My Most Successful EdTech Marketing Campaign Ever
How I Made £100k in Sales from just £7k Spend
Jay Ashcroft
July 18, 2023
While digital marketing is a necessity in the UK EdTech market, it doesn’t mean we should forget about the power and potential of a well crafted physical campaign.
Direct mail gives you the opportunity to cut through the noise of email campaigns and social media posts by putting something physical in front of your target users.
The limit is your imagination. Every week I get about at least 5 takeaway menus through my letterbox. I’ve ordered from precisely 0.
I’ve already have my favourite places, so to win my business, you’re going to have to do something more engaging because sending menus is not only boring, it’s annoying. The same goes for schools - if you’re sending generic print outs, don’t expect much in return. You haven’t made the effort so why should the school?
If you’re going to do direct mail, make it memorable!
💌 Real Life Example: ‘Golden Tickets’
When I was running LearnMaker, my first EdTech business back in 2014, we didn’t have any money to exhibit at BETT Show, so I decided to do some ‘tradeshow hacking.’ At a nearby hotel, we rented out half the bar area (we couldn’t afford the whole bar), dressed it up nicely and turned it into a VIP area.
In the months running up to BETT, we ran a direct mail campaign in which we sent headteachers a high quality envelop that contained a RSVP ‘Golden Ticket’ that could be redeemed for a drink in our VIP area.
I’d carefully selected who we should invite based on my understanding of our target schools. 21% of the invitees turned up and we went on to book more than £100,000 in new business in the following months. It cost £5k to rent the venue, another £1.2k was spent on the direct mail campaign and the rest was spent over 3 days at BETT.
I ran the same campaign at the NEC for the Academies Show. We turned a positive ROI, but because the hotels are further from the arena, people didn’t want to leave the arena. The other issue is that I later come to learn is that the Academies Show (at the time at least), wasn’t treated as a full day out, and many people would only take a half day away from school.
🚀 Want to try something like this yourself? Book a free 45 minute Discovery Call with me. Click here to find out more
Later, as Growth Manager at Arbor Education, we ran the same ‘hack’ only went much bigger, booking out a whole restaurant and providing invitees with a free lunch.
We’d serve more than 300 headteachers and Multi-Academy Trust leaders, chatting for 30 minutes+ over lunch and drinks. At the time, this was much cheaper than having a decent sized stand inside the arena.
While everyone else was in the arena fighting for attention, our biggest issue in the restaurant was getting educators to leave so we could free up space and begin serving the next wave (we allocated everyone a 30 minute slot).
🥳 14 Brand New Marketing Campaigns to Try Next Year
Over the past 13 years, I’ve tried every marketing strategy, campaign and tactic that you can think of, finding the ones that work and the ones that don’t.
From growing my first EdTech into a six-figure revenue business with less than a £10k marketing spend through to leading growth at Arbor Education as we scaled to serve thousands of schools.
In this 10 page guide, I walk through 14 different marketing campaigns, grading the difficulty, each with real life examples so you can try them out for yourself.
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💡 An Idea for you to Try
BETT Show only comes round once a year, and there’s only a limited number of places you can book to try and ‘hack’ the show. Here’s an idea you can use all year round:
🗝 Campaign: "Unlock the Future of Learning"
In this campaign, the main element would be a small, intriguing, high-quality cardboard box mailed directly to your school or MAT decision maker. The key (pun intended) is to make it visually appealing and engaging, capturing the recipient's attention immediately.
Inside the box, there would be a stylish, 'old-fashioned' key attached to a tag. The tag has a printed QR code and the text saying "Scan to Unlock the Future of Learning." When the recipient scans the code, it leads them to a custom landing page. This page could contain an engaging video showing how your EdTech solution can revolutionise learning, followed by an invitation for a free demo or consultation.
The key here is not only a physical item but a symbol, a conversation starter, and a reminder of your product. It serves as a memorable, tangible item that represents the digital, transformative power of your EdTech product.
Follow up this campaign with personal emails or calls, offering to provide further information or to schedule the demo. This integrated approach can enhance the impact and help in tracking the results of your direct mail campaign.
As always, thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed it!
Best regards, Jay
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