According to the Department of Education, in 2019 there were 8.82 million school aged children in the UK. Globally this figure rises to an estimated 1.2 billion according to UNESCO. With the impact of Covid-19 closing schools and parents adopting home learning, the availability and importance of e-learning and educational software, often dubbed ‘edtech’, has never been so prominent.
To date, schools have played a huge role in choosing which software to invest in for the classroom. This has often been dictated by school budgets, but parental influence is likely to become more pivotal in the future.
The reason? Many parents turned to search engines to find apps to help with homeschooling, as illustrated by Google Trends, which saw the search term ‘educational apps’ peak in popularity during 15-21st March.
Interestingly, the term ‘best free educational apps for kids’ was up by 140% and as many providers opted to offer free subscription during the pandemic – this was clearly a strong strategy to gain initial awareness.
As time goes on and more children return to school, it is likely these same parents will be sharing their feedback with the school on their favourite educational apps and as such will have greater influence over e-learning resources.
Yet free subscription offers can’t last indefinitely, which is why it is important for ed-tech marketers and creators to consider their strategy for what comes next carefully. Now is the perfect time for educational apps and software to stay top of mind and PR is perfectly placed to achieve it. From crafting content around families who have ‘relied’ on your app or credited it with saving them from any ‘homeschool hiccups’, to stakeholder campaigns that seek to gain recognition of the value of screentime for educational use in both the home and classroom. The possibilities and opportunities are endless.
The demand is out there and providers need to be proactive in order to increase their future potential and subscriptions.
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