Emailing schools has tended to get a lot of attention both because of the intervention into the market by companies selling very cheap lists and by the arrival of email lists of teachers at their own personal email address.
But it is interesting to note that in the midst of all this growth in email marketing, a return to favour of the shared mailing. Bookings at Hamilton House for shared mailings to schools are up 50% on last term.
From conversations and emails with members of this news group (a very unscientific survey of course, but still, one that gives a flavour what’s going on) it seems to me that a number of companies pulled out of shared mailings last year, went into email (because it is cheaper) and then moved back, simply because of the number of orders achieved.
Typical comments run along the lines that a generic email campaign (where one emails the administrator and asks for her to pass the message on) can be very cheap, but it only brings in a small number of replies. Those replies are profitable, but at the same time the company shrinks in size.
It doesn’t mean that email campaigns don’t work – but rather that on their own they are not enough simply because not enough people read an email campaign. Despite the fact that shared mailings have been around for 30 years, they can still reach more teachers than the more modern email. What’s more, all the evidence we have suggests that different teachers tend to respond to different media. Thus one teacher might respond to email, while another responds to shared, and so on.
Hamilton House as a company generally includes leaflets advertising its own products (courses for administrators and management reports for teachers, in particular) in the shared mailing packs, and so we are able to monitor orders, and certainly these are holding up well – where we change the language to accommodate the changes in the way people “read” advertising since the collapse of the economy.
There’s more about this in the new How To series of articles – www.hamilton-house.com and click on How To on the left side (second item down). Or give me a call on 01536 399 000. Or click reply to this email.
Or not, as the case may be. (More on shared at www.shared.org.uk and more on email lists of teachers at www.yesmail.org.uk/schools.html
Tony