The School Place conducts marketing activities on a national level for the benefit of all our members including: national teacher magazine advertising, a central e-commerce website employing both search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM), and template-based email marketing.

The goals of the nationwide marketing program include: increasing the awareness of educational products and stores among a broader industry audience, increasing in-store foot traffic, generating on-line sales, and capturing valuable end-user contact information.

Amazingly, surveys consistently show that approximately one in five teachers is not aware of the existence of educational retail stores (National School Supply and Equipment Association Retail Awareness Study). Yet, among teachers who are aware that there is an option to shop locally, nearly all of them become loyal to their local store.  Furthermore, only 3% of teachers learn about their local dealer through advertising.  During a time when teachers are increasingly presented with alternative sources to buy teaching materials, it is critical to the future of educational dealers that this lack of store awareness is addressed.

Teacher Magazine Advertising

The School Place creates brand equity by advertising in prominent, nationally circulated teacher publications such as Instructor magazine and Learning magazine, each with circulation in excess of 150,000 readers, both targeting Pre-K thru 8 educators. Funding for national advertising is provided co-operatively by The School Place and manufacturers & publishers within the school market who support The School Place mission. The ultimate beneficiaries of the advertising are the individual School Place dealer members. It is neither economically feasible, nor practical, for each local dealer to independently engage in national advertising. By joining forces together as School Place dealers, the national advertising campaign becomes not only economic and practical, but also powerful and unique. Click here to see an example of a recent School Place ad.

Central Web Site

Every communication, including national advertisements, local promotional activities and direct mailings, prominently displays the School Place website address (www.schoolplace.com) so that teachers make the connection between the advertisement, the website and, ultimately, the local store.  The site makes it easy for a teacher, parent or other potential consumer to locate the nearest School Place store. Consumers who are inclined to shop on-line are given the opportunity to do so.

 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) are employed to ensure maximum exposure to new teachers who tend to begin their search for teaching materials through on-line search engines. Three (3) percent of all on-line sales are reinvested in the effort to improve site rankings in the form of paid keyword advertising campaigns (i.e. pay-per-click). All search engine ranking activities are managed by a third party specialist firm with a proven record of high search engine rankings.

As more and more educators rely upon the Internet for everything from homework assignments, posting of grades, and sourcing materials, the challenge of drawing teachers into the store continues to increase. Your membership in The School Place uses the Internet to do just that by bringing new customers into your store who might not have otherwise found you.

Every new consumer contact that is captured through on-line activities is forwarded to the local dealer as a potential new customer lead.  Site visitor information is sourced by zip code and sent to the nearest member store.  Dealer members are encouraged to add these leads to their customer database and included in The School Place template based email marketing.

Template-based Email Marketing

The School Place provides email templates that coordinate with current national promotions. The benefits of the School Place email marketing program include:

• Vendor giveaways, contests and promotions - most School Place ads include some type of offer to teachers and/or parents that is appealing; the template-based email program allows you to let your customers take advantage of these offers for free product and various other contests, coupons and promotions
• Each promotion is optional - send to your customer lists those promotions in which you want to participate; skip those that are not of interest to you
• Easy to implement - you simply copy the email HTML code (a basic text file) into your email engine (such as Constant Contact); instructions are provided; you do not need to know HTML to participate in template-based email marketing - it's easy!
  
• Dealer e-mail image stamps - your unique image stamp ensures that every email you send to your customers is personalized with your unique business identifying information including information such as your logo, name, address, phone number, web address, etc.
  
• Cost effective - email marketing is relatively inexpensive compared to traditional advertising methods; templates are provided by The School Place at no charge (Strength in Numbers!)
  
• Professional design - email templates are professionally designed for optimal impact and high click-through rates
  
• Profitable - because of the School Place’s favorable gross margin profit sharing model, and Educators Resource's efficient fulfillment systems, on-line sales through schoolplace.com will likely be your most profitable sales !
  
• Customer protection – a cookie is placed on your customer’s computer to make sure they are locked in as your customer permanently
  
• Improved customer relationships - regular contact with your customer base enhances the value of the relationship forming a bond between your business and your customers
  
• Privacy - you maintain control of your customer list
• Managed email option - The School Place will manage your email marketing for you at no charge