on in Education PR
Before developing your marketing campaign, have you considered who the individual is that you’re targeting?
Do you know what their role involves and how the demands of the job fluctuate?
For instance, if I am a year 6 teacher, then yes, getting my kids through the SATs is important, but what particular elements are most concerning to me? Is it their maths, lack of relevant vocabulary or the fact that 10% of my class might not be getting breakfast before they come into school on the morning of the assessment?
Here are three things to remember when it comes to doing the audience research that will help you develop marketing campaigns that build trust in your brand and earn your product a place in schools.
The brilliant Teacher Tapp provides free data on a weekly basis on the mood, wants and needs of the teaching profession, so there is little excuse not to know what is on the minds of teachers.
If your budgets allow you can ask them to survey teachers directly with your own bespoke questions too.
Keyword research and ChatGPT are also useful for initial research. For ChatGPT, the prompts below will give you a good overview that you can add to/sense check – just make sure you use a paid version of ChatGPT for up-to-date information.
Social media is a rich source of knowledge in determining which issues are causing the most pain for our schools.
Facebook groups exist for Primary Heads, SENCos, Teachers of A Level History and so much more. A handful of these groups still allow non-teachers to join if you make a good case for it and stick to their policy of never posting promotional content.
Teachers on TikTok give great insight into what a teacher might find entertaining or useful in their classroom too.
The insights from these groups or relevant hashtags help you develop campaigns that speak to your audience’s pain points in their own language.
This seems obvious, but in the hubbub of day-to-day deadlines people often forget the importance of face-to-face meetings.
There are few things more useful than joining a sales rep on a visit to a school or interviewing an existing customer on what challenges brought them to buy your product.
Schools are busy so meetings may need to be conducted online if face to face is not possible. The important thing is to make an effort to regularly talk to your customers and not rely solely on second-hand information from the sales team.
By understanding your audience’s key concerns or issues, you’ll be able to build trust with schools – and for suppliers to the education sector, trust is the foundation for success.
Download our guide for more insight on how to maximise audience research before marketing to schools, or contact us if you’d like our help.
*Photo by Getty Images at Unsplash
Teachers aren’t just in the classroom anymore, they’re on TikTok, sharing their highs and lows of classroom life, swapping tips and entertaining their peers.
If you want to connect with UK educators through effective collaborations with influencers, then our free ‘Top UK Teacher Influencers on TikTok’ guide is perfect for you.
