School Marketing Necessities - First impressions very much count!

Two critical areas necessary as first points of contact are based around initial contact with the school, as well as the basic resources used in all your marketing campaigns. When parents, prospective parents and others in the community see or hear someone or some visual / audio associated with the school an impression is made.

Make it a good one!

Often you have very little time to make an impact here! Therefore whatever the impact is needs to be very good.

Images and people associated with the 'front' of the school are critical. From the phone answering style to your front page of the website, nothing should be left to chance. Just as important are the images and voices / sounds used in your marketing!

Spend considerable time preparing for, selecting and presenting these resources.

Photos and videos / DVDs speak a thousand words! As do the voices used in any production or reply from the school. This chapter will walk you through various key areas and with simple to use suggestions propose ways you might like to aim for success.

Chapter Sub-Headings from School Marketing e-Handbook: Easy to Use Guide to Market YOur School

Powerful Stakeholders
Photos
Videoing
Marketing Resources
Front Office and Office Staff
Telephone
Website
Email

School Marketing Necessities written by Bryan Foster

Bryan Foster, author of School Marketing e-Handbook: Easy to Use Guide to Market Your School, and the SMA School Marketing website, has been marketing Catholic schools for almost 20 years in city and country, elementary / primary and high schools. Bryan is a school marketing innovator and has been since being the first school marketing manager on the Gold Coast in the early 1990's.

A highly ethical approach to school marketing, and passion for marketing the Catholic school, was formed as a result of his extensive Religious Education teaching and leadership experience.




School Marketing Experience

Bryan is the School Marketing Manager at Aquinas College, a Catholic secondary co-educational college on the Gold Coast in Queensland, in what is arguably the most difficult school marketing region in Australia, since 1994. He is also the school’s Assistant Principal Religious Education.

As a primary school principal of two schools, Bryan Foster was heavily involved in marketing both schools.


Featured in a Sydney CEO publication

Bryan Foster is featured in 'Super Marketing Your School', by Ted Myers, Head of Promotions and Publications at Sydney Catholic Education Office . This case study highlighted the progress, at Bryan's school, Aquinas College, Southport, Australia, of their school marketing plan and successes.

From spectacular beginnings Bryan developed the highly successful school marketing plans, strategies and methods for today's world. 

Topics covered by Ted Myers about Bryan's marketing experience at Aquinas included: Building Relaionships with the Media, Promotional Philosophy and Key Promotional Strategies. The key strategies were: Developing a close working relationship with the media; Developing stronger feeder school releationships; Professionally-produced publications and Co-operating with other Catholic schools.

Developing these strategies and more for the school marketing world of today is a primary aim for Bryan Foster. His school marketing e-handbook... explains these in easy to read, step-by-step procedures.


Educational Experience and Qualifications

Bryan Foster has taught for 30 years in Catholic schools from Years 1 to 12. He has held various senior and middle management positions: a primary school Principal in two schools, APRE in secondary school and Years 9, 11 and 12 Coordinator.

He holds a Master of Education degree from the Australian Catholic University in Sydney, a Bachelor of Education degree, a Graduate Diploma in Religious Education and Diploma of Teaching from McAuley Teachers College in Brisbane, along with a Diploma of Religious Education from the Institute of Faith Education.

Bryan has assisted many school marketing coordinators. He is considered highly by Brisbane Catholic Education and throughout the years has assisted their school marketing personnel.


Family

Bryan lives on the Gold Coast, Australia, with his family. His wife, eldest daughter and son all teach in Catholic primary schools, while his younger daughter attends a Catholic secondary school.

School Marketing e-Handbook: Easy to Use Guide to Market Your School by Bryan Foster

‘Staged’ Events for school marketing.

A number of events may be 'staged' for optimum media / marketing coverage throughout the year.

These events would most often be normal school events which would be heavily marketed, with a primary marketing aim of gaining some media coverage. The desired media involvement would be free coverage gained as a result of media releases and / or phone calls to key media people.

The main staged event for most schools is the Open Day.

Two other events, which have been found to be very successful at Aquinas College, were a special Phone-a-thon and a unique Liturgy.

The Phone-a-thon was set up with the local television station and went live to air during and after the local news and weather segments. The purpose was to track down past students from the College for an upcoming major school anniversary. The setting was a small room with a number of key people, including the Principal, a past Principal, staff member, student and Sschool Marketing Manager - all with telephones. The School Marketing Manager asked people to ring in details and also had a little 'chat' about the event with the host. The whole promotion went very well and was free of charge.

The Easter Liturgy is still covered yearly by the local television station and major newspaper. Its significance is its size, number of students in costume or otherwise involved, scenes and props used throughout the school campus and local church, and vision of whole school being involved with each new station of the cross.

Either the Principal, students or School Marketing Manager are interviewed by various media outlets each year.

Other events could be:

 the Night of Excellence / Awards Night
 a sports grand final game eg Firsts
 school musical
 a past students‟ event
 the school‟s feast day
 graduation day
 school formal.

The event, or aspects / moments within it, should be as unique as possible to gain media attention. The staged event then becomes the focus of a marketing campaign.

Written by Bryan Foster author. This is an extract from the section "'Staged Events'" in the 'School Marketing and the Media' chapter in School Marketing e-Handbook: Easy to Use Guide to Market Your School

When School Marketers experience the Difficult Media Situation comment to the media truthfully.

You do not need to give all the details but offer what is needed for the media enquiry allowing for privacy and ethical considerations.

This may be just a simple, “Thankyou for the enquiry. We will get back to you shortly.”

If the school decides to act on the request itself there are a number of approaches which should benefit the school:

 Be available for an interview in person or over the phone.

 Be positive and in control during the interview

 Appearance is important eg appropriate demeanour, dress, stance

 Control the backdrop for television or newspaper photo to get the positive visual message out that you want

 Answer all questions, but turn the answer to what you want to emphasise

 Having 3-4 key points is a good approach

 State the obvious, such as:
o no one was hurt, or unfortunately some people were injured
o damage to the property was significant or minimal
o the most important thing is that no-one was hurt, only property damage occurred and that this will be repaired as soon as possible or
o unfortunately some people were hurt and the school is currently doing everything possible for those people eg ambulance was called immediately, there will be ongoing medical assistance, school counsellor involved for those directly affected and others at school, other counsellors are coming from sister schools, etc.
o the school / principal is sorry that this unfortunate event occurred, all procedures have been followed and that everything possible will be done to ensure that this won‟t happen again. If updating procedures is necessary then this will be done immediately.

Follow-up

Be available to keep the media updated as the situation changes or developments are made.

Written by Bryan Foster author. This is an extract from the section 'The Difficult Media Situation' in the 'School Marketing and the Media' chapter in School Marketing e-Handbook: Easy to Use Guide to Market Your School