A Special White Paper by
Tom Borg, MS; Keith B. Elliott, RA, CSI; and Katherine Pinard ©2015
In Part II of this paper we continue to discuss how American public school districts continue to be hit hard by cutbacks from state and regional funding. Most districts immediately look for areas where funding and staffing may be cut to reduce overall expenditures. This is the first logical step with any budget, but when the proposed reductions get to the point of cutting so deeply that curriculum variety, quality and class sizes will suffer, it may be time to create a flexible and unique strategy for the development of new funding opportunities to help offset the future reduction strategies.
We recommended that the first step that administrators, teachers and school boards need to embrace is to change the way they think. Once that is accomplished all things are possible. The simplicity of that statement is intentional; the actual process takes time! We presented concepts and structured guidelines on how to create and use Action Groups, composed of representatives from teachers, administrators, transportation and food service personnel, as well as other pertinent groups that represent stake holders in any part of the school district team.
In this section of the white paper we would like to discuss how you can leverage the opportunities that exist when the action group process is applied to marketing your school district. This means marketing not only to the present client base of students, parents and community members, but also to potential students and parents who are not yet part of your school district.
Today, it is a necessity, that public schools develop an effective marketing plan that promotes their school district in a positive and proactive light. With one recent public school client we were able to assist them in creating and facilitating an ongoing Marketing Action Group that continues to produce impressive results. One key factor for this team’s success was the recruitment of representatives, from all pertinent sectors, who could amplify its success. A representative from the school board, administration, teachers, business community and other entities came together to form a powerful and action oriented group that gained impressive marketing results.
The reason for this success stems from a team process, where participants are empowered to contribute their own broad range of ideas to a consolidated, stake holder based marketing approach that is sponsored by the Action Group, and then rolled out to the rest of the district. Remember from Part 1 of this paper, “People don’t argue with their own data.” When they can contribute their own ideas, they usually support them.
Direct advertising by school districts continues to rise in the formats of direct mail, newspaper ads, radio and cable television spots, and more recently, lawn signs. Individual schools, as well as entire districts, commit to promoting themselves as the school of choice over their nearby competitors. The unfortunate mistake being made is these school districts advertise to the universe and other school districts and not to their established base of students and parents. We all need to be aware that current market research suggests that it costs six times more to attract new clients than to satisfy and keep present client base (students and parents). It makes sense to invest the majority of the dollars spent on advertising, on services that exceed the expectations of the present student and parent base.
If a school district effectively services the currently enrolled client base of students and parents in a caring and professionally flexible culture, most parents would not consider moving their children to another school district, private school or homeschooling environment.
Barring the inevitable moves away from the area due to the parent’s employment challenges, the school district needs to commit to retaining current students and parents support for the entire thirteen years of schooling.
In the past, many school districts actually have engaged in some form of marketing, however subtle. Unfortunately, these commonly disjointed efforts have lacked an organized or centrally coordinated plan. The soccer team solicits for donations for its athletes, the high school band promotes its’ spring concert to a certain audience, and the following week, the drama department promotes its’ spring play to a whole different group of people. The high school football team boosters will involve themselves with some form of fundraising just before a different group of students moves in to raise money for their class trip. Then the administrators and school board go to the voters with the hope of passing a millage to support the new school facilities.
These types of marketing efforts never seem well coordinated (if coordinated at all) with the myriad of student activity clubs, sports team fundraising, and millage efforts. This is a good example of where all the entities within a school district must work together, if it wants to survive, let alone thrive, in the years to come. A coordinated presence, a uniform presentation, and the well-timed “Ask” or request for funds from prominent individuals or corporations, will become a key survival tool.
We have found the most critical element that must be analyzed, enhanced and maintained is ongoing internal and external communication. The administration, teachers, assistant teachers, coaches, food services, transportation, and all other parts of the school district (internal clients), must have clear and concise ongoing communication between all departments. Observing what happens when staff members learn to actually talk to each other in terms of what they need for improvement, can be an amazing revelation.
Simple, ongoing communication is commonly hampered by internal politics, union concerns, and lack of communication structures that are designed to encourage “open and often” communication.
Once a solid communication stream is either re-found, or created anew and continuously supported from the top-down, the school district and all departments aforementioned must use it to communicate clearly and concisely with the students and parents (external clients) on a regular basis. It never ceases to amaze us, how easy it is, for all departmental staff, students and parents to NOT effectively communicate with each other. Talk, communication, a two-way flow of information; how simple yet so effective!
By implementing solid communication processes between all departments and stakeholders, a marketing plan can be established and a specialized Action Group, representing both your internal and external clients, can be implemented. You will find that there are multiple ways you can market your school district for little or no money.
We recommend that your Action Group use a 12 month look-ahead calendar to schedule the marketing activities. By plotting out the entire school year, it is easier to strategize and coordinate the different marketing approaches you will employ. You will also find that your marketing efforts generate the highest return on your investment in both materials and staff hours.
As a general summary statement: “It is all connected!” Not one part of this puzzle stands alone. When your school district teams create and maintain ongoing internal and external communication, coupled with a solid and continuously updated 12 month marketing plan, you will be able to leverage your marketing Action Group’s creativity and develop an effective marketing structure to promote your school district in a uniformly positive and proactive light.
In Part III, we will highlight the opportunities that arise when the Action Group process is applied to a school district’s creation and growth of an alumni association.
Tom Borg Consulting, LLC., is a consulting group that specializes in outside the box strategic planning, leadership training, team building, and customer culture transformation, for public school systems in Michigan and the United States. For a free 30 minute consulting session or for more information please call 734-404-5909 or visit our website at www.TomBorgConsulting.com
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