Stop Making These 5 Mistakes When Emailing School Administrators

When you’re trying to reach busy school administrators with your latest software, product or service it’s important to know they are reading your emails. Unfortunately, most of you are making crucial mistakes that send you straight to the trash bin. Lucky for you, we have compiled the 5 biggest blunders made when sending email campaigns to the district and school officials.  

Think your emails are flawless? Think again! Experts say most campaigns could perform better. The secret to harnessing those untapped potential clients could be hidden in the things you’re doing wrong. On that note, take a moment to read through our 5 oft-made mistakes that are holding back your campaign success.

1. Not updating your email lists

It may sound simple, but the fact is that many client lists and email databases are filled with old, outdated emails. If you want recipients to open, and even read, your emails then you need to send to valid addresses. You may think, what does it hurt me if I send to old emails?

Well, besides wasting the opportunity to connect with potential customers, you are also hurting your open rate. Even worse, your IP reputation will eventually take a hit if you continually send to outdated emails. This will cause all your emails to be filtered automatically into spam. Being relegated to the spam folder is the worst outcome for any email campaign. This means all your effort is wasted as your potential customers haven’t seen your offers or content.

Another way to end up in the spam folder is by addressing your recipients in the wrong format. Remember that school administrators are busy and inundated with a lot of offers daily. It may be tempting to boost the flashy factor by using HTML emails.  

However, HTML is best used for sales fliers and invitations to events. If district decision-makers see that your email is a sales call they are likely to hit unsubscribe and send you to the spam folder without a second glance.

Meanwhile- Text emails are more professional and give a personal feel. You want to offer content and value to keep your recipients opening and reading your emails. You also want to deliver that content quickly, ideally in 30 seconds or less. This rapid delivery of valuable information should lead your potential clients to a single call to action which lands them on a webpage with links, videos and all the information about your services.

2. Lack of Value

Another mistake which can permanently damage your campaign results is trying to forgo the introduction. You cannot send one email and immediately try to sell a product. This will prove to the reader that you are just another useless sales pitch.

Instead, you need to provide valuable content, videos or training opportunities. Solve a problem your district or school clients are struggling to keep them opening your communications. A good first email will build trust before offering anything for sale.

3. Lazy Subject Lines

While your content needs to be valuable, interesting and quick to keep readers coming back, your subject has to hook them first. Attaching a one-note subject will lead to low open rates and even lower follow-through from your potential clients.

Most of the marketers spend tremendous amount of time on content but very little time on creating attractive subject line. Before the school administrator see your content they see your subject line. Spend a good amount of time crafting a better subject line.

Subjects should be related to the content, not a bait and switch that will upset readers. And, while quippy or funny subjects may seem smart, they are seen as unprofessional and won’t be well-received by overworked school administrators.

4. Misuse of the Email Preview

The pre-header content displayed by most email clients is only 100 characters. It usually grabs the first few lines of content automatically. It may even read instructions, not meant for preview like “open this in your browser.”

This is a mistake many individual marketers or first-time senders often overlook. Configuring your emails with interesting and relevant pre-header content is essential to boost open-rates. Think of the preheader like a movie trailer. While the title only tells you so much, the trailer shows you the highlights and pulls you into the story. A successful email preview will make readers curious and encourage them to benefit from the valuable content enclosed within.

5. Unfocused content

Overloading your potential clients with too much information in one email is a momentous mistake. Equally so, would be adding more than one call to action per email. Instead, craft an email campaign which provides the content over time with one call to action per email.

Instead of being attacked by one big advertisement, school officials will see the value you are bringing them on an ongoing basis. You should have an introductory email, developmental emails and sales emails which are dispersed on a predetermined schedule for each set of customers. This can all be decided by applying a carefully thought-out district decision-maker journey map.  

Take heed of these simple tips to increase your open-rate, follow through and eventual client base for email marketing campaigns. Remember to consider the customer. School and district decision-makers have a lot going on at any given time and follow specific schedules for budgets and purchases. To succeed, you need to play the long game and pay attention to the details. It’s that simple!