7 Ideas That Made a Start-Up $35M In a Month of Pandemic

Digital Learning is transforming the way education is visualised and presented, with wide-range implications of educational content, access by users around the world, and business models for sustainable social impact.

“Formal education will make you a living; but self- education can make you a Fortune” — Jim Rohn

Educational technology helps educators and school, facilitate to aid in their teaching of students in a fascinating and fun way.

That’s how the start-up attracted students by their own method of teaching.

Online Learning x Ed-Tech during Covid-19 crisis

The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 and the World Health Organization declaring it as a pandemic shook the entire world. This situation challenged the education system across the world and forced institutions & educators to completely switch to an online platform in the best way possible.

Tablets and laptops are now making it easier for students to engage with learning games and online lessons while working together.

This put forth many new Ed-Tech companies to start also existing Ed-tech’s bringing out fresh marketing campaigns to roll out!

Some world-class Edu-tech companies are:

1. Blackboard — Founded: 1997

2. Byju’s — Founded: 2011

3. Teachers Pay Teachers — Founded: 2006

4. Coursera — Founded: 2012

How Byju’s made it to Billion Dollar Market cap Worldwide?

The answer lies in Byju’s marketing strategy, which is minimal yet powerful.

“Learning how to learn is the marker of literacy, not how to read & write” — Raveendran

In 2011, Byju Raveendran started Byju’s with his wife, Divya.

According to Forbes, as of 2020, Byju, his wife, and his brother Riju Raveendran have a combined net worth of $3.05B, with 80 million students and 5.5 million annual paid subscribers to these e-learning platforms.

The 7 ideas & marketing campaigns that led to what they are now!

1. Collaborations and Sponsorships

When a brand collaborates with other brands or sponsors events, then it can pitch different customer bases of the brand they partner with. In which it reaches the larger audience.

Byju’s app promotes itself with such collaborations and sponsorships.

Sponsors of :

• Indian Cricket Team — ICC world cup

a large audience base with being a sponsor in the event gives Byju increased brand exposure.

• Partner of News18 Network — National campaign

The campaign is about recognizing and inspiring young geniuses from different fields in the country. This campaign is a weekly episodic show that aired on TV.

2. Targeting Nationals with Entrance examinations

Give a solution to the problem which is more accessible, in this way people would replace anything for it.

NEET & JEE- a national level entrance test conducted in India for Medical and engineering aspirants. They pledge to fulfil student’s dream, offering them a way of reaching by cracking the exams. Byjus pitches the young generation.

3. Bridging the gap between Gen Z and millennial

If they link your product to one yet offer to link to many which builds a good relationship to a sizeable community.

As students are the target users of Byju’s, to pitch to the Gen Z generation. They have come up with an early learning app and offering them a significant experience.

Parents become Partners when their children learn from Byju’s — Marketing Quote by Byju’s

“ Parents are a child’s first teacher, and if this teacher transforms into a learning partner, it can foster positive learning outcomes in children” — CEO Mrinal

Targeted the parents by making them believe how the gadgets help children stick to these days can be a learning platform for them. It is also making the parent-children relationship better.

4. Video marketing campaigns

All it takes is one good video, which generates audience’s that become consumer’s.

They pitched the customers with an ad campaign by associating the brand with India’s favourite sport, cricket. Byjus, in their ad campaign Titled ‘Keep Learning,’ features the Indian cricket players donning the new jersey Byju’s name imprinted in front.

Another remarkable ad campaign showcased how the children use various gadgets like mobile and computers to learn from Byju’s learning platform. The ad was surely a success and left a great impact on audiences.

5. Brand ambassador

It is undeniable that having a brand ambassador attaches a face to the brand.

• India’s Top actor Shah Rukh Khan is the brand ambassador which justifies the user base of the tech brand

• The most popular and loved company that is entertaining children for years, Disney partnered with a learning platform that brings together entertainment and education. These two big names are enough to make any brand sell.

6. Acquiring other Ed-tech companies

Buying out a company or merging with another can be an excellent investment for accomplishing one company’s long-term goals.

Which in-turn the company will be an all-rounder!

• Bought Aakash Educational Services Ltd (AESL) in a cash deal estimated at $950 million
• acquisition of Toppr, an online learning firm, for $150 million
• Whitehat Jr was sold to Byju’s in a $300 million all-cash deal.

7. Crisis made marketing easier — $$$

If you are good at something, show them the trial at the best time, which would help them in their worst scenario.

Considering the pandemic situation, the Schools are forced to close by the government.

Students began to self-study, where one strives to learn from various online platforms.

Meanwhile,

• Byju’s announced they can download The Learning App and Disney Early Learn for free and gain access to the entire library of BYJU’S educational content for a month.

• Also introduced free ‘Live Classes’ on its app recently. They aimed to replicate a classroom-like environment online, and differ from the usual pre-recorded videos.

“It allows students to attend scheduled classes periodically and they love that. The feature is to replicate the regularity of school” — Founder

As a result, Grossed over 35 million dollars in revenue despite being free for the April month alone!

“The monetisation has improved because this is a clear inflexion point” says the Founder

Since the lockdown, BYJU’S has added over 25 million new students to its platform. It has 70 million registered students (including 25 million) and 4.5 million paid users.

This 7th idea may have not accomplished without the other 6 ideas, which led to a large crowd knowing the value.

Above Marketing Ideas would have given you overall gist, on working at the right place at the right time offers.

It is not on how well they market in the period but on values they impose at a threshold point.

“Build a strategy that works best for your brand — with some good timing sense”