Planning content can feel a little overwhelming. We get it. It takes time to produce something high quality and learn what’s the most useful for your audience. That’s why we did the first step of identifying events that should be on your radar for you. Our free EdTech Marketer’s Planner lists the most important events, dates, and birthdays you’ll need to create timely content year-round. In this post, we’ve included the events, dates, conferences, and birthdays you should keep in mind from January to March 2021 that are all a part of our planner. Use these events to have some fun creating valuable and timely content.
Holidays, Events and Conferences
Our team collected some of the dates EdTech marketers should consider throughout the year and brainstormed some timely content ideas that speak to EdTech brands’ three main audiences (administrators, educators and parents) for you to make your own. But don’t try to program something just for the sake of programming something. Remember, you should use these themes and dates authentically for your brand by seeking to add value to your audience’s feeds.
January
There are many opportunities in January for your brand to start the new year strong. It’s also National Mentoring Month and National Thank You Month, which may inspire some authentic ways to help your audience of educators and parents.
Administrators: January begins the consideration and trial phase of the education purchasing cycle. To that end, focus on efficacy information about your product or service. Highlight case studies and educator / education admin voices as much as possible. As we start this new and uncertain year, admins are still concerned with safety (keeping their students, educators, staff, and community as safe as possible). Recognize that they may be overwhlemed and may not have as much time as they would in a non-pandemic year to devote to non-essential services and technology.
Teachers: It’s a new year and some educators may come back slightly refreshed after winter break. Many educators may be rethinking their current strategies and tools they use in the classroom. They may even set goals or intentions for the new year. With burnout rates as high as they are right now, this is also a good time to create content to support teachers as much as possible.
Parents: A new year also inspires change. Parents may also be more interested rethinking the ways they can support their children best in this uncertain time, while also figuring out how to take time for themselves.
Conferences
There are a lot of January EdTech conferences. In the US, FETC is currently creating a bit of buzz. Follow the conversation on social, make sure your audience knows if you are attending any of these conferences, and create timely content focused on the topics and speakers of the conferences.
February
February is National African American History Month and Black History Month. It’s also a time to celebrate school counselors (during National School Counselling Week) and Engineers (during National Engineers Week). We also like to celebrate love, kindness, and social emotional learning for Valentine’s Day.
Administrators: This month, speak to administrators about the benefits of your product, specifically highlighting value. Celebrate and highlight black voices (this could be related to efficacy or not). Given burnout is at all all-time high, finding ways to create content for admins to support their staff, teachers, and students will continue to be useful.
Teachers: Highlight powerful Black stories and quotes and share Black History Month resources, books, and movies. To complement Valentine’s day, you could also provide social emotional learning, kindness and empathy, and kindness resources.
Parents: Share books and movies that parents can use to highlight Black characters/stories with their children. You can also talk about practical ways to incorporate kindness into their child’s day.
An important note: Although it’s nice to celebrate Black history this month, we encourage you to commit to doing so throughout the year. Black history is American history, and diverse voices need to be heard year-round.
Conferences
As the year progresses, there are a little less conferences in February. TCEA in Texas is the biggest EdTech conference of the month and if the CDC guidelines allow it to continue, it will be a good opportunity to highlight innovative technology.
March
March marks Spring arriving! It is also National Women’s History Month, highlighting the important contributions of women throughout history. It’s also March Madness for college basketball. March also has some fun events like Pi Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Read Across America Day, International Day of Happiness, and the Oscars!
Administrators: Spring can provide an opportunity to weave in themes such as spring cleaning and organizing. To complement International Happiness Day, resources that can help them find activities around happiness for their staff would be appreciated. Help them support educators as much as possible. Purchasing-wise, it’s also a good opportunity to speak to administrators about case studies on districts that have improved due to your product/service.
Teachers: To celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday, highlight resources that provide a love for reading and highlight some important Dr. Seuss quotes and lesson plans. Spring is also a good time to start talking about outdoor appreciation and learning, and possibly the benefits of school gardens. Celebrate Women’s History Month by highlighting famous/important women in history.
Parents: This is a good time to get crafty and get children outside! Pi Day, St. Patricks Day, Share a Smile Day, and many more March opportunities provide an opportunity to make March fun for their kiddos.
Conferences
March has the most EdTech conferences of the quarter. SXSW Edu, Spring CUE, ASCD, and NSTA..oh my! Figure out what conference it makes sense for your brand to take part in and remember — you don’t physically have to be there to make your brand relevant to the conference attendees (think content, social media, and more!).
Birthdays
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again — using birthdays of historical figures or famous people can be a great way to create timely and relevant content, and is also a great opportunity to differentiate your brand by recognizing those that represent the causes and topics your audience cares about.
In the full version of the download, we also explain dive deeply into how to create content that can be inspired by birthdays. To summarize, you could do round up collections of the person’s work, craft inspirational posts, or write a profile.
We hope this list helps you plan relevant and valuable content for your audience. Don’t forget to download our free EdTech Marketer’s 2022 Planner for a more comprehensive list of education events, birthdays, conferences, and even content ideas. Also, once you’ve decided on the events you’d like to focus on, make sure you have a campaign-planning process in place. This four-step campaign-planning process can get you started.
