We are officially rolling into the summer months, which allows some educators and EdTech companies a brief window of downtime. At LCG, we make the most of the first week of July by having most of the team take time off and get rejuvenated for all of the work to come for the upcoming back-to-school season.
There’s a horrible myth that educators have the summer off. The reality is that educators’ summers are typically packed with professional development, attending conferences, teaching summer school (or taking on other jobs), and getting ready for the upcoming school year. Many teachers are grappling with getting assignment changes to other grade levels or content areas, which triggers additional duties such as packing up classrooms, learning a whole new curriculum, and purchasing more school supplies to prepare them for the shift.
As marketers, summer can be a good time to continue appreciation for educators. Consider thanking them for everything they did in the following school year and find ways to surprise and delight them with treats, giveaways, and entertainment. Professional-development content tends to resonate as well but whatever you do - do not mention “back to school” anytime in the first two weeks of July. Allow educators to breathe. Many educators experience a lot of uncertainty about their future jobs and early mentions of back to school can be triggering. If you’re looking for more ways to engage educators during summer, Monica Burns provided more ideas in this podcast episode.
The most important event in the third quarter for education by far is back to school. Some EdTech brands plan highly sophisticated and complex marketing campaigns but that doesn’t mean you have to. If you’re just getting started, it’s perfectly ok to start small and learn. It is important that you plan, execute, and take time to reflect, so you can continue to learn what resonates with your audience best.
Our free EdTech Marketer’s Planner can help you through this planning process and it also 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 July-September 2022 that are all included in our planner.
K-12 Education Holidays, Events, and Conferences
We’ve listed some of the most important dates EdTech marketers should consider throughout third quarter and we’ve also brainstormed timely content ideas that speak to EdTech brands’ three main audiences (administrators, educators, and parents). Remember, only use the themes and dates that directly relate to your brand and your audience. Don’t try to bandwagon on social media trends that just don’t make sense for your brand; audiences value authenticity and relevancy over everything else.
July
In the middle of the summer, educators are taking a long-awaited and well-deserved break (at least for the first two weeks of July). Throughout the month, many educators may also be focusing on professional development and some are beginning to think about the upcoming school year. July is also National Make a Difference to Children Month, which raises awareness about the vulnerability any child in the world can face if they do not have the right person in their lives to guide them.
Administrators: The end of June typically marks the end of the “use it or lose it” school budget, where administrators can purchase what they need for the upcoming school year. In July, they start working with teams to implement what they bought for the upcoming school year. Note: ESSER funding is on a different timeline and can be used past the end-of-June typical end-of-budget timing. Onboarding guides, tips, case studies, and anything that’ll help with their implementation efforts will be appreciated during this time.
Teachers: This isn’t a great time to reach educators about your product. So lay off the product marketing and program lighter, more entertaining content to match educators’ mood and priorities of celebrating the end of the school year and taking a break to recharge. The most important thing for educators during this time is relaxation and rejuvenation — two things they typically don’t have time for during the school year. Many teachers might need hours towards renewing their license or others might be learning a new content area-market to these high-needs areas. If you’re going to offer PD sessions, make sure they’re quick, low hassle, and have an incentivized reason for attending.
Parents: During the summer months, many parents are now tasked with keeping their children occupied and potentially learning (if they like to avoid any summer slide) every day of the week. This month, help them out by sharing ways to have fun and celebrate the 4th of July. You could also provide some suggestions around summer reading, or how to participate in the maker movement at home. Make sure to give them a clear learning objective, task/field trip, and activity/read-aloud to make it as easy as possible.
Conferences
August
August officially marks the beginning of the back-to-school season, which is a time packed full of emotions for everyone. Continued uncertainties with navigating a pandemic/endemic, teacher and staffing shortages, and general anxiety will all be front and center in the 2022-2023 school year. Be conscious of this stress, but focus on how you can specifically help and provide value. Back to school is a very busy, noisy time. Educators typically get bombarded with many back-to-school marketing campaigns during a time when ironically, educators have zero time to listen and do anything outside of their main duties to get ready for back to school. It’s ok to test your timing on your campaigns and channel effectiveness and see if it may make sense to re-reach out in September and October when educators may be in less triage mode.
Administrators: To help administrators get back into the groove of things, share content that could help with goal setting, creating positive and supportive cultures, and cultivating innovation for the coming school year. Resources that can help administrators support new or possibly burnt-out teachers as they enter a new school year are always appreciated. Administrators will also be working to manage back-to-school nights, so share tips to welcome and start relationships with families.
Teachers: As teachers prepare for back to school, content to set up or redesign their space, whether a classroom or virtual setting may be helpful . Classroom-management tools and strategies, along with creating positive classroom cultures are always popular during this time of year. Teachers will be spending a lot of their own money to buy additional supplies and get ready for the year. You can help support them with fun giveaways/sweepstakes or by donating to Adopt-a-Classroom or DonorsChoose projects.
Parents: How can parents best set their children up for success for the upcoming school year? Help them prepare by discussing the transition to a new schedule, and possibly talking about the balance between work, life, and school (something many families struggle with). Also, digital citizenship resources are welcome at this time and can help ensure their child is using the internet and any classroom tech tools productively, safely, and with clearly-set “screen time” boundaries.
September
In September, educators and students are settling into their patterns for the school year and because back-to-school dates vary throughout the US, some schools may be just starting their school year.
Administrators: As we ease into the beginning of the school year, share some community-building tips with your administrator audience to help them cultivate an inclusive space. Share strategies from top-performing schools to help make these strategies more accessible to all administrators. Also, help administrators work on professional development by sharing leadership advice and education industry content.
Teachers: Teachers will continue to search for classroom management and student engagement resources, along with ideas to foster a positive and supportive classroom community. Share content that will help them get (and keep) students engaged, and ways to save money and find deals on last-minute supplies they may need for their classrooms. Also, friendly reminders to teachers to take time for self-care and encourage work/life balance as they kickstart the school year can be helpful.
Parents: Getting back into the groove of things can be difficult, so continue to share content about maintaining a work, life, and school balance for families. You can also help parents prepare for the beginning of fall by sharing some autumn crafts. At the end of the month, we’ll also be celebrating Banned Books Week. Consider creating and share a banned books reading list or circulate resources about the history of banned books.
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 it 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 share how to create content that can be inspired by birthdays. As a quick sneak peek, you can summarize, create round-up collections of the person’s work, craft inspirational posts, write a profile, and more!
We hope this list helps you plan relevant and valuable content for your audience. Back to school is such as important time within education. We urge you to plan thoughtfully and make sure whatever you do, you create valuable and timely content for educators, administrators, and parents.
Quick reminder: Our free EdTech Marketer’s Planner contains 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. Enjoy!
This post was written in collaboration with Jordan Moldenhauer and Stevie Frank.
