Unlocking your school’s value: a practical framework

There is a lot happening in the modern school marketing landscape. It seems that every time you open a new browser tab there is a new tool or app that is going to ‘make your life easier’ and solve your enrolment problems. Of course, it’s not real. School communications and marketing are getting more complex, not easier.

A good school leader needs to be able to build trust and strong relationships with all participants in the school community – students and their families, alumni, staff and other stakeholders. Motivating these diverse audiences to work towards the school’s mission is one of your greatest challenges as a Head.

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167: How to pivot your school from mission, to brand, to growth – part 4

In the final part of this four-part series with Maria Kadison, President and CEO of EdwardsCo, we discuss how to execute and align all the brand initiatives to form your school’s public presence and form one strong, cohesive brand strategy. We investigate how to streamline your messaging and narrow down your marketing to your key messages to reduce confusion amongst your potential customers.

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167: How to pivot your school from mission, to brand, to growth – part 4

In this episode we pick up where we left off from Episode 164, as we discuss navigating issue management. We walk you through a flowchart about issue management and the types of decisions you will be faced with. As we explore a number of fictitious case studies, we assess the four key questions that every school Head needs to ask themselves before communicating with the community when an issue arises, and then follow our flow chart to give you practical advice on how to respond respectfully, efficiently and effectively.

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Uniting your community, the ‘write’ way

As the school Head, you are often responsible for rallying stakeholders around a shared purpose, direction and culture.

A good school leader needs to be able to build trust and strong relationships with all participants in the school community – students and their families, alumni, staff and other stakeholders. Motivating these diverse audiences to work towards the school’s mission is one of your greatest challenges as a Head.

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166: When to say what to whom

In this episode we pick up where we left off from Episode 164, as we discuss navigating issue management. We walk you through a flowchart about issue management and the types of decisions you will be faced with. As we explore a number of fictitious case studies, we assess the four key questions that every school Head needs to ask themselves before communicating with the community when an issue arises, and then follow our flow chart to give you practical advice on how to respond respectfully, efficiently and effectively.

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Why you need to embrace the Martec revolution

School Heads who show by their long-term behaviour that they have an ongoing commitment to transparency to the greatest extent possible, are far more likely to maintain the trust of their community on those specific occasions where they have no choice but to stay silent. The benefit of building a stock of goodwill upon which you can draw in difficult times cannot be overstated.

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Print or digital publications?

As a school Head, you should be asking yourself if print publications still deserve a place in your communication and marketing mix. The answer is not as clear cut as you might first imagine.

Which is better: print or digital? Should it be both? Is print even relevant anymore? Is digital really the ruler of the communications world?

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165: How to pivot your school from mission to brand to growth – part 3

In the third part of this four-part series with Maria Kadison, President and CEO of EdwardsCo, we discuss the idea of EDGE; Expressing Differentiation and Generating Engagement. Discover how EDGE can distinguish your message and intrigue prospective families about your offering. We’ll cover how you can use message architecture tactics, including key messaging, brand stories, archetypes, and personality, to set your school apart from competitors. Finally we delve into practical ways to discover themes that can define your differentiation and subsequently generate interest from prospective parents.

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164: Navigating issue management – a guide for school Heads

The way that a school Head responds to issues can have a significant impact on the school’s reputation, trust and most importantly, the wellbeing of their students and staff. This episode, Brad and Scully discuss how the key lies not just in appropriately reacting to issues, but proactively managing situations with a strategic approach to communication. We share our framework which details on how to assess the impact, develop a clear response plan and how to decide what to say, when to say it and to whom.

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The ultimate communications dilemma for school Heads

School Heads who show by their long-term behaviour that they have an ongoing commitment to transparency to the greatest extent possible, are far more likely to maintain the trust of their community on those specific occasions where they have no choice but to stay silent. The benefit of building a stock of goodwill upon which you can draw in difficult times cannot be overstated.

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163: How to pivot your school from mission, to brand, to growth – part 2

In the second part of this four-part series with Maria Kadison, President and CEO of EdwardsCo, we discuss some of the things successful schools are doing to uncover valuable data and how to identify the sources of this data. We analyse the different groups relevant to schools and dive into how each demographic can be useful in gaining information to improve the enrolments process and retention. Maria then gives us seven questions that schools can ask prospective families in order to gain a clearer picture about their school. 

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Customer experience: What if school marketing was limited to 100 posts?

If our schools only had 100 posts allotted to them, what would we actually say? What are the stories we would tell? How would we determine what is important and what is nothing more than an endless stream of empty content?
These are not easy questions to answer but do suggest three practical steps that school leaders can take to ensure their digital content is as meaningful and relevant as possible.

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