Events and exhibitions are some the most popular activities promoted to the UK education sector, so being straight-up honest with you, you’ve got a battle on your hands to make sure your course stands out head and shoulders above the crowd.

Having designed and completed hundreds of marketing campaigns promoting events, exhibitions, and more to the education sector, we know what will work for you. That is what this report is all about, helping you to delve into the belly of the beast of marketing to schools, so you can make a huge difference to the number of teacher delegates attending your events.

Insight #1: Quantities of decision-makers

You lucky devils! When it comes to a target audience, you guys are pretty spoilt for choice. Not only will you want to target the more obvious decision makers like the Head Teachers, Deputy Heads, Key Stage Coordinators, but you’ve also got a whole host of other teacher types that will have an interest in you depending on your own specific event or exhibition.

There are over 450,000 teachers within UK educational establishments, of which we have over 400,000 named teachers across 31,000 establishments within our Education Database, and we can contact them for you.

Insight #2: Pupil premium budget reaches £2.5bn

If your event or exhibition has a direct impact on supporting teaching and learning for SEND pupils, then the great news is that (depending on the content of your event) the schools will be able to use part of their pupil premium budget to pay for your services.

The even better news is that the pupil premium budget remains at a record high of £2.5 billion, and is predicted to increase as a result of more pupils becoming eligible for pupil premium as a result of the impact of the pandemic.

Oh, and the fact that the government leaves the schools’ senior leadership team in control of this budget means you only have to try and convince the people with the school’s, staff‘s, and pupils’ best interests at heart. Some of the remaining insights will help explain how best to achieve this.

Insight #3: Quantify time and money savings

If your event or exhibition is going to help the SMT reduce staff workload, boost exam results, or save money, then it’s really important to quantify why teachers should buy from you.

Instead of making vague assertions about the benefits you can offer, give an example of a school that has experienced your event or exhibition, and illustrate in an eye-catching way the time and money savings that they were able to make.

And don’t just express the cost savings or earnings as a percentage. Make sure you show teachers the value in £££ so that they can visualize where they could spend this extra money!

Insight #4: Teachers love a video

Teachers love a video. Do you know that simply using the word “video” in your email subject increases open rates by 13% on average? And we’ve seen click-through rates improve by a staggering 96% when including a hyperlinked screengrab of a video in the email!

Utilising a video is particularly effective for companies promoting events or exhibitions, because it gives teachers first-hand experience of your activities.

Teachers will find a short and snappy 60-second video a lot more interesting than three paragraphs of dry descriptive text!

If you’re providing schools with a product or service, then video is a great way to showcase your people and start building relationships with teachers.

Insight #5: Whet their appetites with a webinar

A webinar is a fantastic way of promoting an event or exhibition that you’re running, and will instantly position you ahead of the majority of education suppliers that can’t or won’t do webinars.

They are a real luxury for teachers and give them an easy, free way of sampling your services without having to take a day out of school, or deciding whether the event is right for their pupils before committing. For these reasons, webinars get a fantastic sign up rate, which will give you plenty of red-hot leads to follow up, and convert into paying delegates.

Don’t forget that the webinar is also a great opportunity for you to capture feedback and opinions from your audience, which you can use to fine-tune your offering in future.

Insight #6: Always come back to the curriculum

It may sound obvious, but whether you’re offering a STEM event for students or an EdTech exhibition for teachers, it’s imperative that your marketing maintains a really strong focus on how your offering relates to the curriculum and inspection criteria of the school’s inspection board.

If you’re highlighting the benefits of an event or exhibition then teachers have to be able to relate this to the curriculum or inspection criteria. This is how they are measured, so you have to show them that what you’re offering will improve performance at their school.

If you don’t or can’t, then your marketing may become an epic failure!

Insight #7: Demonstrate tangible benefits

With the government and inspection boards ramping up school accountability, event providers need to be able to demonstrate tangible improvements to teaching and learning in order to distinguish themselves from the crowd.

Avoid making bold claims about how you can improve pupils’ and teachers’ lives, and instead demonstrate quantitative evidence of how your event has improved teaching and learning at other schools.

If possible, reference the name of a previous client, their school and, most importantly of all, quantify the impact the event had on grades, or inspection ratings. E.g. “Schools that experience this course, on average, increase their A-C grades by 35% within 12 months!”.

Insight #8: Don’t get put on the backburner

The danger with promoting events or exhibitions a few weeks or months into the future is that, unless you’re careful, interested teachers will just put you on the backburner so that they can decide nearer the time whether they want to book or not.

You simply cannot afford to let them do that! Once you’re on the backburner, it’s far more likely that you’ll either be forgotten about or that the teacher’s diary will be taken up with other things.

Draw their attention to the limited number of bookings available, an approaching deadline, or an early-bird discount to inspire action in teachers.

Insight #9: Nurture your leads

When promoting events and exhibitions, there is one major factor that you really can’t do anything about: there will inevitably be schools that want to book but can’t due to scheduling issues.

For this reason, it’s absolutely imperative that you capture leads from your email campaigns so that you can promote similar events to them in the future.

Sprint can help you in this respect by providing you with a database of qualified leads after every email campaign, giving you the direct contact details of every teacher that either downloaded images or clicked on links within your email.

Insight #10: Become a thought leader

The events landscape in schools is a potentially lucrative but highly competitive market with many new businesses vying for attention. The companies that will really see their stock soar will be those that take the time to position themselves as thought leaders.

Send them an industry whitepaper to provide them with some real value and demonstrate your expertise before you start selling to them.

By doing so, you’ll take a huge leap in front of your competitors. In our recent edu-business survey, only 15.1% of companies had integrated free eBooks, whitepapers, and reports into their marketing strategy. Yet, in our accompanying teacher survey, 61.6% of schools wanted businesses to share free resources to better support and serve schools.

Don your creative caps, put together an insightful, high-quality free whitepaper, and await your stream of fresh-hot leads who now see you as one of the top dogs in your industry!

What next?

Get in touch and ask us about what we can do for you!

Our number is 01684 297374, or you can email info@sprint-education.co.uk.

That way, we can talk specifically about your offer and see how we can boost your marketing effort to schools quickly and effectively.

Tags
Education Marketing How to Sell to Schools How to Sell to Teachers Marketing to Education Marketing to Schools Marketing to Teachers

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