We all know the importance of creating high-quality content across the marketing funnel for educators. During the spring, when many are selecting tools to purchase for the upcoming school year, you want to create content that helps prospects during the decision-making process. In this article, I outline three ways to help prospects convert during the EdTech sales cycle.

Evaluation Tools/Resources

Selecting a new EdTech tool to implement can be overwhelming, and if you can provide tools that help decision-makers evaluate during the decision-making process, you can add value during a complex decision.

Examples of evaluation tools/resources are:

• Comparison rubric

  • A tool that helps outline key features on a scale of importance so educators can grade and compare competing tools

• Implementation guide

  • Examples of how to implement the program with fidelity during the school day for teachers and administrators. These should answer their questions about what time is required, what infrastructure needs to be in place, and how to fit this into classroom instruction time.

• Sample units/self-guided demo

  • Examples of aspects of the product that allow educators to touch and feel the program before they commit to purchase

• Funding resources/grant completion templates

  • Outlining funding examples that can be utilized to purchase the product and providing resources for educators on how to purchase your tool/product with these various sources

Customer/Prospect Events

Providing opportunities for your customers and prospects to talk to each other is critically important when prospects are deciding which EdTech tools to implement.

These events, which could be live or virtual, provide opportunities for best practices sharing and facilitate natural conversations between current product users and potential users. Events are a great tool because meeting live or in person provides a unique ability to accomplish a ton in a discrete period. The content at these events should be designed to answer questions your prospects might have during their decision-making process, similar to the tools and resources mentioned earlier. During this finite time, you can present full-funnel content to attendees to help them tie their pain points directly to their needs and to show them how your product or tool can drive results through successful implementation.

The other benefit of having current and potential users in the same room is that they can learn from each other and answer each other’s questions more organically than you can as an EdTech provider.

Customer Stories and Testimonials

Also known as proof points, customer stories are critical to incorporate into all bottom-of-funnel content. Educators want to see schools/districts like them successfully implementing your EdTech program/tool. After all, it’s a huge investment of time and resources to implement new technology, and they want to be confident they will be successful.

It’s important to identify and capture customer stories to showcase these successes. This can take many shapes from video and written testimonials to case studies. Incorporating these customer stories into other key marketing programs including the others mentioned - evaluation tools and resources and events and webinars - can elevate those programs, too.

#strategy #edtech #productmarketing #contentmarketing #eventmarketing 

If you need help thinking about the best ways to help prospects in your sales cycle convert, I can help. Reach out to learn more about my services.