EdMarketing

“Live” Conferences are Back: Four Tips for Reintroducing Your Company

By MDR Marketing Team | 06/16/2022 | Comments Off on “Live” Conferences are Back: Four Tips for Reintroducing Your Company
Conference traffic

The past two years, there’s been a lot of talk about the return to “normal” or, at the very least, what’s come to be referred to as the “new normal.” Well, when it comes to education conferences, we may be there! However, with the majority of education conferences back to being “live” events, companies are […]

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Six Tips for Effective Email Campaigns

By MDR Marketing Team | 05/18/2022 | Comments Off on Six Tips for Effective Email Campaigns
Email Marketing graphic

Email marketing campaigns are a terrific way to reach prospects and secure qualified leads. However, we know the educators you want to reach receive hundreds of emails every day – even more during prime times in the academic calendar like back to school and the spring buying cycle. How can you be sure that your […]

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Tips for Supporting Summer Learning Programs

By MDR Marketing Team | 04/21/2022 | Comments Off on Tips for Supporting Summer Learning Programs
Backpacks in summer field

As schools continue to work to mitigate the learning loss resulting from the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, many are offering summer learning programs that combine academics and enrichment. And because of the billions of dollars in ARP ESSER funds that have been distributed to states and districts, they have the resources to invest in […]

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Five Key Education Marketing Trends for 2022

By Guest Contributor | 04/21/2022 | Comments Off on Five Key Education Marketing Trends for 2022
Marketing Team

By Guest Contributor Saul Hafenbredl What are the major trends in business-to-education marketing that companies need to be aware of to stay one step ahead in a rapidly changing business environment? CB&A’s annual Education Marketing Trends Report provides key insights that help companies succeed in selling to schools—and during a recent Expert Series webinar, the […]

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Mapping the Education Customer Journey With Buyer Personas

By MDR Marketing Team | 03/23/2022 | Comments Off on Mapping the Education Customer Journey With Buyer Personas
Woman making online purchase

It’s hard to sell something if you don’t understand who you are trying to sell it to. Yet, marketers face the challenge of clearly defining who their target buyer really is, particularly in education. In many K-12 environments, decisions are made at the school district or even school board level, but often teachers, parents, and […]

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Tips for Helping Schools Spend Year End “Use It or Lose It” Funds

By MDR Marketing Team | 02/17/2022 | Comments Off on Tips for Helping Schools Spend Year End “Use It or Lose It” Funds
Spending Decisions

It may only be February, but the end of the 2021-2022 school year is as little as three or four months away. And with the end of the school year comes the scramble by districts, schools, and even individual teachers to spend down their budgets. Whether this “use it or lose it” scenario includes millions […]

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How States Plan to Use Federal Pandemic Relief Funds, Part 4

By MDR Marketing Team | 01/20/2022 | Comments Off on How States Plan to Use Federal Pandemic Relief Funds, Part 4
Planning Meeting

The U.S. Department of Education has approved the final state and territory plans for using their American Rescue Plan (ARP) Elementary and Secondary Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds to support the safe and sustained return to in-person learning for U.S. K-12 students. Other states and territories had their ARP ESSER plans approved in 2021. All 52 […]

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Navigating the Disrupted 2022 School Calendar

By Guest Contributor | 01/20/2022 | Comments Off on Navigating the Disrupted 2022 School Calendar
Teachers walking down hallway

By Guest Contributor Lisa Wolfe In the words of the poet Robert Burns, “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”  Headlines from the first few weeks of 2022 show that nothing could be truer of the return to school following the holidays. Thousands of K-12 schools have experienced a disruption to […]

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What Does Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection Mean for Me?

By MDR Marketing Team | 10/14/2021 | Comments Off on What Does Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection Mean for Me?
Email Privacy

  At their annual Worldwide Developers Conference on June 7th this year, Apple announced a new policy on email privacy. According to Apple, their Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) “hides your IP address, so senders can’t link it to your other online activity or determine your location. And it prevents senders from seeing if and when […]

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Three Ways COVID-19 Disrupted the K-12 School Buying Cycle

By MDR Marketing Team | 10/13/2021 | Comments Off on Three Ways COVID-19 Disrupted the K-12 School Buying Cycle
school supplies on desk

Every November, Merriam-Webster picks the “word of the year.” For 2020, it was “pandemic.” (Go figure!) While it is still a bit early for the 2021 word to be announced, it might well be “disruption.”  And among the things that have been most disrupted over the past year or more is the way that we […]

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Match District Size to Your Business Goals

By MDR Marketing Team | 09/21/2021 | Comments Off on Match District Size to Your Business Goals
Teacher helping students using tablets

MDR Insights There are 95,938 public schools in America, serving over 47 million public school students. Let’s look at the different school district sizes and what types of businesses match their needs. At MDR, we consider a district large if it enrolls over 10,000 students. A medium district enrolls 2,500 to 9,999 students, and a […]

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Teacher Appreciation Day x 365

By MDR Marketing Team | 09/16/2021 | Comments Off on Teacher Appreciation Day x 365
Teacher Appreciation 365 days

 We’re all familiar with Teacher Appreciation Week. Considering everything teachers are dealing with right now–return to in-person instruction, keeping kids safe, helping students catch up, and controversies about curriculum—we’d like to make a suggestion… Let’s make every day Teacher Appreciation Day. Here’s why: whatever expectations you may have in a typical year for teacher time? […]

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Still Facing a Digital Divide? The FCC Can Help.

By MDR Marketing Team | 07/21/2021 | Comments Off on Still Facing a Digital Divide? The FCC Can Help.
close up of student hands doing school work

Educators couldn’t miss the headlines about the additional $122 billion allocated for ESSER in the American Rescue Plan (ARP), signed into law in March. But there was another boon for education in the ARP that you may not have heard about: the Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF). Administered through the Universal Service Administrative Company of the FCC, […]

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Planning to Support Teachers for Back-to-School 2021-2022

By MDR Marketing Team | 05/21/2021 | Comments Off on Planning to Support Teachers for Back-to-School 2021-2022
teacher relaxing in classroom

 As of April 2021, the CDC reported nearly 80 percent of teachers, school staff, and childcare workers have received at least one shot of COVID-19 vaccine*, recently the FDA approved the Pfizer vaccine for children as young as 12 and experts are predicting even younger children will be eligible to be vaccinated by the end […]

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Marketing Prepares for the “Cookieless Future”

By MDR Marketing Team | 04/30/2021 | Comments Off on Marketing Prepares for the “Cookieless Future”
Cookie keyboard key

You’ve likely heard some rumblings in the marketing world about the death of the third-party cookie. Dramatic language aside, some big changes are coming in how browsers handle user site visit information. Those changes will have an impact on how MDR’s digital display advertising works. So, we want to give you a heads up about […]

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Celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week 2021

By MDR Marketing Team | 04/23/2021 | Comments Off on Celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week 2021
Thank You Teacher

We’ve had a lot of heroes to celebrate over the past year, among them, and most notably for our community, the over 4 million U.S. K-12 teachers! While thanking teachers should not be a once-a-year event, we have an opportunity with Teacher Appreciation Week 2021, May 3-7, to share our gratitude. This year, more than […]

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Big Opportunities to Support 2021 Summer Learning

By Guest Contributor | 04/23/2021 | Comments Off on Big Opportunities to Support 2021 Summer Learning
summertime learning

By Guest Contributor Lisa Wolfe Summer learning is a big topic this year among educators and plans are taking shape for many school districts now. While many school districts traditionally offer students some type of summer learning program, this year is seeing a surge in these offerings as educators and parents strive to ensure that […]

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Five Tips for Getting Educators to Open Your Email Campaigns

By MDR Marketing Team | 04/23/2021 | Comments Off on Five Tips for Getting Educators to Open Your Email Campaigns
teacher reading email

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 […]

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The Opportunities in the NEW Back-to-School

By MDR Marketing Team | 04/23/2021 | Comments Off on The Opportunities in the NEW Back-to-School
Reviewing marketing plans

The last year in education has been an ‘all hands on deck’ situation. Educators, parents, districts, providers, nonprofits…everyone pitched in to keep student progress moving forward under challenging, and constantly changing, circumstances. Like a stress test, this current school year demonstrated how important it is to have an efficient and flexible marketing operation that can […]

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3 Tips for the Spring Selling Season

By MDR Marketing Team | 03/12/2021 | Comments Off on 3 Tips for the Spring Selling Season
School Supplies

Each year, we review the marketing strategies that we believe will guide our customers to success in the spring selling season and beyond. When we look at the trends for 2021, it quickly becomes clear: In today’s environment, a focus on data, digital, and customer engagement will pave the path to marketing growth and sales […]

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Prepping for the Spring 2021 Selling Season

By MDR Marketing Team | 02/16/2021 | Comments Off on Prepping for the Spring 2021 Selling Season
School Supplies

If the view from your window looks anything like mine, spring may be the furthest thing from your thoughts. But, thankfully, it really is right around the corner and now—before the crocuses pop their heads through the snow—is the time to start planning for the spring 2021 selling season! Although this year’s selling cycle has […]

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Six Hot Topics in Education for 2021

By Guest Contributor | 02/05/2021 | Comments Off on Six Hot Topics in Education for 2021
Students raising hands in classroom wearing face masks

By Guest Contributor Lisa Wolfe Now that the second half of the school year is underway, let’s take a look at the hot topics in education for 2021. Although COVID-19 has put added pressure on the education system, many of this year’s topics are the same ones that the community has dealt with for ages. […]

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How We Reached Educators in 2020

By Hannah Hudson | 02/04/2021 | Comments Off on How We Reached Educators in 2020
Using laptop and mobile phone with icons

Reaching educators and engaging them are both an art and a science and, generally, we lean into what worked in the past. 2020 required us all to pivot plans and rethink strategies for communicating with educators. As teachers and the greater education community figured out how to teach and learn in new ways, there were […]

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Direct Mail Is Alive and Well: 5 Tips for Success in 2021

By MDR Marketing Team | 01/20/2021 | Comments Off on Direct Mail Is Alive and Well: 5 Tips for Success in 2021
Mail box filled with mail

We all—especially these days—spend countless hours behind our screens, communicating via email, private messaging, Zoom, and other online tools. But at the end of the day, who doesn’t still love going to their real-world mailbox and checking to see what surprises (other than bills) may have arrived that day? It might be a greeting card […]

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Start 2021 with a Playbook Based on 2020 Experiences

By MDR Marketing Team | 12/18/2020 | Comments Off on Start 2021 with a Playbook Based on 2020 Experiences
New Year New Start

Ringing in a new year always presents us with the chance to be optimistic and think about the opportunities it will bring. While 2020 may have looked a lot different than expected, as 2021 nears, we actually do have reason to be optimistic. Having said that, the change of a calendar year doesn’t necessarily mean […]

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Redefining Quality Education Data for 2021

By MDR Marketing Team | 11/04/2020 | Comments Off on Redefining Quality Education Data for 2021
abstract data illustration

What’s moving the needle in sales and marketing these days? Complete, Accurate, and Fresh Data. The definition of data quality is changing, largely because today’s education sales and marketers are using data as high-octane fuel for sophisticated activation strategies, like: Personalization Account-Based Marketing Customer Data Platforms Programmatic Advertising Defining Buyer Personas Identifying Lookalike Audiences Marketing […]

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Navigating the School Buying Cycle During COVID-19

By MDR Marketing Team | 07/15/2020 | Comments Off on Navigating the School Buying Cycle During COVID-19
Abacus and money

Navigating the school buying cycle has always been about syncing your marketing efforts to the beat of the educators’ purchasing journey to avoid missed steps and lost opportunities. With the COVID-19 outbreak changing how we view “school” so drastically these past few months, navigating the upcoming school buying cycle is perhaps the most challenging yet. […]

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The Data-Driven Digital Marketing Trends in Education Webinar: Your Questions Answered

By MDR Marketing Team | 07/08/2020 | Comments Off on The Data-Driven Digital Marketing Trends in Education Webinar: Your Questions Answered
Digital Trends webinar Q&A thumbnail

In June, Sean McCloud, MDR Digital Products Manager, hosted a webinar to review the enlightening results from our 2020 Data-Driven Digital Marketing Trends in Education report. The report is a comprehensive study of the online habits of educators and is compiled from thousands of digital marketing campaigns we deploy for, and with, our clients on […]

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5 Tips for Communicating With Educators During COVID-19

By MDR Marketing Team | 06/29/2020 | Comments Off on 5 Tips for Communicating With Educators During COVID-19
Group of people using digital devices

In this new normal, we are participating in online meetings while we work from home. Our kids are connecting with one another through online school and activities. Many of us celebrated the spring holidays with our families virtually, and some of us may have even lifted a glass of wine during an online happy hour. […]

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An Expanded Education Community

By MDR Marketing Team | 06/19/2020 | Comments Off on An Expanded Education Community
School children drawing

It may be an understatement to say that 2020 has been a difficult year so far. Yet teachers are meeting the year’s challenges. They tell us that they are adapting and the school community at large continues to find ways to change. In the midst of these changes, things are beginning to open up again, […]

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