Any marketing I did for edtech products as a kid was an accident. I'm sure I gave spontaneous feedback to my parents, friends, and some of my teachers without an agenda.
Critical outcomes—like how many points I earned in my favorite math game—probably dictated how great or terrible I said the products were.
As an older student, I started a tutoring service during pandemic lockdowns. I made curated lists of edtech platforms for kids to avoid the summer slide. In a way, I was indirectly marketing the services of those edtech companies.
Working in marketing requires strategy. An intentional one. A strategy that involves cheerleading, offering buyers hope, and marketing honestly.
Consistently cheerlead your edtech products
My younger self would give edtech reviews, completely unprompted. Maybe I played a memory game and wanted to tell other people how fun it was. Or I got frustrated and was ready to convince anyone within earshot to delete it.
Marketers can't be as random with their communications. Cheerleading edtech products needs to happen internally, whether you're
pitching a new marketing tactic to your team
encouraging your sales team to increase conversions with new collateral
or calling out your product's abilities when stakeholders have doubts
But the people you need to excite the most are the ones outside of your organization.
Your leads and customers don't work for your company. They aren't in your team meetings. So building hype for them is THE way to
earn buyer trust.
secure renewals.
build word-of-mouth marketing.
For a kid, cheerleading a product ends when frustration outweighs the fun. In marketing, it's a cyclical process that can't stop when you're having a tough work week.
Give the gift of actionable hope
Movies, career day, and Halloween give kids windows into different lives. Lives they might want one day.
Good marketing in edtech gives that same idealistic feeling.
The difference? It gives buyers actionable steps to give their kids different outcomes, with:
compelling copy
efficacy studies
testimonials
and more!
My kid commentary was never recorded because my product reviews weren't planned.
If you have a loyal customer school and they're willing to publicize their experience with your products, you've struck gold.
Imagine all the content you can collect. And all the platforms you can share these testimonials on.
Tell the story of your edtech products honestly
You can't dramatize your products to impress your buyers. That would be childish—get it?!
Cheerleading what your products can do and giving buyers actionable hope has to be done truthfully. It's the ethical way to do marketing. And your returns will probably stretch the farthest.
Convincing someone to buy is a win. But how do you get them to come back? How do you get them to share your products with their friends?
Not with overdramatized results. Or impossible guarantees.
Marketing in edtech needs to inspire customers by sharing what their products were designed to do.