Recent Posts

Parental Engagement in Schools

By MDR Marketing Team | 11/16/2023 | Comments Off on Parental Engagement in Schools
Parental engagement with their students doing homework

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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Marketing to School Librarians: Influence the Influencer

By MDR Marketing Team | 11/15/2023 | Comments Off on Marketing to School Librarians: Influence the Influencer
School Librarian helping student

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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Teacher well-being. What we can do to help.

By MDR Marketing Team | 11/14/2023 | Comments Off on Teacher well-being. What we can do to help.
Teacher at desk looking out window

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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What Your Email Open Rate is Telling You … and What it Isn’t!

By Nikki Katz | 11/10/2023 | Comments Off on What Your Email Open Rate is Telling You … and What it Isn’t!
Email Open Rates

Open rates have long been used by digital marketers as a metric to determine the success of an email campaign. You just take the number of opened emails divided by the number of delivered emails. The higher that percentage, the better the results, right? Unfortunately, not anymore. With recent changes in technology, spam checking, and […]

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We’re Finalists for 2 Shorty Impact Awards!

By Malia Bartek | 11/03/2023 | Comments Off on We’re Finalists for 2 Shorty Impact Awards!
Shorty Impact Awards Finalist banner

We Are Teachers Studio is a finalist for two Shorty Impact Awards for our client work! Our program with NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) is a finalist in the youth and family category, and our work with Mastercard Girls4Tech is a finalist in the education category. “The Shorty Impact Awards is an international awards program […]

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5 Reasons to Keep a Clean Email List (and 5 Ways to Do It!)

By Nikki Katz | 10/30/2023 | Comments Off on 5 Reasons to Keep a Clean Email List (and 5 Ways to Do It!)
Keep a Clean Email List

In the fast-paced world of digital communication, the importance of a clean email list cannot be overstated. It has a far-reaching impact beyond just your engagement metrics and staying out of the dreaded spam box. 1. Enhancing Deliverability Clean email lists are critical for email deliverability. Internet service providers (ISPs) closely monitor the sending behavior […]

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Combatting an Increase in Chronic Absenteeism

By MDR Marketing Team | 10/19/2023 | Comments Off on Combatting an Increase in Chronic Absenteeism
Absenteeism in todays schools, student looking over fence

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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Schools Turn to SEL To Help Students Cope and Thrive

By MDR Marketing Team | 10/19/2023 | Comments Off on Schools Turn to SEL To Help Students Cope and Thrive
SEL initiatives benefit group of happy students

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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New Programs To Accelerate Academic Success From the US Department of Education

By MDR Marketing Team | 10/19/2023 | Comments Off on New Programs To Accelerate Academic Success From the US Department of Education
USDOE initiatives focus on improving academic success

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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K-12 Education Market Highlights: Q3 Investments, Acquisitions & Leadership Moves

By Guest Contributor | 09/20/2023 | Comments Off on K-12 Education Market Highlights: Q3 Investments, Acquisitions & Leadership Moves
k-12-education-highlights

By Guest Contributor Lisa Wolfe Things were a bit quieter in the K-12 education market’s third quarter of 2023. But with a number of significant acquisitions, more rounds of investment in established and growing companies, and individuals moving into new leadership roles, the industry is poised for a successful 2023-2024 school year. Here are some […]

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After-Sale Nurturing To Boost Customer Retention

By MDR Marketing Team | 09/19/2023 | Comments Off on After-Sale Nurturing To Boost Customer Retention
Boost Customer Retention illustration

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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What Are the “Math Wars”?

By MDR Marketing Team | 09/14/2023 | Comments Off on What Are the “Math Wars”?
student solving math problem

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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U.S. K-12 Enrollment Continues to Evolve

By MDR Marketing Team | 09/12/2023 | Comments Off on U.S. K-12 Enrollment Continues to Evolve
School children running in hallway holding hands

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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Add a New Dimension to Your Education Marketing: Depth

By MDR Marketing Team | 08/31/2023 | Comments Off on Add a New Dimension to Your Education Marketing: Depth
Marketing results on tablet screen

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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The Advantages of Email Marketing are Only as Good as the Marketing Itself

By Nikki Katz | 08/23/2023 | Comments Off on The Advantages of Email Marketing are Only as Good as the Marketing Itself
Mobile email illustration

Email marketing is one of our favorite tools for education marketers. It can be more cost effective than other forms of one-to-one communication, can be turned around quickly, and offers near-immediate response times. But, the advantages of email marketing are only as good as the marketing itself! To truly engage your audience, you need to craft and execute email marketing […]

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Ensuring Cybersecurity in Schools Is a National Movement

By MDR Marketing Team | 08/17/2023 | Comments Off on Ensuring Cybersecurity in Schools Is a National Movement
Chalkboard illustration for cybersecurity

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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Tutoring in Today’s Schools

By Guest Contributor | 08/17/2023 | Comments Off on Tutoring in Today’s Schools
Tutoring students

By Guest Contributor Lisa Wolfe Tutoring is a concept that dates back to the Ancient Greeks in 400 B.C., when Socrates tutored his famous student Plato. Today this instructional support strategy has taken center stage as a tool to help educators and parents close the learning gaps that widened during the disruption of the COVID-19 […]

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Navigating the School Purchasing Cycle

By MDR Marketing Team | 08/14/2023 | Comments Off on Navigating the School Purchasing Cycle
The school purchasing process

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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8 Effective Lead Gen Campaign Strategies to Build Your Educator Email Audience

By Nikki Katz | 08/11/2023 | Comments Off on 8 Effective Lead Gen Campaign Strategies to Build Your Educator Email Audience
Lead Gen illustration

In the ever-evolving realm of education, building a strong and engaged email audience is essential for nurturing valuable connections with educators, their students, and families. An effective lead generation campaign helps you grow your lists, but where’s the best place to start? Adding a newsletter sign-up on your website is an easy way to start, […]

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24 Tired Education Buzzwords To Stop Using Now

By Julie Mason | 08/10/2023 | 2 Comments
buzzwords photo

Sometimes you use a word because you are comfortable with it. It tends to garner a certain kind of reaction, and you’re counting on that. We call these buzzwords. Some people use buzzwords to help them sound smart, especially when they’re selling something. The use of buzzwords, also called jargon, can be effective in many […]

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Threads: What You Need To Know 30 Days In

By Danielle Barr | 08/07/2023 | Comments Off on Threads: What You Need To Know 30 Days In

Threads, Meta’s latest social media platform, launched July 6, 2023, as a text-based social network. One hundred million users joined in the first week, making it the most rapidly downloaded app ever. We’ve now hit the one-month mark. Is Threads still thriving? Are teachers using Threads? Are brands? 1. It’s true, Threads has lost 80% […]

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The Importance of an Email Welcome Series + Examples!

By Nikki Katz | 08/03/2023 | Comments Off on The Importance of an Email Welcome Series + Examples!
email messaging illustration

You only get one chance to make a first impression. When a potential customer expresses interested in your brand or product, enough to give you their email, the best way to convert them is via a welcome series. Welcome series work. They simply do. People open welcome emails 5x more often than standard email campaigns and they […]

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Five Ways to Help Schools Turnaround Learning Loss From the COVID-19 Pandemic

By MDR Marketing Team | 07/20/2023 | Comments Off on Five Ways to Help Schools Turnaround Learning Loss From the COVID-19 Pandemic
learning loss shows in student test scores

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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The SCOTUS Higher Ed Decisions and the Potential Impact on K-12 Schools

By Guest Contributor | 07/20/2023 | Comments Off on The SCOTUS Higher Ed Decisions and the Potential Impact on K-12 Schools
higher ed decisions by scotus

By Guest Contributor Lisa Wolfe Two landmark higher ed decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) have been making headlines this summer. As you likely know, the SCOTUS ended June by deciding that colleges and universities can no longer take race into consideration as a specific basis for granting admission. Then it wrapped up the […]

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5 Reasons To Partner with WeAreTeachers

By Malia Bartek | 07/19/2023 | Comments Off on 5 Reasons To Partner with WeAreTeachers

1. WeAreTeachers.com saw a record-breaking 61M page views in 2022. WeAreTeachers.com is a powerhouse media brand that 61M teachers visited last year. By partnering with us on your education campaigns, we’ll make sure teachers think of you. We’ll help you reach teachers who specialize in elementary, secondary, music, art, science, and language arts, along with […]

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How and Why You Should A/B Test Your Emails

By Nikki Katz | 07/18/2023 | Comments Off on How and Why You Should A/B Test Your Emails
A/B Testing

Your goal is to reach teachers, and email is a key way to get your brand messaging in front of them. But what will get your subscribers to open and click? While there are some key best practices, the best way for you to really understand your teacher audience is to conduct A/B testing and analyze […]

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How Your Brand Can Reach Educators This Back-To-School Season

By Malia Bartek | 07/12/2023 | Comments Off on How Your Brand Can Reach Educators This Back-To-School Season
Classroom

Back-to-school season is officially upon us! From mid-July through September, teachers across the United States are preparing their classroom spaces, putting together lesson materials, and gathering supplies. This time of year presents a unique opportunity to reach educators as they are actively searching for classroom ideas, free resources, and innovative products. With the wide range […]

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How To Create Content for Educators That Generates Leads

By Kimberley Gorelik | 07/12/2023 | Comments Off on How To Create Content for Educators That Generates Leads
mdr-content-key-educator

The best way to capture the attention, heart and mind of an educator is with relevant and valuable digital content specifically designed for educators. These kinds of resources will keep them coming back for more. As education marketers, we naturally look at our field in the aggregate—as “the market.” While this high-level thinking is important […]

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We Asked Teachers How They Use Social Media and Here’s What We Found Out

By MDR Marketing Team | 06/23/2023 | 3 Comments

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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Digital Marketing to Educators, What’s New?

By MDR Marketing Team | 06/15/2023 | Comments Off on Digital Marketing to Educators, What’s New?
digital marketing to educators with smart phones

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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