I think enough dust has settled to allow us to say that we know what the government’s cuts have been in schooling.

First, this year’s budget remains in tact apart from the Harnessing Technology Grant which has been moved away from broadband provision and given to the new Free Schools.

Nothing else has been changed in England, and in the rest of the UK it is life as normal, as the regional governments had no plans to make cuts anyway.

What’s more the government appears just as committed as the last government to stopping schools stockpiling money, and they are going to be out in force next year to ensure this year’s money is spent.  Schools trying to hold money back next April are going to be told in no uncertain terms that the regieme is “spend it or lose it”.

With this scenario in mind, the only way to cope with this educational year is, it seems to me, via a planned set of campaigns, experimenting with the approach that you use, to ensure that the process works.

The rest of this school term is an ideal time for testing as schools will be buying ready for next term, as usual.  (It is sometimes thought that one can’t sell in July, but July is always one of the high points of the year financially, whether one is selling books or furniture.)

The aim is to get the text of the ads right, testing both email and direct mail, and then using that information to prepare a new series of adverts to hit the schools from September onwards.

We are of course always happy to look at adverts and share our thoughts on marketing to schools, on a job by job basis – or if you would like us to be part of your marketing campaign  for the coming months, do have a look at www.velocity.ac – the programme where we work closely with our clients to get their marketing right.

If you are interested in Velocity – please do call sooner rather than later so that we can set up the arrangements, even if you don’t want to start until later in the year.

You’ve just emailed a group of schools, either by emailing the school administrator and asking her to pass the email on (generic emailing) or by going direct to the teacher via the personal address.

Fine – and the results are coming in.  Now what?

One thing you absolutely must not do (in my humble opinion) is send out the same email again.  That is what companies who send out billions of emails to anyone and everyone do, and it is liable to get you blocked.

In fact I think there are two things you should do.

First, if your email got a moderately decent set of sales, then you should select a few hundred schools at random from your target list, and mail them.

Now quite a few people have told me, when I have suggested this, “I can’t afford solo mail” – but I think this involves a bit of false thinking.

The issue isn’t whether you can afford it, but rather whether it gives you a profitable response.

Let’s assume you make £50 on average gross profit when you sell to schools.  Sending out a solo mail item usually costs around 45p each – so that’s £45 per 100.  If you send out 100 and only get one reply you have lost money.  If you get two replies, you have made £40.  Three replies and things are moving.

Since the amount risked is small, it seems worth checking just to see if it works, with a randomly selected trial mailing especially if you have copy that you have used on email advertising and which worked there.

Mailing just 100 is a rather small test – I prefer trying 300, selected at random (not by area), but I really think it is worthwhile.  If it works, you can go on and cover the rest of the country, either moving through a few hundred at a time, or by mailing the whole of your selected type of school – whatever takes your fancy.

I mentioned at the start that there’s a second thing to do…   And that is to prepare a second email.  How much it is changed depends on the success or otherwise of the first one, but I repeat my earlier warning.  Don’t send the same item again.  Even if you just change the subject line and headline, you must make some changes.

Details of our various email lists are on www.emails.gs – or please do call 01536 399 000 to talk the matter through.

But before any free school can be established it will have to be ”rigorously” inspected by Ofsted, according to the DFE.

Groups who make successful bids will have to complete a business plan setting out the school’s financial viability at a later date.  They will also have to go through suitability and vetting tests, including criminal records checks.

The first “free schools” are expected to open in September next year and we should know shortly where the sales opportunities lie.

Tony Attwood

This subject is a bit complex, but here’s a quick summary (call me if you would like to know more)…

a) The quality and style of the writing. Adverts which are straight announcements (as in, “here’s a new piece of software for this subject”) tend to do far worse than subjects that are thoroughly benefit driven, and which answer the twin questions, “why should I buy this” and “why should I buy it from you?”  Adverts which are conversational in tone do much better than adverts which are a series of bullet points or statements.

b) The bounce rate of the list. If you have a list which has a lot of wrong addresses in it, the internet service provider of the schools (generally either the local Grid for Learning, or the LA) will recognise the source, and block all emails from you, whether being sent to a good address or not.  If you fail to keep your bounce rate under control, you simply won’t be able to keep getting your emails through.

c) The style of the address. Addresses sent to personal email addresses (especially where the list is only used at most once a week) will always do better than generic email addresses (which tend to start info@).   This is not to say that generic lists are no good – they can reach the parts that other lists can’t reach.  But the response rates tend to be poor, and as such it is hard to make the business grow very rapidly just using the generic lists.  The best approach is normally to combine their use with the use of personal email lists.

There’s more about the various lists that Hamilton House offers on www.emails.gs along with details of suitable software if you want to send your lists out yourself (as opposed to asking us to do it).

Finally If you want the latest education news (which we used to carry on this site, as well as the marketing news) it is now on www.ukeducationnews.co.uk

Tony Attwood

The lists involving deputy heads are not normally available on this service as they are generally fully booked throughout the school term – and we do reserve the right to refuse a booking if a list looks like it is getting very booked up for the coming weeks.

If you wish to check the details of the exact price etc simply call 01536 399 000, but please do say that you are interested in a stand by mailing.

The range of lists we offer is growing all the time, as are the numbers of people on them.

To see what email lists we have available please visit

Our Subscription email lists at http://www.emails.gs/emailteachersdirect.html#cost

Our Personal email lists please visit http://www.emails.gs/PersPrefLists.html

Tony Attwood