The WirED Marketer: It’s Trapper Keeper Szn - 9/2/25

Hey WirED Marketers,

Anyone else have fond memories of their Lisa Frank Trapper Keeper—rainbows, dolphins, and all those jewel tones? Every September, mine became my most prized possession.

I spotted Trapper Keepers at Target the other day and, as an elder millennial, I wasn’t mad about it. Because nostalgia hits different, doesn’t it?

I bring this up because I’ve noticed some tried-and-true “old school” marketing tactics reemerging with fresh energy. And I’m here for it.

Just the other day, I read an email from A Media Operator (highly recommend subscribing) titled “Everyone’s Talking About Print.”

The timing was impeccable: we at EdWeek just launched our new print product, The Magazine, and in my personal life I’ve recently ditched the kindle in favor of doubling down on the “wooden” book.

So now I’m curious: have you seen signs of a print comeback in your work or personal life? Maybe we’re all just a little tired of scrolling (I know some days I am).

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Your WirED Marketer,

—Melissa, Senior Director, Marketing at Education Week

P.S. — 📩 Did someone forward you this email? Sign up here.ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ‎⠀⠀⠀⠀

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✨ In this edition you’ll find:

• How much buying power do principals actually have?
• The phrases in marketing materials that make K-12 leaders uneasy
• Best practices if you’re considering doing a research study in K-12

✨ What’s Trending ✨

Say it with me: word choice matters. In marketing—and especially in today’s political climate—it can be the difference between opening doors or shutting them. Some phrases might fly in one state and spark pushback in another, which makes keeping up feel nearly impossible.

For education companies, the language you use in emails, on your website, and in your sales collateral can directly shape whether you win the contract. That got us curious, so we partnered with our Research Center to ask K-12 leaders which words and phrases still raise eyebrows.

We asked around 250 K-12 leaders, “When you see phrases in K-12 education-related marketing materials, does it make you uneasy about how students, their families, community members, colleagues, and/or other stakeholders might react to the product?”

The phrases that topped the list. 👇

• DEI
• Culturally responsive teaching
• Social justice
• Common core
• Parent empowerment

Here’s what caught our eye: we asked this same question last year, and the shift is pretty telling. Fewer leaders are reporting discomfort with certain terms. Take DEI—last year, 60% said it made them uneasy; this year, it’s down to 45%. And the drop wasn’t just with DEI, it showed up across all the top five. It seems like maybe, just maybe, the language landscape might be loosening a bit, which is worth noting as you think about how to frame your next campaign.

Events on Our Radar 🎯

Get yourself to the EdWeek Market Brief Summit.

I get it, budgets are tight, and travel can be a hassle. But if you work in K-12, this conference is absolutely worth it. From actionable strategies, hearing directly from K-12 leaders and unmatched networking, it’s all here.

But don’t take it from me—hear what others have to say.

“This was hands down the best education event I have attended in years. The content was tailored to the diverse needs and priorities of the audience, the networking opportunities were bountiful, and the cutting-edge insights into our field gave me a tremendous amount of intel to bring back to my team!”

—Lindsay Prendergast, Assistant Director of Strategy & Development, The Danielson Group, Fall 2024 Attendee

Learn more and register here.

Quiz Yourself ⚡

How Much Do You Know About The Principal Persona?

Principals play a bigger role in purchasing decisions than many marketers realize. Take this quick quiz to see how prepared you are to reach them in your marketing and sales plans.

What percentage of principals say they have a role in choosing at least some academic resources and other products for their school?

a. 87 percent

b. 50 percent

c. 22 percent

d. 15 percent

What We’re Reading 📚

[Article] How Much Buying Power Do School Principals Have?

My colleague, Market Brief reporter Emma Kate Fittes, demystifies common assumptions around principal purchasing. Here’s a little teaser featuring some of the content you can find in this article.

What types of purchasing principles are doing themselves:
(Responders could select all that apply, which is why totals surpass 100%)

1. Office supplies/equipment – 81%
2. PD – 66%
3. Supplemental academic resources, core subjects – 64%
4. School library materials – 60%
5. Supplemental academic resources, non-core subjects – 56%
6. SEL – 56%
7. Travel for conferences – 55%

And the list goes on! Market Brief members can read the full article here.

What We’re Listening To 🎧

I had a blast joining Elana Leoni (K-12 marketer and advisor extraordinaire) on her podcast, All Things Marketing and Education. If you don’t already subscribe to this podcast, seriously drop what you’re doing and subscribe.

Here’s a preview of what we cover:

• The critical importance of teachers when it comes to purchasing and adoption
• What “research-based” actually means (and what it doesn’t)
• Making the case for content marketing in K-12 and why it’s not a “nice to have”

Give it a listen and go ahead steal a few ideas for your marketing strategy.

Meet A K-12 Professional 👋

Holly Kurtz, Director, EdWeek Research Center

As Director of the EdWeek Research Center, Holly Kurtz brings both rigor and curiosity to her work. A lifelong learner (and proud dog lover), Holly isn’t on the marketing team—but she’s become an invaluable partner to us, nonetheless.

3 words to describe you:

1. “Curious: My relentless curiosity drives my interest in analyzing data. Often, I can’t wait to see the results!
2. Open-minded: I enjoy being surprised when results don’t turn out as expected! It gives me something new to be curious about!
3. Knowledgeable: I’ve been an education journalist and researcher since I graduated from college, so I have acquired a lot of expertise along the way! That said, I am the first to acknowledge that I do not have all the answers—which is a good thing because I love to learn new things!”

What do you wish every EdMarketer knew?
“While large districts do enroll about 1 in 3 of the nation’s public-school students, this also means that 2 out of 3 children are found in districts with enrollments under 50,000! In fact, 44% of students attend schools in districts with fewer than 10,000 students. Certainly, there are benefits to serving very large mega-districts. But you leave a lot of money—and information—on the table if your research and/or strategy focus exclusively on the New York Cities and Los Angeles Unifieds of this world.”

What’s a trend you’ve been really into?
“I am very excited about the thought leadership research we have increasingly been conducting for clients. For these projects, we conduct real research (we never fake or skew results!) on topics of interest to clients’ customers. The results can be used in many different ways, including lead gen, education of internal and external stakeholders, and attracting earned media. The end products include white papers (which we can then promote back to EdWeek’s audience); custom webinars (which our audience tends to view as PD since they can generally earn credit for participation); quizzes; and infographics. These projects can serve multiple purposes in that clients often place some questions on the surveys that are for their internal use only. The remaining questions become the basis for marketing assets developed by the EdWeek Research Center. 

Check out some of our recent work: 

• A study for Texas Instruments on calculator use in high schools 
• A study on procurement for Amazon Business 
• An annual school finance survey (now in Year 3) for Allovue”

What advice would you give someone who wants to conduct custom research but has a limited budget/resources? 
“First, I would suggest reaching out to us, because commissioning research is a lot less expensive than making costly errors based on inaccurate perceptions or expectations! It’s also less expensive than maintaining an in-house research team. If none of our solutions are affordable at this time, I would suggest, at the very least, becoming a member of EdWeek Market Brief, which covers the business side of K-12 education. The EdWeek Research Center is constantly doing research for Market Brief so the information you see there is hot off the press. Our journalists add context with deep insights and reporting. It is a great way to keep up with broader trends until you can afford to commission studies that get at the exact questions and populations you need to learn more about.”

What best practices would you recommend people consider when doing research?   
“First, make sure you clearly understand what you are trying to figure out. This often takes the form of a hypothesis. For example: “Customers will be willing to pay X amount more if we add feature X to our products.” Or… “Districts will be increasing spending in category X over the next year.” 

The second piece of advice is to plan ahead. As survey response rates decline across many different fields, it is becoming necessary to leave surveys in the field for longer periods of time—especially if you are trying to reach a small or niche group of respondents (e.g. district curriculum leaders who influence the purchasing of product X).  If the group you are trying to reach is too small to survey, one-on-one interviews are a great option. In fact, I almost always suggest that our clients who commission surveys also hire us do interviews either before we field a survey (to help determine what questions to ask) or after we are done (because survey results tend to raise as many questions as they answer). 

There’s more where that came from. Watch our webinar on Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy.”

Quick Poll 👀

What do you think of the “Meet the Marketer/K-12 Professional” section of the newsletter (above) where I interview individuals in the field?

I LOVE IT – KEEP IT COMING 🎉

NOT SURE – JURY’S STILL OUT ⏳

I WOULDN’T MISS IT IF IT WENT AWAY 👋

Say What?! 🦜

What we’ve heard at the watercooler, on social, out and about…

“There needs to be more intentional and targeted professional development.  We diversify learning for students however, it is not the same for teachers.  All teachers on campus have specific needs and those should be addressed instead of professional development being conducted as a one size fits all.”
—An anonymous survey respondent from an EdWeek Research Center survey conducted this past July.

That’s all folks. Thanks for reading. See you again in 2 weeks.

Your WirED Marketer,
Melissa and team because every marketer knows, it takes a village.

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We can help you develop a successful campaign tailored to your unique marketing goals. To learn more, contact Advertising & Marketing Solutions Director Mike Bell at mbell@educationweek.org.