Education Marketing

Tony Attwood

Hamilton House Mailings Ltd reg number 2444392 VAT 354907535GB.  Phone 01536 399 000.

HHM runs a series of news services for teachers – they subscribe (for free) and receive one or two news items a week.

At the end of each term we write a normal “that’s all for now” email, and invite subscribers to tell us if there is something they would like us to cover next term.

This year we’ve had a whole raft of teachers writing in saying, “can you do an equivalent to gocompare.com or comparethemarket.com for products and services teachers buy?”

Of course they didn’t all put it like that, but that was the sort of question they asked.

What we are thinking is that we would write to a relevant group of teachers and get their opinions on one specific topic.  So, to take one topic – Gap Year study – we would get in touch with all our subscribers to our sixth form and careers lists with two emails.

In the first we would simply ask if they remember the names of any Gap Year companies, and if they do, give their comments on them.   In the second, we would take the names of all the companies that were mentioned by teachers in the first (and any others that we wished to add) and ask the same question again – this time prompting them with the names of suppliers.

So anyone in that field who was interested would be able to see how many teachers directly remembered their company without a prompt, and then with a prompt, and what the teachers comments were about them, and about their competitors.

The current thinking is that we’d offer the final report to companies for a modest cost – although we would make the service available free of charge to Velocity clients.

We’re still planning it at this stage, and are not going to start until January, if we do start, but if you have any thoughts, or you think it is something you might welcome in your area of work, do let me know (along with details of what you do).   It’s a new venture for us, and we’ll be working through the ideas to see exactly how to make it work – so all input welcome.

If you would like to know more about Velocity, and how that can help your marketing, there’s details on http://www.velocity.ac/education.html

If you would like to advertise within the subscription news services we run there are details of subscriber numbers and costs on http://www.emails.gs/emailteachersdirect.html

Tony Attwood

I am often known to talk about the need for companies to communicate with customers and potential customers on all sorts of issues in a relaxed and informal style.

It is something that I try to do, not only here but also on the daily Education Marketing news service that runs via email.  (If you don’t receive these emails you can sign up free of charge by emailing education-marketing-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and then just clicking reply to the confirmation email.

But here’s a thought.  Why do I bother with those emails and this blog?

The email service is just finishing its tenth year - it started on January 2, 2000.  And as of today we have 1209 members on the group – which is I guess about 10% of the organisations that actively promote into schools.

Over the years the format has changed.  Initially I included regular information on schooling and government, but some 18 months back we launched www.ukeducationnews.co.uk where you can read all the latest news on education as it happens, minute by minute, 24 hours a day.  Now the focus is on marketing per se.  And a while back this blog was added as well.

Over the years there have been a few attempts to set up rival news services, some of which have claimed massive circulations, and which have then ceased publication.   One or two have even lifted the occasional article from here or from the How To section of www.hamilton-house.com but we seem to have ridden out most of these interruptions.

So, why do I spend my time writing a newsletter five days a week, with just a couple of weeks off in the summer and at Christmas?

Quite simply because about 40% of the calls from potential new customers we get involve the caller saying, “I have been reading your news service for a while and…”   In short it pays for itself in terms of getting HHM customers.

I believe that many companies in all sorts of fields could benefit by doing regular news items to potential customers.  If you are interested in exploring the idea, in confidence, for your company, give me a call.  01536 399 013.

Tony Attwood

Hamilton House Mailings

Increasingly we’re seeing companies that are undertaking solo postal mailings, and then following up with emails, and on occasion phone calls.

Although the final element (the phone call) can be difficult, the notion of a letter to the teacher which tells the teacher that an email is on the way, followed by the email, can be quite a good way of bringing in extra sales.

I’ve had this put to me a few times of late, and so we’re now offering our postal mailing lists of schools with generic email addresses and phone numbers added.

The key of course is the accuracy of the email address and phone number, so we are restricting the list to the schools where we have verified the email and phone number, on the phone, during the past term.    That doesn’t mean that every email address or phone number is going to be right – but there’s probably a greater chance of this being so than in many other cases.

The exact cost of the list depends on how many you buy, but here is an example for between 2000 and 10,000 addresses purchased together.

First, those addresses provided for once only use:

Name and address only: 7p each.   Name and address, plus generic email, plus phone: 11p each.

And those same addresses provided for unlimited use for a year:

Name and address only: 21p each.  Name and address, plus generic email, plus phone: 24p each.

You can of course select by all the usual criteria: age range, school funding, school size, postcode, LA, county, specialism…

If you have any questions, please do give us a call on 01536 399 000.

Tony Attwood

Hamilton House Mailings Ltd reg number 2444392 VAT 354907535GB.  Phone 01536 399 000.

Every term Hamilton House produces a detailed report on school purchasing, incorporating government changes, levels of funding, which media are working, and when to promote.

For the new edition (covering January to April 2011) we’ve made wholesale changes to the format and approach, reflecting the completely new vision for schooling of the Coalition Government.

The report is now available, free of charge, at http://www.hamilton-house.com/free%20reports/When.pdf

If there’s something you are looking for, but it is not in the report, please do let me know (Tony@hamilton-house.com – or call 01536 399 013).

Tony Attwood

• Business studies – despatch Jan 6th, copy deadline Dec 22 (noon)

• DT – despatch Jan 10th, copy deadline Jan 4 (5pm)

• Primary schools – despatch Jan 13th, copy deadline Jan 7th

• Science – despatch Jan 13th, copy deadline Jan 7th

Hamilton House Mailings Ltd reg number 2444392 VAT 354907535GB.  Phone 01536 399 000.

The Personal, Preference and Subscription email services of Hamilton House are limited in terms of how many go out a week, and many are already booked up throughout December.

But we do have a few spaces on some of our lists, and as usual we are now making these available at 50% off the stated price.

If you would like to experiment and see why people continue to email teachers at their direct addresses through December, here’s a short list of some of the slots available.  But please remember there is only one slot in each subject, so there’s no guarantee how long any of these slots will be available.  (To see the total numbers in each list please see www.emails.gs or call 01536 399 000.  Likewise to make a booking please call 01536 399 000.)

Week commencing 6th December

Secondary personal – Foreign languages, music, art, geography are available

Subscription lists available: Primary heads, marketing/PR, careers/sixth form, admin, English/drama, history, sustainability, maths, behaviour, music, PSHE, SENCO, school trips.

Preference lists – all sold

Week commencing 13th December

Secondary personal available – SENCO, English, foreign languages, business studies, D&T, music, art, geography, RE, PE.

Subscription lists available : secondary heads and all subjects above except Careers/sixth form.

Preference lists: 1 position available (any subject you wish to choose).

Prices (with December offer prices at the end) are…

Tony Attwood

Hamilton House Mailings Ltd reg number 2444392 VAT 354907535GB.  Phone 01536 399 000.

Hamilton House Mailings Ltd reg number 2444392 VAT 354907535GB.  Phone 01536 399 000.