Posts by Jodi Murphy

Jodi is one of our marketing guru’s here at MDR. She has more than 20 years of digital marketing experience having held senior marketing and management positions with major publishers, including Scholastic and Reader’s Digest. She also played a key role launching a wildly successful tech startup, helping it make the Inc. 5000 List of Fastest Growing Private Companies three years running. Jodi has a passion for technology that automates and streamlines marketing processes for the educational industry. In her spare time she loves cooking for her large Greek-Norwegian family and is her daughter’s biggest fan when she’s competing around the country in all-star competitive cheer competitions.
Wanted: Adult human. Interests: Everything I sell. Would you respond to an ad like this? Or would you prefer one that speaks directly to you as, say, a middle school science teacher? Match Your Goal to Your Educator Audience to Your Message With educators, everything is about time, and how little of it they have. […]
It’s that time of year…when everyone wants to know when public schools are closing and approximate opening for the coming school year. We’ve put together this informative public schools calendar by state for you to bookmark and save for future reference. Be sure you are timing your education marketing campaigns and promotions to arrive on […]
Students are obviously digital natives, if not digital beings! And increasingly, so are their teachers. Teachers are younger than the total population by three and a half years, placing them firmly in the Millennial cohort that grew up with technology. So, what are teachers doing online? More than the general population, teachers use social media for both […]
Many people believe in the Friday the 13th superstition – a day that is synonymous with bad luck. However, 13 is also a lucky number for many others, so I’ve decided to make this Friday the 13th a lucky and memorable day… by counting out 13 scoops! Here are 13 happenings in education news (in […]
What are the hot topics for educators? Checkout what school officials, teachers, principals, and all types of educators are most interested in from our educator communities. This is where we’ll share with you the topics that get the most buzz with educators! 9 Surprising Amazon Perks for Teachers Nine cool tools—just for us! We […]
Spring is that time of year when thoughts turn to cleaning up, clearing out, and starting fresh. It also happens to be the sweet spot in the education marketing calendar between finalizing one year’s sales results and preparing for the new school season. With four to six weeks needed for an education data cleanse project, […]
What do teachers ask for from their students? Attention! So, we guess it stands to reason that teachers themselves pay attention to the web advertising they see online. In fact, in a recent study, we asked educators which types of digital marketing prompted them to make a purchase in the last three months, and 44% said […]
Oh, the temptation to play an April Fools joke on you all was there, but I’ll refrain. Just use this as your warning to be on your toes this coming Sunday, and to be the wiser and not the fool! I hope I can remember my own warning. Thank you for continuing to send over […]
Is there a best day of the week to send email to educators? Will higher ed users click on my web ad? What’s the best social channel for reaching teachers? If you feel like you have more questions than answers on how to strategize your next campaign to educators, never fear. Digital marketing is an ever […]
Spring is almost in the air! Well, almost…the poor northeast was hammered with snow, so no spring fever there yet, but hopefully soon. Thank you for continuing to send over your news and updates. Keep up the great work! Here’s what’s been happening in big education news and also some personal updates… Movers and Shakers […]
Happy March all! Thank you to all the fans out there for sharing your education scoops, as I love reading and sharing about all the changes in the industry. Keep ’em coming! Diving in head first! As I mentioned in the last EdScoops, we had a new member, Melissa Pelletier, join the MDR team. Well, […]
Off into retirement she goes! The irreplaceable and tireless Anne Wujcik is now officially retired. For us as a company, it’s impossible to measure her impact or thank her adequately for her wisdom and passion over the years. We are, and will continue to be, inspired by her commitment to education and we will strive […]
We are honored to be named a finalist in Engage for Good’s 2018 Halo Awards! In partnership with one of our clients, the program was nominated in the Best Environmental Initiative Category of the award program for its engaging and successful digital media campaign during the 2016-2017 school year. Leveraging WeAreTeachers, MDR’s online educator community […]
Remember learning about the California Gold Rush of 1848? Get ready for the Educator Marketing Rush of 2018. If you haven’t already heard, educators are the next big thing in brand and influence marketing. As mentioned in the Huffington Post article Why Marketing to Educators May Be the Best Decision You Ever Make “…educators are […]
Teachers. They are a seven million strong audience hiding in plain site in every community in the country. With unique, and singularly attractive demographics, (financially stable, homeowners, brand loyal), they are truly the perfect consumer. We commissioned a study that every marketer should read whether trying to reach this highly engaged audience inside, or outside […]
Bill! Bill! Bill! Bill! If you grew up in the ’90s, you know what comes after that chant: a half-hour of zany experiments, world-renowned guests, and, most of all, real science. Like no science show before or since, “Bill Nye the Science Guy” inspired a generation of scientists, engineers, and conservationists. Its mission was to […]
It’s Official! More than 26 years ago, a young, smart and passionate professional offered to help a friend. She was a former teacher, a school administrator, a director of technology and curriculum serving children with learning disabilities at Briarwood School and a consummate connector. She wanted the best for education and kids. And, she believed […]
MDR Honored With Gold in 2017 MarCom Awards We are very proud to announce that MDR, in partnership with PepsiCo and also Quill.com, was selected as a Gold Winner for the 2017 MarCom Awards! The MarCom award is an international competition for marketing and communication professionals. Since its inception in 2004, MarCom has evolved into […]
Got a coding app for kids? A parent-teacher communication tool? It could be the next classroom hit — or it could join the dozens of other duds that teachers don’t use. Edtech products come and go…which ones will be the stand-outs? Believe it or not, a 2015 study found that 65 percent of student licenses for digital […]
Quill.com Honored With Gold in 2017 MarCom Awards We are very proud to announce that MDR, in partnership with Quill.com, was selected as a Gold Winner for the 2017 MarCom Awards! The MarCom award is an international competition for marketing and communication professionals. Since its inception in 2004, MarCom has evolved into one of the […]
“Dear Occupant.” That’s a greeting that usually destines a piece of direct mail for the trash. Why would email be any different? Personalizing email and inserting dynamic content are email marketing best practices because they show recipients you know who they are and what they’re interested in. In a recent survey of education email marketers, […]
Are your emails considered steak, or spam? An email isn’t an email until it successfully reaches the inbox of your intended recipient. And arrival in the inbox is far from guaranteed these days. Today’s email marketers need to be savvy about deliverability: what it is, what makes an email deliverable, and what marks you as […]
Send. Whoosh! It’s a great feeling to send your email out into the world to generate clicks and conversions for you. But how does your email look when it arrives in people’s inboxes? Even if it looked fine when you sent it, it could look completely different to recipients. And the poor appearance of your […]
Emails talk back instantly: Did they open it? Did they click through? Did they visit your landing page? Click the CTA button? For email marketers, these insights give us the opportunity to adapt our campaigns based on what works and what doesn’t. And the low cost of email vs. other media means you can experiment […]
Do the math. Email subject lines under 50 characters deliver the best results…Headlines should be 6 words or less…Line lengths under 50 characters work best on mobile… All the advice on email content adds up to one reality: education marketers have precious little real estate to make their point. Every Copy Element has a Job […]
We’ve all heard the phrase: It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. In other words, using the right message, tone and delivery are central to making sure your message is received. But, as marketers targeting educators know, there’s a bit more to it than that. We’ve learned that with the educator audience, […]
Adding Digital “Oomph” to Your Next Campaign Part of what made humans successful as a species is our ability to identify patterns, such as what are good things to eat versus what things are likely to eat you. Our brains are wired for it, and we find it uniquely satisfying when we can quickly distinguish […]
Are we asking customers the right questions, in the right way, and frequently enough? At a recent EdNET, several sessions challenged us to evaluate how hard we make it for our customers to tell us how they feel about our products. And whether we should be asking 20 questions when one will do. During his […]
Are your ears burning? Somewhere on social media, teachers are discussing their need for your product, or if you’re lucky, your brand itself. Sounds like a conversation you should be part of, right? It’s kind of like joining a conversation at a party; you want to be a natural and welcome participant, not a walking […]
The problem with email is real. For many marketers, email performance is declining. Many wonder, should we just give up on email? Is direct mail back? If email is dead, what is the new workhorse of marketing? From MDR’s perspective, we can say that email marketing as it was originally conceived is a dead-end for […]