Most educational publishers rely heavily on direct mail in order to promote and sell their products and services to educators. These promotions run the gamut of a full catalog of all the products in a company's product line to postcards announcing special offers or new information available on a company's web site. With more than 4.4 million educators at 108,000 school buildings and 16,000 districts, no company can afford to cover this entire market with one or more mailings. All of these companies have complete databases of the education market with a myriad of demographics attached to each school and district. These companies also have a database of teachers and administrators and information about what they teach or their main job function.
Some companies also offer lists of teachers who have purchased something from another company.
My recommendation is to start with your own customer database. By understanding your current market, you can easily expand into selling your prospect market. The key is to understand that your best prospects are those schools that mirror the characteristics of your current customers. All three of these companies offer a service that profiles your customers against the entire education market. Depending on your specific product line and the market limitations or requirements of your company, these reports can all be tailored to examine specific demographics.