Marketing can be a broad and somewhat nebulous term, and because every company has to do it, it’s easy to think that it means the same thing in every context. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. Marketing is entirely contextual and the way it is implemented varies widely depending on hundreds of different factors.
Here at The Renaissance Network, our focus is on education, and so we thought we’d use this article to look at what education marketing looks like and why it is so different from traditional B2B or B2C marketing. It’s not just the differences in funding cycles that make a difference, but also a set of unique challenges and pain points that companies are working to solve. Hopefully, lifting the curtain on what makes a great education marketer can disrupt your thinking and help you to look at the marketing challenges you’re facing slightly differently.
What Is the Role of an Education Marketer?
An education marketer has to think holistically about their job and combine many different skill sets to be successful. Here are some of the key components of such a role that will decide how effective they are:
Deep market research on multiple stakeholders
In education, you are dealing with a large and diverse group of stakeholders including students, parents, educators, boards, government, donors, and many more. This makes the task of determining the right messaging to be complex and nuanced – especially when you are trying to balance the interests of each party. As such, deep market research is required to understand the landscape, the objectives, and the underlying pain points that each set of stakeholders deals with. If you try to shortcut this part of the process, you’ll quickly discover that your solutions don’t resonate with the specific challenges that your prospects are facing, and you’ll find it very difficult to get buy-in.
Understand the values and objectives inherent in education
In traditional marketing, the objectives are relatively straightforward – and you’re often appealing to revenue-creation opportunities or cost-saving efficiencies when pitching your solution. In education, things are very different. As many institutions are not purely for-profit enterprises, the set of objectives is very different. An education marketer needs to calibrate with the specific values that matter to education clients, which often include trust, credibility, and a dedication to a singular mission. This means that the content and messaging you’re putting forward need to be more delicate and intentional if it is going to make an impact on your prospect.
Persevere through long sales cycles
Implementing new technology or learning solutions in an educational institution is a scary decision for many organizations, so they often enter into new business discussions with great caution. A strong education marketer understands this and is willing to be patient while building relationships and not look to rush the sale in a transactional fashion. Long sales cycles are the name of the game, and you have to be able to take that in your stride.
Familiarize yourself with the regulatory requirements and stay within the legal and ethical guidelines
In traditional marketing, companies often get away with exaggerations and other sales methods because the industry is not as regulated, and the offering is not a high-stakes purchase. In education, though, messaging and content are much more heavily scrutinized, and the regulations in education require companies to adhere to strict rules and limits. Being a strong education marketer means that you need to understand the substance and form of these and that you apply them to the letter in all your marketing activities. In the US, 50 states and the District of Columbia add to the complexity as education policy can be a state-level decision.
Be a great storyteller who can demonstrate emotional appeal
While all marketing is storytelling, education is on the extreme side of the spectrum. When dealing with students of all ages in the US and around the world, decisions about their education are filled with emotion. Everyone has very strong opinions and if you want to make an impact, you need to be able to convey a compelling story that points to the impact that your solution is going to have on student results. A good education marketer can use case studies, anecdotes, and impact studies to show how their offering makes a real difference and that sells the solution before you even get to the price or other operational considerations.
We could go on and on but this should give you a sense of some of what makes up an education marketer’s toolkit. As these professionals gain industry experience, their domain expertise grows, and they can better manage the unique challenges and opportunities that exist within the education space.
What Skills Make For a Great Education Marketer?
From our experience working with a wide array of education clients here at The Renaissance Network, there are four key skills that stand out above the rest when it comes to what makes a great education marketer:
Creativity
Education marketers need to be able to think out of the box because every day is different and the industry itself is evolving so rapidly. With so much competition for EdTech spending, the marketers who can show innovation and unique concepts are going to win the lion’s share of the awareness – which can then translate into market share. In addition, being able to connect with so many different stakeholders and align with their goals requires an ability to morph and shift with agility – something that creatives do very well.
Analytical Thinking
At the same time, education marketers need to balance their creativity with data-driven analytics. Once the story has resonated with the client, an education marketer then needs to show that the analytics back it up. Having a strong grasp of the metrics and an ability to communicate their impact goes a long way to winning over the minds of educational institutions and the students they serve.
Communication Skills
We’ve alluded to this above, but we simply can’t emphasize this enough. Communication is everything. A great education marketer is a people person who is comfortable in a variety of interactions – and who demonstrates a genuine passion for what they are selling. Strong communication is often what sets apart the good from the great, and it’s a suite of particular skills that education marketers should consistently be working on.
Digital Literacy
Lastly, it would be remiss not to recognize that the vast majority of education marketing happens digitally in today’s day and age. As such, being digitally literate and technologically savvy is non-negotiable. This is important not only intrinsically to be able to do your job well but also so that you can teach your prospects about the digital nature of the solutions you are selling.
When you’re hiring education marketers, these are the sorts of characteristics you should be filtering for. We can definitely help with this at The Renaissance Network, so get in touch if you’re looking for some help with your recruiting.
What Strategies Are Education Marketers Focusing On?
When it comes to the trends in the education marketing ecosystem, there are three key strategies that seem to be top of mind for the industry at present. Let’s look through each of them in turn:
Precise identification of the target audience
It certainly seems like the education industry has fractured somewhat into a vast number of smaller niches, sub-markets, and buyer personas. As such, education marketers are being pushed to be clearer and more precise about the kinds of prospects they are targeting. As an example, it’s no longer enough to simply focus on ‘K-12 education’ as a target market. And each state and even county in the US may have nuances that must be taken into account. Education marketers need to dig deeper and identify other differentiating factors that help to describe their ideal client. When they do this, the messaging can be narrower and it leads to better results in terms of conversion.
Marketing personalization
As data-driven marketing has become more prevalent, on the back of significant advancements in artificial intelligence, education marketers have started to leverage scalable personalization in their outreach efforts. By tailoring the content of marketing campaigns and cold outreach more specifically, it feels less transactional and helps to build stronger relationships. Great education marketers use the technology and data at their disposal to humanize the marketing and thus are getting better results.
Multi-channel marketing
The reality of modern education marketing is that you have to be everywhere, but not in a traditional sense. Having a strong digital presence across a range of different platforms not only builds credibility but also creates a multitude of opportunities for customer touchpoints that allow for brand awareness to grow and mature. You also need to consider the thoughtful use of education events, community building, and thought leadership. Having a holistic picture of the marketing objectives and then being able to execute them in context across the different sales channels is a critical component of what it takes to succeed in the current landscape.
These three strategies barely scratch the surface of what great education marketing is capable of, but they point at some of the general themes and trends that we’re seeing play out in the marketplace.
How Do Education Marketers Measure Their Success?
Lastly, let’s consider some of the metrics and KPIs that education marketers are using to measure the effectiveness of their strategies:
Number of Quality Leads
With education sales cycles being so long, education marketers must focus their time and attention on a smaller set of high-quality leads rather than a spray-and-pray approach. As such, many education marketers are categorizing their incoming leads according to a qualitative rating and measuring the number of high-quality leads rather than just the total number of leads.
Client Retention Rates
For most EdTech providers, the goal is to ingratiate the technology within the operations of the client for the long term. Therefore, client retention rates are very important to track and help to identify whether the marketing efforts are aligned with the client’s expectations and needs – beyond an initial trial period.
Brand Perception
Reputation management is critical in education, and many education marketers measure brand perception through sentiment analysis on their online platforms and through their customer service functions. This helps to keep a finger on the pulse of what customers think and then make changes accordingly.
Client Acquisition Cost
As many technology installations require an upfront investment, which is then recovered over time, education marketers must understand their average client acquisition cost, as this will inform all their sales and marketing efforts. Tracking this over time also provides for useful trend analysis that can help with longer-term strategic decision-making.
These are the sorts of things that strong education marketers will focus on, and this is very different to traditional marketing, which is typically focused on engagement KPIs, view counts, and the like. At the end of the day, it comes down to the context in which you’re marketing and the objectives that you’re setting for each campaign.
Building World-Class Teams to Impact Education and Communities
So, there you have it. That’s what makes for a great education marketer – someone who can connect with your prospects and deliver value long before they make the eventual sale. If you’re looking to recruit people to do this for you, then look no further than our team here at The Renaissance Network. We are recruiting experts in the Education industry, and we can help you bring in the right people to take your business to the next level. Get in touch today, and let’s see how we can help!
