Gamifying Education with Interactive Learning | Kari Johnson from Boom Learning

Ernesto Quezada: Pathmonk is the intelligent tool for website lead generation. With increasing online competition, over 98% of website visitors don’t convert. The ability to successfully show your value proposition and support visitors in their buying journey separates you from the competition online. Pathmonk qualifies and converts leads on your website by figuring out where they are in the buying journey and influencing them in key decision moments. With relevant micro-experiences like case studies, intro videos, and much more, stay relevant to your visitors and increase conversions by 50%. Add Pathmonk to your website in seconds. Let the AI do all the work and get access to 50% more qualified leads while you keep doing marketing and sales as usual. Check us on pathmonk.com. Welcome to today’s episode. Let’s talk about today’s guest. We have Kari from Boom Learning, marketing director with them. How are you doing today, Kari?

Kari Johnson: Hi. It’s great to be here. I’m doing well.

Ernesto: It’s great to have you on today’s episode. And I’m sure our listeners are tuning in wondering what Boom Learning is all about. So, let’s kick it off with that. Kari, in your own words, can you tell us a little bit more?

Kari: Absolutely. So our company, Boom Learning, invented the product Boom Cards. And what Boom Cards do is they’re interactive gaming units that can be played within a platform that delivers rich data. Teachers can assign Boom Cards to their students, and then they can do live monitoring and dig deep into the data to see how those students performed on the activities. For a student, it just feels like games.

Ernesto: Perfect. Great. And that’s such a great way of tackling that. So our listeners tuning in could get a good understanding. What would you say is the key problem that you solve for clients?

Kari: We serve a whole bunch of different types of users, from teachers to parents to administrators and students. But I would say the problem we’re mainly solving is that it can be really hard when you’re doing repetitive practice activities for education to make it engaging and fun. By creating interactive games that involve the ability to draw, drag and drop, fill in the blank, and even chain images—like little mini animations—we put the tools in the hands of teachers so they can create the most engaging content for their students. All of our games are made by real teachers, educators, tutors, and specialists like speech-language pathologists.

Ernesto: Interesting. Is there a vertical niche segment that you focus on?

Kari: Yeah, we actually have a bunch of different personas we focus on. From a marketing perspective, one that’s unique to our business is publishers. They’re a vertical of our business—teachers who need a little extra side income. They create games using their favorite worksheets and materials from their educational experiences and sell them to others. They make 85% of the profits, and Boom Learning takes 15%. We also serve administrators looking for solutions for a whole school or district. We’re rolling out a new product in July called Boom Passport, a content subscription model giving schools access to over 40,000 games and activities created by over 120 educators.

Ernesto: Wow, that’s huge. How would someone typically find out about Boom Learning? Is there a top client acquisition channel you rely on?

Kari: Word of mouth has been massive for us. Over the past few years, teachers struggling to find tools for remote learning discovered us and shared our product with peers. User-generated content and social media are huge sources of leads. Educators hear about us, sign up for a free account, and we nudge them through micro-experiences like assigning a deck of Boom Cards to their students or creating a classroom.

Ernesto: Great. For our listeners, you can check them out at info.boomlearning.com. What role does the website play for client acquisition?

Kari: Info.boomlearning.com educates customers about the product. It’s where we direct advertising traffic and create landing pages for specific personas. Meanwhile, wow.boomlearning.com is our app, where users sign up and start creating educational content.

Ernesto: Perfect. What tools, tips, or methods would you recommend for lead generation?

Kari: Content is king. We create publisher profiles, homeschooling strategies, and more to bring people into our ecosystem. Another strategy is building an army of superfans—great customer service has helped us create product champions. We also have a premier publishers program, where vetted publishers are given a badge and elevated in search, helping both them and us gain visibility.

Ernesto: Great recommendations. Kari, as marketing director, what are some key tasks you focus on daily?

Kari: Delegating. We’re a small team serving over 12 million students and 2 million teachers, so I can’t do everything myself. Most of my day is spent thinking about what customers need next and working across our team to deliver those solutions.

Ernesto: That’s awesome. Delegating is tough but rewarding. Let’s jump into our rapid-fire round. You ready?

Kari: Ooh, I’m nervous. Go ahead.

Ernesto: Not too hard. First, what’s the last book you read?

Kari: A coffee table book on branding.

Ernesto: Great read. What’s one thing your company is focused on most?

Kari: Intentional cannibalization. We’re working to make it easier for teachers to get their schools to pay for their accounts, rolling individual accounts into larger school accounts.

Ernesto: If there were no boundaries in technology, what would you want to fix in your role as a marketer?

Kari: I’d never fully automate writing or customer interaction. Both keep me in touch with our audience.

Ernesto: Lastly, what advice would you give your younger self?

Kari: Learn to code earlier. Siloing creative and technical is a mistake. Stay curious and keep learning.

Ernesto: Fantastic advice. Thank you so much for being on the show, Kari.

Kari: Thank you!

Ernesto: To our listeners, check out info.boomlearning.com. Transform your classroom with interactive games. See you in the next episode of Pathmonk Presents!