These 12 points below will give you an insight into some of the most frequently asked for additions to resources and other useful bits of information that you can use to help improve your buyers’ experience, appeal to new buyers and give you that competitive edge.
1: Answers
This is one of the most requested additions to resources. Where possible, provide answers to the questions you are asking in your resources or a mark scheme to make it easy to assess and give effective feedback on written tasks – having an answer sheet or mark scheme available makes all the time saving difference.
2: Editable versions
We regularly see requests come through from users asking for editable versions of resources, or looking for similar resources that allows editing.
As you will all understand, teachers work hard to tailor their lessons to meet the learning needs of the students in their classes, and that individual teaching styles can vary. It’s important that a teacher is able to feel confident going into their lesson with the material that they have, so this may mean that they have to make slight tweaks to the resources to get the most out of them.
3: Working external links
We know that this is a difficult one! Relying on external sites is often a necessary part of resource creation but it does lead to problematic content if the links change or content is removed from the other site.
There is no easy fix to this one, the only sure-fire way to make sure that links aren’t broken is to regularly manually check them which, we understand, becomes difficult with higher volumes of content. Try creating a spreadsheet of all links used and which resources they are in so regular checks become easier to complete. It would also be worthwhile to include a description of any links used so that your customers can look for their own replacement.
Where broken links are reported to Tes, we will contact you – try to deal with these swiftly (and let us know) to ensure a high level of service – you have a customer waiting!
4: High-quality product descriptions
A great description is beneficial for both you and the buyer. It gives a buyer the confidence to make that decision to purchase knowing that it is a well-informed decision. Done well, a well written product description can boost your SEO and give you the opportunity to cross sell other content in your Tes listings.
Consider what you would want to know when writing your description – this is a great starting point. We've listed the top five key pieces of information that our users want to see more of alongside the expected clear title and previews, and don’t forget to check our recent SEO blog that has a great example of a product description.
- What’s included (Lesson slides, handouts, teacher notes, answer pages)
- Time required to teach
- Additional material required (in particular, details of textbooks)
- Links to complementary resources (your opportunity to cross sell)
- Details of where it meets National Curriculum or exam board specifications
5: Alternative file formats
It’s important to remember that not all schools have the same software that you do. This means that we get a stream of requests coming in to ask for a file in a different format. You can get ahead of this and widen your market by uploading your resource in multiple formats where possible. This can all be done within one resource upload (you do not need to create multiple individual resources with the different file formats).
SMART Notebook and Flipchart are some of the more common file formats where we see requests for alternatives; try uploading a version in PDF format, PowerPoint or Keynote. It may lose some of the functionality available in the original format, but you will make this more accessible for a larger number of users.
From the users that come through to us, most tend to use Microsoft. Apple or Google software as their main programs so it’s useful to cater to these where possible.
While we do show the file format on the resource page, it is beneficial to also add this to your description and let your audience know!
6: Teacher notes/guidance
We get all kinds of teachers coming to Tes for help with their lessons – it's important to try and cater for everyone. Teacher notes and guidance can be particularly helpful to new teachers, or cover teachers who aren’t subject specialists.
You are the expert when it comes to the content you have created so, being able to provide your audience some detail on how to use the resource most effectively, and where you can, helpful hints and tips on how you delivered the lesson will ensure that they are able to get the most out of your content, match them to their classes and the learning objectives in their curriculum planning.
7: Differentiation
As you’ll know from being in the classroom yourselves, students learn in different ways. Being the expert in your own resources, it is a great help for your audience if you can make sure that they are fully equipped to deliver the lesson to meet the needs of every student.
Providing differentiated activities, or suggestions on how to adapt their teaching to provide fully for different learning needs and abilities, can save teachers valuable time and help them deliver effective and engaging lessons.
Without trying to sound too cheesy here, the student is at the heart of every lesson so being able to provide a resource that helps each student learn in a way most suitable for them will make a difference!
8: Bundles
This is not a new one, but it is an important one!
We often talk about bundles in a way that explains why it will increase your profits rather than from the perspective of the teacher however, bundles are highly sought after by a buyer for a number of reasons.
Obviously the first is price. When you bundle things together and users are buying more, you will tend to reward that loyalty with a discount as a thank you. This will mean that a buyer is getting more value for their money.
Most importantly though, bundles are a great way to get everything you need together in one place and to make teachers' lives easier. Every author works their bundles differently; you may choose to bundle together a lesson comprised of different parts – a lesson plan, a PowerPoint presentation, worksheets and assessment whereas others may choose to include these all together as one resource and sell a bundle containing lessons for a full term.
Whichever way you choose to do this means that the user will benefit from consistency; this is important for both the look and feel of the presentation and the flow of information; be that ensuring that lessons are recapping from the previous or that the worksheets cover what has been taught on the presentation. This is key for success in the classroom!
9: Colour and B&W Versions
Yet another common request from your customers is for both colour and black and white versions of printables. This may seem like a basic one but can be a huge time saver for your buyers. Colour versions great for making something look good but you’ll know from your own experiences of working in schools, the budget isn’t always there to be printing out swathes of material in colour.
While any document can be printed in black and white, depending on colours used, printing a colour document in black and white may result in 50 (PG rated!) shades of grey and make different sections difficult to read. Obviously where a document is editable, the user can make amendments themselves – this is where time saving comes in if you are able to provide a version for them.
We know it can be time consuming to provide different versions of the same content. If you are not able to do this, it can help to simply be aware of the colours that you use and consider how they would print black and white so that your original document is optimised for this.
10: Correct spelling and grammar
"You better watch out, you better be wise, spell check is something you should prioritise" (I can’t take credit for this – one of the ladies that creates the content blogs that came up with this one!)
It seems almost too basic to mention but this is often the cause of dissatisfaction from teachers purchasing and downloading content. Proof reading and running a quick spelling and grammar check prior to posting your content will improve user satisfaction and increase trust in you as a content creator.
Remember that we are a global company, and your audience is worldwide so you will find that some spellings vary. You may want to mention this in your descriptions along with the editability of the document; this will help a user to be fully informed prior to purchasing and could stop requests for amendments being sent to you.
11: Value for money
Pricing can be a touchy subject and something that not everybody likes to talk about. Some of the most common reasons for negative reviews being left is that the buyer expected more for their money.
As we’ve said in our pricing blog, there is no magic answer for setting your prices right. A buyer's perception of value is based on what they have purchased previously from yourself or other users, and their expectation based on what is listed in the description and what they can see in previews.
A few things to consider when pricing:
- Think about what you would be willing to pay for a similar resource. Be objective, it’s easy to see the value in your own work.
- Consider your competitors and your offering in comparison. Is it like for like? Are they offering more or less than you?
- Be willing to listen to feedback and make appropriate changes to either the content or the price. You can amend your prices at any time.
- Use free content as part of your sales strategy to demonstrate the quality of your content – people are more likely to buy when they know what they’re expecting.
12: Up to date/Relevant content
There’s quite a bit of information in this one so please bear with!
Content that is out of date or no longer relevant often leads to a refund. This is because it isn’t necessarily something that you can quickly resolve. There are two key areas where we tend to see reports of out of date/irrelevant content, so I’ll separate them out for ease.
Event based resources: Event based content can very quickly go out of date, often due to the emerging nature of events. Users want fresh content in line with the current world. Perhaps consider whether the content needs to be removed entirely or, if teachers can still make use of it, can it be amended to reflect the current situation?
A great example of this would be content made about the Covid-19 pandemic; it will still have educational value, but can you make amendments to bring it up to date with the current situation?
Curriculum/Exam board aligned content: While this does not change as often, it is important to ensure that your content is appropriately aligned, or that your description clearly states what year or specification it is aligned to. Users have reported missing parts of new specifications, and now irrelevant parts from old specifications as they have not been updated since changes were made.
As a content creator, consider the impact of out-of-date content on how a teacher perceives your shop. If the content is no longer relevant and you are not making changes to ensure its relevance, you can delete it. A common misconception from authors is that deleting content will delete any positive reviews the resource has gained; please be assured that these reviews are not removed from your overall shop rating.