020 7117 6015
sdcsadcs

Category: Digital marketing

How education brands can reach primary school teachers on TikTok

on Posted by Catherine Lane

How education brands can reach primary school teachers on TikTok

Reaching teachers has never been harder, inboxes are crowded, budgets are tight, and attention is limited. Yet on TikTok, teachers are relaxed, curious, and open to new ideas. That’s why education brands are turning to the platform to connect with primary teachers through content that feels genuine, useful, and worth their time.

Over a quarter of UK teachers are now active on TikTok, and unlike other platforms where engagement is dropping, the appetite for classroom content on here keeps growing.

Through our work with teacher influencers and education campaigns, we’ve seen how TikTok can turn awareness into trust, engagement and action. Below, we have highlighted a few influencers that might be relevant to brands looking to influence primary school teachers.

 

Why TikTok works for reaching primary school teachers

Primary school teachers go to TikTok for ideas that make their day easier such as, lesson inspiration, wellbeing tips, and relatable humour. They’re not looking for polished brand videos, but for content that feels genuine and human.

Influencers have built communities of teachers who trust them, listen to them, and act on their recommendations. Working with these influencers helps education brands reach teachers in a more authentic way.

 

The primary school influencers getting it right

Here are three teacher influencers who show the kind of creativity and authenticity that’s driving engagement on TikTok, you’ll find more great influencers in our full guide.

  1. Kit Brown (@kjbr0wn)

Who he is: A former professional footballer turned UK primary school teacher, Kit brings humour and energy to his classroom content.

What he covers: Kit’s videos blend football and teaching with clever classroom engagement tips. His viral post — “How I get the attention of my class (shouts Cristiano Ronaldo)” — reached over 70.6 million views, and his feed is full of relatable, light-hearted takes on school life.

Why he stands out: With 2 million followers, 69.7 million likes, and engagement levels of 9–10%, Kit has built one of the most loyal teacher audiences on TikTok. His partnerships, like his collaboration with Birds Eye for the Alphabites Challenge are a great example of how being funny and authentic helps a brand message come across naturally.

Best fit for brands: Ideal for campaigns around classroom engagement, nutrition, or health and wellbeing, especially those looking to connect with teachers through storytelling and personality.

  1. Thomas Blakemore (@thomasblakemore)

Who he is: Thomas Blakemore is a UK primary teacher who’s also taught overseas, he shares honest stories about classroom life and teacher wellbeing.

What he covers: Thomas creates daily videos about teacher wellbeing, classroom management, and the challenges of education both in the UK and abroad. His followers value his honesty and practical advice from managing teacher workloads to using technology in teaching.

Why he stands out: With 95.5K followers, 2 million likes, and engagement levels of 4–6%, Thomas strikes a good balance between inspiration and authenticity. He has worked with EdTech brand Gamma on how to create engaging lesson slides.

Best fit for brands: Thomas would be a good fit for any EdTech, teacher wellbeing, and teacher professional development campaigns.

  1. Miss Taylor (@misstaylorteachesprimary)

Who she is: Samantha Taylor is a UK primary school teacher whose friendly, down-to-earth style makes her very relatable to teachers.

What she covers: Her content focuses on classroom management, early career teacher tips, and practical wellbeing advice. Posts like “Teachers – this is how to get their attention!” and “Classroom management strategies” regularly hit six-figure views.

Why she stands out: With 23.9K followers, 175.5K likes, and engagement of 1–4%, Miss Taylor’s feed offers a steady mix of humour, practical guidance, and positivity. She’s partnered with Ryman on “Back to School Shopping” campaigns.

Best fit for brands: She would be really suitable for any classroom supplies, stationery, or wellbeing-related campaigns, particularly for brands who want to target new or early career teachers.

 

What Education Brands Can Learn From these Creators

  1. Authenticity over advertising
    Teachers respond to real people sharing real stories. Overly branded or scripted content is never as successful.
  2. Value over volume
    A useful classroom idea, a relatable moment, or a wellbeing reminder usually outperforms polished ads.
  3. Trust over trends.
    The most effective creators have earned the trust of their followers and that’s what makes their endorsements really powerful.

Tip: It’s important to give influencers a clear brief and objectives, but also to let them create content that is authentic for them.

 

Planning and Measuring Your Campaign

When developing your TikTok strategy, start by defining success:

  • If you want brand awareness, work with visible influencers who post frequently and create short, relatable videos.
  • For sign-ups or conversions, choose smaller, more engaged influencers and offer valuable content like free lesson plans or product trials.
  • For behaviour change (e.g. wellbeing or sustainability), build multi-post campaigns over time and reinforce messages across multiple channels.

Measure what matters: clicks, saves, downloads, and conversations, not just likes.

 

Final Thoughts

TikTok is where teachers talk, laugh, and learn. For education brands, partnering with the right influencers is one of the most effective ways to reach this audience in an authentic and engaging way.

To discover more teacher influencers who can help your brand connect with educators, download our Top UK Teacher Influencers on TikTok guide or get in touch at hello@theinfluencecrowd.co.uk

How to run a teacher influencer campaign on TikTok

on Posted by Catherine Lane

How to run a teacher influencer campaign on TikTok

 

When the school day ends, teachers aren’t rushing to check their inboxes.  They’re more likely to be decompressing, scrolling social media for something funny, a classroom hack or a wellbeing tip. And very often they are heading to TikTok for their post-work relaxation fix.

So, if you want to reach teachers, it’s vital you include TikTok in your marketing mix.

But how do you know what works, what flops and what sparks real engagement.

Getting it right in the education sector takes more than offering discounts, it’s about smart planning, the right partnerships and clear briefs.

It also means not falling foul of some common misconceptions. Here are a few we see time and again:

 

Common misconceptions

1. “If I’m selling a music resource, I need a music influencer”
That’s not always the case.  One of our most successful music campaigns (see below for more details) was fronted by more general teacher influencers.  The reason why, is because teachers follow who they relate to, not just subject specialists.  For example, Mr H isn’t a music teacher but his day in the life humorous content makes him relatable and a trusted source.  When he shared a music lesson from our client, which involved him learning to sing, engagement spiked.

Tip: Trust and relatability are key

 

2. “Competitions are the best way to drive engagement”
We’ve tested this.  Teachers are busy.  They don’t want to tag five colleagues or jump through hoops for a giveaway.   What they do want is something useful, a free lesson plan, a classroom tip or resource they can use in their classroom tomorrow.

Tip: A post with a useful downloadable resource often outperforms a competition

 

3.  “A big audience means better results”
We’ve worked with influencers who have 10k followers that have outperformed those with 100k.  Why?  Because their audience is loyal, engaged and full of teachers who save, comment and share.

Tip: A smaller niche influencer who is trusted by their community can drive more sign ups than an influencer with a huge following

Once you set aside these assumptions, the next step is to design your influencer campaign around what you want to achieve.

 

Tailoring your campaign to your goals

It’s important to know what success looks like as this will shape everything you do from who you work with, to what content they create.

For example:

If your goal is awareness:

  • Work with influencers who have high visibility
  • Focus on short, relatable content that introduces your brand or product
  • Don’t expect sign ups this is about being seen

If your goal is sign ups or trials

  • Choose influencers who teachers trust and who have high engagement
  • Offer something useful (e.g. free lesson plans, trial access)
  • Use clear call to actions

If your goal is to change behaviour

  • Build a series of posts not just one offs
  • Use storytelling and real classroom examples
  • Reinforce messages across multiple channels (TikTok, Meta)

Here’s a few more tips to make sure your influencer campaign is a success:

  • Evenings and weekends rule: Obviously during the day teachers are in the classroom so most influencers post their content outside school hours.  Make sure this is when your content goes live.
  • Keep it short and simple: Teachers don’t want long product demos.  We’ve found quick tips, classroom hacks and bite sized lesson ideas work really well.
  • Contracts matter: Having a clear brief alongside a written contract will protect you and the influencer.

 

What happens when you get it right

When the Ear Academy approached us to help launch their new music platform for primary schools, they had just four weeks to attract the attention of primary schools.

As we had to interest teachers fast, we created Musical Mondays, a three week mini series of free Key Stage 2 music lesson plans.  As part of the campaign, we worked with trusted influencers including, Mr P ICT, Mr H and Miss Taylor, who shared the lessons and engaging content on TikTok and Instagram.  We also used Meta ads and email marketing to support the activity.

The results

  • Nearly 300 teachers signed up to Musical Mondays in just four weeks
  • Almost 700 likes across influencer content
  • Nearly 30,000 total views (11.1K on Instagram and 18.4K on TikTok) across influencer content
  • 97% of teachers who signed up engaged with the resources
  • Potential for 9,000 children to enjoy music in their classrooms

This example shows how teacher-focused content, delivered in the right way, can drive quick results even with limited time and budget.  But how do you decide what is a successful campaign?

 

Understanding teachers

Influencer campaigns in education aren’t about the latest trends or chasing big numbers.  They’re about really understanding teachers, what they need, how they behave online and who they listen to.

If you would like to see which teacher influencers could help your brand connect in the right way then download our guide to Top UK Teacher Influencers on TikTok or email us at hello@theinfluencecrowd.co.uk

 

 

 

How to get media coverage for your online tutoring brand

on Posted by Catherine Lane

How to get media coverage for your online tutoring brand

It’s a long old time since we were stuck at home with nothing but a laptop and our families to keep us company, but the pandemic marked a big shift in how we learnt. Suddenly everything from French GCSE revision to guitar lessons went to an online only model.

The net result of this was a ton of investment poured into the online tutoring sector and overnight what felt like a million* new providers entered the market.

 

How to stand out in a competitive marketplace

Fast forward to the present and online tutoring remains one of the most competitive sectors in education. Especially in terms of Google ads and SEO rankings.

It is therefore hard for your brand to stand out in the crowd. Unless you use PR.

A smart PR campaign can help you stand out from the pack, show your personality as a brand and drive traffic to your site.

The only hurdle with this approach is that securing coverage in the media is not straightforward. You can’t just contact the One Show or The Times and say, ‘Hey we are doing interesting stuff, you should feature us.’

Instead, you need to find a way to turn your company’s story into one the media wants to cover and that takes practice.

To help, we’ve come up with a fictional brand and created some feasible news stories for it so you can see how the PR alchemy works.

 

Our online tutoring company

Meet ‘A Class of Your Own’ an ambitious online tutoring company that has been teaching adult learners and teenagers online for 2 years. They are popular with many hundreds of learners but have big ambitions to grow.

They feel growing their adult cohort of learners would be the best way for them to hit the big time and want their PR agency to help out.

Now the brief from the business to the PR agency goes something like this: “We want coverage for the news that we offer the best adult learning courses – anything from maths to singing – from the comfort of learners’ homes.’

The PR team’s job is to then turn this brief into something that the media and social channels want to feature.

If you were part of the fictitious PR team, here’s how you could go about it.

 

Prepare a media campaign

The first thing to do is a little research within the business and in the wider world to find out what news hooks could be used. These are the steps to follow:

  1. Know who you are targeting

Before you get started you need to know everything about the audience you are targeting and what media they are consuming (social, broadcast, podcasts, digital etc). This will enable you to know what sort of stories they would be interested in and which media you should target.

I am going to assume for this example that we are targeting any adult with disposable income.

  1. Research potential news angles

The next job is to find out what is going on both inside and outside of your business that might provide some key hooks for your story.

Here are a few key questions you’d want to ask the people in the know across the business.

a) What data do you have on your courses?

  • Which are the most popular?
  • Which are the most likely to be finished/abandoned?
  • What trends are there – is there a pattern to when people take up courses? Do music courses peak in summer or Christmas, for example?

b) What do you know about your tutors and learners?

  • Are there any interesting or unusual tutors on the platform? For example a former band member, space scientist or Countdown winner that could provide a quirky story angle?
  • Can you uncover any trends in age or location of learners that could be used for a PR angle?

You also want to find out what’s going on beyond the business that could spark a story angle.

c) What is happening in wider society that could relate in some way to the brand?

  • What cultural events are happening: big TV shows, movies, music star tours?
  • What calendar events could you link the story into: Christmas, Halloween, Back to School?
  • What societal changes are relevant, both positive and negative that you may be able to draw on for inspiration: an increased number of people living alone, more mental health issues, rising literacy rates, increased number of adults who speak English as a second language etc?

Once you have completed this task, you will start to see some obvious story ideas appearing. Some may be strong enough to go with as they are. Others may need additional data, an expert or some case study interviews to create a story package, but you are on your way to top notch media hits.

 

I can imagine a few stories emerging from this exercise depending on the information you might glean.

Story Idea 1

Headline:

The Singing Side Effect of The Voice Being Back on our Screens

The Story:

Data from A Class of Your Own online tutoring platform shows that demand for singing lessons jumps 200% each time The Voice airs on our screens. In fact, in the month following the show, popularity for singing lessons surpassed maths and English, traditionally the most popular online courses.

Why this story works

Because it contains a number of elements the media loves:

  • It’s fun – anyone can imagine sitting at home and suddenly getting the urge to be the next Celine Dion or Sabrina Carpenter as a result of watching someone else attempting their classics on screen.
  • It’s got data – there is some factual proof of a trend as you have a 200% uplift in courses being taken.
  • It’s timely – it will hit the press at the same time as The Voice is airing on screen and when the media is covering the series any way. Timeliness is a big factor in whether your story will be covered or not.
  • It has the potential to be visual and aural – if you can provide a few case studies of customers who have taken up singing as a result of The Voice, you have something to film, photograph and hear. This means the print media, radio and TV/online video channels are all covered, giving you more chances of coverage.

Extension ideas:

If you want to then make the most of the media coverage to drive leads (and why would you not?), this can be done too.

  • Show ‘how to’ from your tutors on YouTube/Insta/TikTok in the weeks The Voice is on air. These could be used to show how to master a particular technique that was on the episode that week or what went wrong if any contestant fails to hit a note.
  • Invite a popular YouTuber to learn how to sing with one of your tutors as if they were a contestant on the show and ask them to document their progress.

 

Story Idea 2

Note: This story will require an additional survey of parents to be used alongside the data from the tutor platform, but that can easily be sourced from a survey agency like YouGov for a fee.

Headline:

The Toughest Lesson to Teach Your Kids: Why so many parents are taking up online maths courses

The Story:

Data from A Class of Your Own online tutoring network shows that the homework subject parents struggle the most to help their kids with is maths – 7 in 10 parents stated it was the subject they felt most uncomfortable with. According to the tutoring experts, this is why A Class of Your Own has had a surge in the number of adults signing up to brush up on their maths skills, with rates increasing ten-fold in exam season.

Extension ideas:

  • Offer free taster and parent guides on key maths topics adults struggle with like geometry to drive traffic to your site and sign ups
  • One of the brand’s tutors could film themselves teaching algebra to a parent influencer on TikTok, who would in turn offer a discount code for tutoring to their followers

 

Story Idea 3

Headline:

The hardest three words you will ever say in English and it’s not ‘I love you’

The Story:
According to experts the hardest three words to say for new learners to English are not ‘I love you.’

Instead, ‘Squirrel’, ‘Rural’ and ‘Worcestershire’ rate as the top three in a survey of over 200 English as an additional language learners on A Class of Your Own online tutoring platform.

You can offer one of your tutors to talk to the media about why English pronunciations can be so challenging.

Extension ideas:

  • Offer free videos on how to pronounce difficult English words
  • This can be supported by a vibrant social ad campaign
  • Challenge online influencers who speak English as a first language to say a complicated sentence that includes the 3 most difficult words and ask them to include their outtakes, as well as the successful attempt. This will show that even for native English speakers these words can sometimes be difficult.

 

Hopefully you can see how these stories are much more engaging and likely to secure wider coverage for a brand than a simple ‘company x does great x courses’ which is unlikely to be picked up by any outlet.

If you want advice on how to turn your company news into headline news, please feel free to email us on hello@theinfluencecrowd.co.uk. We will happily help out.

 

*Image by Dreamstime.com

Time is ticking, are you ready for Google Analytics 4?

on Posted by Chris Lane

Digital analysis is an essential ingredient in the recipe for most PR and marketing campaigns. Since it first launched back in 2005, Google Analytics has become a mainstay for brands looking to track campaign performance.

It has completely transformed the way businesses understand their customers’ behaviour, from their first visit to a website through to a sign-up or purchase.

However, change is coming, and Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is set to replace the current version – Universal Analytics – on 1st July 2023. After that date, Universal Analytics will no longer collect your data.

July may seem a long way off, but now is the time to do the groundwork for the move to GA4. If you’re not prepared, you could find yourself on the back foot, analysing your website without any historical data.

Why is Google Analytics changing?

When Universal Analytics was first developed, there wasn’t anything like the complexity of today’s multi-channel, multi-device, multi-platform and customer engagement. That’s why GA4 is not simply an update, it is a complete rebuild which should take digital analysis into a new dimension.

The navigation will take some getting used to, but with separate tools for data collection, reporting and analysis, GA4 should give you a better view of your existing and prospective customers’ behaviour. With the new interface, you can more effectively track where your users come from, how they interact on your site and where they exit.

Google has also implemented machine learning technology into GA4 to allow for predictive customer insights, and many businesses will welcome the improved integration with Google Ads.

Better insight into conversions

One of the changes we’re most excited about is the advancement in conversion tracking.

While Universal Analytics focuses on page views and sessions, GA4 is more of an events-based platform. That means it gives you more information about the actions people take on your site, such as starting a sale, downloading a white paper or clicking on ‘contact us’ – and the paths they took to get them to this point.

This is incredibly useful in understanding what drives people to convert and will help you see which of your marketing approaches are most successful within each of your customer types.

So when you have set up your GA4 property, it’s a good idea to look at creating some of these events straight away so you can start measuring the key actions you want people to take. With GA4, there are clear parameters that allow you to define events very specifically. This enables you to look in detail at the actions taking place on your site.

The earlier you do this, the better as you’ll see what is driving customer activity over time and can adjust your marketing and PR to bring more people to your site and keep them engaged.

If you know the customers buying your product are coming from Google Ads or the people signing up to your webinar are coming from Facebook, this knowledge will help you improve your conversion rate.

It’s time to create a GA4 property

The first step is to create a GA4 property in your Google Analytics account if you haven’t already done so, and we’ll show you how to do it later in the blog. This will enable GA4 to start recording your information from the moment you set up the property.

Don’t worry if you’re not quite ready to make the full transition to GA4. Your current Universal Analytics tracking will run alongside GA4 until July, so you can continue your day-to-day reporting for now, giving you time to think about your tracking and analysis needs in the months ahead.

The benefit is that when you do make the move to GA4, you will already have collected some valuable comparison data.

How to set up a GA4 property

You can set up a GA4 property in a few simple steps.

  1. Go to your Google Analytics account and click on admin and setup assistant.

Google Analytics 4 set up

 

 

2. Click on properties and create the new GA4 property. Give it a name.

Google Analytics 4 property

 

3. Add the new GA4 tracking tag to your site. This is easy to do if you use Google Tag Manager. Alternatively, you will need to put code onto your site so that information will be pulled into the new GA4 property.

 

4. Set up new tracking items as the ones you used in Universal Analytics will not migrate across. This could include events, goals (conversions) and audiences.

 

5. Make sure the new events you set up reflect the actions you want your customers and prospects to take and the goals you want to achieve.

 

6. Take the opportunity to create more sophisticated audiences based on the improved information you will have from GA4 about attribution. This will help you target customers more effectively and you can also use this information to get more from other platforms such as Google Ads.

 

7. Check that your new GA4 account integrates with the other platforms you use, as integration will not take place automatically.

Make GA4 work for your business

Once everything is in place, you will want to be sure that GA4 is collecting data in the most useful way for your business. Check the events you’ve set up are tracking properly and the tags are firing correctly so you are getting exactly the information you need for your PR and marketing strategies.

It’s also worth remembering that although Universal Analytics will no longer collect your data after next July, you will still be able to download the previously processed data it holds for some time afterwards.

But think carefully about what you decide to download, and just focus on the key data you need for your business decisions.

While it may seem like an added headache you don’t need, setting up GA4 now will ensure a smoother transition in the months to come.

It also provides a great opportunity to review your data goals long before the July deadline comes along.

If you would like to read more about digital marketing analysis, read our blogs on keyword research and targeting teachers on Facebook.

 

Image by Bruno /Germany from Pixabay

Get in touch

Hello

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.