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Email marketing offers
your business an inexpensive
and potentially very
responsive route into the
schools market. Schools, and
the teachers responsible for
buying for them, respond to
certain types of approaches
better than others.
On this page, learn some of
the approaches and methods
that have worked best for
our customers and why they
work. Look out for
information on...
1)
Be sure on who within the
school you're targeting,
2)
Get the main point of your
message over in 3 seconds,
3)
The buying cycle applies to
schools - what it means, and
4)
The importance of the
minimum order.
The next page (there's a
link at the bottom as well
to take you straight
through) covers more
important consideration when
putting together a
successful campaign...
5)
Choosing what you offer -
the importance of being
selective,
6)
Phone calls are always
better than websites,
7)
The relationship they have
with their current supplier,
8)
How schools like to buy
9)
If you can, namedrop other
schools you've worked for,
and
10)
You really need to get to
schools more than the one
time |
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What
happens when your email is sent
to the school?
The email is first delivered
into the administration
department of the school. This
may be one person if the school
is small or a whole team for the
largest schools. Sometimes, this
part of the school is called the
bursar's department or the
business management team.
Many schools have a specific
policy of only receiving
incoming emails at the
administration address. The
email is then forwarded to the
relevant teacher by the
administrator. What we advice is
that, in the subject line, you
allow us to put "For the
attention of the Head of
English", for example.
If you are
targeting nurseries or
primaries...
...the headteacher
normally has overriding
purchasing authority. S/he
may, however, be adviced by key
members of staff. If you are
selling something that may be of
interest to subject-related
members of staff, if you address
it for the "(Subject) Co-ordinator".
Co-ordinators within
nurseries and primaries -
Art, Citizenship, English &
Literacy, Geography, History,
IT, Mathematics, Music, Physical
Education, PSE, RE, Science,
Technology, Special Needs
If what you offer does
not relate directly to one of
the co-ordinators most likely to
be in place within these
schools, you should mark the
email for the attention of the
head teacher or for one of the
shared classifications below.
If you are
targeting secondary schools...
...the headteacher is
only one decision maker within
the school although s/he usually
signs everything off. Budgets
for secondaries
are much much higher than for
other schools and, normally, the
head teacher will allocate a
certain budget per department
which is administered by the
heads of those departments.
Heads with secondaries
- Art
& Design, Biology, Business
Studies, Careers, Chemistry,
Citizenship Studies, Classics,
Technology, Drama, Economics,
English, Food Science, French,
Geography, German, History, ICT,
Maths, Media Studies, Modern
Languagues, Music, PE,
Performing Arts, Physics, PSE,
Psychology, RE, Science,
Sociology, Spanish Language,
Special Needs
As with primaries, if your offer
is not applicable, please use
one of the shared
classifications below...
Shared
classifications
All types of schools
share certain types of
representatives, the most
obvious being "Head Teacher" and
"Deputy Head". There are also
other classifications you can
consider, which are...
Shareds - Head of
Sixth Form, Pastoral Head,
Bursar, School Secretary,
Librarian
Call us free on 0800 652
6627 to talk about which contact
would be best to make your email
for the attention of. |
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Even though we
only send a very limited number
of emails a week for customers,
think about the day the school
secretary or administrator is
having.
S/he'll be rushed off her/his
feet - could you imagine how
difficult it is keeping an
average secondary school
running, for example? There may
be 1,000 pupils and over 100
staff to cope with every day,
together with lots of incoming
phone calls, letters, parental
visits and so on.
That's why you should always put
the name of the intended
recipient in the subject line -
it saves the administrator
spending valuable time reading
your message then deciding who
s/he should forward it on to.
The person within the school
you're targeting - when the
email gets to him/her, make it
interesting and understandable
from the off. We can help you do
that with a few simple but
important techniques about
wording and placement in your
email. |
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Depending on what your product or service
is, the schools and the teachers you want to
buy from you will come into the "buying
cycle" at certain intervals. If you're a
stationery supplier, the buying cycle might
occur once a month - if you supply fitted
air conditioning systems and service them,
the buying cycle might only occur every five
to ten years.
When someone is out of the buying cycle,
there's NOTHING you can do to bring them
back in. No matter how attractive your
offer, no matter how brilliant the advert
design may be, they just don't need what you
have.
Accept that when you send an email off, only
3-5 out of every 100 or more you contact
will be in a position to buy - they have the
need and they have the cash.
Work with us to make the most attractive and
most interesting approach to schools
possible. |
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Unless your business model is different from
most other companies and you are happy with
loss leaders to get new customers through
the door because history shows they always
come back, a minimum order is crucial for a
good return on investment, particularly if
you are just doing a one-off campaign.
If you're emailing existing
customers, open rates are typically between
10-30% and response rates a tenth of that.
Response builds up the more times schools
see your email and become accustomed to you
- that's why we recommend a multi-part
campaign with us.
Try making £50 per sale from schools - not
£5 per sale or you'll find yourself frustrated
and you won't see a return. |
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