KB: We did not ask about that specific category in this survey.

We are a bit lost on the “personal funds” - are these funds teachers spend from their own personal funds?

KB: Yes. The two questions that focused on teacher spending from personal funds made it clear that these are funds that are not reimbursed by the school or district.

Is the teacher spending in addition to instructional materials purchased for them by the district and school? How much per student is currently budgeted for district and building materials?

KB: The $394, on average, that each teacher spends annually of personal funds is definitely in addition. The $298, on average, in classroom budget funds that each teacher receives from their school annually does not assume that the district and/or school does not purchase additional instructional materials for that teacher’s classroom. For example, textbooks are typically purchased on the district level and issued to the appropriate teachers for their students. According to MDR's annual expenditures report, the national average for instructional materials spending is $237 per pupil.

What is the percentage of teachers who hear about products via teacher stores...this was presented on one of Kathleen's first slides?

KB: Yes, 64% of teachers said they learn about instructional materials and school supplies available for their classroom via teacher stores.

If I understand correctly, 50,000 public schools were asked to participate in MDR's survey. How many schools actually provided feedback?

KB: We closed the survey after we had received a statistically valid respondent universe of just over 500. That allowed us to publish statistically valid findings and bring that insight to the market in a very timely manner.

Is there information in the MDR survey regarding spending related to professional development opportunities?

KB: Yes, we asked several questions regarding professional development, including how much each teacher spends from personal, not reimbursed, funds annually on professional development materials and programs. The answer was $303 each, on average.

What book types are purchased for African American students, e.g., inspirational biographies, etc.?

KB: The survey did not ask about the types of products purchased for any specific student group, such as those categorized by ethnicity.

Do teachers expect CEU's when they spend out-of-pocket money on PD?

KB: As this was not asked on the survey, we cannot know for sure what their expectation in that area is.

SM: Our experience is that CEU’s certainly strengthen the value of your PD offering.

How has NCLB and the What Works Clearinghouse influenced purchases? Do purchasers review research studies for effectiveness before purchasing?

KB: The survey included a question asking teachers to compare purchases of education materials that their school made before NCLB to those made since NCLB. The MDR report that will be published in late May contains the full range of answers; however, in brief, teachers thought their schools had increased purchases of testing/assessment materials and standards-based products and reduced purchases of materials for gifted students and those for fine arts/performing arts classes since the arrival of NCLB.

SM: Our experience is NCLB educators ask more questions and seem to be more interested in product(s) that can be shown to improve or have a positive impact on student performance and that buyers would like backup information either through research or strong case studies. While most of the purchasers will often request a copy of the research, they often just need it to complete their checklist of things they need to do before purchasing. They are interested in hearing about examples of similar districts/schools that have used the product or program and shown positive results. We seldom hear about or field questions about the What Works Clearinghouse from educators.

I am interested in what I have been calling the Amazon effect. We are sending out catalogs and having schools buy from Amazon. Has Amazon purchasing increased recently?

KB: The survey did not specifically address purchasing through Amazon, so we have no absolute data to support what you are experiencing; however, the MDR survey did reveal that 19%-20% of all teachers, depending on the use of personal or classroom funds, said they prefer to order using wholesaler's Web site catalogs.

Do teachers and administrators get together at the end or mid-summer to compile products under consideration and then make a final purchase decision?

If most major purchase decisions are made over the summer, does this mean that teachers and administrators are getting together to make these decisions over the summer, or do they make these decisions on their own?

KB: The majority of the process to identify and purchase educational materials and school supplies occurs in the mid-winter to spring and again in the early fall time frames. This does not mean that purchasing never occurs outside those times, and indeed, some educators make purchases during the summer to get a jump on the back-to-school rush.

We do not hear of instances of educators, especially teachers, getting together formally during the summer to make the group purchasing decisions. Most of the decisions are made during the school year, but often delivery of items purchased occurs during the summer and very early fall (i.e., back-to-school window).

SM: I agree with everything that Kathleen said—the time frame for product reviews, evaluations, and purchasing decisions is between December and May and then again in the fall for quick purchases for the back-to-school start.

What is a reasonable price point for administrators?

KB: This is too vague to answer clearly. Purchasing decisions are made not solely based on price but also on value received for the price.

What would you suggest for selling eSeminars to school districts and schools?

KB: The survey findings revealed that 29% of the teachers currently enrolled in an education institution to pursue an advanced degree are in an online classroom setting; therefore, e-learning is certainly not new to educators. Your question is broad and difficult to address in this format. I would suggest contacting your MDR Representative and having a conversation about your specific product offering and how best to target the appropriate audience at both the district and school levels.

Do you know if the budgeting/purchasing cycle can also be applied to the college education market?

KB: The survey findings presented apply specifically to public K-12 schools. We hope to be able to explore college budgeting/purchasing cycles in more depth in the upcoming months.

What is customer cloning?

CZ: Customer cloning or profiling or modeling means simply to look at your customer. Determine the building-level demographics or personnel-level attributes of your customers—things like enrollment, AIM level, and student need indicators, etc. Group them together in like buckets. Then when you are looking at a prospecting campaign, segment your list by these attributes so that you are more likely to find educators with similar needs and resources as your customers, which will improve your response.

How do you best avoid being considered spam, and how do you get through the spam filters that school IT departments are using for e-mail campaigns?

CZ: There are many things you can do to improve your deliverability and chances for getting into your recipient’s inbox. Many of these best practices can be found in MDR’s E-Mail Marketing Best Practices for Education Marketers document found on our website: www.schooldata.com/pdfs/e-mailtips05.pdf. Check back to the site next week - I'll be posting a 2007 update to this report.

You can also do the following:

1.	Utilize Whitelisting instructions (also known as “Add to address book instructions”) in your e-mails and on your site whenever you collect an e-mail address.
2.	Always try to create a message that is RELEVANT and VALUABLE to the reader. Studies have shown that if a reader views an e-mail as relevant to them or has value, they are less likely to view it as spam.
3.	Keep an eye on the messages you get to the “Reply-to” e-mail address. By monitoring this feedback loop, you can spot things that might be causing your e-mail campaigns to be considered spam…and correct them.
4.	If you are collecting the e-mail address on your site, use industry best practices for opting them in, properly set their expectations as to how much communication you intend to do with them, and give them as much control over their relationship with you as you can (frequency of communications, preferred e-mail type (text vs. HTML), and interested subjects).

How much do you charge per e-mail address?

CZ: MDR has several E-Marketing Solutions to fit any marketing need. They are priced at:

DM-Optimizer – A combination direct mail list and e-mail companion campaign. Must purchase a direct mail list and restrictions apply. $125/M

E@quire – Our prospecting e-mail solution with over 3.7 million e-mail addresses. $325/M

E@ppend – Our e-mail append service that takes your customer file and matches it to our e-mail database. You can then deploy a one-time campaign to the matches for $350/M or purchase the e-mail addresses for unlimited use for $750/M.

Re: Slide 30 – Types of Customers Using End-of-Year E-Mail: Why was Supplemental Publishing shown twice on that last slide?

CZ: This was a mistake in how the company types were tabulated. There should have been only one category for Supplemental Publishing, and it accounted for 19%.

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