K-12 growth through grants and dimensional mail

The problem

K-12 is a hard market to reach. The people who decide (CTE directors, district leaders and teachers) get buried in email. Budgets depend on funding cycles. And a purchase often needs a pilot before a district commits. TestOut’s courseware was a strong fit for high school IT and CTE programs, but the K-12 business was much smaller than Higher Ed. Growing it needed offers that cut through and a follow-up process that turned interest into opportunities.

What I did

Led with an offer, not an ad. We built campaigns around grant offers that gave schools free courseware licenses to pilot TestOut in a class. Teachers and administrators applied, and each application started a conversation with sales.

Sent something worth opening. For district leaders, the team designed dimensional mailers: boxes with a LEGO build and a letter, sent to K-12 districts. A box on a director’s desk gets opened. An email often doesn’t.

Followed up every time. Every mailer and grant campaign had a planned SDR and account-executive follow-up sequence. Direct mail opened the door, and a person walked through it. I’d learned this model while running the SDR team (see Building a sales development engine).

Built the K-12 team and calendar. K-12 campaign managers on my team ran the campaigns. I set the strategy, the budget and the calendar around school buying cycles, and I tracked results back to opportunities in the CRM.

Targeted states, not just schools. Because state CTE policy shapes what districts buy, we planned state-specific campaigns alongside the national ones.

Results

• K-12 revenue grew from about $3M to about $12M during my marketing leadership (2019–2023).
• 464 grant applications became 185 sales opportunities (2019–2020).
• A $20K dimensional mailer to 800 districts generated $508K in pipeline (2020–2021).
• A repeatable K-12 playbook: offer, dimensional mail, timed follow-up, CRM tracking.

Why it matters

For demand gen: I know how to reach buyers who ignore email, by pairing a real offer with direct mail and disciplined follow-up, and how to track it to pipeline. For EdTech: K-12 buying runs on funding, pilots and state policy. I’ve built campaigns around all three.