18/01/2010 by Tony Attwood.

With the schools now having to spend their 2009/10 money before April 5th, and with next year’s money assured by the government this looks like a good time to advertise.

Indeed First and Best (the publishing company we own, and whose sales we use to monitor the general activity in school sales) has had a terrific opening to January - despite all the snow.  (If you want to know how we did it, do give me a call on 01536 399 013).

The question then is, how to build on this situation at a time when teachers have to spend (or risk having their money clawed back).

It is possible of course to book in individual email, and direct mail adverts to see how they go.   But it is also possible to save a lot of money pro-rata by booking in a regular campaign or by planning ahead.

I mentioned last week that we have now introduced stand by advertisements for email (there’s a section on this at http://www.emails.gs/standby.html

But another alternative is to pay a monthly fee, as part of the Velocity programme.

Velocity allows you to work with the HHM team and pick and choose the activities you want…. including, copywriting, blog writing, emailing, research into teachers’ views of products, competitor activity, re-writing landing pages to create more sales, listings on UK Education News (www.ukeducationnews.co.uk) and other PR activity, developing your own email list of possible customers and mailing them regularly…

Plus of course all the guidance and advice you need as to which list is best for your product or service, and how one should go about doing the promotions.

The monthly fee varies, but is generally around £450 per month - and you will usually get over £1000 worth of activity from this fee.

There’s more details on www.velocity.ac - but if you do just want to book in a single shared mailing, solo mailing or email mailing please do call 01536 399 000.

For news from the world of education, hour by hour, day by day, do visit UK Education News.

Tony Attwood

Hamilton House Mailings Ltd reg number 2444392 VAT 354907535GB.  Phone 01536 399 000.

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15/01/2010 by Tony Attwood.

It is always very hard to give an accurate picture of what is happening to response rates in direct mail, and what the cause is, but I think there is some evidence that the decline in the volume of direct mail reaching schools has resulted in an increased response rate.

Shared mailings are down to about 50% of the level (in terms of leaflets going into schools) that they were at four or five years ago.    As a result it appears that school administrators are now passing on almost all of the leaflets - because by and large they only get one pack a week to handle.

In primary schools the situation is even better with even the largest schools getting only one pack every two or three weeks.

What’s more the contents of the packs are much smaller than they were in the past, so the time taken to deal with a pack is less.

The impact for individual teachers is less as well - just one leaflet turning up once every two or three weeks means that leaflet is looked at.

In solo mailing the decline has been less, but it is still noticeable - the overall level is probably about 40% or 40% of four years ago.  

Even though this is not so much of a decline as elsewhere it is still reducing the stress and strain on the admin staff who have to sort the mail.

HHM now offers a free inclusion on www.UKEducationNews.co.uk with each solo or shared mailing that is charged at £200 or more (excluding the postage on a solo).   There’s details of our shared services on www.shared.org.uk    If you have not tried a solo mailing before there is information on http://www.mailings.org.uk/ 

There is also a full guide to solo mailing to schools on www.solo.ac

Or you can call 01536 399 000 or email me: Tony@hamilton-house.com

Tony Attwood

Hamilton House Mailings Ltd reg number 2444392 VAT 354907535GB.  Phone 01536 399 000.

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11/01/2010 by Tony Attwood.

We’re introducing a new “stand by” service for emails which makes our most responsive email lists available at a 50% discount.

The discounts apply to our personal email lists (see http://www.emails.gs/PersPrefLists.html) and our subscription email lists of teachers (http://www.emails.gs/emailteachersdirect.html).

To get your 50% discount all you need to do is supply us with your copy to go out to the teachers, and pay for the email transmission.  We then guarantee to send that advert out to the personal email addresses of the teachers you have selected within five weeks of the date on which we receive the copy and payment.

And that’s all there is to it.  Obviously this is not a service where you are looking for an immediate return, because we won’t be able to tell you if the promotion will go out in week one, week five or anywhere in between.

But where time is not of the essence, this can represent a considerable saving.

And our guarantee that each list only has one email sent from us each week still applies - so no matter when your email goes out, you’ll know that it will be the only one on that list to that teacher, that week.

Lastly, the 50% discount is not available on subscription mailings to school managers, and personal mailings to deputy heads, as these lists tend to be fully booked most weeks.

If you would like to know more, please call 01536 399 000.

Tony Attwood

Hamilton House Mailings Ltd reg number 2444392 VAT 354907535GB.  Phone 01536 399 000.

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07/01/2010 by Tony Attwood.

It is always very hard to give an accurate picture of what is happening to response rates in direct mail, and what the cause is, but I think there is some evidence that the decline in the volume of direct mail reaching schools has resulted in an increased response rate.

Shared mailings are down to about 25% of the level (in terms of leaflets going into schools) that they were at four or five years ago.    As a result it appears that school administrators are now passing on almost all of the leaflets - because by and large they only get one pack a week to handle.

In primary schools the situation is even better with even the largest schools getting only one pack every two or three weeks.

What’s more the contents of the packs are much smaller than they were in the past, so the time taken to deal with a pack is less.

The impact for individual teachers is less as well - just one leaflet turning up once every two or three weeks means that leaflet is looked at.

In solo mailing the decline has been less, but it is still noticeable - the overall level is probably about 40% or 50% of four years ago.  

Even though this is not so much of a decline as elsewhere it is still reducing the stress and strain on the admin staff who have to sort the mail.

HHM now offers a free inclusion on www.UKEducationNews.co.uk with each solo or shared mailing that is charged at £200 or more (excluding the postage on a solo).   There’s details of our shared services on www.shared.org.uk    If you have not tried a solo mailing before there is information on http://www.mailings.org.uk/ 

There is also a full guide to solo mailing to schools on www.solo.ac

Or you can call 01536 399 000 or email me: Tony@hamilton-house.com

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06/01/2010 by Tony Attwood.

I can’t recall a moment when so much of the business of marketing to education has changed in such a short space of time.

To help come to terms with the changes I have produced a new report: How to Sell to Schools: January to April 2010.

It covers the changes in school funding, how schools are spending their money, specific problems that schools are facing, and an article on the appropriate style of advertising for selling to schools.

There is also a full review of each direct medium available for marketing to schools and a particular review of such topics as websites, blogs, and the government’s latest fad: efficiency in schools..

Best of all the report is free, and it is at…

http://bit.ly/5e7Ibo 

If you want to talk through any aspect of it, give me a call on 01536 399 000.  And there are still a few spaces left for emails direct to teachers at half price in the first week of next term.

Tony Attwood

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05/01/2010 by Tony Attwood.

Education Management News is the most responsive email service that we’ve ever seen.  What’s more the copywriting part of the service is free of charge.  And you can get coverage on UK Education News free of charge as well if you use the service in January.

Teachers subscribe to Education Management News in order to receive news about their own area of interest.  There are separate editions each covering different subjects and topics, from English and literacy to Behaviour and motivation, from Management News for Heads and their deputies, to information about school visits.

Each week these subscribers get an email covering a news item, book review, information about a free product or some other topic of interest.

Then, a couple of days later, the subscribers receive an advertorial - that is an advert written in the same style as the news items.

Even better, during January everyone who books into an Education Management News advert also gets coverage on our national news network, UK Education News.

How to be involved.

First take a look at http://www.emails.gs/emailteachersdirect.html and choose the list you wish to use.

Then, call 01536 399 000 and make your booking.  We only accept one advert per list per week, so it is important to book as soon as possible.  Some lists do get quite booked up.

Third take a look at http://www.emails.gs/sample_subscription.html - which gives an example of what an advertorial looks like, and then write your copy.  Send it in, and then we’ll make any changes that we think will improve the response rate.  That part of the service is completely free.

Once we have agreed the copy we’ll run the advert on the date you require and then put the advert also on www.UKEducationNews.co.uk

Response rates can be very exciting, and I do hope you’ll find this service of interes

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