Relevance as key: how to reach your target audience in education

The educational media landscape is changing at lightning speed. Digitalisation and AI mean that education professionals look for their information in specific places. DUO-Onderwijs's media team closely monitors the trends and supports with research, advice and smart media planning. “Targeted media choices are more important than ever,” says Kees Dehl, team leader of the media team.

DUO-Onderwijs's media team focuses mainly on trade media: newsletters, conferences and magazines for education professionals. The titles are often familiar, but the parties behind them remain invisible to many readers. “Behind these media are our media partners such as trade unions, associations, councils and educational publishers,” says Kees Dehl. For example, the AOb produces the Education Magazine and Ten Brink the titles of12tot18 and Didactief. “We also consult regularly with these media partners on content and improvements to the effectiveness of their media.”

DUO-Onderwijs supports clients, organisations looking to communicate with schools, with insight, advice and guidance on their media campaigns. According to Dehl, DUO-Onderwijs's strength lies in combining market knowledge with research. To identify trends, DUO-Onderwijs developed the Education Media Monitor. “Research forms the basis of our advice. We want to be clear about which media reach which target groups and which preferences advertisers have. We do this with two types of research: the media monitor maps the entire media landscape in education and through reader surveys we zoom in on specific titles.”

The Education Media Monitor was carefully constructed. “We first investigated which aspects advertisers find most important when choosing media. That yielded a huge list of choice motives,” says Kees. “Then we resubmitted that list, asking which five weigh most heavily.” With this input from some 400 advertisers, DUO-Onderwijs developed a questionnaire for publishers. To what extent do their media meet advertisers“ selection criteria and needs? ”This allows us to compare different media really well,“ says Kees. ”And because we now work with around 80 per cent of the leading educational media, we have a keen insight into what is going on and where changes are occurring."

The insights show clear trends. The first trend was, of course, digitalisation, a movement that corona has only reinforced. “Before corona, the emphasis was very much on reach and coverage,” Kees explains. “So: how many people do you reach with your medium? And more importantly, what percentage of your target audience do you reach with it?” After corona, the picture shifted. Media spending went 50 to 60 per cent to online and live channels.

“What we see now is that advertisers are no longer looking mainly at numbers ”, Kees continues. “They want to be an authority: a sender who is trustworthy. So they also choose media with authority among their target audience. And they want an appropriate context: their story should be in a title where it really belongs. It is all about relevance. People read better what is specifically intended for them. The days of shooting hail are really over.” Practice confirms this. Campaigns increasingly consist of a mix of newsletters, magazines and conferences. In this way, organisations not only want to be visible, but also want to build direct contact with their target audience.

The second trend revolves around artificial intelligence. Because of AI, some organisations are suddenly seeing their website traffic decline. “Knowledge centres and publishing houses sometimes lose as much as 40 per cent of their traffic because search engines now show AI summaries of their content themselves,” says Kees. Social media offer little help in this regard: It takes a lot from an organisation to stay relevant on this kind of media, also because the underlying algorithms are not very transparent.” Moreover, information disappears quickly and these media lend themselves less to deepening and knowledge sharing.

The question then becomes: how do you reach your audience though? “Through newsletters and relevant trade media,” says Kees. “These are clearly experiencing a revival. A specialist medium that focuses very specifically on one target group - school headmasters, for example - reaches the group almost completely and in the way desired.” More and more organisations are setting up clever combinations of trade media and their own newsletter. “It is the most direct and personal way to reach your target group,” he says.”

For organisations looking to reach education professionals, DUO-Onderwijs's media team offers end-to-end support. Those wishing to launch a campaign will initially get in touch with the media team. “Based on the objective and target audience, we create a tailor-made media plan, free of charge and within a few days.”

In doing so, through a sophisticated journalistic formula, the team can also help develop and post content - from interviews to articles suitable for online, print, and social media. Want more advice and/or help with your education campaigns? “Lane Stadelmaier's communications team supports with positioning, formulating a core message, content strategy and so on.”

For reliable and efficient exchange of media releases (articles, advertisements, newsletter items, specials) and reports, DUO-Onderwijs has a user-friendly media portal. “As a result, you never miss a deadline again and, always and in one place, you have access to all information and the latest version,” says Kees.

What trends can we expect in the future? Media within education are moving further towards functionalisation and personalisation, Kees expects. Functionalisation means you select very specifically by education type, role or function, while personalisation is mainly through newsletters where you tailor the message by name or interest. “Our media help you reach exactly your target audience,” Kees explains. “We also help set up and maintain newsletters. That combination of outreach and personal communication is becoming increasingly important - for education, for our clients and therefore also for us.”

At DUO-Onderwijs, three teams work closely together: the research & advisory team, the communications team and the media team. Kees Dehl is team leader of the media team.

DUO-Onderwijs keeps its clients continuously updated on developments and opportunities changes in the educational media landscape through a newsletter.