Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Hi Brian,

This is definitely a hot topic. I personally may sign up for one of the seminars!

To answer your questions:

1. An obvious place would be SEO/SEM targeted to keywords that parents would use in a search, like "troubled teens" "parenting teens" "parenting skills," etc. I would do some initial searches yourself, and perhaps ask some of your customers how they would search online. Look at the results you get.

You can test-run a search campaign rather inexpensively through grographically targeted Google ad words.

You can also approach popular hub sites for parents regarding a promotion/link to your site.

To reach out, consider an email campaign to middle and high school guidance counselors to introduce your site as a potential resource for parents (giving them a free trial of a seminar, perhaps).

If you want to build your stable of advisors, also consider a campaign to sign up geographically dispersed experts on childhood behavior and adolescent development. You can do this via email or a direct mail campaign.

2. While your site looks put together, one thing I noted is that there is no mention on the home page or under "instructors" about who they are. Even on the seminar description pages themselves, there's no mention of expert credentials.

For advisory services, I always like to read brief bios of the experts. Testimonials from users with detailed comments about what they were facing and how the seminar helped them, would be good. I understand that you're building a network of parents here, which is good for commiserating and discussion threads. But, I'd recommend that you describe who will be leading the seminars, particularly for topics like ADD/ADHD, as I would want a board-certified psychologist or pediatric neurologist leading the discussion.

Hope this helps.