Experts say that the average American employee receives more than 120 emails a day. Looking at your own inbox, you might think even that is a vast under-estimate. Every day, you need to sort through the important work emails that need to be handled immediately, the e-newsletters that contain information that help you do your job and, of course, marketing emails from companies that you have done business with or who want to do business with you.
Educators are no different. Plus, this year add to the mix the rapid growth in the number of emails that they receive from parents who are struggling to help their children succeed with remote or hybrid learning. How can you make your email marketing campaigns stand out? What are the best ways to get educators to open your emails?
1. Target. Target. Target. Design your campaign for the audience that you want to reach and only reach out to that audience. If your product is a districtwide student data management system, then a classroom teacher is unlikely to open or turn into a lead. Conversely, if you are marketing a great new set of supplies for high school chemistry labs, you wouldn’t want to include district IT directors on your list. Less is more and with careful targeting your open rates will increase and your results will grow. Our catalog details the audiences that we have information for across the early learning, K-12, higher ed and library markets. Then you can use MDR’s ConnectED Cloud ListBuilder online tool to build your lists, targeting your audience with the most precise criteria available.
2. Personalize. Think about the marketing emails you are most likely to open – the ones where you connect personally with the message. If you are a skier, maybe it is an email from a travel company promoting a winter 2021 trip to Vail? If you are a great home cook, then it might be a good deal on top-of-the-line cookware. Develop your campaign’s customer persona and then design every element of your email to speak to that persona.
3. Create a compelling subject line. As we all know from our personal email use, subject lines are typically why we choose to open or delete a marketing email. Recipients will ignore or quickly delete an email with a boring subject line. Short, descriptive subject lines tend to best entice readers. Maybe ask a question or suggest some urgency in your subject line? And make sure it is compelling for the audience you are trying to reach.
4. Develop a simple design and be sure it is mobile ready. Educators are on the move and often check email outside of the school day, so your marketing emails need to be eye-catching and easy to read on a mobile phone or tablet.
5. Be sure there is a call to action. You’ve had success! The educator you are trying to reach opened and read your message. Be sure to tell them what you want them to do. Whether it is “click on this link,” “reply to this email” or “download this new report”–you need a call to action to get results.
We firmly believe that email is one of the most valuable tools in your education marketing toolkit. Dollar for dollar, email is still the most direct, fast, and cost-effective method of one-to-one communication with customers and prospects. And that is particularly true right now when your chances of meeting with potential education customers at a conference or trade show are unlikely and even face-to-face sales calls may not be happening. To get the highest return on your campaign investment, it is critical that you are smart and strategic about planning.
MDR is poised to be your trusted partner in the development and implementation of email marketing campaigns that will help you connect directly with your intended audiences and see your results soar in 2021. Our proprietary marketing tools and services are designed specifically to accelerate your return on investment
Reach out today and let us help you develop your next successful email campaign.
