Mobilize an Army of Students for Your Marketing Channel

Are you constrained by tight budgets?

Are your marketing channels inadequate?

Have you ever thought about the power students have to implement a marketing program?

Students are great source of getting your marketing plan into action. Not only are they enthusiastic, they are diligent, creative and resourceful. You may wonder if this concept would be favored by educators and schools. This idea provides students with an opportunity to learn how ‘real world’ planning and implementation takes place. Given the opportunity they get to learn and the exposure they obtain to potential employers is a strong point that gains a positive vote from school administrations.

Like using any other channel strategy, you need to make a plan. 

• You need make a plan and select schools that are best suited to build the program
• You need to assign a teacher to handle day-to-day operation of the program
• You need to set aside dollars for your student ‘agency’ to manage and include rewards as a part of the budget.
• You need to spend time to discus and guide your student agency to support their efforts in implementing the plan.

While using a student group to create, manage and implement your marketing plan, there are few aspects that need to be kept in mind:

• Give yourself at least six months to draft a plan and select the best suited schools.
• Set aside at a month to communicate your concept to schools you plan on working with. It is important that you have strong support from teachers and administrators.
• Ensure the teacher assigned to manage your program is committed and is driven to ensure a successful outcome.
• Keep your student agency in the loop from the beginning. Treat them as you treat a professional agency. 
• During implementation, it will be productive to measure the performance of the student agency and provide constructive feedback and guidance to help them perform better.
• Make sure to acknowledge and reward students and teachers who are actively involved and providing positive results.
• Get your management involved to reward participants with recognition letters and certificates.

By keeping these aspects in mind, it is possible to utilize a group of students to implement your marketing plan. The end result is that, in a few hundred dollars and little time on management, you have a rocking plan and an effective and low-cost marketing channel.

Let students get a feel of the real world

Mobilize them to build your ‘agency’

Implement a win-win marketing program with highly influential market segment.

PTAs & PTOs – School Buying Decisions Are Influenced by Parents. Connect With Them!

Even been to a school bake sale lately?

These enthusiast groups of parents play more than just a role of distributing cookies. They now are strong influencers in the decisions schools make and in the development of education marketing plans.

The responsibility of decision making which was once reserved for paid staff of administrators and teachers is now taken over by parents. Dollars spent by schools on education and teaching material are now predominantly decided by parent groups such as Parent Teachers Associations and Parent Teacher Organizations (PTO).

Why you need to engage and connect with PTAs and PTOs?

Consider this:

• Most of 80,000+ K-8 schools in the US have a parent group in form or the other.
• 77% of these K-8 groups are independent PTOs working at schools their kids are enrolled in.
• Approximately $2 billion is amount they generate yearly mainly from fundraising events, donations and auctions at schools. 
• And this $2 billion is spent on school equipment, curriculum material and education software. 

This is a huge opportunity for education marketers and connecting with this group influencers in the education market is as important as targeting administrators and educators.

So, How to Sell to PTAs and PTOs?

When selling to PTAs and PTOs, marketers need to have a slightly different approach.

• The product should be lower priced than those sold to school administrations.
• There should be a commitment to providing support in order to make selling easier and profitable.
• The products should be designed such that it’s easily consumable and is made for frequent purchase.

The important aspect in selling to PTS and PTOs is to address a pain-point and provide a solution. Marketers can easily generate sales from schools provided they have a relevant products and a well defined marketing and support plan. 

Make parent groups as an ally

Provide valuable resources

Make them look good in their community

And they will more likely promote your marketing messages

Contact Us to Connect with PTAs and PTOS in the Education Market

90% of School Administrators Prefer Conversations. Are You Listening?

• Finding it tough to get the attention of district administrators and school principals? The ones who approve budgets?
• Don’t you think they are tired of sales presentations about the same message of company history, customer satisfaction, features, reliability and benefits?
• And when it comes to making a decision, administrators find it difficult to differentiate between one products or service from another.

According to industry experts,

• 90% of decision makers mentioned they prefer having a conversation over watching a slide show.
• 67% of them stated they preferred buying from companies that created a “buying experience." 

As students are more responsive to new learning methods, decision makers in the education market too are more responsive to new buying experiences. If you want to capture the attention of key contacts in the education market, here’s a simple formula:

Keep it simple

Keep it interesting

Keep it engaging

Keep it powerful

Make it an experience that administrators are likely to remember, when making that important decision.