Some people think marketing is a lot of fun (like us!), but it's not for everyone. Unless they come from a background related to marketing or communications, most CEOs and founders of edtech companies would rather spend their time on other parts of the business.
But, marketing is a critical component of a company as it grows. It's how you find new customers when you don't want to rely solely on your own network or referrals. It's how you stand out when you have competitors. And it's how you stay in touch with prospects along the long education sales cycle and keep your happy customers engaged.
But, we'll be honest: marketing is an investment. It takes time and money, consistently throughout the year, to see results. And, as your marketing grows and your business relies on it more, it becomes increasingly complex, and you need the right talent for it to work.
We've talked to over 50 education companies at different phases in their marketing and have identified three stages of what a marketing team looks like and needs to be successful as a company transitions from a startup to a scale-up. The stages are: Fundamental, Evolution, and Systematic.
Stage 1: Fundamental
When a company starts incorporating marketing into the business, it's scrappy. The CEO/Founder has ideas but not the time or desire to carry them through. So, they find people within the existing company who can help add some marketing activities to their existing job responsibilities or look for external help from freelancers.
As they get into the groove and realize they want to dedicate more resources to marketing, they will hire someone full-time to manage marketing, usually someone with a few years of experience who can execute marketing ideas—from writing to designing to keeping projects on task—at a salary that doesn't break the bank. The CEO is ultimately managing and directing marketing along with every other part of the business, so it's easy to get distracted by a new product release, a busy travel schedule, or an RFP.
Marketing at this stage is experimental. The budgets are small, so the company is selective about what it spends its money on. Social media is free, so that's usually one of the first places to start. But coming up with new content ideas every week is a lot of work! And it's hard to see results, like leads or sales, come through. So, the company might try developing content like webinars to get leads or exhibit at some conferences.
As the company launches new products and gets new customers, marketing will need to be ready to pivot along with it. Marketing at the Fundamental stage is lean and agile.
CEOs at this stage describe their marketing as "haphazard."
Stage 2: Evolution
When an edtech company is more established with a steady customer base and a product that effectively meets a market need, certain functions within the company are built up. The product development and sales teams are usually the first areas of the business that start to grow in people and processes.
Next, the marketing team expands. The marketing manager hired to start marketing might be promoted to a marketing director. And they might hire someone more specialized to help with areas of marketing that need expertise, like content, or they might hire a generalist to support the director across all areas of marketing. The CEO or someone else in a leadership role is still heavily involved in overseeing the marketing team, giving them direction, reviewing their work, and managing them.
The Evolution stage of marketing is tricky. Marketing is going through growing pains. The marketing team is busy. They are producing new work every week and every day. They might talk about the number of emails that were sent or the number of likes from social media. But as the company invests more in marketing, they expect to get more than "likes."
There might be points of frustration between leadership and marketing. Leadership wants more. Not more marketing, but more results. They see that the marketing team is working hard, but they are unsure what results they are getting from all of that work.
At this point, the CEO doesn't have the time or expertise to direct marketing on how to make that happen. And the marketing team doesn't have the experience to understand how marketing is supposed to bring in new sales.
Stage 3: Systematic
When the marketing team is well-organized and contributes to business results, it has reached the Systematic stage. They have strategic marketing plans that connect the vision and goals of the business to marketing. The team is following best practices, they have templates, and standard operating procedures documented.
The team, at this point, has grown. The CEO is no longer responsible for directing marketing. Someone in a senior role, like a VP of Marketing or CMO, is in charge. They work collaboratively across most functions of the edtech company, like sales, customer success, and product, to ensure marketing and the customer's point of view are represented in decisions being made. They regularly report out on KPIs that connect marketing to the business, like the number of quality leads or opportunities marketing contributed to.
The marketing team is no longer scrambling last minute or reacting to new ideas or competitors. They are able to stay ahead and be proactive in coming up with new ways for the company to meet its goals with strategic marketing.
They have bigger budgets and know where to spend their time and money in order to get results. External marketing agencies and freelancers help round out the skills of the in-house team. Across internal and external resources, the marketing team has experts across many areas of marketing—content, SEO, design, advertising, analytics, events, product marketing—with a strategic leader who can connect the dots between all of those pieces to ensure they are working together and holistically meeting goals.
If you're in the early Fundamental or Evolution stages, it might feel like it will be forever until you can get to the Systematic stage. But there is a fast path to getting there! Transitioning the marketing team for your edtech company from reactive day-to-day execution to proactive and strategic is our expertise at Wise Marketing Strategy. We can give you the marketing leadership your team needs to translate your business goals and ideas into actionable, results-driven marketing. Intrigued? Learn more here.
