Cold Emailing is Killing your School Sales
Why you're fighting a losing battle for the school inbox and what to do instead
This isn’t the headline you want to read today… I get it. You’ve got a revenue target to hit and we’re heading into peak school sales season. About 70% of all EdTech purchases will be decided over the next 3 months.
It’s incredibly tempting to start firing emails off. Maybe you’ve found an FOI email list or you’ve bought / subscribed to one. Thousands of contacts just a few clicks away from hearing about your business.
It seems like a sensible plan only there’s one problem. Pretty much every other EdTech company is thinking the same…
It’s hard to visualise this from the outside but I experienced it firsthand. I took on a 6 month contract as the COO at a Multi-Academy Trust. The previous year, the Trust’s publicly available email address received 57,301 cold emails. That averages 301 emails every single school day.
How cold emailing schools can damage your business
The SPAM trap
The chances of any cold email getting through is unbelievably low (at the MAT we used to route the bulk of these emails into a separate folder so no admin staff ever read them), but if you’re still tempted to roll the dice here’s 5 reasons to think again:
One Way Ticket to Spam: Continually sending unsolicited emails will inevitably lead to your domain being tagged as spam meaning your emails are never even seen by your intended recipients.
Low-to-No Engagement: Generic, untargeted emails to broad audiences results in low open and click-through rates. There’s nothing worse than the “Book a Meeting” call-to-action sign off in a cold email from someone you don’t know. Engagement only happens when emails are personalised and value driven.
Negative Image: Unsolicited emails from an unknown company can easily create a negative impression and decrease trust in your brand. I experienced this personally in my time at the Trust. There were a number sales people from EdTech companies who sent the most generic, low effort emails to me every week and it soured my opinion of these brands. One company continually got my name wrong.
School Cyber Security is Improving: Email providers use spam filters to protect their users from unwanted emails. The Department for Education has a developed a set of Cyber Security standards that schools are increasingly adopting. If you’re a repeat cold email sender, there's a higher chance that your messages will be caught by spam filters and never reach the intended recipients. Once you’re tagged as spam, there’s pretty much no way to get out.
Wasting your Own Time: Without a well-planned strategy, the only thing you’ll achieve it consuming your own valuable time and resources without generating significant results. It's more effective to focus on building a targeted email list, creating valuable content, and using data-driven strategies to optimise your campaigns.
To improve your chances of success, develop a targeted, personalised approach to email marketing that complies with relevant regulations, provides value to schools, and builds trust in your brand. This will help you achieve better engagement, conversion rates, and long-term success.
How do I generate high quality school leads with email marketing?
Done well, email marketing remains a powerful tool in your lead generation arsenal, and if you can do it well you can easily stand out from the crowd. Here’s a 8 factors to focus on to improve your results:
Be clear on your target schools: Clearly identify the schools / Trusts that would benefit most from your EdTech solution the most. Consider factors like school size, location, demographics, and any specific educational needs your solution addresses. A good example of this is in how you approach Multi-Academy Trust sales. Every EdTech wants to sell to Trusts, but you shouldn’t be trying to sell to all Trusts unless you’re at scale. It’s far easier to sell to a 5 school Trust than it is a 15 school Trust. The larger the Trust, the more due diligence there will be, the more buying power they will exert, and the more specialists you’ll have to convince in the procurement process. Your sales cycle will be longer, your unit price will be driven down, and you might fail to even make it to the shortlist.
Build a strong online presence: School buyers are far more digitally savvy and younger than many imagine. Most procurement processes for new EdTech solutions are led by a member of the Senior Leadership Team where the average age is now mid-30s, and the average age of a Headteacher is now 47. They’re digitally savvy and they’ll be researching you prior to any meeting you have. Ensure your website is up to scratch (that means it’s mobile optimised), has ample social proof, and shows off your solution well in clear, non-jargon language.
Content marketing is a requirement: The bar is higher and creating high-quality, relevant, and informative content that showcases your expertise is now a requirement. Schools have a plethora of choice. I can’t stress how much choice schools have and there remains a disconnect between the market and what founders believe. There are more than 2,000 EdTech solutions available to UK schools today, so whatever it is your company offers, it is highly likely you’ve got competition. Offering valuable content in exchange for contact information will enable you to build your email list and develop higher quality leads.
Attend and sponsor events in the area: Participate in education-related events, such as conferences, workshops, and seminars, where you can network with educators and decision-makers. Sponsor or host events to showcase your solution and generate leads.
Offer free trials or demos: By offering free trials or demos of your EdTech solution, you can allow schools to experience the benefits first-hand, which may lead to more conversions.
Track, analyse, and optimise: Regularly review your lead generation efforts to identify what works and what doesn't. Use analytics tools to track engagement, conversions, and other key metrics. Continuously optimise your strategies to improve lead generation results.
High quality content = high quality leads
Remember that generating leads is just the first step. Sharpen your sales skills in order to nurture them through the sales funnel turn them into long-term customers.
As always, thanks for reading. See you next time
Best,
Jay
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