on in Education PR
Schools and universities have to be very careful about who they work with. It’s why sometimes the sales process with an educational organisation can be very slow and cumbersome.
It’s probably why some of your marketing campaigns just don’t generate the number of leads you expect either.
This is why PR is so important in this sector.
Whereas marketing does a fabulous job promoting products and services, PR focuses on your brand. It helps articulate what your brand stands for and why schools and universities can trust it.
Someone brilliant once said that marketing is like asking someone out on a date. The PR and branding is the reason why they say yes.
Great PR speeds up your sales process.
PR is about using great messaging, creativity and the endorsement of third parties to build trust in your brand. A great PR team knows what makes your audiences tick and therefore can help you articulate what you want to say in a way that makes teachers, school leaders and faculty stop what they are doing and notice/like you.
PR does that in a variety of ways – media coverage, speaker slots at key industry events, podcast interviews, hard hitting content, influencer link ups and made-you-look messaging that gets to the heart of what your target audiences need.
We worked for a company which had created a new type of technology that could spot reading issues in young children, often before they became apparent to teachers. They engaged our PR services to build their reputation with schools and sell more products.
Prior to the business engaging us, the messaging they used often focused on the time-saving aspects of the assessments, the business’s academic pedigree (it was developed by university researchers) and AI elements within the technology. All very worthy messages. However, our work with schools had shown us that more human messaging, focussed on the child, was key to success.
So we updated some of the messaging to focus on early intervention and preventing children from falling behind their peers.
Following this shift, the product was soon being featured in the education press throughout the year and speaker slots were secured at key conferences.
For the broadcast media, we focused on what the technology could do that had never been possible before – the fact that the tech could spot the signs of dyslexia in a child in minutes, just by following how their eyes moved when they read. This messaging resulted in coverage on both The One Show and regional BBC programming demonstrating how the technology would revolutionise schools.
Traffic to the company’s web site and lead generation immediately spiked, with many new leads reporting that they were prompted to call because of the media coverage.
PR gave this business the right messaging to create greater interest from their audience and targeted the right channels to expose that new messaging more widely than before.
If you want more tips on how to improve your sales to schools, download our How to Sell to Schools Guide.
You can also take a look at the case studies section on our web site for more ideas on how PR can kick start your sales.
*Image by Kaboompics.com
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.
