How to sell to IT Directors at Education companies
IT Directors in education prioritize system uptime and data security, measured by incident response time. They respond to outreach when it clearly addresses their pain points, such as outdated infrastructure or compliance with educational regulations. Demonstrating a deep understanding of their technology landscape and the specific challenges of integrating new edtech solutions can prompt engagement.
Written and maintained by the SoloRiff team, who build outbound software and run outbound with it. The figures below are our own: we measured 554 education company domains over public DNS on 2026-09-03. Last updated 2026-09-03.
What actually hurts
- outdated infrastructure
- data security concerns
- budget constraints
- integration challenges
The playbook
- 01
Identify recent data breaches in education
Search for news articles or reports about recent data breaches affecting educational institutions. Use Google News or industry-specific publications. This will help you pinpoint IT Directors who may be under pressure to enhance their cybersecurity measures.
- 02
Target institutions upgrading their LMS
Filter your list for educational institutions that have announced plans to upgrade or replace their Learning Management Systems. Use press releases or LinkedIn updates to identify these organizations, as they may be more open to discussing new solutions.
- 03
Highlight compliance needs in your outreach
Craft your outreach to emphasize how your solution can help with compliance issues, such as FERPA or GDPR. IT Directors are often concerned about legal ramifications, so addressing these directly will resonate with their priorities.
- 04
Follow up after major education conferences
Schedule follow-ups after major education technology conferences or webinars. Many IT Directors attend these events and may be more receptive to new ideas or solutions shortly after they return to the office.
- 05
Engage with their technology roadmap
Research and reference the specific technology initiatives outlined in their strategic planning documents or public statements. Mentioning their roadmap will show that you understand their long-term goals and are not just offering a generic solution.
Can education companies even receive your mail?
We measured the DNS of 554 education companies, sampled evenly across company sizes, to see how many authenticate their own email. It matters in both directions: a domain that does not authenticate is a domain whose team is used to mail going missing — and if your own domain is in the gap, yours is the mail going missing.
Publishes a DMARC policy of quarantine or reject — the domain actually asks receivers to act on failures.
The gap is the finding: 16.3% of 1–10-person companies against 80.2% of the largest — 64 points apart. Small companies are where the unauthenticated domains are, and small companies are who most cold outreach is aimed at.
Where does your domain sit?
Same three lookups, run live against your domain. Nothing is stored and nothing is emailed to you.
How this was measured
Company domains were sampled within employee-count bands, then queried over public DNS for SPF (TXT at the apex), DMARC (TXT at _dmarc.) and MX. One domain per company, deduplicated. Anyone can reproduce any single row of this with dig.
DKIM is deliberately absent. A DKIM key lives under a selector that cannot be enumerated from outside the domain, so a company with flawless DKIM under a name we did not guess would be counted as having none. That would measure our guess list, not the industry.
Domains with no MX record are excluded rather than counted as failures — parked and redirect-only domains would otherwise drag every figure down and make the result an artefact of the sample.
Sampled within bands, so this describes the population of companies, not of employees: a 10-person company counts once, as does a 10,000-person one. Each band is at least 60 domains; bands below that are not published. Figures are percentages of the sample, not of the whole industry, and we publish no company names — only counts.
Measured 2026-09-03. Re-measured monthly.
The full census across every industry — sortable, with sample sizes, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0.
Subject lines that fit
- Addressing your data security needs
- Upgrading your learning management system
- Support for your IT compliance efforts
Questions
- Why do IT Directors in education ignore outreach about new software?
- IT Directors may ignore outreach if it doesn't clearly align with their immediate priorities, such as compliance or security. If the message lacks specific relevance to their ongoing projects or challenges, it may be dismissed as irrelevant.
- What common objections do IT Directors have to new technology?
- Common objections include concerns about budget constraints, integration with existing systems, and the potential disruption to ongoing operations. IT Directors are often risk-averse and need to see clear benefits before considering new solutions.
- How can I demonstrate value to an IT Director in education?
- Demonstrate value by showcasing case studies or testimonials from similar educational institutions. Highlighting successful implementations and quantifiable outcomes can help build trust and credibility with IT Directors.
- What role does compliance play in IT Directors' decision-making?
- Compliance is a critical factor for IT Directors as they navigate regulations like FERPA and GDPR. They need solutions that not only enhance performance but also ensure that their institutions remain compliant with legal requirements.
Or have it run itself
SoloRiff does every step above on its own — finds the companies, finds the people, writes each of them individually, and handles the replies. Drop your URL and watch it work before you sign up for anything.
Try it on your site