How to Get Better Results with Email Marketing to Schools

STS founder, Glen McCandless, interviews email and school marketing expert, Kelly Stewart, of MMS Education

Email marketing continues to be a popular channel to generate leads for companies that sell to schools. Those responsible for creating education marketing plans are always looking for ways to improve response and find more qualified prospects. What advice does an expert have to offer? Kelly Stewart of MMS Education offers her perspective on this timely topic for marketing to schools.

Q. Many education marketers assume you can inexpensively purchase or "farm" a list of educator email addresses from web sites and then send out very low-cost promotional mass emailings. What's right or wrong with this method?

Using email to promote products, services and programs to educators is often an effective and cost-efficient method for reaching new prospects in comparison to other marketing strategies. But “batch and blast” days are over and low development costs are gone with them. Today’s emails require appealing and technically correct design and powerful content to win the attention of your prospects. The next step is to pair that effective design and relevant message with a list of carefully selected recipients. You should work with a reputable list provider who builds email lists with people who are interested in receiving offers via email and who is compliant with CAN-SPAM requirements. Then define the key characteristics of your audience who are most likely to respond to your call to action. While doing all of this costs a little more in time, effort and talent, reaching the right person with the right message at the right time can fast-track the goals of your campaigns.

Q. There is growing interest in finding ways to boost response to school marketing campaigns. The strategies that worked a few years ago are not returning the desired results. What is your perspective on where email fits?

Email plays an important role in augmenting the effectiveness of other school marketing initiatives. It’s no longer a stand-alone tactic, especially considering how many educators use email both during the work day and at home to learn more about products and services. Marketers should consider the expectations that recipients have to be able to grant permission and define their preferences for receiving emails. With prospects this can mean your offline or traditional promotions should provide your intended audience with lots of opportunities to say, “I want to get to know you better!” Whether that’s running a print ad in an association trade publication, mailing a discount coupon or posting a whitepaper to your website that educators can download, make sure you’re using those vehicles to let your audience know where they can go to opt-in to your list. And when they arrive there, let them choose their preferences for hearing from you and respect those wishes. Do you send a monthly newsletter? Will you notify them of new offers? Will you invite them to attend workshops at conferences? Do they want a phone call instead of an email? Adding a list of check-box options to your online form will help ensure that you’re reaching your prospects with the right amount of messages for them. Customizing communications works great for your customers too!

Q. Evidence suggests that combining email with other direct marketing (phone, surface mail, etc.) is more cost effective than using any of these methods alone. Why do you think this is the case?

We know it takes multiple impressions to build brand awareness and usually more than one touch to make the sale. Combining email with phone and mail marketing efforts is a terrific method for building relationships, reinforcing the call to action and creating multiple touches. The key to this is in identifying respondents who will benefit from the additional effort. Why not make a phone call to email recipients who opened your message, and clicked through to a link on your website or landing page but didn’t complete the call to action? Maybe they need help in completing the transaction or more information on your products and services; a live conversation could be all that is needed to help someone take the next step. And using multiple methods can help you discover how individuals prefer to hear from you. Not everyone prefers receiving emails and, contrary to the thinking of many school marketing professionals today, not everyone tosses direct mail.

Q. What advice do you have for school marketers who are considering integrated campaigns that include e-marketing along with more traditional methods?

The tried and true still rules. First, you must identify an appropriate segment for your message; scrub your in-house list and work with a reputable list provider who understands the complex education market. Then design and write compelling messages that are CAN-SPAM compliant and put a documented procedure in place for honoring opt-out requests. Implement a procedure for tracking responses so you can measure the outcomes. How many new conversations were started on a social networking site? How many qualified leads were generated for sales reps? What revenue boost came from upselling? What percentage of your opt-in list came from referrals? And the list goes on!
Beyond its promotional uses, we recommend using email to keep your customers engaged with your brand. Shipping confirmations, product alerts, renewal reminders, event registrations and software updates just begin to the scratch the surface of how email can be used to build customer loyalty. Remember, engagement is a two-way street; don’t forget to listen.

When planning each campaign, think about the results you’ll want to analyze and implement a process for tracking them, and remember what you hope to learn from those results which will become the insights that drive the strategies and goals for the next campaign.