Articles & Resources About Marketing & Messaging

When I received the noise-jarring, wake-up inducing Amber Alert at 11 p.m. a couple of weeks ago on my smart phone, I’ll admit it: I looked up how to turn it off, and did turn them off.  That was only after I received two more alerts, and I had no idea why I was receiving them (and how much longer I would receive them throughout the night).

Please forgive me—as the mother of two children and someone who had slept poorly the night before, I desperately needed some sleep, otherwise I would have to issue an Amber Alert for my children the next day, as they would have gone missing due to my sleep-deprived status.  Personally, receiving an Amber Alert at 11 p.m. was about as good as reading it in the paper the next day for me.

Of course, I joined the thousands of “heartless” and “unsympathetic” people who cared more about their sleep than a missing child (I did care…however, there’s not much I could have done about it when I was in my bed, thank you very much).  However, my public relations and communications side of me begged this question: “Why didn’t we know ANYTHING about this in advance?”  I considered the thousands of people, like myself, who searched the internet for “How to shut off Amber Alerts on my smartphone” and have kept them off indefinitely, rendering this potentially-effective communication vehicle ineffective.

In reality, this system—IPAWS (Integrated Public Awareness Warning System)—has been around for some time, beginning about 10 years ago.  However, ongoing hiccups, bureaucratic challenges, along with FEMA’s admission that yes, they could do a better job of educating the public about it, has led to ongoing challenges in fully and successfully launching IPAWS.   Article: “Why the government is sending emergency alerts to your smartphone”

Which brings me back to the Amber Alert—and why public outreach and education are critical in launching— and the ongoing success—ANY kind of program:

1)      Educating the public early and often will help your program win fans…and let’s face it: fans are good.  Fans will also help positively promote your program.

2)      Communicating in advance of a launch will ensure that everyone is “on board” for the launch when it does occur…and this also increases the likelihood that your organization’s messaging about the program are front and center.  This also provides your organization the opportunity to address questions and concerns before the launch—versus having the questions and concerns become the central messages about the launch.

3)      Public education and outreach provide people information about the choices they do have regarding your program—versus making them think they have no choices.  In my experience, when people feel like they have limited or no choices, they tend to react negatively, no matter how wonderful your program is.  Case in point—Amber Alerts.  We can all agree that they are an effective and amazing way to inform the public about an abducted child.  However, when people receive a jarring alert on their cell phone—without education, warning or information about their choices to receive (or verify) alerts—some of their first thoughts will be, “Here’s big brother government, forcing me to receive these alerts” or “I didn’t sign up for these!” or “This is nice, but, how do I manage these alerts?”

4)      Timing IS everything:  Look, I know child abductions can occur any time of the day.  But, launching a new alert system at 11 p.m….the worst timing ever.  In fact, had there been a notification alert sent earlier in the day, stating, “The Amber Alert system will begin sending alerts to your cell phone, starting today.  For more information, including how to manage these alerts, please visit www. Amberalert.org” I’m sure this launch would have been received with more positive feedback (and fewer people turning off the alerts) and much more effective outcomes.

So, when developing your organizations plans to launch a new alert system, new program, or changes to an existing program, don’t forget to include a good portion of time for public education and outreach before and during the planning phases, and allow for a significant amount of time prior to launching the program/changes to inform the public.  The success of your program depends on it.

1. Create a parent advocacy group.

Suggestion: Identify involved parents who can speak about your school‘s programs and the positive effect they have had on their student’s education. Encourage these parents to join you on tours, school hosted coffees or to host coffees (or gatherings) in their neighborhoods in order to identify and inform additional parents. Engage them in phone tree activities to follow up on letters sent home. Most importantly, identify and work with cohorts of parents who appreciate your school and have children who are from areas of the district where you need to encourage additional enrollment. Ask parents who have children attending targeted middle schools to arrange a “Talk with the Principal” with prospective students/parents at the middle school they came from. It adds a personal/special touch.

2. Obtain mailing labels for schools targeted for recruitment.

Suggestion: Do a postcard with a tag line that makes the community remember your school listing the tour dates for your school on the back of the card. This quick mailing gives your community an immediate heads-up. Follow up by mailing a letter, signed by the Principal, to each student and their families speaking to reasons why they should consider your school. Students and/or parents can volunteer to stuff envelopes.

3. Engage your local media.

Suggestion: Establish a relationship with your neighborhood association. Incorporate regular articles in their newsletters and with the local area publications. Include tour schedule dates and times. Send articles to the most local Patch news source. Also, use church bulletins to convey information about activities and opportunities at the school.

4. Establish Shadow Days.

Suggestion: Develop a calendar of shadow days with middle school students with targeted elementary school students. At the elementary level, focus on third/fourth graders and early fifth grade students (in the fall). Most fifth grade parents have already made up their mind as to which school their child will be attending by later fall. Work with the individual schools to match students and calendar activities.

Suggestion: Regularly publicize shadow days in your principal letters to your community & homeowner association newsletters. Work with targeted schools to ensure information is included in their publications and/or daily announcements.

5. Develop school information packets.

Suggestion: Develop and distribute a packet that includes a brochure (or flyer) of your school that provides school highlights in a very user-friendly manner. Make sure it includes your website URL. Possibly list names and phone numbers of parents that would be willing to field calls from perspective parents.

Suggestion: Make sure these information flyers are in the hands of realtors, neighborhood associations, and others that are in a position to promote your school. Also, make sure to carry over any new messaging (and photos) used in these materials to your website content.

Content ideas: Interview or have your teachers, parents and students bullet things they think make your school special. Direct quotes from parents, students and teachers make a significant statement about your school. Take pictures of students engaging in the learning activities and programs you want to promote—a picture is worth more than 1,000 words!

6. Cooperate with your feeder schools to use your district’s parent database from target/feeder schools to remind parents of tour dates and recruitment activities, and hold information/recruitment community meetings with representation from all feeder schools.

Suggestion: Have a meeting with (or at) all schools represented, involve your council member, board member, administration, parent and student groups. Invite 5th grade parents from the neighborhood, especially targeting those you might know to be moving to private schools.

7. Update your school’s website with current programs, tour dates and times, and other recruitment information.

Suggestion: Content is everything! While slick and savvy websites are undoubtedly eye-catching, well-written and organized content with easy-to-follow links to other information and catchy photos are extremely valuable, and can provide the information that people are seeking.

8. In your school/parent/community presentations, include students and/or parents who can speak to the positive experiences they’ve had in your schools.

Suggestion: Focus your conversations around student achievement (and don’t just talk about test scores—talk about the ways in which your school works with students to help them achieve, student support services, extra-curricular activities, parent/community support groups, etc.). Make sure your campus is clean. Follow up your tours with phone calls and/or written correspondence. This can be even more effective if you have neighborhood school “cluster meetings” with community organizations.

9. Involve your local city councilmember/elected officials in marketing your school.

Suggestion: Have your school site council, or other established parent group, invite your councilperson to a school/community meeting to offer their viewpoints and ideas for supporting you in marketing the successes of your school.

10. Create a student-organized school “Marketing Club.”

Suggestion: Creative entrepreneurship is a valued skill in today’s workplace. Providing students the opportunity to “brainstorm,” develop and implement marketing strategies for your school can be a great way to engage students in the process, while also providing them valuable, hands-on learning experiences.

11. Ensure that everyone is involved with marketing your school.

Suggestion: Work with your staff to understand the importance of projecting that they are part of a positive and focused school culture and environment. Provide them a brief, one-page “talking points” document that highlights the key information that you would like to have all staff share in a consistent manner. A parent’s first point of contact, along with the enthusiasm of staff and students, plays a critical role in making a decision about your school.

12. Develop marketing materials specifically targeting parents and students.

Suggestion:

Parent marketing materials should include:

•    Description of your school’s product and model-in other words, your mission statement, what is special about your school and your school’s approach to student success
•    Support and transition opportunities for parents and students
•    Testimonials from current parents
•    Photos showing the best of student experiences at your school

Student marketing materials should include:

•    Flyer with information about electives and programs, photos showing the best of student experiences at your school, and student testimonials
•    Promotional items: Practical items with school logos or slogans that students would use every day (i.e., pens, pencils, note pads, etc.).

Need help devising a long-range marketing and communication strategic plan?  Contact us regarding our strategic planning services.

We give credit where credit is due!  Some of these ideas were inspired by San Jose Unified School District’s 21 Point Marketing Plan, developed by now-retired Communications Director and fellow California School Public Relations Association member Karen Fuqua.

 

A few years ago, I was invited to speak to middle school students about careers in marketing and public relations.  I was trying to figure out a way to explain marketing in terms that they would understand, and bingo…a party came to mind.  I took the students through the process of how they would tell other people about the party, and essentially taught them the marketing mix (product, price, place and promotion), as well as some basics of public relations (“What if the neighbors had a problem with the party?”  “What if someone got hurt at the party?”  “What if you needed more people to support having the party?”).

I was reminded of this analogy when I had the recent opportunity to conduct a Communication Audit for a school client as part of their Three Year Marketing & Communication Plan.  This client is challenged with negative public perception problems, along with impending direct competition from a charter school that will be opening its doors this fall right in their neighborhood.  Added to this challenge was the fact that the school has a very attractive program of choice commencing in the fall, and little had been done to promote it.  However, after talking with their administrators and stakeholders, a few things became very, very clear to me:

1)      The positive things happening at their school GREATLY outweigh their challenges.

2)      The school has a much higher number of collaborators and supporters than they do competitors.

3)      The school had greatly neglected is communication and marketing to its external stakeholders—as well as their internal ones (central office, school board, feeder school parents, teachers and administrators).

4)      The school was doing nothing to celebrate their students’ or schools’ achievements in visible ways on campus.

In other words—this school has an AMAZING party going on, and only a few people know about it!  And, guess what?  No one’s complaining about their loud music, either.

I can’t emphasize enough the importance of relationships—relationships with both internal and external audience members.  There’s little that this school can do between now and the fall to pull back parents who have already decided to send their children to the new charter school (or other charter or private schools).  Undoing relationship neglect does take time and effort.  However, this school can begin changing its marketing and communication approaches in simple, inexpensive and quick ways to both begin nurturing their relationships and to reduce the flight of their students to other schools.  All it takes is the willingness, some time and effort.

I realize that schedules get busy—no, make that overwhelming—and marketing, PR and communications gets put on the back burner for “the time we really need it.”  But, what if the time you “really need it” is close to “too late”?  Relationship maintenance is a strategic, proactive and ongoing process.

I have created some other blog entries on relationship management, as well as some tips on marketing schools—if you’re in a different industry, these tips can also be used for your relationship management and marketing.

No one will come to your party…unless they’re invited!  And, unless people know about your party—they won’t tell other people about it.

If you need resources or assistance with starting or maintaining any step in the communication process, Sounding Board can provide you the resources you need.  Contact us if you need assistance!

It is my pleasure to kick off Sounding Board’s guest blogs!  I love to share the advice and expertise from other marketing experts who want to help organizations like yours advance their goals through strategic, integrated marketing, communications, and public relations.

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