Posts by the MDR Marketing Team
We’re the MDR Marketing Team and education marketing is our beat. We’ll help you stay up to speed with the latest news, trends, and opportunities as education reinvents itself, once again.
On the iconic 1950s television show Leave It to Beaver, the Cleavers’ involvement in school was limited to mom June being on the PTA and dad Ward maybe having to go to the school if Beaver got himself in a peck of trouble. Things have changed a lot in 60-plus years! What is parental engagement? […]
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According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there are roughly 114,000 K-12 schools in this country with a library staffed by a school librarian.1 And while for decades they have been plagued with the stereotype of being women who check out books and tell children to “shush,” librarians have much more influential roles in […]
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While there has been a great deal of well-deserved focus on student mental health—particularly since the pandemic—it is also very important to consider teacher well-being. The additional responsibilities and pressures brought on by school closures, the switch to online learning, and other unanticipated changes had a significant impact on them as well. According to 2021 […]
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It just makes sense that for students to learn and achieve they need to be in attendance and engaged. But in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic school closures, educators are now grappling with a record increase in student absenteeism. A study by Stanford University professor Thomas Dee found that the number of public school students […]
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Today’s kids face numerous challenges that previous generations could not have even imagined. Many kids spend a lot of their lives online, and with that comes the peer pressure and cyberbullying that emanate from social media. In fact, earlier this year, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued an advisory about the effects of social […]
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While the deadlines for spending federal American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ARP ESSER) funds are fast approaching, the Biden administration recently announced several initiatives to improve instruction and accelerate academic success nationwide–some with funding attached. Under the umbrella of the U.S. Department of Education’s “Raise the Bar: Lead the World” initiative […]
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Education marketers work hard to cultivate the engagement and trust that coaxes prospects down the funnel toward a handoff to sales. Once those prospects become customers, does that focused attention drop off? One of the most enduring maxims in marketing is, as Forbes reminds us, “retaining a customer is much cheaper than acquiring a new […]
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If you work in the education market or, frankly, read or listen to mainstream media, you have likely heard of the “reading wars”—the debate over whether phonics or balanced literacy is the best approach to helping young learners build strong literacy skills. But did you know that for decades there have been “math wars” in […]
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As an increasing number of states expand school choice options for families and the U.S. birthrate continues to decline, K-12 school enrollment is evolving as well. Each year MDR examines data on public school enrollment and offers a snapshot of the state of the country’s schools. In 2020-2021, U.S. public school enrollment declined for the […]
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Multi-channel marketing is all about giving your message its widest reach, meeting your audience on the channels they frequent the most, and benefitting from multiple touches to drive your message home. Now that you have messaging width covered, it’s time to explore the opportunities of another dimension: depth. Forbes suggests that “The best marketing strategy […]
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Protecting student and staff digital data—cybersecurity—has long been top of mind for school leaders, particularly CTOs and CIOs. And recent events illustrate why. Earlier this summer, tens of thousands of public-school students and employees in New York City had their personal data breached in the widespread hack of the file-transfer software MOVEit.1 Cyberattacks have led […]
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Like so many things in our lives, events of the last few years have upended the timeline for the school purchasing cycle. The COVID-19 pandemic brought with it new school purchasing needs, such as laptops, online learning resources and HVAC systems, and these items were needed immediately—not on the typical buying timeline. Then came the […]
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We all feared that learning loss due to the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic would have a negative impact on student learning and benchmark studies confirmed that suspicion. Now the release of the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) long-term trend reading and mathematics assessments of 13-year-old students paints a picture of just how dire […]
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Teachers use social media daily to search for classroom ideas, connect to one another, and shop for deals. Which channels are they on? It’s important for brands and marketers to make social media a part of their multi-channel strategy to be visible and interact with teachers in the places where they spend the most time. […]
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Here’s what isn’t changing. Educators are avid users of digital channels. Using email at work and home, browsing for resources and shopping, connecting on social channels for peer advice and support makes digital marketing to educators an effective strategy. What does change are the latest tips and techniques education marketers can use to attract, persuade, […]
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The Intersection Between Tech and Next Gen Learning Featured at ISTELive 23 Are you headed to Philadelphia for ISTELive 23? Hosted June 25-28 by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), ISTELive is the premier annual conference for teachers who are passionate about leveraging technology to transform learning. Featured speakers come from the education […]
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One of the major challenges in selling to education is getting your product in the right hands, using the right channels, and then securing the sale. The trick is to reach out and develop a connection so you can confidently inform decision makers, “This product will meet your needs or address your problem!” Establish Relationships […]
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The first of their generation was born in 1997, the year that Google.com was registered as a domain name, IBM’s Deep Blue supercomputer made history for beating a reigning world chess champion, and everyone who was anyone had a Palm Pilot. Gen Zers are the fastest-growing group of educators in our schools today. These new […]
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Kids go to school to learn reading and math, but it is also important that they learn more about the world around them, including how to protect our environment and improve health and wellness in their communities. Since 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s (USDOE) Green Ribbon Schools program, 712 schools, districts, and […]
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It’s hard to believe that only three years ago, we were in the first month of the COVID-19 pandemic, with schools striving to successfully implement remote learning and cope with growing uncertainty. Among the opportunities and challenges that came with the disruption of the pandemic was an unprecedented level of federal investment in K-12 schools. […]
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Remember the adage, “If you can read this, thank a teacher?” Well, as we all know, there are hundreds of things, including teaching us to read, that we should thank today’s teachers for. And during Teacher Appreciation Week we have the opportunity to amplify the thanks we should offer teachers every single day. Of course, […]
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Last month, we looked at the number of teachers who are considering leaving the profession and the reasons for the teacher shortage that is impacting parts of the United States. But it is futile to present a challenge without considering solutions so now let’s explore potential remedies to this situation – specifically how companies that work […]
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For many years, we’ve heard about shortages of qualified teachers and big numbers leaving the profession, particularly in some states and school districts. And like so many things, the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic increased the frustrations for many teachers by magnifying the problems that have plagued them for years, including low wages, long hours, […]
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A movement that started in the United States more than 30 years ago, public charter schools serve more than 3.7 million students in about 7,700 schools around the country. According to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, they saw an increase of nearly 240,000 students since the beginning of the pandemic—a 7 percent increase—while […]
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Why integrated marketing for education marketing? Because educators seek information from multiple channels before making decisions. You need to meet your audience where they are and where they spend time, rather than expecting them to come to you. It takes multiple touches-10 or more-to create brand trust and conversion with educators. Yes, that many touches, […]
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“Influencer marketing” continues to be a top strategy – especially in the consumer world. But when you think about it, it’s been happening informally in education for decades. There may be no other vertical market where word-of-mouth recommendations matter more. But what does “influencer marketing’ really mean in today’s environment and how can your company […]
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It may seem hard to believe but it is (once again) the time of year when schools are faced with the “use it or lose it” challenge when it comes to spending the remainder of their 2022-2023 school budgets. And while lack of sufficient ongoing funding remains a problem for many districts around the country, […]
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Mitigating learning loss. Declining enrollments. Ensuring student social and emotional health. Managing increased parental involvement. Providing a safe learning environment. These concerns are just the top of the laundry list of challenges that education leaders face in 2023. Plus, they face the looming September 2024 deadline to allocate Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund […]
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“Out with the old, in with the new” is a great attitude for starting the year! But it also applies to the data that you use for your successful marketing programs. An MDR report on the risks of dirty data revealed that cleaning up your database could boost your company’s revenue by up to 66 […]
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Content marketing is a mature and irreplaceable part of the marketing mix. Marketers appreciate its effectiveness for establishing thought leadership, promoting brand awareness, and keeping products top of the customers’ mind. Marketers needing to keep the pipeline filled with quality content are always looking for new sources, and user-generated content can be an option. User-generated […]
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