Jennifer Murphy, Copywriter and Sustainability Lead at Buzz Education, lists 8 things to do when communicating with schools to increase enquiries and bookings.
As you’ll know, teachers are very busy people. With lessons to plan, assessments to mark, assemblies to attend and more, their day-to-day schedules are pretty jam-packed. So, how do you get their attention? And how can you demonstrate quickly that your LOtC experience is too good to ignore? Whether you’re an LOtC Quality Badge Holder, or you’re new to this space, here are 8 things to do when communicating with schools…
1. Create a targeted marketing mailing list
Email marketing is a popular way to attract teachers’ attention. If you’re planning on sending email campaigns to schools, first identify the education staff most relevant to your offering and build a focused marketing mailing list. For example, if you provide learning experiences for Key Stage 3-4 pupils, you might want to include School Trips Coordinators, KS3 and KS4 Science teachers, Heads of Biology, Chemistry, and Physics.
Creating a targeted mailing list will help you to improve your campaign engagement rates, as teachers will quickly see that your campaign is relevant to them and therefore will be more likely to engage with it. But it’ll also enable you to create more focused, impactful marketing content that speaks to your specific audience and addresses their priorities and challenges.
If you don’t have access to teachers’ direct email addresses, but you have schools’ generic email addresses, include ‘FAO: KS1 Coordinators’ at the start of your email subject line to help make sure your message lands in your target recipients’ inboxes.
To help you choose the right education contacts, here’s a handy resource: Free Resource | Your targeted education marketing mailing list (buzz-education.com)
2. Develop a long-term marketing strategy
The education marketing sector is busy and highly competitive. That’s why it’s important to increase your brand awareness and visibility with long-term marketing campaigns, building teachers’ trust over time.
Establish regular marketing touchpoints to remind teachers how you can support their learners and school community. These marketing touchpoints could be email campaigns, social media posts, postal marketing campaigns, blog posts or newsletters to name a few! And they need to stand out – use compelling copy, eye-catching colours, high-resolution photos, and make sure your website content is in tip-top shape as that’s where teachers will likely explore to learn more about you.
And remember, nurturing your warm leads (teachers who’ve engaged with your campaigns) is a MUST for generating new school bookings, so make sure to include follow-ups in your long-term marketing strategy.
3. Emphasise the benefits, asap!
It might seem obvious, but it’s important to tell education staff how their pupils or colleagues will benefit from your learning experience.
Whether you’re sending an email campaign, a postal campaign, posting on social media, or using a different marketing channel to promote your service, you should always ensure the benefits of your offering are immediately visible within your marketing content. And remember, formatting matters. So make sure they’re easy to skim-read by placing them in bold or using bullet points, for example:
- Improve staff and pupil wellbeing
- Increase student engagement
- Enrich your KS2 science curriculum
4. Provide key information
Make it easy for teachers to understand what you offer by only including the important information. To help you structure your marketing content, aim to include the Who, What, Where, When, Why and How, but in this order instead….
- Who – Briefly introduce your organisation, and make sure it’s clear who your learning experiences are for e.g. EYFS and KS1 learners or KS3-4 SEND students.
- What – Tell teachers what your experience involves and include pricing if applicable.
- Why – Tell teachers why they should book your learning experience and how their pupils and staff will benefit.
- When – Include key dates and booking deadlines.
- Where – Make sure to mention where your learning experiences take place.
- How – Explain how your learning experiences work and make it clear how teachers can book.
Remember, less is more. Keep your messaging clear and concise with digestible info – no waffle or jargon! You don’t need to include all the above information in one message, but instead, across a series of campaigns.
5. Include action shots
Include high-resolution photos in your communications, preferably of school groups, showcasing your learning experiences in action.
Visuals are a great way to keep your marketing content short and sweet, as they communicate information, for example, how your learning experiences work, without adding to the word count.
And they’re an effective tool for building your brand credibility and teachers’ trust – absolute musts for increasing school enquiry numbers.
6. Use testimonials and case studies
As mentioned above, photos are a great way to build social proof as they demonstrate your offering in action and show that you’re a reputable provider.
I’d recommend including testimonials from schools too, for example, quotes from visiting pupils who loved your learning outside the classroom experience, or education staff who observed a marked increase in pupil engagement during their visit. If you have permission, include the teachers’ name, school name and job role if you can, to demonstrate that your social proof is genuine.
Videos and video case studies are also an effective and creative way to engage teachers, as you can include interviews with teachers and pupils who’ve visited, tours of your sites, and clips of your staff explaining the benefits of your LOtC experience.
7. Incentivise teachers with lead magnets
Lead magnets are resources or marketing assets e.g. free guides or checklists, offered to customers in exchange for their contact data. In education marketing, they’re an effective tool for increasing teacher engagement and growing your database of schools.
Consider offering teachers a free activity pack or poster relevant to your offering that supports their teaching and lesson planning. For example, a free meditation guide for students, or a 3-step checklist on how to grow a pepper plant – just make sure it’s relevant to your offering and of value to teachers!
And make sure you follow up with the teachers who signed up. By nurturing these contacts, you’ll be able to open up new conversations around your learning experiences and, in the long-run, boost your school bookings.
8. Time it right
Connect with teachers at the right time and allow plenty of time for them to book your experience (they may need to get approval from senior members of staff).
The optimum time to send marketing campaigns to schools varies from organisation to organisation, so it’s best to test different days, times of the day, and months to see which combinations generate the most leads for you.
And don’t be afraid to send email marketing campaigns during the school holidays, many teachers do pick up their emails outside of term time, and it’s often a key time when they do their planning.
If you’re sending campaigns to schools nationwide, just be mindful of the different term dates – you might find this guide helpful for your planning: School Term Dates 2024-25 | Free Guide (buzz-education.com).
More on this topic...
Buzz Education recently delivered an excellent online workshop as part of our live CPD programme for providers. In this session titled ‘Building relationships and communicating with schools’, Managing Director Michael McVerry, offered some insightful and very useful advice on how to communicate with schools. This event also featured LOtC Quality Badge holder Mark Stead, Head of Learning from the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust (WWT), who has a good working relationship with Buzz Education. Mark shared his thoughts on communicating with schools and the impacts it has had for their organisation.
Watch the recording: CLOtC Members can access this recording, as well as all past event recordings, for free here.
Become a Member: Find out more about becoming a CLOtC Member here.
About Buzz Education
Buzz Education have been helping education suppliers connect with schools and education establishments for over 13 years. Through their marketing to education campaigns, they help organisations to increase brand awareness and generate leads in the education sector. Driven by their Founder, Michael McVerry, who has over 24 years experience in education, Buzz Education can offer in depth knowledge and expertise. This allows them to be trusted by brands such as Decathlon, Apple, Samsung and more.
This blog post was written by:
Jennifer Murphy, Copywriter & Sustainability Lead at Buzz Education.
Jennifer’s worked with a diverse range of organisations during her 3 years at Buzz Education, helping organisations to promote their products and services to UK schools with eye-catching email campaigns. As the Sustainability Lead at Buzz Education, Jennifer is an advocate for nature and the environment, and loves spending time outdoors with her family and friends.
