Email can be an effective channel to engage and convert your audience, but when it comes to reaching K-12 education administrators and leaders in school districts, are you doing it right? Are your email campaigns getting delivered, opened, and clicked?

In this post, we’ll break down the survey results of K-12 district and school leaders conducted by the EdWeek Research Center in November and December of 2023, which revealed optimal email send times and the types of emails that get read—and ignored.

How many emails do school/district leaders receive?

School and district leaders receive A LOT of emails. Almost half of the education leaders surveyed received 21-100 vendor emails each week, and that number actually seems lower than our team has typically heard from our education leader friends, who report well past 100 emails per week. Some of this high quantity is due to the norm of EdTech companies buying email lists of school and district leaders.

The volume of emails education administrators receive varies throughout the year and typically ebbs and flows along with the K-12 buying cycle and the academic school year. Busy periods tend to be during back-to-school season, heavy points in the purchasing cycle, and teacher appreciation week in May. The email volume from EdTech vendors can decrease in June and early July, as well as at the end of November and throughout December, due to graduations, vacations, and school holiday breaks.

How to Make Your Emails Stand Out

School leaders and many decision-makers in EdTech purchases in K-12 education are not only deluged with vendor, school, community, and parent emails but also incredibly busy. To stand out in their inbox and ensure you're not wasting their time, we suggest you take a challenge-or value-based approach to each of your email campaigns. Help them accomplish their top goals and tackle their current challenges. Provide them with valuable insights, strategies, and tips. Do not send direct sales emails without addressing their top needs. In fact, EdWeek Market Brief’s survey indicated that addressing a topical educational issue in your email is the most popular way to get school leaders to learn more about your product.

By avoiding a product-centered approach, it can begin to transform your brand from just a vendor to a critical thought partner. We love companies that consistently make the customer the hero of their journey, and we've learned a lot from the principles outlined in the book StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen. It's critical that you always understand what your audience is struggling with and their goals. You can learn them by asking them through surveys, phone calls, conferences, or social media polls if you don't know them.

EdWeek Brief’s survey also indicated that education administrators and leaders also value emails that include pricing. Providing pricing transparency can be tricky since there are many pricing models, especially when selling to school districts. If you feel uncomfortable citing your prices (or they vary depending on factors), try providing general pricing ranges. For example, saying, "For less than X, you can get Y and Z," helps potential customers gauge affordability without revealing your exact pricing. District leaders, in particular, appreciate knowing upfront if a product is within their budget, as they want to avoid wasting time on options that are not financially viable.

Also, especially since we're communicating with stakeholders in education, the EdWeek Brief survey indicated that emails that are grammatically correct and free of typos are one of the top three reasons education leaders' desires increase to learn more about your products. Never have one pair of eyes creating and sending the email when sending out emails. Even in small teams, we suggest at least two people review and edit the email. Grammarly (splurge for the premium version) is excellent at spotting even minor typos and grammatical issues.

Three Major Levers to Catch Attention Through Email

There are three major levers to catch your audience’s attention: 1) The subject line, 2) Preview text, and 3) the sender. Here is what works best for each lever:

Sender is an important factor since this is the person that the subscriber has a relationship with or may know. Emails should always come from a person rather than just a company name. People prioritize emails from people and not companies. Note: Any email service provider allows you to customize the reply to email address to whatever you’d like, so your CEO doesn’t need to receive all of the email replies directly.
Preview Text is the text that shows up next to the subject line and ideally complements the subject line. It should be concise, with the most important information at the beginning. Great preview text is not redundant to the subject line and plays directly off of the subject line. Technical note: These can be as short as 45 characters and go up to 150 characters. Different email clients within different devices will display different lengths of preview text.
Subject Lines are a critical factor your audience will use to make a decision to open your email. In fact, 64% of email recipients open emails based on the subject lines alone. Subject lines that do the following have been known to get attention:
1. Informal subject lines that blend into email inboxes and look more like personal emails. To that end, try things like not uppercasing all of the words in your email and keeping the subject line shorter and more informal.
2. Adding emojis can also help your email stand out. Ensure you choose emojis that align best with your brand guidelines and display well in multiple email clients. We like these emoji suggestions that can increase your email open rates.
3. Innovation and out-of-the box thinking is key when creating subject lines. Subject lines that are slightly unexpected can stop someone’s gaze as they quickly peruse their inbox. Just make sure that your subject line generally aligns with your brand’s overall voice and tone.
4. Front load most important words. Like the best practices for the preview text, ensure you position the most crucial information at the beginning of the subject line. Technical note: Aim for 40 characters or less to ensure the full subject line is visible on most devices.
5. Personalization works. Using first names, job titles, and even school or district names in the subject line can gain attention. Mailchimp found that overall personalization does increase open rates, and the most common form of personalization is using the first name.
6. Start with a number. Subject lines that start with a number can create a sense of authority and make it concise/easy to read. Outcome Media has found that this tactic can increase your open rates by 20%. For example, “7 Ways to Decrease Chronic Absenteeism” or “The 3 Most Significant Education Studies in 2024.”
7. Urgency or time sensitivity can communicate to your audience that your email requires immediate attention. Words like “urgent,” “important,” “last chance and adding time-sensitive dates can help education leaders prioritize your email over others. Although this can work, be cautious about overusing this tactic. There’s nothing worse than consistently getting the same urgent emails from the same vendor.
8. [Cool free tool alert] SubjectLine.com provides a score on your subject lines based on character count and best practices.
  Technical note: There are various opinions and studies that conclude the optimal characters and words of a subject line.
  - A study from Marketo identifies 41 characters as the sweet spot, which is about 7 words.
  - Other sources recommend a range of 40 to 50 characters to avoid truncation on mobile devices and various email clients.
  - Most marketers tend to aim for less than 10 words (or 36 to 50 characters). Shorter subject lines often lead to higher open rates, with some experts suggesting that lines under 16 characters can be particularly effective due to their brevity and intrigue.
  - Device Considerations: It’s important to also consider the devices that display your emails, as subject line visibility can differ significantly across devices. For example, Gmail on mobile displays up to 37 characters, while Apple Mail on iPhone allows up to 48 characters. A good way to optimize your subject lines across devices is to front-load your most important content at the beginning of your subject line to ensure it is seen regardless of the device used.
  - Subject Line Testing and Flexibility: Every audience is unique and it’s essential to A/B test different subject line lengths to determine what resonates best with your audience.

Remember, not all education leaders are alike, and behavior can change depending on external factors, so it's critical to test as much as possible and reflect upon the data you receive. A/B testing is a powerful tool that empowers you to understand your audience better. Every email you send should have elements that you test, and A/B testing subject lines are a must (and all email service provider tools offer this feature). Although it's generally the norm to structure A/B subject line tests by open rate, we suggest you structure them by click-through rate for a more informed decision-making process.

Note: Many people claim open rates aren’t reliable due to Apple's iOS and bots inflating them, but they still have value as directional metrics.

When do school leaders read emails?

The EdWeek Brief survey results indicated that vendor emails are most likely to be read on Mondays and during the evenings, especially by leaders of larger school districts. These findings align with the broader trend of Mondays being a heavy email day, and many school leaders may check their emails over the evening to catch up.

Interestingly, these results also suggest that school and district leaders are accustomed to starting their week in a hectic, email-driven manner, reinforcing that earlier in the week is better for sending emails and later in the week, especially on Thursday and Friday, can be a more challenging day to grab their attention.

However, it's essential to take this data with a grain of salt and continually test, as surprising results can sometimes emerge. As an email marketer, you should always be testing and shaking up your sending times. It might be time to try something different if you're not seeing improvement in open and click rates despite optimizing other elements. While experimenting with non-peak times, such as Sundays, might seem counterintuitive, it can sometimes yield surprising results due to lower email volume. Early mornings or Sundays might also be good times to reach busy school leaders who are preparing for the day or week ahead, for example. By staying engaged and proactive in your testing, you can uncover new opportunities to reach your audience effectively.

The survey data also show that leaders in larger districts are more likely to read vendor emails in the evenings. This behavior is likely driven by their need to manage numerous high-priority items during the day, leaving evenings as the only time they can catch up on emails. This underscores the importance of understanding your audience's schedule and adapting your email strategy accordingly. The more you understand their time limitations and day-to-day schedules, the more you can increase the chances of your emails being read and acted upon.

Successfully breaking through to school and district leaders with innovative email campaigns requires a strategic approach that acknowledges the overwhelming volume of emails these leaders already receive. By focusing on the challenges these decision-makers face, providing transparency in pricing, and carefully crafting subject lines, preview texts, and sender details, EdTech companies can increase the effectiveness of their outreach. School leaders also indicated earlier in the week, and evenings may offer prime opportunities for engagement.

As any email marketer can attest to, everything changes, and all audiences are unique, so it’s essential to continually test, whether it be subject lines or send times. Ultimately, understanding and empathizing with your unique audience's needs and behaviors will position your emails for better visibility and impact in an incredibly noisy inbox environment.