Remember when teachers, civil servants, police officers, ambulance staff, nurses, midwives, doctors and fire fighters crashed the stock market, wiped out banks, took billions in bonuses and paid no tax?

No, me neither.

But according to the reports following the budget schooling has been given a total of £1.2bn, plus 100 extra free schools, and childcare places have been doubled to 26,000 for England’s poorest two year olds.

It’s a fair old package, and clearly some people are going to benefit quite a bit from this upturn in expenditure.

I suspect the firms who are going to do best are those that kept going with their full on marketing during the last two years, because they have now got a head start.  But it should be possible for firms who cut back on their marketing to catch up by using the right sort of copy and approach.

I think the key is going to be the combined use of email and postal direct mail – just to rely on email (especially for larger cost purchases) is not going to give the school the feeling that the supplier is a solid, well-placed firm that knows education, rather than a firm that has just appeared to cash in on the £1.2 billion.

I really believe that the combination of benefit driven writing (rather than announcements) sent through email and postal direct mail, allied to a blog and an ever growing web site is going to be the answer.

If you want to talk about any of this, please do call 01536 399 000.  But at least let’s be thankful that the money is starting to flow once more.

Tony Attwood

Hamilton House Mailings Ltd reg number 2444392 VAT 354907535GB.  Phone 01536 399 000.