Are you looking for an efficient and cost-effective way to reach schools in the UK with your next marketing campaign?
It may surprise you to learn that you already use one of the most valuable school marketing tools – email.
In spite of predictions that email was doomed for years, it is proving to be one of the most powerful marketing mediums ever created.
According to estimates, email will reach 4.3 billion users (half the world’s population) by 2023.
Your guide to email marketing best practice
In order to achieve maximum success with your school email campaign, consider the following points:
1. Use your data lists intelligently
A prospect database can be segmented based on a number of characteristics, so you can send targeted email marketing messages to subgroups.
Buyer personas and the buyer’s journey are key concepts in email marketing segmentation, and additional subgroups can be added as your prospects make their way through your sales funnel.
At the beginning of your email marketing campaign, a database might be split according to an educational institution’s location, independent or state status, or even their educational level.
Later, as you get to know your prospects better, you can start to segment further by where they are in their buyer’s journey, allowing you to send top-, middle- and bottom-of-funnel content at strategic times.
The best email marketing campaigns start with a strong list, and many businesses prefer to begin by purchasing a list from a reputable data provider.
At More Than Words Marketing, we maintain over 34,500 school email addresses in our database, which is already segmented into certain demographics, such as primary schools, independent schools and Multi Academy Trusts (MATS).
2. Get to know your audience
Often, the challenge of school marketing is reaching a variety of decision makers at once.
In one mail-out you might be connecting with headteachers, school board members, teachers and members of the PTA.
Your marketing email will appeal to each of them in a different way.
It is important to consider the intent of the readers when you ask them to click through, so that you can direct them to the relevant content.
Make sure your email design includes something to satisfy the needs of everyone, so your email will appeal to a wide section of your target audience.
3. Email automation
When you have the right tools, email marketing is easy.
Automating marketing is essential to time-efficient marketing. By carefully moving individuals from one phase of the sales funnel to another, it can increase your open rate and subscriber numbers.
Marketing automation allows you to create trigger events that send emails to prospects based on their online activity.
Additionally, this makes it easier for potential customers to get the information they need, when they need it, and saves your team’s time and resources on closing deals.
Take advantage of tools that will help you customise and run marketing campaigns at scale.
4. Start strong
Your subject line and from name are what teachers see first in their inboxes, so it’s important to keep them strong.
Emails are opened when the recipients know who sent them and why.
The company or brand name is usually preferable to an individual’s name, unless the person is the brand. If you must use a person’s name, follow it with a comma and then the company or organisation you represent.
Make sure you always use your company’s name, even if the email is sent from an individual, as it lends your email credibility..
Choosing your first four words is crucial when writing a subject line. Be upfront about what you’re offering, and be sure to include information about any offers or discounts.
This may seem difficult to do in just four words, but if you think of something as simple as “Free Trial – Try Our New App”, or “50% Discount Available Today”, it is easy to see how this works.
Additionally, adding a teacher or school name to the subject line can increase engagement by 46%. For example: “FAO: Chloe Brooks: The Ultimate SEND Training Program”
5. Establish quantifiable value
With the government awarding more decision-making power to schools themselves, school decision makers are able to exercise greater autonomy today than ever before.
A higher level of autonomy, however, comes with a higher level of responsibility.
You must show teachers that what you are offering will impact their classroom performance.
Demonstrating the concrete benefits of your products/services is the best way to accomplish this.
You should be specific about what your existing school clients have been able to achieve, using your products and services.
6. Personalise your emails
Personalisation is a standard marketing tactic, and one that is just as important to teachers and school decision makers as it is to consumers.
People respond better to marketing that they feel is really about them, and this can be difficult to convey with mass email broadcasts.
As mentioned earlier, your email list should be targeted and segmented, to break your prospects down into smaller subsets.
From here, change small details in your emails so that they feel more personal to the recipient. For example, you might give information on how your products/services have helped people in their specific location, or who teach the same key stage they do.
At More Than Words Marketing, we do the hard work for you with our managed email marketing to schools campaigns.
Our team of experts can design marketing emails for your company, send them from our established and trusted servers, ensure maximum deliverability, and provide comprehensive campaign performance reports.
Using our service, more than 8,000 customers have successfully marketed to UK schools via email, telemarketing and direct mail.
To learn more about our full-service email marketing agency service, just call 0330 010 8300.
