Building a Scalable Product Marketing Engine for an EdTech Platform
Summary
A fast-growing EdTech product needed a way to consistently educate and engage users—free and paid—without relying on manual onboarding. I developed a repeatable, end-to-end campaign framework that aligned all touchpoints, clarified the product’s value, and drove organic growth through community advocacy.
Overview
As the product’s user base expanded, the company needed a strategic, scalable approach to product marketing that could work for thousands of users at different stages of their journey. My goal was to build a system that didn’t just market the product but taught users how to get value from it—through launches, seasonal campaigns, and ongoing engagement.
I created a structured campaign methodology that combined thoughtful planning, cross-functional collaboration, and consistent messaging. This approach helped both free and paid users see the product’s value faster and was a major factor in the platform’s organic growth.
Product marketing needed to achieve two equally important goals:
Attract a steady flow of new users to keep the top of the funnel healthy.
Engage existing users in a way that continuously showcased the value of the product.
Manual onboarding wasn’t sustainable. With thousands of new sign-ups each month, the team couldn’t personally walk each user through the product. Instead, the campaigns themselves needed to function as the onboarding engine—clear, engaging, and self-explanatory.
The Core Problem
How do you ensure that users across multiple segments — teachers, students, institutions, and casual learners — understand why the product matters without relying on 1:1 education?
I developed a structured, repeatable way to plan and deliver product marketing campaigns. It included three core phases:
Phase 1: Define the Scope
Every campaign began with a foundational question: “What type of campaign is this, and what does success look like?”
This initial framing shaped everything that followed. I classified campaigns into three types:
Feature launches
Segment-focused campaigns
Seasonal initiatives
which helped determine:
Depth of content
Degree of cross-team collaboration
Creative needs
Timeline
Promotion & distribution plan
Phase 2: Build a Clear, Strategic Brief
To keep the structure consistent across campaigns, I created a custom product marketing briefing template with sections for:
Key messages
Value propositions
User segments
Expected outcomes
Timeline
Cross-functional owners
Creative requirements
This served as the single source of truth for everyone involved—designers, PMs, growth, content, and external freelancers. It also meant every campaign started from a place of clarity rather than chaos.
This structure didn’t limit creativity; it made it easier. Once the strategy was locked in, creative energy could flow freely.
Phase 3: Execute with Multi-Channel Consistency
Campaigns were delivered through a thoughtfully selected mix of channels. A typical campaign included:
Blogs & educational articles
Landing pages to highlight product value
Video explainers or teasers
Downloadable templates or toolkits
Email newsletters
In-product announcements, nudges, or tooltips
Social media campaigns targeting teachers and influencers
Each touchpoint reinforced the same core message, creating a unified experience from first touch to repeat engagement. This is where the consistency truly paid off: users saw a repeated story about the product’s value—making it easier for them to understand it, remember it, and share it.
Outcomes & Impact
Multi-channel reinforcement made the value unmissable. Blending external messaging with in-product communication helped the users understand:
What the product does
How it helps them
Why it’s worth using regularly
This made a noticeable difference in both acquisition and retention.
Impact on Free Users
Free users were able to grasp the product’s value on their own which translated to:
Higher activation rates
Higher return usage
More users naturally converting to paid
More organic sharing (teachers love sharing tools that work)
The campaigns essentially became their “self-serve onboarding.”
Impact on Paid Users
At the same time, paid users turned into advocates because they experienced:
Better feature discoverability
Increased usage depth
Clearer understanding of ROI
Higher engagement during seasonal or curricular moments
The Organic Growth Flywheel
One of the biggest wins was how consistent messaging created a loop of organic growth:
Campaign communicates clear value
Users understand the value quickly
They share it within their networks
New users arrive already educated
They discover value even faster
The cycle repeats
This flywheel was especially effective because it worked across both free and paid tiers.
What This Approach Solved
The campaigns became a scalable education engine, not just a marketing function because:
Users no longer needed manual onboarding
Campaigns educated users at scale
Product value became easier to articulate—and easier to discover
Marketing aligned with in-product experience
Free users understood what they could achieve
Paid users saw proof of value regularly
The community amplified messaging naturally
Key Takeaways
Consistency really does build trust. When users see the same message everywhere—emails, social posts, the product itself—they start believing it and acting on it.
Clear structure boosts creativity. Ironically, a strong framework makes campaigns feel lighter, not heavier. It frees the team to create instead of constantly aligning.
Organic growth thrives on clarity. When people understand a product easily, they talk about it. They share it. They adopt it faster.
Free and paid users both win. Free users self-onboard and unlock value. Paid users deepen their usage and become advocates.
You don’t need 1:1 onboarding to make value obvious. A good campaign framework can do that at scale.
Why This Framework Works Anywhere
What made this system successful wasn’t that it was tied to EdTech—it’s that it was tied to user psychology. People want clarity. They want to understand what they’re getting. They want to feel supported, not sold to.
Building consistency across channels and touchpoints ensured the product told a coherent story—one that users could remember, trust, and share.
This approach can scale across industries because it’s grounded in timeless marketing principles: clarity, consistency, and customer-centric communication.
Want your product messaging to feel this clear and intentional? I’d love to help — let’s talk.