3 Must Haves to Generate More Schools Leads in 2023/24
Learn from the top performing EdTechs to grow your business faster
Jay Ashcroft
June 20, 2023
There are 2,500 more EdTech companies operating in the UK today than there were 10 years ago. Yet there are roughly the same amount of schools.
Competition is fiercer than ever, and generating leads is getting harder.
Today, the average SLT member is in their mid-30s, digitally savvy and far more discerning than years gone by.
Many MATs have procurement departments, lead by individuals with decades of negotiating experience.
Today, I want to share my 3 Must Have’s (+ 1 bonus) when it comes to school marketing. Let’s get started:
1. Content Marketing
87% of schools research an EdTech company before they commit to even trialing a solution (never mind buying it).
EdTech provides that are creating valuable, informative, or engaging content are growing faster than those who don’t. They’re doing this by building a growth ‘flywheel.’ This is how:
Good quality content = more touch points with schools
More touch points = greater trust
Greater trust = higher conversion rates to customers
More customers = greater opportunity to build reputation
Greater reputation = more inbound school leads
More inbound leads = more opportunities to win new schools
This cycle repeats indefinitely and that’s how category leaders are made.
Getting started with content marketing to schools
Create blog posts, run webinars, or write how-to guides. Each helps teachers and schools by providing value upfront. Do it well and you’ll start building the flywheel I described above. Do that and only good things will happen.
2. A Well Optimised Website
Your website makes a huge difference in your ability to generate school leads.
Even if you first connect with a prospective school at an event or via email, 9/10 schools will research you, meaning they’ll have a good old look through your website.
Are you confident with the following:
Is your website mobile friendly?
Are images and videos optimised for a quick load time?
Do you have clear and concise sections that communicate your product without jargon?
Is there a clear call to action that you want website visitors to undertake?
Make sure you have Google Analytics setup and running on your website. Keep a close eye on your bounce rate and your average engagement time as these are good indicators of how well received your website is when people first visit.
Getting started with optimising your website
Review and benchmark your website for free using Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool. Fix as many of the issues as you can, and follow the recommendations.
Whether you’re launching your first product, looking to raise investment, or aiming to break into the MAT market, I’ve been there are done it.
If you’d like support along the journey, or you’d like to shortcut the learning curve (and scale faster), we can work together from £99 per month.
If you want to find out more, click here to book your free 45 minute virtual meeting and we can discuss how we can work together to scale your EdTech.
3. SEO Optimisation
By optimising your website with relevant keywords and creating engaging content, you’ll rank higher in web search (Google) and prospective schools searching for education technology are more likely to find you.
SEO optimisation can be an absolute game changer for EdTech companies simply because so few companies invest in it.
There are 468,371 teachers in the UK, each one of whom will spend time online and could be searching for something new for their school or classroom.
To context the size of this opportunity, BETT Show, the largest education show in Europe, gets around 30,000 visitors each year.
After implementing an inbound lead generation strategy (engaging contenting, improved website, and optimised for SEO), revenue is up by 33% on last year and the EdTech company (who has asked to remain nameless) has just won it’s first Multi-Academy Trust, moving the schools away from their main competitor.
How to get started with SEO optimisation
The first thing is to understand what schools and teachers are searching for online. Platforms like Ahrefs, SEMRush, and Moz will help you with this research.
These are paid platforms - there isn’t anything that I know of that is free and does the job unfortunately.
Once you have a list of keywords and search terms, begin creating engaging content that you can publish regularly. Over time you should begin to rank higher in Google, and as a result, more prospective schools and teachers should find your website.
BONUS. A Formalised Referral Program
When I speak with EdTech companies, founders tell me they want more referrals yet I’m yet to met a company that has a formalised referral program.
You can’t grow your referrals if you’re not managing the referral process. The good news is, referral programs are one of the easiest things to setup.
All you need to get going is:
An incentive / reward that a school receives when they make a referral
The incentive and process is written down on a document or PDF (it looks official)
You can track when a school makes a referral and who they referred (a spreadsheet is fine)
You regularly talk and communicate to all your current customers that you have a referral program
It’s as simple as that!
At Arbor Education, implementing a formalised referral program grew the number of schools making referrals from 3% to 22%.
School leads that came from referrals closed at a higher rate than any other lead source.
How to create a formalised referral program
Follow the 4 bullet points above and you’re up and running. My top tip is don’t make the incentive too abstract. Give the school a discount if they make a referral.
Consider whether you want to ‘pay out’ only on referrals that convert into customers, or if you’re purely looking for leads.
Convert only incentives are safer for your cashflow because you only pay out when you get a new customer, but they’re slower / less engaging for the school so ensure it’s a juicy discount (try 50%).
As always, thanks for reading and I hope you found this helpful
I’ll be back next week with more lead generation tactics, all tried and tested firsthand.
If there’s something specific you’d like me to cover, drop me an email.
Best regards,
Jay
