School's Out for Summer! 3 Ways to Engage with Educators in the Summer Months
While the school year may be winding down for students, now is hardly the time for education marketers to take a summer break. Summer is a key season to ramp up engagement with the education audience, offering a rare chance to connect with school administrators and teachers. In fact, during the slower pace of summer, educators often have the much-needed bandwidth to seek professional development, plan for the upcoming year, find resources, and engage in online communities. Read on for tips on how to successfully seize the opportunity of summer marketing.
How K-12 Companies Navigate School Dynamics in Summer to Drive Engagement
During summer, teachers may be resting, but they are also planning, attending meetings, and setting the groundwork for the next academic year. Some may be charged with summer projects like rewriting curriculum due to policy changes, facilitating planning meetings for grade level and content teams, or researching new technologies and tools to support their professional growth.
School administrators, on the other hand, are typically still in the physical school building during summer months busy wrapping up the past school year and simultaneously planning for the upcoming one, able to complete tasks they can't do with the usual interruptions when school is in session. This includes strategic planning, curriculum development, staff recruitment and training, budgeting, and infrastructure improvements. The quiet of summer allows school administrators focus on long-term goals, prepare for the new year, and ensure a strong start in the fall.
For K-12 and EdTech marketers, summer is the time to nurture relationships with educators. Here are three actionable strategies to drive engagement during the summer holiday:
1. Leverage Professional Development Opportunities
While students enjoy their summer break, educators are often busy with their professional growth through workshops, courses, and conferences. This period of professional enrichment is essential for educators, affording otherwise busy teachers time and space to enhance their skills, add new tools to their curriculum, and strategically plan for the next school year. Summer break allows educators to update the curricula and classrooms in accordance with ever-evolving state mandates and policies. In addition, certain states require continuing education credits to support certification and licensure requirements. For all of these reasons, educators are open to exploring professional development (PD) to best meet their needs, including time commitment, budget, and learning goals.
What types of PD training should education companies provide over the summer?
Many companies offer PD for educators during the summer to align with their needs. This includes everything from conferences or institutes with registration fees, content-focused workshops where educators can deep dive into pedagogy or curriculum, and even free webinars offering an introduction to content and strategies. Build relationships and connect with new prospects using the below professional development formats:
Conferences and Institutes: Host an in-person conference or institute in a sought-after summer vacation spot near your target audience for the ultimate mix of work and play. Trusted professional development provider, Corwin, is hosting their annual Visible Learning+ conference in San Diego, CA. By choosing a dream location like San Diego, this conference promises to offer valuable learning along with some extracurricular summer fun for attendees!
Workshops and Training: Not everyone has the ability to sign up for multiple days of learning over the summer. One-day or half-day workshops and training provide educators with time-effective summer learning opportunities. By offering bite-sized PD, you broaden your reach and, with the right planning, leave attendees wanting more. This forum is an ideal way to expose participants and prospects to new curricula or edtech tools, showcasing the benefits of your products and services, and leaving educators enticed to pursue your offerings as the school year nears.
Free Webinars: Free virtual trainings and webinars break down geographic and monetary barriers between you and your ideal audience. edWeb.net is an award-winning virtual professional learning network that connects education service and product providers with an engaged audience of education professionals. With an edWeb sponsorship that hosts your webinar on the edWeb platform, you receive technical support, top-tier presentation tools, a streamlined system for participants to receive CE certificates, email and social media targeted marketing, and follow-up list of high-quality leads the day after your presentation.
Showcase your expertise and the ways your solutions seamlessly integrate into educational practices. By doing so, you provide value to educators and position your brand as a go-to resource for the upcoming school year.
2. Create Engaging Summer Content
Educators spend considerable time planning for the next academic year during the summer, often seeking innovative resources, lesson plans, and tools online to refresh their curriculum and engage students.
Engaging content examples to inspire, develop, and share relevant summer content:
Interactive Lesson Plans
For example, a company provides a digital platform that offers customizable lesson plans using virtual reality (VR) related to historical events. Teachers can pick the event and interactive elements (e.g., quizzes, VR tours). They can also adjust the lesson's complexity to their students' age.Helpful Blog Posts
An education service provider specializing in math might publish a series of blog posts on new ways to teach algebra. The posts can cover games and interactive challenges, with each including step-by-step guides and links to online tools and resources.Interactive Tools and Apps
If you offer engaging tools and apps, provide interactive tours and demos. For a tool that allows students to create their own digital storybooks, provide a guide for teachers and demo how to use the tool to teach narrative writing. Include lesson plans and student activities for ease of implementation.Podcasts
Teachers and school administrators frequently turn to podcasts for insights and implementation. For example, Amplify's "Science of Reading: The Podcast" has 122 episodes over eight seasons and 5.27 million downloads, with each episode receiving about 50,000 downloads. Create a podcast series that features interviews with educators on how they integrate your solution into their classrooms. Topics might include overcoming challenges and best practices.Educator Testimonials and Case Studies
Gather detailed case studies of successful implementation of your education service or product. Focus on their challenges, how they overcame them, and their impact on student engagement and learning outcomes.Templates and Planning Resources
Create downloadable templates for classroom management, school scheduling, or evaluation rubrics. These resources could include checklists, planning worksheets, and reflection questions for school administrators.Infographics and Visual Guides
Infographics can summarize the latest research on your product. For example, take a solution that involves game-based learning. The infographic could show updated research to help administrators make informed purchasing decisions.
Be sure to consider SEO as you share content and market your online communities. As educators head to Google with any number of questions, you’ll want to make sure your visibility is high. Educators, like the rest of us, spend many of their free minutes and hours online. With the bulk of educators’ free time being in the summer, these warmer months are a critical season for creating and sharing top-notch content, so seize the moment!
3. Engage on Social Media and in Online Communities
Summer gives educators more time to engage on social platforms and online communities. These spaces are valuable for sharing experiences, accessing resources, and discovering new tools. School administrators and teachers must always navigate changes. Given the numerous and frequent changes teachers and administrators face on a regular basis, from curriculum to student behaviors to technology, they remain readily adaptable to meet all students' needs, which can be exhausting. Active online communities support administrators and educators in navigating these changes, addressing ambiguity, and fostering a sense of solidarity and shared purpose.
Here are 5 ways to encourage meaningful interactions and participation during the summer:
Host Regular AMAs (Ask Me Anything)
Schedule regular AMAs with education experts. This could include experienced teachers, education technology developers, or subject matter experts. The open Q&A format encourages participation and allows educators to gain insights on specific topics or challenges.Create Themed Discussion Threads
Organize weekly or monthly discussion threads around specific themes or topics. These range from classroom management strategies to integrating technology in teaching. Encourage users to share experiences, successes, and challenges. These threads foster a sense of community and collective problem-solving.Facilitate Peer Sharing and Feedback
Create a safe space for educators to share lesson plans, teaching materials, or classroom projects. Make it a place where they can not only share resources, but also receive constructive feedback from peers. This system can help educators refine their approaches and learn from each other's experiences.Organize Challenges and Competitions
Organize challenges or competitions with specific goals, such as creating the first four weeks of plans by a particular date. These activities can stimulate creativity and engagement, with prizes or recognition for the winners.Encourage Personal Story Sharing
Invite members to share their "wins" of impactful moments or student successes. These stories can inspire, motivate, and remind educators of their profound impact on their students' lives.
Educators rely on online communities and open educational resources year-round. Invite participation in your community during the summer season when teachers are in planning mode and have a bit more time on their hands. When your audience finds your online community to be helpful, these connections will surely carry on into the school year.
Seize Summertime Engagement to Stay Top of Mind in District's Buying Cycle
By leveraging professional development, engaging content, and social media to build relationships with educators and school administrators in the summer months, K-12 marketers position themselves as thought leaders and partners heading into the school year. By using this time wisely, you ensure that your solutions are top of mind as your audience heads toward fall.
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