What’s the object of the game?

It’s amazing how even the most complex concepts can be made crystal clear when distilled into this one simple question. If you think about the last time you opened up a new video game (or, for those of us of a certain age, a new board game) then it’s often the first question we ask ourselves when trying to understand how it works.

That’s one of the reasons why gamification is such a powerful concept when it comes to explaining how complex products, services and software work and what a customer/user needs to do in order to achieve the best results from using it. It’s also the reason I’ve created this eBook; to explain how you win at Campus and how to use the weapons in Campus’s armoury to take your education marketing to the next level.

HOW DO YOU WIN AT CAMPUS?

Basically, you win at Campus when you manage to move a teacher from the Education Data Module (our data) into the CRM Module (your data) and this happens when you successfully get them to complete a Campus lead generation form on your website.

You win because you get teachers and school staff to give you their direct email addresses so you no longer have to email them via the school office. You win again because you get to find out one or two crucial pieces of information about them (what we call buyer persona data) that are going to help you sell to them moving forward. And, best of all, you win because Campus is now going to be able to automatically track and log every single interaction those teachers/school staff have with your business (including web visits, marketing email clicks, and one-to-one email correspondence).

The 5 ‘levels’ you need to complete to win at Campus…

Level 1: DISCOVERING YOUR SUPERPOWER

Teachers need a compelling reason to fill out a lead generation form on your website (which is marketing-speak for agreeing to be marketed to on a one-to-one basis by your business). Teachers are not like Lemmings, those little creatures who would blindly follow each other off the edge of a cliff in the classic video game; they are extremely protective of their personal data and won’t give it up willy-nilly!

In order to give them that compelling reason you need to firstly discover what your superpower is. Or, to put it in plain English, what is your unique insight into how to improve teaching and learning at their school?

Is it for example, how to make teaching Shakespeare fun? Or is it, how to turn your library into a learning hub? Or is it, how to save money on your school’s lighting bills? You do have a superpower (or else you wouldn’t be a seller to schools), so it’s just a case of reminding yourself what that is.

Level 2: CREATING YOUR SECRET WEAPON

Once you have discovered your superpower, you now need to create a free resource that’s going to provide teachers with a way to benefit from that. Don’t hold back; you’re asking for the most precious commodity in the education marketing world (their direct email address) so you need to give them the most value that you possibly can!

It could be a free lesson plan, a free whitepaper, or even the offer of a free assembly or workshop; the important thing is that it gives teachers as much free value as possible so that they’re positively scrambling over each other to get their hands on it!

Level 3: FINDING TEACHERS THAT NEED YOU

To complete this level you need to successfully locate the schools and teachers that are most in need of your superpower, and then create a super-targeted list to send your email campaign to. The good news is that there are lots of really cool tools at your disposal within Campus to help you do this.

In Campus, you can create a send list based not just on the age range of the school, the establishment type, and the county or LEA; but also their Ofsted rating, their most recent exam results, the % of Free School Meal students, or even what they spend their annual budget on, anything from premises and ICT, to catering, supply staff and learning resources.

For example, if you’re looking to promote one-to-one KS2 maths tutoring, you could create a list of primary schools where less than 20% of pupils achieved level 5 or above last year, and who also spend more than £100 per pupil per year on ‘Bought In Services’. The more targeted your list, the better your conversion rate will be when you send out your campaign!

Level 4: PASSING THE GATEKEEPER

I hear on an almost daily basis how difficult it is to get the school secretary to forward an email onto the relevant member of staff within a school. That’s the reason they’ve been given the not-so-affectionate title of ‘The Gatekeeper’ by many sellers to schools. However, I also see many of our Campus users’ campaigns absolutely smashing it when being sent via the school office; so, how do they do it?

It’s not rocket science; they’re simply making sure that the freebie they created back on level 2 is the sole focus of their email. They’re not trying to sell anything or promote your paid service, they’re simply trying to give teachers access to a resource that’s going to help them improve their school and help their colleagues.

You’ll be amazed at how obliging ‘The Gatekeeper’ can be when your email takes this into consideration.

Level 5: CAPTURING THE GOOD STUFF

So, it comes down to this; the final showdown. You’ve got your email campaign into a teacher’s inbox, you’ve enticed them to click through to your website, and now you just need to make sure that they go the distance and complete your lead generation form. There are two critical elements to this final challenge.

Firstly, your landing page (the page of your website that teachers land on when clicking through from your email campaign). You need to ensure that this is completely free of other clutter and simply has a heading and your lead generation form alongside a list of compelling reasons why they need the resource (all visible without having to scroll down the page). Have a look at www.sprint-education.co.uk/toolkit for a great example of what your landing page should look like.

Secondly, the lead generation form itself. This needs to not just collect teachers’ contact details, but also some buyer persona data that’s going to help you hone-in on their specific needs with future marketing. So, make sure you include a couple of questions such as, ‘What maths topic do you least like teaching?’ and ‘What exam specification do you teach?’

Let the game begin

Of course, completing these 5 levels is just the first step to winning at education marketing, and Campus. However, if you’re successfully converting teachers and school staff from the Education Data Module into ‘contacts’ in your CRM Module, then you’re well on the way to guaranteeing success with your marketing to schools.

This is because Campus gets super-powerful from this point on and will take these contacts on an automated journey through your sales funnel; tracking their web visits, email clicks, and recording each of these (along with any email correspondence) against their own unique timeline. Campus will even award them funnel points based on their interactions so that you can see, at any point in time, who is most likely to buy from you!

Happy gaming!

How to enter the game…

If you think you have what it takes to win at Campus then simply email me at info@sprint-education.co.uk or call us on 01684 297374 and we can get the ball rolling for you!

Tags
Campus Education Marketing Marketing to Education Marketing to Schools

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