Improving your Response
Schools Marketing Company have been emailing school management and teaching staff on behalf of our clients' for more than 18 years; and in that time we have learned a thing or two about what works and what doesn't!
So what helps drive response from schools? Here are some things to think about:
1. Your subject line (plus your preheader/preview line)
Put yourself in the position of a School Business Manager, Site Manager, or Headteacher. Twenty emails come into your inbox and you are scanning them to see what you will open next. For most people, the subject line and sender name dictate that to a great extent. So think about your subject line and feel free to ask for our input too.
2. Your Calls to Action / CTAs
It would be great if recipients opened your email, read through to the end and pressed ORDER NOW - and whilst it does happen - what about when it doesn't? Put yourself in the position of someone who has received your email and is interested, but has never dealt with you before, in this case an order is less likely. Rather than lose their interest, how do you get a response? What would they be willing to do?
- Request Brochure & Price List
- Get in Touch
- Ask for a Quick Quote
- Email us Here
- Any questions?
- 'Contact Us' webform
- SMC OneClick response link
It’s great to have a ‘Contact Us’ form on your website but it’s important to remember that some people don’t like filling them out, so keep it short. We can add our SMC OneClick response link into your email too (we prefill the respondents details in, meaning they don't have to).
By giving respondents, various ways to get in touch with you, hopefully they will feel more comfortable in doing so. The ENQUIRE HERE ones, the DOWNLOAD our price list ones, the ASK A QUESTION and the CONTACT US ones – they are all potentially future customers.
3. Your email response enquiries
It’s always a good idea to offer respondents an email response link too (we can personalise that directly to you, and set up a message in the email body to make it even easier for them when they email you).
One subtle thing that may be worth thinking about, is your company email enquiry address. If you are at the ‘early stages’ of getting in touch and are just looking for more information from a company, or a brochure and price list, do you want to respond to an email address called sales@company.co.uk? Maybe not!
We feel that enquiry@ or admin@ or customerservice@ are all ‘gentler’ types of response enquiry email addresses, so that can be worth thinking about too (and of course using your own personal email address is absolutely fine!)
4. Your email sender ‘From’ name (email alias)
Your sender ‘From’ name (or email ‘alias’) can be anything you want it to be (as long as it is legal, decent, honest etc).
This could be:
- Your company name
- Your personal name
- A well known brand
- An engaging ‘Theme’ such as ‘Outdoor Play Equipment’ or ‘GDPR News’ or ‘School Maintenance Supplies’
- A product name
5. Samples/Testimonials/Breakdowns/Whitepapers
If you have an affordable sample or trial you can offer then great – but don’t make respondents jump through hoops to get it, you can quickly lose the positive benefits of offering something for free if you make it too difficult.
If you have something useful schools can download then add a link to it; it advertises your company name and products every time they look at it.
If you have additional information available related to your offer – then give them an email link to request it from you e.g. Simply email us to request our guide on...
- How to measure your playground area
- How to check if your school blinds are safe
- Top tips for evaluating how well your school IT system/network is working for you
- How to plan safe school trips and travel - in the Covid era
- How to check if your GDPR documentation is up to date
- How to plan a cost-effective multi-use school hall or games area
- Top Tips for running Summer Clubs in Schools
6. Timing
As well as thinking about school terms and budget periods, you also need to think about schools term dates and holiday periods too, so why not take a look at our SCHOOL TERM DATES chart here to help you.