EP. 033 – Edtech Business Leader Q&A: Catherine Lane, Co-founder and Head of PR & Content – The Influence Crowd

Our next #FinnemoreFireside chat is essential listening for everyone who owns or leads an edtech business as it’s with marketing and PR guru, Catherine Lane.

Cath is Co-founder and Head of PR & Content at The Influence Crowd who work with some of the most well-known brands in education, including Juniper Education, Lexplore Analytics, Teach Active, SIMS BlueSky Education, GL Assessment, and Historic Royal Palaces.

The Influence Crowd implements highly targeted, integrated PR campaigns that prove their value through incoming leads and changed opinions. Using knowledge and relationships built up over 15 years in this sector, they engage and delight audiences through great coverage, shareable social content and by getting the key influencers behind edtech businesses.

This is an audio-only fireside chat (unfortunately the video tech got the better of us on the day 😕) and in it Nick and Cath discuss:

 

  • Why selling to teachers is so hard, and why speaking the right language is so important
  • Understanding your target audience
  • How Covid has affected schools and the way they use edtech
  • People buy from people- it’s not all about the product – and how the pandemic exposed the need for PR and marketing
  • How edtech companies have become more experimental in the face of Covid challenges, which improves learning, marketing and messaging
  • Cath’s advice for raising your profile as an edtech business in the sector
  • How to approach getting national coverage with a whole package
  • The importance of timing in creating a story and making the most of newsjacking
  • Interpreting data to make it more digestible, gain investment, and help with messaging from day one
  • How creating loyalty help with bumps in the road when it comes to reputation management
  • Three things people should have in mind if they want to embark on a successful marketing and PR campaign
  • What’s next for The Influence Crowd?

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

EP. 032 – Edtech Business Leader Q&A: Stephen Bilboe, CEO at WCBS

In this next #FinnemoreFireside chat we’re catching up once again with  Stephen Bilboe, CEO at WCBS. Our initial conversation was over a year ago back in March 2021 (you can watch the full interview here) and, since then, lots has changed – including the first schools going live with HUBmis.

 

Amongst other things, Stephen and I chatted about:

  • Why rebuilding works best when it comes to UI and UX
  • Taking schools on your journey with you when it comes to change
  • The value of offering pilots to schools
  • Recent changes in the MIS market, private equity investors, and what might happen next amongst the competitors
  • How the pandemic has affected what’s important to the independent and international education sectors
  • Lessons learnt from the release of HUBmis, and what’s next
  • WCBS academy, accreditation, and the benefits it brings to schools

 

Enjoy!