There are certain questions we get asked about email marketing to schools all the time.

• What’s the best day to send?
• How long should an email be?
• What’s a good engagement rate?
• And does it make a difference if you’re selling something rather than offering something useful?

We touched on some of these questions in our recent Annual Education Marketing Report, but I wanted to dig into the data a little further.

So, I’ve been looking back through more than 1,300 education email campaigns delivered through Buzz Education, comparing performance by industry, campaign objective, day of the week and email length.

There were a few things I expected, and a couple I didn’t.

We’ve put the full results into our new Education Email Benchmark Report 2026/27, which you can use to compare against your own campaigns.

Your industry matters

One of the clearest findings was how much engagement varied between sectors.

That doesn’t mean one sector is better at marketing than another. It shows why context matters. Different suppliers are promoting different products, to different audiences, with very different buying decisions attached.

It’s why I’d be wary of comparing your results with a generic email marketing average. Comparing yourself with organisations operating in a similar market is much more useful.

It’s also why targeting the right audience is central to our education email marketing service.

Selling isn’t always the best place to start

This was probably my favourite finding.

Emails offering free resources achieved an average CTR of 33.3%, compared with 25.0% for direct sales campaigns, around 33% higher engagement.

It reinforces something we’ve seen repeatedly over the years. Schools often respond better when an organisation demonstrates value before asking for something in return.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t sell. But a useful guide, piece of research, webinar or practical resource can sometimes be a much better way to start the conversation.

Sometimes the quickest route to a sale isn’t to start with the sale.

Is there a best day to email schools?

In this dataset, Thursday came out on top at 29.1%, followed by Friday at 28.8%. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were all around 27%.

But when we dug deeper, there wasn’t convincing evidence of one universally superior day. Once we allowed for the types of campaigns being sent and the industries behind them, the differences became much less meaningful.

For me, that’s useful. There’s probably too much time spent worrying about whether an email should go at 9am Tuesday or 10am Thursday.

Timing matters, but what you’re sending and who you’re sending it to matter more.

Do shorter emails perform better?

Not necessarily.

Emails under 200 words averaged a 26.4% CTR, compared with 28.8% for 300–399 words. Surprisingly, campaigns containing more than 500 words recorded the highest average at 32.3%.

I’m definitely not suggesting everyone starts writing 600-word emails!

Our deeper analysis found no clear evidence that length itself was driving engagement. I think the more useful distinction is between being brief and getting to the point.

Make it obvious early why your email matters. Once you’ve earned someone’s attention, give them the information they need.

So, what really matters?

After looking through the numbers, I don’t think there’s a magic formula for emailing schools.

There isn’t one perfect day, ideal word count or engagement figure everyone should aim for.

What comes through much more strongly is relevance.

• Are you speaking to the right people?
• Are you offering something they care about?
• Is the reason to engage obvious?

Those questions matter far more than whether your email contains 197 or 297 words.

You can compare your own marketing against all four sets of benchmarks in our new report.

And if the figures make you think your own campaigns could be doing more, find out how Buzz Education can help with your next email campaign.