Education Marketing

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

One thing that happens from time to time is I get to talk with people who have an interesting product or service to sell to schools, but who don’t have much (or any) marketing budget.

I won’t try to suggest that this doesn’t matter, because I do think that such a budget can bring success much more quickly than trying to build a company without funding.  Nevertheless I have tried to come up with a few ways of marketing with a very limited budget.

In fact we are working on developing a series of marketing projects each of which costs under £50.

I’ve mentioned some of these before – and other “under £50″ offers will be coming soon.  But here’s where we have got to so far…

Finally, there’s the issue of the web site. The problem is that a web site can cost more than you imagine and I have to admit we can’t set up a web site from scratch for under £50.  But we can set up and run your web site for under £15 a month – providing you are willing to stay with us for 12 months.  For this you get a basic web site built, your own internet site address of your choice (providing of course no one else has taken it) and we will hold your site on our servers so that it can be accessed all the time.   After the first year the site can be continued for just £50 a year.  Details on http://www.hamilton-house.com/webdesign.html

We’ll be adding more services to the “Under £50″ list shortly.  I would add that I would never say these represent ideal ways to advertise to schools, and that other services that we offer can really help get your company moving more quickly, but if money is very tight, these do represent good ways forward.

Tony Attwood

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

I have been writing of late about the way in which we have been helping our Velocity clients overcome certain obstacles to marketing.  I have mentioned working with them to analyse what teachers want, and recently did a piece on the CreativeDirect news group about how to choose a price point for a product (and how it is not always the lowest price that gives you the most profit).

But beyond the questions of unique selling points, reputation and price there is another issue: do the teachers believe you when you write about your product or service?

I think that the answer is that sometimes they don’t, and this can be the cause of what might be called the Show/Direct Marketing disparity.

It is expressed like this:

“When I exhibit at the Education Show I have huge crowds around my stand.  All the teachers like my product, and we sell thousands.

“But when I did an email campaign (or a postal direct mail campaign) we hardly sold anything.  It can’t be the product – I know they love it.”

In fact, in my experience the problem can well be the way the email or the printed material for the direct mail is set out and written.  It simply doesn’t put across the product and its benefits in the right way, and teachers don’t believe what is said.

The reason for such a failure can often be the style of language used.  Because so many firms call their products unique, special, amazing value, guaranteed to make a difference, and so on, no one believes this any more.  It is only when the teacher sees the product that the teacher realises the product really is as good as you say.

However this doesn’t mean that the product can’t be sold through direct mail and email.  Rather it means that the way the leaflet and email are laid out needs to be changed – as does the style of writing.  There needs to be a real understanding of how attention is grabbed by a leaflet or an email, how teachers use a web site, and above all, the style of writing to which teachers respond.

In short, direct marketing is different from exhibiting at a show, simply because at a show you get immediate feed back.  If people look disinterested the moment you start speaking to them, you know your pitch is wrong, and you change what you say, how you stand, the look on your face, where you stand, and everything else.

But feed back is delayed with direct marketing – so you need to think more deeply about how you get teachers to believe what you say when you tell them how good your product is.

This is what we help our Velocity clients work towards – and we are perfectly happy to talk to you about these concepts.  No obligation, no charge – just call 01536 399 000 and we’ll talk it through with you.

Alternatively there is more about these ideas on www.velocity.ac If you would like to read the regular emails from the CreativeDirect news group you can do so by sending an email to CreativeDirect-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Tony Attwood

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

I have had a number of reports of late from companies that say that they are having difficulty selling to schools this term.

What I have found is that while in some markets at some times virtually everything sells, at the moment we are in a situation in which some adverts are doing well, and some not.

Clearly I can’t spill the beans on the work we have done with individual clients where we have been writing their ads and sending them out, but I can mention one of our own projects: the Diploma in School Efficiency.  We have offered this to schools in two formats – one for £200 and one for £800 and both have sold well – indeed the lower price course sold way beyond our expectations and we had to turn students away.

With our clients we are finding that even more expensive products and services (up to £5k or more) can sell if they are presented in the right way.

One particular point (and one I have mentioned a few times of late) is that direct mail is increasingly playing a part here.  Some products will sell through email, but for some this is the time to go back to postal mail.  The cost is higher of course but the results can clearly overcome the costs and make a profit.  (And as I always point out, one can always test small numbers to prove the point).

Many other points have come out of our discussions on why some things are selling at the moment and others not.  Of course as a writer I would always say “it is the copy” – but even I would admit it is also the essence of the product and the offer.

Here’s one example: take the question of the “unique selling point”.  Everyone knows that one is needed, and most firms claim to have one.  But as we have looked into the results of some companies that are not doing so well at present, one big reason seems to be that the USP is not unique at all.

Consider a USP that relates to the quality of the service that the company gives, getting the job done quickly, efficiently and politely on time every time.  That’s good, there is no denying that, and past customers will recognise this and remember it.

But it is not unique and as such it is not a USP.  It is a reputation – and we have found that it is very hard at the moment to sell on reputation.

The fact is that in each product area there are always companies that share a reputation for quality, reliability and so forth.  Having such a reputation is good – but it cannot be used with success as a USP.

When we mention this, sometimes we lose a client, because they feel we are attacking their whole business ethos – but as you can imagine, we’d never be that silly and that is never our intent.  We are simply analysing the market as best we can, and suggesting that although that is a good selling point, it is not a unique selling point and therefore not enough.

My colleagues and I are always happy to discuss this issue in relation to an individual company, whether you are HHM customers or not.  Please do give myself, or my colleagues a call on 01536 399 000.  And of course if you want us to work with you over time on this we can do so within the Velocity programme (www.velocity.ac)

There’s a number of other points that follow on from this, but I’ll stop here, and come back to the other areas that affect selling in the next article.

Tony Attwood

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

More post into schools, plus discounts etc for preparing September’s mail early.

The amount of postal direct mail that has gone into schools seems to have gone up considerably in June, compared with the last few years.  It seems that the message that postal response rates are on the up (and are way above email response rates) is gradually getting through.

Of course we are nowhere near the levels of say ten years ago, in terms of the amount of post reaching schools, and we may never get back to that level (which is good news for companies that use the post, since administrators are more likely to pass mail on when there is less of it).

But it seems that after the huge drop in postal campaigns something more akin to a balance is being found.

It also looks like the findings that show that postal direct mail + email campaigns can work particularly well, are beginning to influence growing numbers of firms, who are approaching teachers both ways – often with slightly different messages some weeks apart.

One interesting change that has occurred of late is that mailings that include the teachers’ name AND job title get higher response rates.

As always, Hamilton House is offering to set up postal campaigns at a discount during the summer – with the resultant packages being sent out in September.

So, if you are thinking of having a postal campaign sent out in September to schools, and you can let us have the materials in good time so that we can undertake the preparation between the third week of July and August 26, we will give a 30% discount on envelopes, labour and the list of name and addresses.

We’ll invoice you for the job once it is finished in the warehouse (payment in 30 days) and you have to pay the postage before the mailing goes out.

And there’s two other bonuses.

First there’s no extra charge if you want to use the name of the teacher and the job title on the envelope.

Second, our current offer of a free email campaign if you are mailing over 4000 schools still applies.

So all told you get 30% discount, addition of teacher names if wanted, and a free email campaign, just by letting us have the work to do during late July or August, rather than in September.

Do call 01536 399 000 or email Chris@hamilton-house.com if any of this is of interest.

Tony Attwood

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