Marketing Analysis of India’s No.1 Edtech Platform: BYJU’S

What is BYJU’s?

BYJU’s is India’s $11.1 Billion ed-tech giant that provides a platform for the teachers to teach and the students to learn. This ed-tech was created by BYJU Raveendran and developed in 2011 by Think and Learn Pvt. Ltd. This amazing platform has provided the opportunity to learn from the best teachers to over 50 millions students from all over the nation. The leading digital marketing company in India found that just in the month of March and April, 13.5 million users joined the platform to gain knowledge during the pandemic.

Growth of BYJU’s throughout its journey:

2012: Honoured in Deloitte Technology Fast 50 India and also, Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific.

2015: Launched the learning revolution of India – BYJU’S App.

2016: Awarded by Google Play India as the ‘Best Self-Development App’.

2017: Created an online panel for the parents to track their child’s progress and BYJU’s Math App for kids.

2018: 15 million registered users out of which, 900,000 were paid subscribers.

2019: Recognized as the world’s most valuable ed-tech company.

2020: Earned Rs 2800 cr in Revenue

2020: Witnessed the busiest three months due to the impact of COVID-19

BYJU’s Target Audience:

Being an edu-tech company, BYJU’s target audience consists of every student/learner from grade one to students trying to crack entrance exams such as JEE, CAT, IAS or any other. The best digital marketing company in India understands that this is a great strategy considering the Indian education industry which includes over 260 million students in K-12 and more than 35 million students studying for their higher education.

BYJU’s Tap into Student’s Behaviour with Amazon:

The Chief Technology Officer, Prakash Ramachandran mentioned “When we started the company, we did not have an analytics-processing layer, so it was very difficult to get good analytics about how students use the website and mobile app.”

Amazon Web Services helped BYJU’s in gaining deeper analysis of the students’ choices and preferences while using the app which enabled the BYJU’s team to provide a unique and customized learning experience to the students. CTO later added “We have a robust analytical tool, Amazon RedShift, that helps us collect user data, so we can more effectively personalize every student’s learning journey and provide customized feedback and in-depth analysis.”

BYJU’s Revenue Model:

BYJU’s operates as a Freemium business model where a lot of their services are offered for free but to gain access to the further content, users have to opt for a paid subscription.

According to a report, in the fiscal year of 2019, BYJU’s revenue was recorded to a whooping Rs 1,341 crores and a profit of Rs 20 crores. The top digital agency mentions that this unbelievable success is the result of the increase in the number of its paid subscribers and full-throttle marketing efforts.

BYJU’s Funding Spree:

Since the launch in 2011, this edtech leader has raised over a billion dollars for multiple investors including Tencent Holdings Ltd., Naspers Ltd., Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Sequoia Capital India, Lightspeed India Partners, and General Atlantic.

Since the beginning of year 2020, BYJU’s has been raising funds and in the current round, the company has successfully received $500 million from the investors.

BYJU’S Marketing Journey:

The marketing journey of India’s No 1 Edtech brand has been a rollercoaster with many successful marketing campaigns gaining a prodigious amount of business for BYJU’S and even some failed campaigns which have some important learning for every marketer.

BYJU’S goes Feet-on-Street:

In 2018, the company planned an on-street approach to reach out to individual potential customers in the small cities. The idea was traditional and very simple, with a strong team of 1000 employees, BYJU’S planned to visit home-to-home and pitch-in their product to the customer. The top digital marketing company in India finds it to be an unusual approach, especially by an internet based company, which in most scenarios depend on the online platforms to drive sales while tapping into the customer’s data. This campaign began from the streets of Bengaluru and later extended to the cities of Hubballi, Dharwad and Mysore in Karnataka. BYJU’S executives were successful in generating upto 50% conversions through these counselling sessions.

According to the digital agency in India, any marketing strategy is always based around the behaviour of the targeted audience, but interestingly, BYJU’s has to create its marketing plan to win the hearts of two completely different sets of audiences: ‘Students and Parents’. This is because the students are the ones who will be eventually engaging with the platform and parents will be the ones paying for the subscription. Hence, the marketing journey for the brand has been an inspirational one, which made its way to the top. Let’s dig into how BYJU’s successfully cracked its audience and garnered a huge subscription base.

Understanding the Target Audience:

It is a real challenge for one marketing campaign to target two really different audiences of a different age group and thinking process, but BYJU’s surely managed to find that link which drives decision-making among its audience. Here is how the company did/does it:

Targeting the Student Community:

Being the actual users of the platform, the students are majorly concerned about the experience they will receive. Hence, their opinion about the app is hugely impacted by their learning journey with the app. To earn the support of the learners, BYJU’s left no stones unturned, and targeted this audience group very smartly. Firstly, the company came up with an early learning app for the students. Also, partnered with Disney to make the learning experience more interactive for the kids and created trademark Disney stories, educational games and digital worksheets which led their path to success amongst the students.

BYJU’s also worked with the King of Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan, as their brand ambassador which attracted this age group to their platform. Their television advertisements began with their first ad with Shah Rukh Khan that aired during a India-Pak match and it turned out to be a real success and prompted the audience to download BYJU’s app.