EdTech Marketing: Influence Long, Multi-Stakeholder Journeys

We see every type of content out there:

• Sales-pushing

• “You need this”

• Empower educators/students (whatever “empower” means)

• We help ABC do XYZ

All general value propositions

But we don’t see, are companies talking 1 to 1.

We rarely see call-outs like:

• “Scholarship Managers still suffer with taking online payments”

• “High-Stakes Test Coordinators and the lack of tech skills reducing students’ scores”

• “How Curriculum Directors aligned instruction to state standards”

The difference is clear: these call-outs reach one role at a time - being specific with a problem that resonates with them.

The consequence of not doing so goes deeper:

INFLUENCE POINTS

Meeting (or solving) one specific interest (or problem) doesn’t win over multiple stakeholders

Even when you address a problem that one of your marketing personas has, you’re still missing out on getting the other stakeholders on your side.

A buying group needs either a concensus that your solution is the best - or a leader that understands every stakeholder’s problems and is clear that your solution solves them.

Still, you won’t get to the finalists if they’re not clear you can fit the challenge.

Waiting for perfect MQLs shrinks the pipeline

Most EdTechs are reactive, even with an SDR team.

They’re waiting for demo requests - and discard half of the requests as unfit.

Waiting for the perfect conditions surely reduces opportunities.

Question: Do you track how many people started filling out your forms, but give up?

Answer: An average of 52% of forms that are started are never submitted - this is true for my clients’ data and multiple benchmark studies.

This effect is not about conversion rates or optimization, it’s about people - although willing to submit a form - not having the final authority to decide on a demo.

Not only that, they might not have the full picture and info to bring others on board.

This means that if you knew “who’s doing what to solve xyz problem”, you’d be able to get your SDR team preemptively starting a conversation with said buying group member.

Imagine now how your pipeline would be affected.

One-person demos or trials are likely to fail moving the needle

A single lead, when not provided with assets to enable influence, can’t sell the idea internally.

Even when you get a pretty decent lead requesting a demo, if that lead is alone in that research, it’s likely your demo won’t hit its mark.

This is because the committee has to be on board with that demo - they have to be pre-sold that your solution will do the job you need.

The same happens with trials that need the approval of multiple stakeholders to, one day, be implemented - especially when your trial needs to be pre-customized.

If you’re not exploring and enabling these leads to spread the word about how your solution affects other members of the committee, there’s a big chance that trials and demos are a waste of everyone’s time.

CONTENT/CAMPAIGN POINTS

Meta-problems are not addressed

When it comes to content and campaigns, making promises of solving a general problem is easy: that’s what your solution does.

But…

• Do you enable them with avenues to securing budget, funds, or grants?

• Do you assure them they’ll be covered when integrating your solution with the multiple technologies they already have?

• Are they enabled to manage the changes down to the frontlines?

Solving the general problem is not enough.

You need to help them with the meta-problems: the issues they have keeping them stuck between wanting your solution and actually acquiring it.

Awareness content without conversion points

I get my clients up to 19% of the purchase-intent leads from awareness / top-of-funnel content. How?

Let’s say you wrote an incredible blog post about a problem a persona has.

You empathized and told them there’s a solution to that problem: your solution.

• You promoted it.

• People clicked and read it.

• You drove awareness.

Did you give them ways to act on that blog post and move down the funnel?

What ways were those? “Request a demo” buttons?

Or did you give them frictionless PDFs that surface their purchase intent - especially if they can clearly indicate they’re in research mode?

Did you also give them ways to forward the blog post to someone else in the buying group?

I talk to EdTechs weekly - and no one does this. It’s your chance to be ahead.

No long-term campaigns for long sales cycles

Most times I assess an EdTech, they run short-term campaigns - regardless of the buying cycle of their ICP.

This short-term issue comes from not having clarity of objectives and, therefore, confidence that campaigns will work.

If you know your average sales cycle lasts 10 months, why would you run a 3-month campaign, stop, regroup, and restart after a couple of months?

This stop-and-go only causes loss of momentum and prospects to get cold to your message again, instead of feeding them appropriate messages throughout the buying cycle.

Here’s what you need:

CONNECTEC, MULTI-STEP, MULTI-PERSONA INFLUENCE CAMPAIGNS

Influence needs multiple points of interest met

Buying groups are made up of different people, each with their own interests in mind.

These interests need to be addressed by your campaigns.

This will be done by a mix of content, advertising, digital assets, and nurture.

But just doing that might not be enough to reach all you need.

An extra step is necessary: enablement.

This way, you promote other members’ interests via the one lead you have in the group.

Long-term campaigns addressing the long sales cycles

To increase your chances of reaching most members in a group, your campaigns must run for quite a while. Basically never ending, but constantly adapting.

Campaigns are your predictable source of pipeline.

Surely, there are other channels you should explore, like SEO, organic social, etc. But those are not under your control.

Google and Social Media are constantly testing and changing algorithms: your good results today might be near zero tomorrow.

Even SEO, which today is based on maintaining good positions via the constant release of expert content, needs this constant production of articles.

Therefore, you need to plan for long-term demand generation, conversion, and nurture.

Early intent discovery

The earlier you get to an account interested in purchasing, the earlier you can lead the conversation, their research, and the procurement process.

That’s why I advocate for the early discovery of purchase-intent leads and accounts, even if they are early in their journey.

Whether they fill out a form or not, you can understand - by the use of special tools - which institutions are visiting key pages and reading about specific problems.

This tells you exactly how to approach them and start conversations that resonate with them.

TRANSFORMING YOUR INFLUENCE

Problem-aware demand-gen

Based on a comprehensive message guide about your ICP, personas, outcome pillars, problems they face, and how that affects them…

…create blog posts - specifically for advertising - talking about them and their problems.

These will resonate with them.

Frictionless Digital Assets

Frictionless doesn’t mean ungated PDFs.

Frictionless means that they will not only want to download your PDF, but also put it to use immediately.

You need their email and other information to start contact, therefore you need to exchange that for something valuable that will tell you they are on the journey to purchase.

You need to come up with digital assets that connect your solution - and the request for a demo or trial - to the problems they have, via these assets.

These assets need to be the starting point of taking action toward the purchase - without being pushy or salesy.

Trust Positioning

After the download, you need to create trust with them - either by providing proof of value to their peers or transferring knowledge that no one else offers.

These will be your nurture sequences or enablement material - which you’ll want your leads to take inside their buying group.

According to Stephen M.R. Covey (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People) in his book The Speed of Trust, trust has four cores: Integrity, Intent, Capabilities, and Results.

Your campaigns can demonstrate almost all of these cores.

Addressing Capabilities and Results will translate into demonstrated Competence.

It’s the basis for Thought-Leadership.

Conversion Points

From blog content down to demo requests, you need to keep the “conversion” mindset.

Any and every asset you create needs to be prepared to generate leads.

Your landing pages and articles need to follow a structured content that gets people involved and reading what you need them to absorb toward the purchase.

Hardly, people reading blog posts are ready to buy. But they can show early purchase intent via the download of a PDF.

They can also share and forward that content to someone in their buying group - giving you the chance to not only find one, but two or more members.

This post is the #2 Shift happening in EdTech Marketing

I’ve been working on the second version of the EdTech Marketing Shifts Report going into 2026 - where I deep dive into the shifts and how you can adapt to them.

I’ll also provide blueprints, roadmaps, and templates to guide you throughout your strategy, bringing Marketing and Sales together.

If you haven’t downloaded v1, DOWNLOAD IT HERE:

Once v2 is released, you’ll get an alert to get it.

Hi, I’m Rod 👋

I share marketing and sales strategies for EdTech leaders.

Scale your pipeline and drive more demos and trials – no extra hires.

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