28/07/2008 by Tony Attwood.

This is not a point I make lightly. The companies that do know the answer to this one question, normally do far better than those that don’t.

The question in question (as it were) is delivered to teachers and is…

in two parts.

Part one says, “When you are teaching topic x what resources do you currently use?” Part two says, “Can you tell me briefly the major benefits and draw backs of this product?”

OK, you are saying to yourself (if you are the sort of person who says things to yourself), what is so magical about these questions?

The point is you get to ask a random sample of teachers to give their opinions on the rival products avaialble when teaching a particular topic or subject. They tell you the positive and negatives of using those products in the classroom.

Then…

You create adverts which focus on the failings of your competitors’ products and the way in which you overcome those issues. I am not saying you mention your competitors by name or denigrate what they do. Rather your knowledge of how your potential customers see the products in this area becomes the most important factor there is in creating successful advertisements.

There’s one final point. Sometimes I’ve heard people say, “we don’t have any competition – no one does it like us,” and I am sure that is true. But that’s not quite the point here. The key issue is not what you think – but what the teacher thinks – and that is often quite a different issue.

Tony Attwood

PS: We undertake research to find out what teachers think about products avaialble to schools. The average cost is around £450, which in terms of the marketing benefit you can derive is rather a tiny amount. Call me before I put the price up.

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08/07/2008 by Tony Attwood.

Hamilton House PR Agency now offers a guarantee: it guarantees that your company will be mentioned positively in at least three papers or journals every month.

Getting positive coverage in appropriate media three times each month sounds a tough call – but with the right approach it is possible. 

We can guarantee to achieve this every month because we are (probably) the only PR and Marketing Agency that specialises exclusively in reaching teachers.

So we know the market, and we know the journalists, and we really can deliver.   

Thus we can give an absolute guarantee that you will get coverage in at least three different magazines, papers, TV stations or radio stations, every single month.   (Sometimes of course we get you more than three media appearances, but when we do we don’t charge extra.  We just let you have that as a bonus). 

In the extremely unlikely event that we fail to get you the promised coverage, we don’t charge you a penny for that month’s work.

But that’s not all.   As part of our package we also work developing separate longer-term projects with you (call me if you would like to have some examples).   We also undertake regular research for our clients into teacher attitudes, buying habits, competitor activity and the like.  It is all included in the monthly fee.

Of course sometimes a smaller, more specialised type of campaign is required and we can always tailor our work to meet such needs.   For example, some companies do not need the guarantee of significant coverage every month and obviously that reduces costs.  In other cases the research into teacher attitudes and activities is not needed very often, and again that cuts down on our expenditure on your behalf.   Where this is so we can cut our monthly fee dramatically.

In other cases the key issue may be marketing – analysing response rates, evolving new approaches, comparing email with direct mail, devising new incentives and so on.   Obviously here our fee can be lower than might otherwise be the case.

We’re happy to discuss the marketing and PR coverage we’ve achieved in the past, and come up with ideas for a campaign for you, without charge or obligation.   Do give us a call and we’ll talk it all through.

Just call 01536 399 000

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01/07/2008 by Tony Attwood.

As an experiment for 2008/9 Hamilton House Mailings is offering a free email campaign direct to teachers with every shared mailing campaign - at no extra charge.

Shared mailings are mailshots sent through the post, in a pack together.  Usually there are about 10 items in the pack and the school administrator passes them on to the relevant department.   In 2008/9 academic year you get the bonus of your advert being featured in Education Management News – our email news service that goes directly to opted-in teachers.

When considering emails it is important to note that there are two types of email lists in education: lists of schools (that is emails that go to the school administrators) and lists of teachers (which contain the teachers’ own email addresses).   We’re talking about the latter – email addresses that are specific to each teacher.

All the teachers on our lists are there because they opt-in and the reason they choose to opt-in is because we send them interesting and stimulating news once or twice a week.  Your announcement will be linked to one such news item.  Obviously not everyone opts in, but those that do tend to read what we send them – hence the higher response rates.

When booking your shared mailing you need to email us a copy of the text you want on the email.  We can’t run the free email advert unless you send us a copy of your text in Word or RTF format.   Because of the stringent nature of school firewalls we don’t include any pictures, but we can include a link to your web site, and your email address as well as your phone number and postal address.   If you want to change the text from that in your advert, there’s no problem, and there’s no limit on the size of the advert (although if you go on too long, the teacher might stop reading!)

There’s  an  extra bonus  too.   You know the bit that says you can’t combine two offers at the same time… this time you can.   You can take the 10% extra free offer (which means we’ll send out your overs through the shared mailing system a few weeks after the main mailing, up to a maximum of 10%) along with the free email to teachers offer.  

To book in your shared mailing in the normal way, and then email us the text you want in the email advert, along with a note of the date of the shared mailing, and who you want to reach.   We’ll do the rest.

There’s more about shared mailings on www.shared.org.uk    To find out more you can call on 01536 399 000, or you can email sales@schools.co.uk

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