Welcome to the Marketing Playbook

Marketing is not something you learn once and then check off your list.

The technology changes. The platforms change. The way people find information changes. And the way prospective clients decide who they will trust changes.

That is why the Marketing Playbook was created.

ILP has been teaching marketing to professionals who use the P-ESL system since the early days of teaching SLPs how to apply the method in the 1980s. The original Marketing Essentials course was built around sound marketing strategies, including principles originally developed through Harvard Business School. Those principles still matter—but the marketing environment has changed dramatically.

The Marketing Playbook takes those foundational principles and updates them for 2026 and beyond.

More importantly, this course is designed specifically for instructors like you who offer the P-ESL system and related pronunciation services. It is not a generic marketing course designed for every type of business. The examples, strategies, resources, and action steps are intended to help you build a professional presence, attract the right clients, and turn your expertise into a sustainable business.

This Is a Playbook—Not Just a Course

You will find a lot of information here.

You do not have to read everything in order.

Every unit contains specific step-by-step action guides, recommended resources, and clearly defined accountability actions. If a particular topic is immediately relevant to your business, go directly to that section. Digest the material in small pieces. Come back when you need it.

Think of this course as a reference manual you can continue using as your business develops.

That said, there is an important distinction:

You can browse the Playbook, but you should complete it if you want the full benefit.

The ultimate goal is not simply to learn marketing concepts. It is to create your own Marketing Action Plan and actually use it.

Expect Some Strong Opinions

This course will make some strongly worded recommendations about what you should and should not do.

Some of those recommendations may challenge the way you have traditionally thought about your work.

As an SLP, educator, or other helping professional, you are probably accustomed to thinking primarily in terms of clinical outcomes, educational outcomes, professional ethics, and service delivery.

Those things matter, but building a business and generating income using your skills requires you to think about other questions, too:

Who needs what you offer?

Why would they choose you?

What are they willing to pay?

How do they find you?

What makes them contact you?

What makes them trust you?

And what makes them decide to buy?

You may encounter strategies in this Playbook that feel unfamiliar or even uncomfortable at first. That is intentional.

The goal is not to force you into becoming a stereotypical “marketer.” The goal is to help you understand what actually generates business so that you can make informed decisions about which strategies fit your professional goals.

We Won’t Dance Around Pricing

One of the areas professionals often avoid discussing (with each other) is pricing.

We won’t.

The Playbook includes specific units devoted to packaging and pricing your services. You will see examples of different training formats, service packages, and pricing approaches.

Some of these examples may look different from the standard P-ESL program presented in the certification course.

That is okay.

Dr. Arthur J. Compton experimented with different training formats and published research demonstrating equivalent results across different approaches, including 13-week, 6-week, and 2-day intensive formats.

That means you should not be afraid to consider a training format that makes sense for your market.

The important principle is this:

Adapt the format without compromising the substance.

If you create a shorter or different delivery format, make sure you continue addressing the essential modules and areas of focus contained in a standard 12-week training program.

Your market may dictate the format. Your professional responsibility dictates the quality.

AI Is Part of the Playbook

Artificial intelligence has fundamentally changed what is possible for a small business owner.

The Marketing Playbook includes an entire module devoted to AI.

You will learn where AI can genuinely save you time and improve your marketing—and where you should not rely on it.

AI can help you research, brainstorm, organize, write, edit, analyze, and repurpose content.

But AI cannot build your business for you.

You still have to decide what you offer, who you serve, what you believe, what makes you different, and what actions you are willing to take.

Use AI as a tool. Don’t confuse using a tool with doing the work.

You’ll See the Marketing in Action

Throughout the Playbook, you will find numerous examples of website copy, page structures, offers, calls to action, marketing messages, and web page formats.

These examples are there to make the concepts concrete.

Don’t simply read them.

Study them.

Ask yourself:

Why does this work?

What is this page trying to make the visitor do?

What problem is being addressed?

How is the offer being positioned?

How could I adapt this concept to my own business?

The goal is not to copy someone else’s business. It is to understand the strategic thinking behind the example.

You Will Be Held Accountable

Every unit includes specific actions for you to complete.

You will also encounter quizzes and knowledge assessment activities throughout the Playbook. These are not there simply to test whether you can remember what you just read.

They are there to make you stop, think, process, and apply the information.

You may think you understand a concept while you’re reading it. Having to answer a few questions about it forces you to actually process what you learned. That’s the point.

At the end of each module, you’ll have the opportunity to earn a badge by completing the required knowledge checks.

And let’s be honest about the badges.

The knowledge checks are educational. The badges are mostly there to make you feel better about yourself.

You earned one. You get to see it sitting there. You get to collect another one. Eventually, you can look back and think, “Heck, I’ve tackled a lot of this.”

That’s not entirely useless.

Building a business can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re trying to learn marketing while simultaneously doing the actual work of running your business. The badges give you a visible reminder that you’re making progress.

So collect them.

Show them off if you want.

But don’t confuse collecting badges with building a business.

The real reward is putting what you learned into action.

Don’t Expect a Formula

There is no magic marketing formula in this course.

Your business is not identical to anyone else’s.

You may be starting with no clients. You may already have a successful practice. You may be offering P-ESL as one service among several. You may be building an entirely new business around pronunciation training.

Your strategy needs to reflect your situation.

Apply what is relevant to you now. Add components as your business grows.

Some units will be immediately useful. Others may become useful six months or two years from now.

That is one of the reasons this is a Playbook rather than a one-time marketing class.

You May Notice Some Repetition

Some concepts appear more than once.

Some units overlap.

That is intentional.

Marketing does not operate as a collection of isolated activities. Your positioning affects your website. Your website affects your lead generation. Your offer affects your pricing. Your pricing affects your messaging. Your messaging affects your sales conversations.

The repetition is designed to help you see how these pieces work together and how you can combine different actions and resources strategically.

How to Get the Most From the Playbook

You have two ways to approach this course.

You can browse it.

Or you can build with it.

If you simply want to learn about marketing, jump around. Read the sections that interest you. Use the Playbook as a reference whenever you have a specific marketing problem.

But if your goal is to develop a comprehensive Marketing Action Plan, I strongly recommend completing the entire Playbook.

Read the material.

Complete the exercises.

Do the accountability actions.

Take the assessments.

Build the pieces of your marketing system as you go.

Don’t wait until you have “finished the course” to start marketing.

The work starts with Unit 1-1.

One Last Thing

This Playbook is designed to help you move beyond simply being someone who knows how to deliver P-ESL training.

You already have a professional skill.

Now you need to learn how to position it, communicate its value, package it, price it, promote it, and sell it.

That requires a different way of thinking.

Be willing to experiment.

Be willing to change your approach.

Be willing to test ideas instead of assuming you already know what will work.

And most importantly, be willing to take action.

The Marketing Playbook was written and assembled by ILP Training Director Joe Comeau, MS, CCC-SLP.

Now let’s get to work.