If you’ve spent any time trying to sell to schools, you’ll know that academy trusts and MATs can change the game entirely.

On paper, they look like an efficient route to scale. Instead of winning one school at a time, you gain access to dozens, sometimes hundreds, through a single relationship.

And that part is true. Building a relationship with a trust can open the door to multiple schools far more quickly than working school by school. Where things become more challenging is in how that relationship is built in the first place.

Many businesses approach MATs in the same way they approach individual schools, using the same messaging, the same campaigns, and the same sales tactics. Others go too far in the opposite direction and focus entirely on trust leadership, removing schools from the conversation altogether.

In practice, neither approach reflects how decisions are actually made within academy trusts. Their structure introduces more layers, more stakeholders, and more points of influence, which means your marketing strategy needs to account for that complexity from the outset.

Why marketing to academy trusts is more complex than it looks

One of the biggest misconceptions in MAT marketing is the idea that decisions are fully centralised.

It’s easy to assume that reaching a CEO or procurement lead is enough. In practice, decisions tend to be shaped across multiple layers.

What we consistently see across campaigns is that trusts operate with layered influence. Central teams may control budgets and approvals, while demand is often shaped within schools themselves. Heads of department, senior leaders, and classroom teachers experience the problems your product solves and frequently act as internal advocates.

This creates a dynamic where decisions sit across both central and local levels, which is exactly why single-layer marketing strategies tend to underperform.

The reality: trust-level buying is influenced from both directions

When you look closely at how buying decisions are made across academy trusts, it becomes clear that there isn’t a single, consistent model. Some purchases are heavily centralised, others sit firmly within individual schools, and a significant number fall somewhere in between. That variation is exactly why a one-dimensional marketing approach struggles to gain traction.

Trust-led decision-making

Certain categories are typically controlled at trust level, particularly those tied to infrastructure, cost efficiency, and long-term planning:

• Finance or operational systems – 64% trust / 24% both / 12% school
• Estates and facilities – 58% trust / 27% both / 15% school
• Energy or sustainability – 39% trust / 30% both / 30% school

These tend to be higher-value decisions where consistency across multiple schools matters, so it makes sense that trust leadership takes the lead.

School-led decision-making

Other categories remain firmly within the academy’s control, usually because they directly impact teaching and learning on a day-to-day basis:

• Classroom resources – 88% school / 9% both / 3% trust
• Trips and enrichment – 88% school / 9% both / 3% trust
• Behaviour and pastoral – 70% school / 21% both / 9% trust

In these cases, schools are much closer to the problem and the outcome, so they retain ownership of the decision.

Shared decision-making

Then there’s a group of categories where influence is genuinely split, and this is where things become more nuanced:

• Staff CPD – 45% both / 42% school / 12% trust
• Edtech – 36% both / 36% school / 27% trust
• Safeguarding – 39% trust / 33% school / 27% both
• Assessment – 52% school / 36% both / 12% trust

These areas sit across both strategy and classroom delivery. For example, edtech needs to work in practice for teachers and pupils, while also meeting trust-wide goals around consistency, reporting, or cost efficiency.

What this means in practice is that most MAT buying decisions are shaped across multiple stakeholders, with influence shifting depending on the category, the budget, and the priorities at the time.

This is where marketing strategies either align with reality or miss the mark.

Campaigns that focus only on trust leaders risk overlooking the people driving day-to-day need and internal advocacy. Campaigns that focus only on schools can generate interest that struggles to progress when central approval becomes part of the process.

The campaigns that perform most consistently are visible across both layers:

• At trust level, where strategic direction, budgets, and standardisation sit.
• At school level, where demand, urgency, and practical need are created.

When both audiences are engaged at the same time, they begin to reinforce each other. Schools surface the need, trust leaders recognise the wider value, and decisions move forward with far less friction.

A more effective approach: dual-level MAT marketing

If you want to improve results when marketing to academy trusts, the most important shift is building campaigns that work at both trust and school level at the same time.

That doesn’t mean doubling your workload, but simply being more deliberate about how your messaging is structured.

Trust-level messaging

At trust level, your messaging needs to reflect scale and strategy.

This audience is thinking about:

• How something works across multiple schools.
• Whether it represents good value for money.
• How easy it is to implement and manage.
• Whether it aligns with wider trust priorities.

This is where you demonstrate credibility and reduce perceived risk.

School-level messaging

At school level, the focus becomes more practical.

• Educators are looking for solutions that:
• Save time.
• Improve outcomes.
• Fit into existing workloads.
• Solve day-to-day challenges.

This is where demand is created and interest begins to build within schools.

When these two layers are aligned, schools begin to engage while trust leaders can see both the strategic value and the internal appetite.

The decline of mass marketing (and the rise of prospecting in schools)

Across the education sector, broad, one-off marketing campaigns are becoming less reliable, particularly when they rely on volume rather than precision. This is something we’ve seen clearly across the campaigns we’ve analysed. Direct leads generated from traditional marketing activity have fallen by around 45% in recent years.

There are a few reasons behind this shift.

School inboxes are more crowded than ever, filtering technology is more aggressive, and budgets are under greater scrutiny. On top of that, buying decisions, especially within academy trusts, involve more stakeholders and take longer to move forward.

All of this reduces the effectiveness of “send and hope” style campaigns.

What’s replacing it is a more deliberate, prospecting-led approach to marketing to schools.

Instead of relying on a single broadcast to generate interest, higher-performing campaigns focus on building presence over time, combining targeted marketing emails with more conversational, human-style follow-ups that feel closer to one-to-one communication.

When this is done well, the difference in performance is significant.

Our research shows that more consistent, human-led campaigns are generating response rates of around 1.6%, which equates to roughly 16 responses per 1,000 contacts, with over half of those responses classified as warm or hot leads.

That level of engagement is typically driven by a combination of factors:

• Targeting the right people, rather than broad lists.
• Writing in a way that feels human, rather than like a traditional marketing campaign.
• Maintaining visibility over time, rather than relying on a single touchpoint.

In the context of MAT marketing, this shift is even more important.

You are rarely influencing a single decision-maker. You are building awareness across multiple stakeholders, often at different levels of the organisation, over an extended period of time.

A prospecting-led approach allows you to do exactly that. It keeps your brand present in inboxes, creates multiple opportunities for engagement, and gives both schools and trust leaders time to become familiar with what you offer.

Reaching the right people (and why most data falls short)

Even with the right messaging, results will always be limited if your targeting is off.

One of the biggest barriers in marketing to schools and MATs is access to accurate, role-specific data. Trust structures vary, staff move roles frequently, and generic data sources rarely reflect what’s actually happening on the ground.

That’s why having access to a dedicated education database makes such a difference.

For example, Sprint Education’s own purpose-built education CRM, Campus, provides access to over 1,000,000 educators and decision-makers, alongside frequent data updates and the ability to filter by role, school type, and location.

This level of targeting allows you to build audiences that include both central trust contacts and the school-level staff who influence decisions.

Why email marketing still leads in MAT marketing

Email remains one of the most effective channels for marketing to schools, including academy trusts, when it is used thoughtfully.

Broad, generic email campaigns are delivering weaker results, partly because school inboxes are more competitive and filtering technology has become more advanced.

At the same time, more tailored, human-style emails are performing significantly better, particularly when they feel like genuine one-to-one communication rather than traditional marketing.

This is supported by improvements in inbox placement as well. Education-focused infrastructure can achieve around a 9% increase in inbox placement, which directly improves visibility and engagement.

For MAT marketing, that increased visibility is critical because you are building recognition across multiple stakeholders over time.

Quick wins when marketing to academy trusts

Once you have the fundamentals in place, there are a few practical ways to strengthen your approach and improve results when marketing to schools within MAT structures.

These aren’t standalone strategies, but they make a noticeable difference when layered into your campaigns:

Align campaigns with the academic calendar

Schools and trusts operate on very specific cycles. The autumn term typically sees the highest engagement with new initiatives, while spring is more focused on delivery. Timing campaigns around these windows increases the chances of your message landing when decisions are actively being considered.

Plan for longer sales cycles

MAT decisions often involve multiple stakeholders and stages of approval. Building campaigns that run over time, rather than relying on short bursts of activity, helps maintain visibility throughout that process.

Create internal advocates within schools

Even when decisions sit at trust level, schools play a key role in shaping what gets considered. Campaigns that resonate with teachers and school leaders can create internal pressure that supports wider adoption.

Keep messaging consistent across audiences

Your trust-level and school-level messaging should align, even if the emphasis is different. Mixed or conflicting messaging can slow down decision-making and create confusion across stakeholders.

Prioritise data quality over volume

Reaching the right roles within both trusts and schools will always outperform larger, less targeted campaigns. Accurate, up-to-date data underpins everything else in your strategy.

Focus on visibility, not just immediate response

In MAT marketing, not every interaction leads to an instant enquiry. Consistent presence in inboxes builds familiarity, which plays a significant role when decisions are reviewed later.

Selling to academy trusts and MATs

If you’re looking to refine your approach to marketing to schools and MATs and generating more school leads, the next step is building a strategy that fits your audience, your product, and your sales goals.

Book an education strategy call with one of our team to map out exactly how to position your campaigns, target the right decision-makers, and generate more consistent leads from schools and academy trusts.

FAQs

How do you market to academy trusts and MATs?

To market to academy trusts effectively, you need to target both central trust leaders and individual schools, using messaging that reflects strategic priorities and practical classroom impact.

What is MAT marketing?

MAT marketing refers to marketing to multi-academy trusts, where decision-making is shared across central teams and schools, requiring a more layered strategy.

How can I find academy trust decision-makers?

Using a dedicated education database allows you to filter contacts by role, trust, and school type, helping you reach the right people.

Is email marketing still effective for selling to schools?

Yes, email marketing remains highly effective when campaigns are targeted, consistent, and written in a more natural, conversational style.

Why is it harder to sell to MATs than individual schools?

Selling to MATs typically involves more stakeholders, longer approval processes, and greater scrutiny, which can extend the time it takes to convert interest into sales.

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