As we approach the end of May, we would be remiss not to mention the weeklong celebration of some of the most important members of our community – teachers! Since 1984, Teacher Appreciation Week has been celebrated the first full week of May. Over the course of the week, we recognize and give thanks to not only current teachers, but former teachers as well who have helped shape the lives and the futures of many.

While teachers and educators are celebrated yearly in May, this year was especially significant in light of the challenge the pandemic placed on education institutions. We extend extra thanks to teachers as they gracefully handled educating students in unusual environments with unique teaching styles to keep students engaged and focused. For education institutions and educators specifically, creativity wasn’t a nice to have during the pandemic like in many other verticals and industries – it was a need to have. Teachers were incredibly creative in fostering a community with their students to maintain a vital connection whether they were learning online, in-person or via a hybrid setting.

As marketers, we can learn from some of the ingenuity we witnessed from teachers who earned national attention and also from the teachers in our own lives. Digital marketing agencies continuously work to stay informed on the latest technology and the latest products to keep their partners ahead of the curve in the digital realm. Having a creative idea or a new process to better serve a student (or a client!) is often a gateway to enhancing education or acquiring new customers.

This week, we’ve highlighted a couple of best practice marketing tactics for education institutions and related companies to generate more leads and earn more brand awareness.

Understanding Your Audience & Best Utilizing Content

For educators and institutions alike, the landscape has certainly changed dramatically over the course of the past year. However, many facets remain the same. Education institutions are still looking ahead to recruit students, education technology companies are working to better support teachers and school systems and direct-to-consumer businesses within the education space are looking to connect with prospects.

While these are three distinct areas of education, core challenges and goals are quite similar. Namely, how does an organization best target their ideal audience and subsequently deliver a fine-tuned, personalized message to such an individual or company?

For starters, organizations should identify who their initial target audience is. For education institutions, it might be the parents or the grandparents of a child. For EdTech companies, it might be a teacher within a particular department. However, the ultimate goal for such organizations is to recruit a student, not a parent, and earn a contract from a school district, not a teacher.

In order to do this, creating a marketing campaign that is fine-tuned with specific messaging is key. We suggest producing content that either identifies solutions to pain points for specific audiences or producing content that paints the brand image you want to portray. To engage with teachers, perhaps share how your product can help solve a classroom problem. To engage with parents of children, perhaps share helpful advice for them when making a decision on the right school.

Next, determine the format through which you would like to share such messaging to target audiences. Within the education vertical, blogs, infographics and video are invaluable content hubs and creative assets.

Blogs

For institutions and companies, creating informational content in the form of a blog that can answer questions, provide case studies and generate authenticity, is an excellent opportunity to generate more leads and garner additional brand awareness.

Infographics 

Don’t have time to keep up on a blog? Infographics would do the trick! Bite-sized pieces of information in the form of an image are fantastic ways to relay some of your organization’s most important facts and figures. It is estimated that our brain can process visuals 60,000 times faster than text.

Video

And we can’t forget to mention video! Video has become the format to educate, entertain, engage, share news and drive leads. Oftentimes, these five elements appear in a single 10 or 15-second video (or in Facebook’s case, a mere 6 seconds).

In Conclusion

We find ourselves firmly planted in a time in which organizations are rethinking their brand positioning and modifying their approach to connecting with prospects. Through data analytics, creative services and digital marketing services, enacting a change in an organization’s marketing approach is now easier than ever. The Times Union Media Group is here to help you leverage all media types to grow the reach of your business and reach your ideal target audience. Contact us today for more information!

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