Without further ado, here's my rundown of the key facts and stats from May.

1) Day of the Week Performance

Tuesday remains the most popular day to send. Historically it's been the 'go-to' day for our clients when booking their email campaigns, however it actually still sits 5th in terms of open rates (although it does generate the best click-through rate). On average Thursday is still King, with the best open rates and sitting 2nd in the click-through stakes.

2) Establishment Type Performance

For the first time since tracking our clients' campaign performance, emails targeting secondary schools sit top in both open and click-through rates, smashing the averages with 32.03% and 12.11% respectively. My interpretation of these results is that, with more decision making power being delegated to Faculty Heads in secondary schools, these campaigns have the luxury of being able to target a wider variety of staff types (instead of always focusing on the senior management team, which is often the case in primary schools).

3) Sending on Election Day

With the General Election fast approaching (June the 8th in case you've been living on Mars) you might be debating whether it's a good or bad day to send your next campaign. That's why I've been doing some digging into the stats from previous election and referendum days! The results seem to show that it may have a small negative impact on open rates and click-through rates, with both performing just below the usual averages for those days.

4) Volume of Campaigns Across the Week

For the final insight, I thought I’d revisit the most popular sending days. In short, our clients don’t like Friday sends! Here at Sprint I’ve seen a real drop off in clients requesting to send their campaigns on a Friday. More than that, many clients have specifically asked to avoid a Friday send. In reality, Friday is still the 3rd best sending day for open and click through rates. With teachers possibly not receiving the same volume of marketing on Fridays, it might be time to reconsider.

This week I’ve decided to concentrate on political policy in light of the coming election, as well as the growing pressure that students are seemingly under.

The General Election

Conservative Party Policies

A study by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFERA) suggests that there has been a rise in teachers leaving their job in the first five years. In order to curry favour, the Conservatives have pledged to offer support for teachers' student loans in return for staying in the profession. This support has been described as ‘forgiveness’ by Theresa May, however she stopped short of saying she would write-off teachers' student loans completely.

Labour Party Policies

Labour has taken a different tack, by proposing zero tuition fees for new university students. Should Labour win the election, this policy could be with us as early as this autumn. Joining the campaign lead by Jamie Oliver, Labour also plan to fund free school meals for all Primary pupils. Jeremy Corbyn has suggested this could be paid for by a tax on private school fees.

Liberal Democrat Party Policies

The Liberal Democrats intend to invest £7bn extra in education, triple the early years pupil premium for disadvantaged children and oppose the new grammar schools. Tim Farron has also expressed concern since the British public voted in favour of leaving the EU saying, ‘You cannot have strong, well-funded schools and hospitals with the most extreme version of Brexit’. A second referendum is something the Lib Dems would push for should they be elected.

Students Under Pressure

There have been a number of stories recently regarding the growing pressure students are under. Of course, it is exam season, so naturally this can be a stressful time for most pupils. In fact, a study carried out by the NSPCC saw a rise of 11% in the number of children affected by exam stress.

This study has also been supported by the charity ChildLine who say they have provided 3,135 counselling sessions over the course of a year. One reason attributed to this has been the rise of social media. The NSPCC said that children were more likely to read about economic fragility on social networks, rather than the often less extreme stories seen on TV or in newspapers. If you think your business can help alleviate pupils' exam stress (and the general stress experienced in adolescence) your services could be invaluable!

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Education Marketing Email Teachers Emailing Teachers Marketing to Schools Selling to Schools

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