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 [1] 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 ([2] 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 [3] 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.