I consider myself an outsider. My career path is probably not the same as
yours. I spent my first 12 years in the
classroom teaching history, and then film and television in high school. I am a self-taught film director and have
written screenplays that have had major actors attached to them. I am also an avid reader… especially about
marketing and business trends. I am not your typical school public relations guy.
What I have noticed in my first two years in School PR, is
that many districts take the safe
approach when it comes to marketing.
They might publish a newsletter or maybe occasionally post on social
media, but they are not really making an
impact.
Don't get me wrong, there are some districts that are doing some really
great things. There are some really
creative people in our industry. They are the ones taking risks and seeing
high reward. They are not cookie cutter. However, they are rare.
Here are six things
that deep down most districts are terrified of doing. And being scared means they will never see
the high rewards some districts are seeing.
1. Blowing-Up Your
Cookie-Cutter Website
Remember when having a district website was considered to be
ahead of the game? Now you have to have
one, and it better be good. A recent
article in Texas Lone Star, a publication of the Texas Association of School
Boards, states that the top two activities involved in choosing a school for
their child parents will drive by the school and visit the district and school
website. That is why your website needs
to be visually appealing and easy to navigate, which is not always the case
when it comes to the product pushed by big corporate educational communication
companies.
I know cost is a major factor, but why would any school
district want their website look like a thousand other district sites? Companies outside education do not settle for that, why should School PR and marketing have to settle?
That is why in CFBISD, we are currently going
through the process of analyzing web trends to determine the best course of
action to build a website that will differentiate ourselves from the competition. We want to make it our own and give our
community the website they have always wanted.
We are doing this first by looking at the analytics, and then focusing
on design.
**And remember, make it mobile friendly!!!
2. Creating a
District Snapchat
Once upon a time you swore on your first child that your
district would never be on Facebook.
Look at you now, your district is probably seeing higher engagement on
your Facebook page then your website.
However, now you have to deal with that crazy algorithm, and the fact
that none of your students like your posts on Facebook.
The reason they’re not sharing your posts is that they are
all on Instagram and Snapchat. And
that’s exactly where you should be.
Don’t be scared of Snapchat.
There are thousands of tutorials online to be successful on the
platform. You can also borrow from companies
like ESPN and BuzzFeed who are both successful at snapchatting.
3. Utilizing Landing
Pages to Build Your Email List
I am a huge fan of landing pages to boost my email
database. It is an easy way to create a
microsite fast and collect community and parent information as well as email
addresses to send niche newsletters and event invites to narrow target
audiences.
We use LeadPages, which we
have found to be an excellent product.
We have created over 10 databases of niche audiences and send useful
material to them each week.
4. Facebook Ads
This might sound like a Suzanne Somers infomercial, but did
you know for as little as five dollars you could create Facebook ads reaching
thousands of people on Facebook? With those
five dollars you can target zip codes, demographics, interests, and much, much
more.
Facebook is a business, it wants you to buy these ads, which
means they are giving high priority and more reach to their paying
customers. This is not to say you can’t
strike lightening in a bottle and have a high performing post, but paying
allows you to really define your target audience and guarantees you some
success.
5. Using Content
Marketing to Help Your Parents
If you have read my blog, you know I am really a big fan of
Content Marketing. I won’t go into much
detail since I have several posts on the subject, but this is a great way to
help your community and at the same time drive traffic to your website. Don’t be scared. Google Content Marketing and get started.
6. Embracing Video as
the Next Big Thing
You must be doing video.
Buy a cheap HD camcorder and get started. Not only do videos crush it on social media,
they are highly engaging. Stop making
excuses… you must be on video. Setup a
YouTube account, get on Periscope, and always post your videos straight to
Facebook.
I will end this article with saying this... Stop Being Scared! Just because we work in education does not mean we can't be creative and different. Embrace the current marketing culture. Analyze the trends... and keep reading my blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment