Education Marketing

There is evidence that a growing number of teachers are reading blogs regularly – and in fact I am going to get some research done next term to try and find out exactly how many.

 

But here’s a few which were recommended in a Teachers News email recently and which come from a variety of writers – just in case you wanted to get a taste.

 

I am not putting these forward as great examples of blogging, but rather four that I have just picked up through another site.  They simply show different ways in which people are using the system.

 

If you want to develop your own blog, do let us know.

 

www.classroomtales.com

www.livinggeography.blogspot.com

www.chrisleach78.wordpress.com

www.teacherbootcamp.edublogs.org

www.ideasforteachers.wordpress.com

 

 

Marketing to schools in the holidays is something of a recent idea – we tried out for the first time when personal email addresses became available.

 

I have to admit that at the start I didn’t really think this would get us too far – after all the rule for some 30 years had been: stop advertising two weeks before the end of term, and then start advertising again one week after the start of term when teachers have had time to go back.

 

But the half term and full term holidays have proven to be places where some firms can advertise with success, using the Personal and Subscription email services.

 

We’ve done a spot of research into this, and found some interesting answers.

 

1. Some teachers now have school laptops and they are able to take these home with them in the holidays to undertake preparation etc.  These laptops receive their personal email through the school system – and thus when they log on, our emails appear.
2. Some teachers log on to the school learning platform through their own computer at home, and access their mail that way.
3. Some go in to work during the holidays – perhaps a few days before the start of term.

 

In all these cases the promotional emails they pick up have an extra power because

 

a)      The teacher is less pressured – this being the holiday period

b)      We only send out one email to these teachers a week, and hence the most they are likely to receive are a couple of emails – hardly an overload.

 

To promote this trend we are launching a couple of additional services for the next two weeks.

 

First, where we do have an advertisement to send out on the Subscription network we will first send out an item of news for the teacher – usually relating to some free resources, and usually one day before – just to whet the appetite.

 

Second, we will be running a campaign regularly on www.ukeducationnews.co.uk – the rolling news service – suggesting that teachers might care to take a look at their emails over the holidays. 

 

During this period all the emails that we send out on the personal and subscription services will be at half price.   There’s a full price list on www.emails.gs  

 

If you have any enquiries please do call us on 01536 399 000

 

Tony Attwood

From Monday onwards and for the next 2 weeks, emails booked through Hamilton House on our subscription, personal and preference lists will be available at half price.

Most schools in England are operational next week up to and including Thursday.  A minority of schools finish today for two weeks.

Over the past year we have been experimenting with advertisements to teachers on these lists during half terms and holidays, and had considerable success. 

Because the subscription and the personal email lists go straight to the teachers and not via the school admin, there is every chance they will pick up the message during the holidays.   What’s more, because the teachers have less pressure during the holidays they tend to take longer over the messages, click links through and generally look in more detail.

Many of these teachers clearly have access to these emails through the holidays either through school lap tops or through picking up emails to their personal school address at home.  But those who don’t will pick them up on their return to school.

Because we limit each teacher to just one email per week, and because these private email addresses are not circulated commercially, even teachers who have not picked up their emails during the holidays will have little in their in-box upon return.

If you would like to know more about our email lists there are details on www.emails.gs    If you would like to check on availability of any list during the next two weeks, when the half price service is available, just call 01536 399 000.

Tony Attwood

Hamilton House Mailings Ltd  

One reason for this is obvious – the only way people can get onto our subscription lists is by applying to receive the emails we send them.  So it is quite likely that having done that they’ll read what we send them.

But there is a second reason why the subscription lists are so responsive, and that is to do with the way the pieces are written.

Now this in itself can cause concern among those who advertise through the subscription lists, because our editorial team is quite shirty about letting through announcements that proclaim 50% DISCOUNT, and talk about THIS AWARD WINNING SOFTWARE etc.

Emails to teachers on our subscription lists are not written that way at all in fact.  They are actually much more restrained, and talk about the issues, the problems and so forth, before gently moving onto the solution and the benefits.

And through this approach the response rate goes up.  It almost seems as if when we stop SHOUTING AT TEACHERS and TELLING THEM HOW GOOD WE ARE they start to believe us a bit more.

In other words we write emails to teachers on our subscription lists in a way that they find acceptable to read.  Because of this they stay on the subscription list, and keep reading.

There are details of the various email subscription lists of teachers at http://www.emails.gs/emailteachersdirect.html - or to find out more please do call 01536 399 000.   On that web site page there is also a link to a page that has examples of emails we have sent out.  

Tony Attwood

PS: If you have been in this business a few years you might remember the Toppled Bollard – the mythical pub that was the centre of energetic debate on direct mail issues.  Although the stories from the Bollard stopped a year or more ago, I still get asked about it – so they are starting up again as a blog at www.blog.toppled.info   Hope you enjoy it.

Until a few years ago the only way to market to school was to undertake each part of your campaign individually – so you might buy a shared mailing, and then an email transmission, and so on.

We then introduced an alternative – a way in which you pay a monthly fee, and get access to a wide range of marketing services, including the new high level email lists, copywriting, research of new email lists that no one has, blog writing, research into teacher buying habits, PR, web site writing… 

All for a set monthly fee.

The service, known as Velocity, has grown and grown, and I’ve just done an update on the web site that describes it….  www.velocity.ac    You only need to read the home page to get a feel of what it is about.

Hope you find it interest – do give me a call.  01536 399 000

Tony Attwood

Hamilton House Mailings Ltd

School term ends on 26 March or 1 April (depending on where the school is based).   Either way the schools have to spend this year’s money (or at least 92% of it) by April 5^th.

 

Not every company has been experiencing a huge upturn in spending as some schools seek to get rid of their money before the due date – but it has been happening, and certainly in our publishing company at Hamilton House there has been quite an upturn.

 

There is still time to reach schools before the end of the term – with email now being the best route. 

 

There are four different types of email service, ranging from emails to the teachers’ own email addresses, selected by subject, through to the generic email address of the school.

 

If you want more information, it is on www.emails.gs - or call 01536 399 000.

 

But what is going to happen in the new financial year?

 

The key point is that the spending for 2010/11 is exactly that laid down three years ago in the 3-year spending projection.  Nothing has been cut.

 

In the Pre-Budget Report in November the Chancellor set out plans for the schools system with a real terms increase of 0.7 per cent combined with an expectation that schools should make efficiency savings of 0.9 per cent – equal to more than £1 billion over 2011-12 and 2012-13.

 

Those figures are likely to be bandied around by the press in the coming days – but it is vital to remember that these numbers are not for the year starting in April 2010 – but the year after that.

 

And of course, should all the teachers in the country decide to vote Liberal Democrat (as the party that has said they will immediately increase the education budget in England by £2bn) we could have a hung parliament or a Liberal government.   Which would then mean a completely new set of figures for 2011.

 

But to step back from politics, my message is that 2010/11 is secure in terms of spending, and is looking rather promising.   Apart from the email services, there are also the shared and solo mailings running as usual.

 

If you have any thoughts or questions on marketing to schools, please do give Hamilton House a call on 01536 399 000.  Or email sales@hamilton-house.com

While the Lib Dems have announced a £2bn growth in the education budget if they come to power, and the Conservatives have promised to cut services more than Labour, Labour have just found another £300 million savings in DCSF and agency budgets announced -Linked to this finding, primary schools will have access to up to a thousand extra school business managers under a scheme launched to help schools make their money go further.

And the Schools Secretary, also confirmed details on how the Government will reduce spending by the DCSF and its partners.

According to the DCSF School Business Managers have been shown to save schools up £30,000 in a year.  The National College for Leadership of Schools and Children Services is to invest £5 million to fund 250 school business managers next year, each working with four or five schools, with a further 250 more in each of the following three years.

This means that schools in England now have access to:

·        school business managers working to save money in clusters of primary schools

·        Free consultancy support on how to save money

·        Advice and guidance from the DCSF and National College on partnership working, procurement and delivering value for money

The DCSF has said it will take the lead on saving money by:

- Reducing spending on Government agencies by £135M
- Cutting start-up costs for extended services by £100M
- Reducing bursaries for initial teacher training, saving £50M
- £21M savings on DCSF back office and communications spending, including moving Teachers TV online.

Together all these savings add up to over £300 million over 2 years, with work underway to identify a further £200 million worth of savings, as agreed with the Treasury at the Pre-Budget Report.

The new school business managers will work across for four or five primary schools, helping them save significant money off their budgets, so that the schools’ front line service is maintained and improved.

Currently only a third of all primary schools have business managers. Those that do report that on average, they are generating an additional £30,000 a year for the schools, through managing budgets effectively, maximising resources and securing additional income streams.

This announcement is in addition to the free consultancy advice that all schools can access on how best to save money. 96 per cent of schools who have received this consultancy have said they would recommend it to other schools.

In November DCSF published a discussion document to help schools hare best practice on making the best use of resources and NCSL have organised a series of conferences where schools have shared best practice.

Areas on which schools believe they can save money include on procurement and back office functions and through federations and collaboration.

The Government believes that savings can be made centrally, and through its partner Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs).

All NDPBs are expected to make efficiency savings, but in particular the Government plans to save around 40 per cent of Becta’s budget (£45M over the two years 2011-13) and 30 per cent (£55M over the two years 2011-13) of theTraining and Development Agency (TDA) non-teacher training budget.

Other savings will be found through cutting start-up funding for extended services (£100m), and reducing golden hellos for teachers (£50m) in subjects that already have large numbers of new applications.

In addition, the DCSF will reduce is communications budget by £5 million. This will include moving Teachers TV, which is now used by a quarter of the schools workforce, so that it will only be available online, saving £1 million a year.

Background…

1. Pilots run by the National College show that head teachers with access to school business managers report reduced workloads, with higher-level school business manager role having a potential to free up to 30 per cent of their time.

There was also evidence that the new roles are allowing schools to release funds by maximising existing resources and engaging clusters of schools to work together strategically.

2. In addition, the groups of schools will also receive:

- targeted support from existing SBMs and groups of schools which are already realising the benefits;
- continuous professional development from the National College for the appointed School Business Directors; and,
- a range of appropriate advice covering achieving better value for money, and changing models of school organisation and leadership.

3. Last November The Government launched a website – marketed at schools offering a huge range of financial advice and support for schools:

http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/management/schoolfunding/schoolfinance/letstalkresources/

The support package for schools includes:

- Free national consultancy programme for every maintained school in England – giving tailored, timely advice to schools that request help and guidance on how they can make the best use of their resources:
- Wider school workforce – how schools plan and manage their staffing;
- Leadership – how much time and experience school leaders have to focus on delivering value for money;
- Strategic management – how schools approach financial and resource management, including linking the two with school improvement;
- Collaboration and partnership – how schools work together – and with other organisations – to improve outcomes together;
- Challenge and Governance – the role of the Governing Body in supporting delivery of value for money; and
- Procurement performance – how schools approach procurement.

5. NDPB savings

Building on the 21st Century Schools White Paper, which set out the strategy to devolve more responsibility and power to schools, the government says it is possible to cut back the level of support TDA and Becta provide to schools, while retaining their strategic expertise and ability to concentrate at a system level on the improvements that are needed.

6. Extended services start up funding

Over 95 per cent of schools are now offering access to extended services – and all should be doing so later this year. Start up funding was designed to be used to support schools to develop sustainable extended services and to overcome barriers that might have prevented them from developing extended services.

Over time extended services should become sustainable either through charging, for childcare for example, or through reconfiguring funding strands at local level through children’s trusts, or by pooling budgets to support extended services through schools. Funding to support schools in offering extended services, and to subsidise those on low incomes to participate, is protected through the PBR settlement for schools.

7. Reductions in bursaries for initial teacher training

The Government will continue to protect the initial training and recruitment of teachers to secure the best in the future. However, given the very buoyant recruitment market in many areas, it is possible to make reductions to the level of bursaries for recruitment to Initial Teacher Training which will generate savings of the order of £50m in the 2011-13 period.

There are now enough quality candidates coming forward in subjects such as Music, RE, modern languages and biology so the to offer bursaries at their previous level (£6,000-£9,000) for some subjects is less.

This announcement was made in October 2009 and it will come into for postgraduate students starting in September 2010. A base level of £4,000 will still apply to all postgraduate course with some subjects eligible for bursaries of £6,000 and £9,000 as before.

8. Communications

The £5 million savings from communications and marketing expenditure is achievable through making more information available digitally, and reducing money spent on printing and publication of documents that the public would rather see online only.

Teachers TV has been running for four and a half years and now has 230,000 people using the service every month – a quarter of schools workforce. Viewers are increasingly accessing Teachers TV online with demand for the more traditional TV route falling – and on current projections by next year more people will be accessing online and on demand rather than through broadcast anyway.

From August this year the Government will turn off the broadcast channel, saving £1M a year.

9. Reductions in central administration costs of DCSF

DCSF staff numbers have been reduced by 1465. 1130 jobs have been moved out of London and the South East. Premises costs have been cut by £12 million a year and significant reductions of £36.3 million made on back office costs, with £8 million per year in efficiencies going forward from HR, procurement and finance costs.

 

As normal HHM is offering to undertake direct mail and email work at a substantial discount before and during the Easter holiday period.

 

In terms of the direct mail we don’t have to post out your material during the Easter period – we just need to have the items in the warehouse and be able to make up the packs over Easter.  We can then hold them and mail them later.

 

Here’s the timetable

 

Direct mail work to educational addresses that we can complete between 20 March and April 9 will have a discount on labels, envelopes, and labour of 30%.   The mail can then be held for up to a further month before being mailed out.

 

School holidays run for most schools from April 1 to April 18th, resuming on the 19th.  (Good Friday is April 2, and a small number of unreconstructed schools will take their holiday from March 29th.)

 

In terms of email:

 

Emails on the named lists (i.e. the subscription, personal and preference lists) despatched from March 26th until April 16th will be charged at half price.   We have found in the past holidays that you can get quite a good response in the holidays, since many teachers pick up their personal emails at home.  Those that don’t pick them up on return to school – but since we only send out one email per week to each teacher, they only have one or two to read.

 

Final note - the amount of direct mail work we can take at the 30% discount, and the number of emails we can transmit at the 50% discount are very strictly limited, so please do call sooner rather than later.

 

Please call 01536 399 000 to discuss with the sales team, or email Sales@hamilton-house.com

 

Details of our email services are on www.emails.gs  and details of our solo mailing services are on www.solo.ac  

 

If you are doing the mailing yourself you can of course buy on line, as usual, or buy through our sales team.   Details are at http://www.hamilton-house.com/gateways/lists.html

 

Tony Attwood

 

Schools have to spend between 92% and 95% of the 2009/10 budget by April 5th – which means that this is now the “last minute spending” season.

 

It is still possible to get out solo and shared promotions – especially if you have leaflets already to run.

 

The alternative is to use email – but the difference here is that although an email can be put together more quickly than a leaflet can be printed, we do limit the number of emails that go out to teachers on the premium lists (the ones that reach teachers direct rather than going via the school administrator).

 

Obviously everyone makes their own decisions on such matters – we limit the number of emails each teacher gets as our research shows that this puts the subsequent response rate.   In other words you sell more because we mail the lists less.

 

Other companies treat their lists in a different way.  But if you do want to get in an email before the end of the financial year it might be worth booking it in now, rather than later.  

 

There’s details of all our email services on www.emails.gs or you can call 01536 399 000.  Shared mailings are on www.shared.org.uk and solo mailings on www.solo.ac

 

Tony Attwood

It may seem utterly bizarre, but if you email a school and mention the name of the Schools Secretary in the email, in 37% of cases the email will not arrive.

 

The reason for this is that schools use filter systems to screen out what are considered to be unacceptable messages that are entering the school system.

 

Obviously we all want to protect children from inappropriate material, but unfortunately some of the screening systems used are left over from the stone age of digital technology, and have the effect of rejecting emails which use everyday language but which contain a single word which, in a different context, might have a different meaning.

 

The fact that most school pupils will know (and quite possibly use) the word every day is irrelevant in this context – your email (which is aimed at teachers) will be blocked because of the blunderbus approach of the software.

 

But, as you may have noticed, I said the number of schools that will block the name of the Schools Secretary is 37%.   Choose a different word with two meanings and the percentage will go up or down.

 

This is because different parts of the country use different blocking systems, some more sophisticated than others, some so utterly bizarre they border on the incomprehensible.  Some were installed so long along no one remembers they are there – or how to get rid of them!

 

None of the companies that provide such blocking software will provide a list of banned words, but over time we have been able to put together such a list, both from experience and from the fact that we have worked with a number of local authorities, school internet service providers and independent companies who create school systems.

 

Because of this, when Hamilton House sends out an email we check it to ensure that the wording is compliant with this rather eccentric and bizarre system – so we can advise you to remove a particular word or phrase, and thus increase the readership level.

 

If you have any questions about this approach – please do get in touch.  You can call me on 01536 399 013 – or email Tony@hamilton-house.com

 

Tony Attwood