Essentials Magazine Essentials Fall 2016 | Page 29

Teacher Spending

Takeaway: Not all education purchases are made at the district level. Schools,
specifically teachers, often make buying
decisions, too. Each year, teachers invest
a significant sum of money, often out
of their own pockets, on items for their
classrooms. Don’t ignore teachers when
marketing your products and programs.
Also give educators the option to buy
those solutions online whenever possible.

Integrating Marketing is Important
in Education
When researching how to spend their
hard-earned personal dollars, teachers

look to a variety of resources. When
asked how valuable a particular platform
is for determining how to spend their
money, 73 percent said word-of-mouth,
53 percent said conferences and 38 percent said social media. Catalogs, webinars, industry publications, and industry
blogs also were called out.
In Agile’s May 2016 survey, educators identified the Internet as their
most-used tool for researching purchases. Other popular answers included
recommendations from fellow teachers,
catalogs, retail stores, and teacher stores.
Perhaps the most interesting finding
from the Agile and SheerID survey was

the popularity of email, which has become a highly valued source for product
and program information. Sixty-six percent of respondents say they trust email
communication for information about
classroom-related items.
In fact, teachers seem to be hooked
on email in general for staying connected, even checking messages during
the summer. Eighty-one percent check
their inbox at least once every week
during the summer, and 33 percent
check in with email as frequently as
once a day. With this kind of engagement, email can be a great way to stay
connected with teachers even when
essentials | www.edmarket.org 29