Education resources are the most popular sectors promoted to schools and teachers, so being straight-up honest with you, you’ve got a battle on your hands to make sure your resources stand out head and shoulders above the crowd.

Having designed and completed hundreds of marketing campaigns promoting education resources and workshops to the education sector we know what will work for you. That is what this report is all about, helping you to delve into the belly of the beast of marketing to schools, so you can make a huge difference to the number of teachers buying your education resources.

Insight #1: Quantities of decision-makers

You lucky devils! When it comes to a target audience, you guys are pretty spoilt for choice. Not only will you want to target the more obvious decision makers like the Head Teachers, Deputy Heads, and Key Stage Coordinators, but you’ve also got a whole host of other teacher types that will have an interest in you depending on your own specific service.

There are over 450,000 teachers within UK educational establishments, of which we have over 400,000 named teachers across 31,000 establishments within our Education Database, and we can contact them for you.

Insight #1: Pupil premium budget reaches £2.5bn

If you provide products, resources, or workshops that are going to raise attainment then the great news is that (depending on the content of your course) the schools will be able to use part of their pupil premium budget to pay for your services.

The even better news is that the pupil premium budget remains at a record high of £2.5 billion, and is predicted to increase as a result of more pupils becoming eligible for pupil premium as a result of the impact of the pandemic.

Oh, and the fact that the government leaves the schools’ senior leadership team in control of this budget means you only have to try and convince the people with the school’s, staff‘s, and pupils’ best interests at heart. Some of the remaining insights will help explain how best to achieve this.

Insight #3: Performance-related pay matters

Schools are able to link teachers’ pay to their performance. Pay awards now depend on whether teachers have been able to meet performance targets, teacher standards, and career stage expectations.

It is vita, then, that your message not only reaches the decision makers, but also targets those thousands of teaching staff that are going to be extremely receptive to education resources, products, services, and workshops that enable them to raise attainment, and therefore keep progressing up the pay scales.

Insight #4: How do budget holders think?

Although the Head Teacher and Bursar will usually be the budget holders at Primary School level, at Secondary School, the Head of Subject will be the key budget holder.

At Sprint, we have former Heads of Music and Science within our ranks. Both Pauline and Guy list their top 5 decision making criteria as follows:

1. High-end products need to be planned early in the financial year.
2. Quality! Poorly written, designed, or produced content goes in the bin.
3. Make it super-easy to order from you, with prompt delivery.
4. Always offer to call or meet so you can answer any questions they have.
5. Price is not a barrier. If the benefits are clear, the money will be found.

Insight #5: Teachers love a video!

Teachers love a video. Do you know that simply using the word ‘video’ in your email subject increases open rates by 13%? And we’ve seen click-through rates improve by a staggering 96% when including a hyperlinked screengrab of a video in the email!

Utilising a video is particularly effective for companies promoting subject resources, products, and services, because it gives teachers first-hand experience of your offer.

Teachers will find a short and snappy 60-second video a lot more interesting than three paragraphs of dry descriptive text!

If you’re providing schools with a product or service, then video is a great way to showcase your people and start building relationships with teachers.

Insight #6: Wide nets don’t catch the most fish

Your resources and workshops may be applicable to several subjects and it can be very tempting to try to make your marketing relevant to a wide range of subject teachers.

However, consider Insight #5 before taking this approach. You must show teachers, in very specific terms, how your offering is going to improve the quality of their lessons.

Broad brush messages can end up pleasing nobody at all.

If you don’t want to segment your send list then you need to consider utilising subject-specific landing pages on your website. Your email may be able to pique their interest, but when they click through to your website, they won’t want to then be presented with a low level of detail about how you can help them.

Insight #7: Listen and learn to love being agile

Invariably, the marketing emails that make me sit up and take notice are the ones that refer to news stories or events that are currently in my thoughts. In other words, they arrive in my inbox at the exact time when I am likely to be most receptive to their message.

To give your marketing to schools the same impact, you need to be paying close attention to the things that are likely to be occupying the minds of your target audience.

Have Ofsted just released a report regarding their subject? Is there an education exhibition that the teacher may be looking to attend in the near future? Find out what teachers are talking about, and then act fast to capitalise on this.

Insight #8: Combine email with post

You’ve probably got a superb brochure already. The trick is to find a cost effective way of getting this under teachers’ noses without wasting money posting to teachers that are not interested in what you have to offer.

So why not consider combining post with email? Not only does combining your marketing channels dramatically improve your results, but you can also eliminate waste and minimise costs using a tried and tested method:

1. Send an email to all schools generating awareness and creating a buzz.
2. Post your brochure to the teachers that showed an interest in your email.
3. Email these teachers a few days later to prompt responses.

Insight #9: Invite teachers to try before they buy

65% of teachers are visual learners, meaning they would much rather see how your product works than be told.

It’s also much more likely that they will buy your product if you give them the chance to experience it first-hand. Why don’t you ask them to request a demo or a free trial? You’re likely to get a really good response which will mean that you get an influx of interested teachers into your sales funnel.

Try to use this opportunity to capture some basic information about these teachers and their needs. Not only will it allow you to make the trial super-useful to each teacher, but it will also give you some really useful ‘persona data’ for your future marketing!

Insight #10: Become a thought leader

The resource landscape in schools is a potentially lucrative but highly competitive market with many new businesses vying for attention. The companies that will really see their stock soar will be those that take the time to position themselves as thought leaders.

So, send them an industry whitepaper to provide them with some real value and demonstrate your expertise before you start selling to them.

By doing so, you’ll take a huge leap in front of your competitors. In our edu-business survey, only 15.1% of companies had integrated free eBooks, whitepapers, and reports into their 2020 marketing strategy. Yet, in our accompanying teacher survey, 61.6% of schools wanted businesses to share free resources to better support and serve schools.

Don your creative caps, put together an insightful, high-quality free whitepaper, and await your stream of fresh-hot leads who now see you as one of the top dogs in your industry!

What next?

Get in touch and ask us about what we can do for you!

Our number is 01684 297374, or you can email info@sprint-education.co.uk.

That way, we can talk specifically about your offer and see how we can boost your marketing effort to schools quickly and effectively.

Tags
Education Marketing How to Sell to Schools How to Sell to Teachers Marketing to Schools Marketing to Teachers

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