater number of people in your area who might be interested in Steamoji than you would be able to reach through traditional channels or by running your own Facebook ad campaigns. We drive digital leads to your business so you don’t have to, which allows you to spend more time on follow-up campaigns that will result in more conversions at your academy.

Ad Example

Landing Page Example

Follow-up Strategy

It is critical that you follow up with leads as quickly as possible, first by phone, and if they don’t answer by leaving a voicemail and sending a short email explaining that you tried to reach them by phone and will try again later, or otherwise inviting them to give you a call back at their earliest convenience. Remember that the ball is always in your court. Do not wait for a lead to contact you. Reach out to them as frequently and in as many different ways as possible. The average number of touchpoints it takes to convert a lead is 7. That means 3 times that you speak with them over the phone and 4 emails or messages that they respond to. A voicemail or email that you can’t confirm your lead received does not qualify as a touchpoint.

Steamoji’s 7-step follow-up strategy is designed to help you convert leads to trials at a 50% conversion rate and trials to members at an 80% conversion rate:

1. Initial inquiry
2. Tour/trial booking
3. First ‘Steamoji World’ experience
4. Phone follow-up (Monday or next day)
5. Email follow-up (one week later)
6. Book first session
7. Pay & sign forms

The first touchpoint a lead will have with your business is during the initial inquiry. This could be a phone call, an email, or a conversation at the academy, but first impressions matter, so make sure their first interaction with you is a good one. It is important to show your lead you care by giving them your undivided attention – even if it means returning phone calls later, asking parents to wait for a few minutes or having a facilitator divert apprentices away from your desk.

The goal of the first interaction is to demonstrate competence by effectively communicating the value proposition to your prospective client, answering their questions about Steamoji and how it works, and getting them to book a time to come into the academy as a family for a tour. Explain the importance of seeing how the program works and having their kids interact with the technology to get them excited about coming (they’ll receive a free 3D print, custom badge and Family Guide, etc.). If they’re still not convinced, you can offer for them to leave their kids after the tour for a free 1-hour trial session to make sure they like it before signing up.

The first experience should be nothing short of magical. ‘Steamoji World,’ like Disney world, is designed to be a place full of imagination and curiosity, where kids can interact with the technology and start to visualize their future creations. Everyone who enters your Steamoji academy should be given a full tour, from our badge wall and achievement levels to the 3D printer and laser cutters and short demo of our tech systems. We have structured the tour this way because we know it sells memberships. The “show, don’t tell” strategy works almost every time.

However, if your lead doesn’t convert after those first 3 touchpoints, don’t worry! We have a proven system for following up that will help to nudge them over that fence. You’ll start by calling them, either on Monday morning or a full 24 hours after they come in for the tour. You want to give your lead time to process and think about the experience they had at Steamoji, but not too much time that it will start to lose effect. Speaking to your lead on the phone is the best way to re-establish that connection and find out how they are feeling a day or two days later.

If they are still considering – maybe the timing isn’t right or they’re lacking the funds – try to get them to book that first session, even if it’s still a month away. If they don’t answer right away, leave a voicemail and continue to follow up every 2-3 days before sending an email after one week of no response. This email is your last-ditch effort to get them book with you, so don’t use it too early. Readjust your value proposition or simply ask a question like “Have you given up on this opportunity?” to make sure you get a response and can steer the conversation back to booking that first session. That way, if they don’t respond, you’ll also know for sure that they’re not interested.

That first booking could be for their first paid session or a complimentary trial hour – it doesn’t make a difference to your bottom line. Either way, that final touchpoint should involve payment and signing of forms, followed by the activation of their subscription which will renew monthly on the date of their membership agreement. If you follow these 7 steps, you will be converting leads at a higher rate than you can print 3D Flexi-animals, and will be able to hit 60 memberships in no time.

Cascading Sales Approach

The Cascading Sales Approach acknowledges that a lead will not always convert on the first phone call, but rather it takes a measured, consistent follow-up strategy to educate leads through the funnel towards an eventual sale. If you follow this approach and get into a rhythm of consistently following up with your leads and moving them through this sales funnel while delivering a superior level of customer experience you’ll have warmed leads that will convert to members AND spread the word for you.

The incoming lead bucket is comprised of walk-ins, webform inquiries, phone calls, emails, WhatsApp and Messenger messages. In every case, your first contact point should always be to reach out with a phone call where you can answer their questions and book a first session or tour. If they don’t want to book a tour, make sure to do some objection handling before adding them to your drip campaign. If they book a tour but don’t show up, follow-up to help them reschedule.

Once a family comes in for a tour, they will most likely be ready to sign up and often more than one child. If they’re not ready, the most common objection you will get is “I need to talk to my husband/wife/partner first.” Less than 20% of your leads won’t have spoken to their partner about Steamoji before coming in, so although this is plausible, it’s likely there’s a deeper issue you’re not getting to. When scheduling the tour, make sure as much of the family is there as possible by educating your lead on the importance of their child’s education in STEAM. This is a big decision for a family and it’s critical that you make it as exciting and special as possible. However, if the lead doesn’t see it that way, you need to figure out what the problem is before they talk to their partner, extended family or anyone else about Steamoji.

A big objection may be price. While not all families will have the extra funds to support their children’s education with privatized, enrichment activities, in many cases this is an indication that you haven’t communicated the value of a Steamoji education effectively enough. Luckily you still have something in your back pocket: this is when you can offer them a trial session where their child can try a project for an hour and you can convince their spouse. Emphasize the importance of the whole family being there and offer free trial hours for their siblings as well. Once the kids can’t stop talking about it and the parents understand the importance of it, it will be easier for them to justify financially based on the value you’ve already provided them. 

Other objections may be around schedule and distance, but these should be things that have already come up and you have addressed in previous communications, perhaps by suggesting the Build to Solve Intro or Online program, which allows them to purchase a package of 10 sessions they can use over a semester on their chosen schedule at the academy or by joining weekly Zoom sessions beginning every month after school with a cohort of their peer group. However if you still can’t get a sale, add them to your nurturing campaigns and continue to follow up after a week and then a month to see if their circumstances have changed. A successful sale at any point in the pipeline needs to be converted to a member in dashboard, complete the membership agreement digitally or in-person and pay the requisite fees.

One final note on our paid digital strategies: This is a key part of our system. If you just post ads without our follow-up system your conversions will not be nearly as high. Once you achieve your target number of makers, you can ease off on the paid digital marketing program, and reinstate it if and when you need to rebuild your member list.

Organic SMM

Organic social media marketing utilizes your social media platforms (ie. Facebook or Instagram) to post content to attract and engage your audience.

Steamoji HQ will push content to 2 local SMM channels: Facebook and Instagram. We will also run national brand-building YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn channels, and localize for franchises as we deem necessary for the Steamoji brand. 

Facebook and Instagram

Your location will have what is known as a location page on Facebook. This falls under the main Facebook account but identifies a specific location in a specific geography. Key details like hours and directions will be available on this location page. Content for your Facebook page will be created by a hybrid feed from Steamoji HQ and your own posts.

Both Facebook and Instagram will be updated on a regular basis to obtain and maintain a healthy, loyal following. Social media metrics will be monitored regularly and engagement tactics will be adjusted accordingly. These accounts will also be used to engage with groups/pages containing members of your target market (eg. STEM Education for Kids, Science for Kids, Help We’ve Got Smart Kids, etc.).

Furthermore, parents of young children tend to frequently post pictures and videos of their young ones on social media. Our highly aesthetically pleasing facility combined with the excitement of their child’s first session or project will naturally compel parents to snap pictures/videos and post them on their personal social networks (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok).

In the pre-launch phase, your social posts will take the shape of: 

1. Updates of your facility as it is being built (eg. signage)
2. Satellite and virtual program images
3. Grand Opening event details

Once your location is open, the posts will shift. We will follow a set schedule, as follows:

• Steamoji HQ will feed your local Facebook and Instagram pages with posts 3 to 4 times per week. For example:
  • Global events in STEM (Monday)
  • Apprentice Spotlight (Tuesday)
  • Curriculum Spotlight (Wednesday)
  • Announcements & Holidays (Thursday)
  • Franchisee Post (Friday)
  • STEAM Industry Highlights (Saturday)

• You will create your own post, following Steamoji’s social media guidelines, on Fridays.
• You also have the option to post on Sundays. Examples of good posts include local events, Steamoji news or updates, or any positive feedback you received during the week. During the development of your location, you will post about your buildout.

Social Listening: Commenting on Facebook

If your location page receives a direct message you will be able to respond but it must be done in the voice of Steamoji and from a Steamoji perspective, not the individual owner’s. Refer to our brand guide for the Steamoji voice.

SEM: Search Engine Marketing

Search engine marketing focuses on displaying our service in front of someone when they are searching for a similar service or product. SEM shines when users are ready to commit to what we have to offer. SEM is ideal for capturing leads at the middle or bottom of the marketing funnel (meaning when they are researching and heavily considering a purchase). Your leads are already warm and actively searching for a solution to their problem — whether they know about us or not. You may also know SEM as “pay per click” advertising, meaning that you pay every time someone clicks on your ad.

Where SEO is vital for our website’s long term search engine visibility, SEM allows you to basically buy your way to the top of search results.

When it comes to SEM campaigns, Google Adwords is the main platform and the most important place to advertise, so we will typically use Google AdWords in our SEM strategy. One of the reasons we like this form of digital marketing is that it can be geo-targeted, making it a great marketing option for your local Steamoji location. We will only need and use an SEM campaign strategy in selective circumstances.

Retargeting

Not everyone who comes to our website will automatically fill out a form to request more information. However, they came for a reason, and to effectively leverage our SEM campaigns, you can deploy a strategy called “retargeting,” where you can serve ads to people who came to your website but didn’t take the next step in the sales process (i.e. fill out a request info form).

The Process

All SEM efforts will be operated by Steamoji HQ through our digital marketing partner. Your responsibility will be to set the parameters of your campaigns, including monthly budget, daily ad spend limits, and which campaigns you want to run from those already created for you.

Due to constant learning and changing standards and strategies, Steamoji’s digital marketing program will be updated outside of this Operations Manual, so touch base with your success partner and refer to your Digital Playbook for details.

Traditional Marketing

Steamoji, like many other kinds of private childhood education, is primarily a referral-based business, and as such, a significant number of your leads should come from word-of-mouth. The goal of word-of-mouth marketing is to leverage your existing customer base to spread the word for you through internal marketing initiatives, referral gifts like a $50 Amazon gift card, community events and connections with school Parent Advisory Councils (PACs). By talking to Steamoji parents about the business and your ambitions for growth you will learn a lot about their involvement in the community and hopefully gain some useful connections!

We use traditional print marketing in the form of brochures and Family Guides to help provide more information to prospective parents. Steamoji also engages in direct mail campaigns from time-to-time, which franchisees have the option to participate in. Other traditional marketing tactics include both pre and post-open signage at your academy, community billboards and lawn signs and branded sponsorship opportunities. We will provide you with all of the designs for these, but if you have a particular idea in mind you can always submit an ad request to our marketing department and we’ll do our best to create something that fits the bill.

Community Engagement

Ultimately, you cannot rely on paid digital advertising to drive leads to your business or hide behind your computer waiting for opportunities to come to you. You need to be actively out in your local community talking to other parents about Steamoji and hit the ground running with partnerships with schools, community centres, and through networking and community events. Identify 3-5 schools you could potentially run satellite programs with before you open, and talk to your local community centres to see what they offer in terms of advertising. Are there any events happening in your community with opportunities for sponsorship or for a table or booth? Make sure you get in early and often to give yourself as many opportunities as possible to demonstrate your value to potential customers in your local area.

Grand Opening

Once you have obtained your permits and started construction it’s all systems go and you can start doing pre-sales and marketing, selling and delivering the virtual program to families in your region. This should be happening approximately 3 months before the opening of your location so you can transition those families into paying members at your academy as smoothly and efficiently as possible. Invite them to a ‘VIP’ soft opening event as they near the end of their program where you can start promoting ‘Founding Memberships’ until you hit break-even at 60. Then, it’s time to plan your Grand Opening event, a day of activities where existing members can invite their friends and anyone in your local community can come and discover what Steamoji is all about. Some general guidelines for your Grand Opening include:

• Decorations (eg. “Grand Opening” banner, ‘Oji’-branded balloons, other 3D-printed items)
• Tables with finger food in the entrance/waiting area
• 2-4 workstations (live streamed on the Academy TV) with apprentices constantly doing projects for parents to see what we do
• 8-12 open workstations for kids to try 3D pens and other fun projects
• Games table with STEM-themed activities to win prizes
• Staff member/local celebrity dressed up as a mad scientist, or Steamoji’s “master maker”

You should send out invitations for your Grand Opening event to your first 60 members at least a month in advance and schedule reminders to go out the week before. We also recommend that you work with an event planner and PR company to craft a press release and post your event on various news and social media channels to ensure as high a turnout as possible. Be sure to hire a photographer/videographer to document the day’s activities so you will have high-quality content that is personalized to your academy to post on social media and use in digital ads thereafter. A representative from Steamoji HQ will also be there to help you cut the red tape and celebrate the opening of your business.