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Need a B2B persona for targeting faculty at higher education institutions?

Helena Phillips

26 Jan 2024

Knowing your audience is the first step in constructing strong B2B marketing campaigns. You need to understand their motivations and pain points, but also how you can pragmatically reach them. This series of articles provides deep dives on the audiences we target most regularly here at Velo.  Faculty is an audience that is not well-known. It spans two main areas in educational institutions — particularly in higher education. The first half consists of those responsible for teaching and learning, such as professors, instructors, and lecturers. The second half includes those in the administration and support of teaching provision, like Deans of management schools, curriculum leads, school leaders, and C-Suite chancellors.  What are their responsibilities? These roles share common goals: attracting and retaining students, using effective and engaging teaching methods, adapting to changing preferences and aligning courses with workforce readiness. Teaching and learning evolves with each generation, requiring continuous adaptation for both teachers and students.  Developing courses aligned with workforce needs — known as workforce readiness — involves adapting to new technologies, like AI. This challenges teachers to invest time in self-development to deliver relevant learning resources and new teaching styles. Whether in-person, remote, or in a workshop setting, aligning resources with the curriculum is a priority.  What are the challenges that are the top of mind?    Faculty face similar pain points: teaching effectively, efficiently and providing engaging content. Techniques must evolve, incorporating online self-directed learning and developing skills for students to enter the workforce. Building a provision with a strong reputation is crucial for funding educational establishments.  Creating powerful messaging Messaging to faculty involves emotional-led communication, addressing their pain points and anchoring stories in relatable and relevant learner experiences. After all, there is nothing more inspiring than helping someone improve as a person and explore their potential. As Velo client McGraw Hill Education says, “because learning changes everything”.  The same can be said for students: updating and keeping messaging fresh is essential as the student cohort changes annually. There must be consideration around different learning types and differences between subjects, e.g., medical vs. engineering, as they require distinct approaches.  This market does not sit still — it changes, evolves and progresses. Your marketing needs to do the same.  How can you reach these audiences? Reaching faculty is achievable through various channels: 
  • Paid media avenues, like LinkedIn, Facebook communities and Twitter/X, where teaching associations publish content and research, can be effective.  
  • It is also worth exploring trade publications and thought leadership pieces addressing teaching challenges, as these channels contribute to effective communication. 
  • Direct efforts to individual institutions using ABM techniques, direct mail or supporting direct sales with powerful sales enablement assets should be part of your thinking. 
  • Most of all, inbound marketing. This audience is comfortable conducting their own research, so provide demos of EdTech, on-demand videos and webinars, as well as thought leadership to inspire, educate and entice interactions with your brand. 
  Would you like to build out a persona or a campaign to find and engage with these personas? We’d love to help. You can read more about our skills here      

Helena Phillips

Marketing Director

Holding senior roles at B2B marketing agencies for most of her career, including over a decade of experience in B2B financial services marketing – particularly insurance – HP leads Velo’s strategic marketing projects.

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