If you work in education marketing (which we’re assuming you do if you’re reading this post!), then you know that teachers and school leaders are a discerning audience. Not fooled by the latest shiny toy that promises overnight success, they are looking for evidence and reassurance from their peers that this is a product or service that is worth investing their time and budget in.

One of the best ways to establish trust and provide that reassurance is through customer reviews and case studies. Done well, they can shine a spotlight on what you offer to schools, explaining better than any marketing email or brochure why they should choose you over your competition.

But where do you start? How do you recruit teachers and what’s the best format for a case study? This blog provides a step-by-step guide to the process, as well as some examples and free, editable templates for you to download.

How to recruit teachers

The best place to start is with your most loyal customers: the ones who know and love your product or service already. They might be your early adopters or ones who have made repeat purchases over the years. So, where to begin?

• Ask around internally. Start with your sales team or customer services department. They have daily contact with your customers and will probably know off the top of their head some key contacts to reach out to.
• Pull up your sales data. Look at your top customers from the past 12 months and create a target list of teachers to contact based on sales and product usage. 
• Check your socials. Have any schools tagged you in a post recently giving you a shout out? DM them or reply to their post. If they’ve already shouted about you online, they’re probably willing to get involved!

How to gather feedback from teachers

So you’ve done your research and gathered a list of teachers to reach out to, but how do you go about asking for their feedback? 

Now you could send them a survey. This can work if you have a long list of customers to reach and want a standardised response. The issue we have found with a standard survey is that you tend to get pretty standard responses. Teachers are often trying to fill it in quite quickly and answers can be relatively short, for example:

Whilst surveys can be a quick way to test the water with a new product idea or conduct a straw poll, they’re not the best way to secure engaging content.

The best method we have found is to conduct a 1-2-1 phone call. Yep, picking up the phone (or setting up a Zoom link!) and having an old-fashioned conversation. 

Here’s why a phone call is the best way to put together a case study:

• Teachers enjoy talking about a product or service they are passionate about. A phone call gives them the space to expand on their answers, meaning you get fuller responses and more detail than in a survey.
  
• Use it as a research opportunity. During the course of the call you will get much more out of it than just material for a case study. It is a chance to better understand how your product or service is used, learn what messaging might connect with other audiences and collect product feedback to take back to your wider team.
  
• It establishes a relationship between you and your customer. Your customers are your best advocates.By speaking directly with them, you can set up important longer term relationships with your key consumers. How could you leverage these relationships in the future? Think about asking for their input when trialling new features, or when sourcing new contributors for  guest blog content or promotional videos.

Your step-by-step guide to securing a school case study

1. Collate a shortlist of customers you want to reach out to. Compiling a list of 5 – 10 schools is usually a good place to start. If you can, try to get the email address of the teacher contact, rather than the school admin email, as they are more likely to respond.

2. Agree what incentive you will offer to the school for taking part. Remember – teachers are busy people with limited resources. What can you offer to support their school and provide value? A voucher for your product or service works well. Try to be as generous as you can and exceed their expectations. You want to make them feel really great about taking part.

3. Send out a personal email to your shortlisted contacts introducing yourself and asking to set up a call at a time to suit them. Suggest a few dates and times for them to choose from, and provide a deadline to respond by. Download your example email below for a template to get started.

4. Prepare some questions for the call and perhaps a short script if you’re feeling nervous. Try not to make it too formal, though – this isn’t an interview. The best results come out of an informal discussion where you are genuinely interested about how they are using your product or service and why they love it!

5. Take extensive notes during the call, or you may wish to record it and type it up later (just remember to ask permission beforehand). After the call, collate your notes and write them up into a single page document to share with the teacher. This isn’t a transcript so play around with the structure and copy edit the text so it flows well, but remember to keep it true to the conversation you had. 

6. Send the draft case study to the teacher for their sign off. This is also a good opportunity to ask for a headshot of them, or perhaps a picture of their students, to include in the written case study. Make sure you get written consent for any images being used.

7. Send the copy to your design department so the final case study for use in your marketing is in keeping with your brand and is in an easy-to-read format. Check out some examples of ones we have done here.
   
8. Incorporate the case studies into your marketing schedule. How are you going to promote your customers’ success stories? Add them to your website, share across your socials, and give copies to your sales team to use during school visits. Don’t forget to also share it with the teacher and ask them to promote it on their own social channels!

How to create a video case study

Written case studies are a great way to provide social proof to your prospects and can be used across your website, social channels and by your sales team to establish trust with your audience.

But what about video? With 96% of people turning to video to find out more about a product or service, a clear, persuasive video showcasing what other schools think of your business and products can make a huge difference.

Yes, video requires a bit more time and budget but they don’t need to cost the earth, and they don’t need to take up too much of your limited time! 

Your step-by-step guide to creating a video case study

1. Create a video campaign plan. On a one-page document, jot down your objective for the video, the target audience, and the channels for promotion. Consider if you want to conduct interviews with the staff, if so who? Classroom teachers, school leaders, TAs? Do you want feedback from the students? Establishing this at the outset will mean you have a clear vision for what you want the video to achieve and will save you time in the long-run. 

2. Recruit your teachers. This follows the same basic principles listed above. If you are already conducting teacher interviews, these contacts will be the best place to start. Remember to consider your incentive. We would recommend something in value of approximately £500 for the school as a thank you for their time.

3. Book in your videographer. You might have these resources internally but if not you will need to find a videographer. Share with them the campaign brief and agree a fee. Be sure to include the length of video and the number of edits to avoid any extra costs after filming. Also consider your campaign timeline, and get in touch with your videographer as soon as possible to ensure your video can be created in time for launch. It could have an impact on the cost if you need your final edit turned around quickly.

4. Arrange a date and time. Based on our experience of planning and conducting video case studies, plan for at least half a day in your chosen school(s), depending on how many interviews you want to conduct and what classroom footage you need (if any).

5. Secure media release forms. This is absolutely essential. Share media release forms for anyone involved in the filming and store them securely on file in case you need to refer to these in future. If applicable, work with your legal team to ensure that your release forms allow you to use the footage of teachers, children and school in the way you would like to.

6. Film the video. This is the fun bit! As well as the videographer, we would recommend you (or someone from your team) attend the video shoot on the day. You will be there to liaise with the school and videographer and possibly conduct the interview questions. Have a list of the key shots you need and check with the videographer as you go to make sure you’ve got them all!

This is also a great opportunity to conduct some informal user research. How are they using your products and resources in practice, what does their process look like, and what might they want from you next? You can gather so many insights from spending the day in a school, so soak it all in and take back any feedback to share with your team.

Being invited into a school takes trust. Remember to demonstrate that you understand the fortunate position you are in when a school agrees to take part in your video. Put measures and procedures into place for your visit that show utmost respect to the children and all staff, to help you limit the impact of your visit on their teaching and learning.

We hope this step-by-step guide and free templates have inspired you to incorporate case studies into your back-to-school marketing plan. 

If you need some extra support this term, don’t forget that BookMachine can help! We have worked with lots of companies to secure both written and video case studies – including Elliott & Thompson, using case studies alongside other digital strategies to bring Tim Marshall’s books Prisoners of Geography and The Power of Geography to school children: