How to Improve Your School Marketing with 8 Easy Techniques [Part 2]

Is your district putting more emphasis on marketing this year?

Are you feeling the pressure from private and charter schools in your area?

School marketing is becoming more important as competition is increasing for public schools across the country. It is time for school districts to embrace marketing. If you remember anything form this podcast, make sure to know that marketing is an investment… not an expense.

Marketing is an Investment... Not an Expense 

In Part 2 of this article, you’ll discover four more simple tips to improve your school marketing.

 

Click Here to Read Part 1

 

Let's Recap Part 1

School Marketing is about using tools to get more parents to enroll their children in your schools and keep them there. School Marketing is also about getting more community members to support your schools more often so your school district succeeds.

In part 1 we discussed these important tips:

1. Live Video for Marketing
2. Google Analytics
3. Marketing Success with Facebook Ads
4. The Facebook Pixel

Knowing our goal of marketing, let’s look at the next four simple techniques to improve your school marketing.

 

Improving Your School Marketing

5. Content Marketing with Lead Magnets

Content marketing is about being useful. Give your audience something that will help them make an informed decision. Hopefully a decision that will result in them choosing your district.

Before anything else, the most important thing you can do is to educate them before you sell to them. You goal should be to create content that educates your audience.

"You goal should be to create content that educates your audience."

And a lead magnet is just that… a piece of content that is so valuable that your audience will give you something to get that content. Most of the time it is their email address.

 

My district has had great success using this technique with parents of preschoolers to market our kindergarten program. We offered a Kindergarten Milestone Checklist to parents if they signed up for our Kindergarten Email Newsletter.

 

 

6. Creating Niche Email Lists

 

From our Kindergarten Newsletter we have had several families choose CFBISD as their district of choice for their incoming kindergartner. Our newsletter focuses on tips and techniques for parents as their child begins school for the first time. It is in partnership with our district parent blog, School-A-Hoop.

Much like our Kindergarten Digital Newsletter, we have created several niche email lists to meet the needs of the different groups in CFBISD. General district newsletters can be fine, but the real power comes with niche lists, with content for a specific group who has specific questions.

 

Past Article Alert: How to Use Email to Make a Powerful Impact

There is too much data and too many tools to not know what people want in your district. And everybody's wants are not the same. Your athletic parents do not want the same information and help as your fine arts parents. You elementary school parents are more concerned with what is happening in elementary school at the moment. 

Here is a sample of "Niche Lists" we have created in CFBISD:

• Fine Arts Parents
• Athletic Parents
• STEM TIPS
• Pre-K Parents
• High School Programs
• CFBISD Alumni
• Over 65 in the Community

Our list are influenced by our data and well thought out. Niche content is emailed to them in hopes they choose CFBISD, or remain as a proud parent.

7. Stop Worrying About Likes

So many people on social media are concerned with likes. All I can say is... social media is not a popularity contest. It's about finding the right audience who is going to engage with your content.

The Order of Importance of Social Media Engagement (Least to Best):

1. Likes/Hearts
2. Comments
3. Shares/Retweets

Worry about engagement, not if someone likes you.

Likes can be good to build an audience who is going to share, but make sure they are the right likes.

 

8. Build Audience Personas

 

You must know your audience to be able to create content that they will consume. Building audience personas is crucial for each of your campaigns. 

 

 

Everybody is different, but similar groups bubble to the surface when you do the research.

Many leading content marketing blogs have used this great quote from Ardath Albee to define Audience Personas:

"A marketing persona is a composite sketch of a key segment of your audience. For content marketing purposes, you need personas to help you deliver content that will be most relevant and useful to your audience."

 

The key statement I see is "help you deliver content that will be most relevant..."

 

Defining your audience can help with many different things including campaign management, social media paid ads, and video marketing.

 

Hubspot has an excellent Buyer/Audience Persona template to help brainstorm and build your audiences. We use them in our district to help organize the process.

 

 

Click Here to get Hubspot's Buyer Persona Templates 

 

Conclusion

 

All school districts should start thinking about school marketing. It's an investment that all districts will need sooner than later.
 

With increased competition from all types of educational establishments, it is better to start now to be ahead of the game. Remember, you are investing in the future of your school district.
 

What do you think? Will you try these school marketing techniques? 

 

Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

How to Improve School Marketing with 8 Simple Tips [Podcast]

Is your district putting more emphasis on marketing this year?

Are you feeling the pressure from private and charter schools in your area?

School marketing is becoming more important as competition is increasing for public schools across the country. It is time for school districts to embrace marketing and think of it as an investment to increase brand awareness and increase enrollment.

How to Improve School Marketing with 8 Simple Tips Podcast

In PART 1 of this Podcast, you’ll discover four simple tips to improve your school marketing. Part 2 will air next week.



Do you have any questions about the tips in the podcast? Leave your questions in the comment section below or email wheelercfb@gmail.com

Click Here for a Link to the Full Blog Post

Seven Job Title Predictions for School PR [Podcast]

The landscape of public education is changing. New job titles in the field of School Public Relations are popping up every day.  With changing technology and the increased competition from charter and private schools, I predict School PR to be very different in the next five years.

How will your district prepare for the changing landscape of School PR? 

Listen to my new and improved Podcast to hear my thoughts about building your School PR team for the 21st Century.

7 Job Title Predictions for School PR and School Marketing

More About the Show

The Social Media Schoolhouse Podcast is for public relations and marketing professionals, where we focus on strategies to increase audience engagement in your school district.

In this episode, I focus on trends I see in School Public Relations. Where will the jobs be? Who does your department need to hire?

Click Here to Read the Written Article

Share you feedback in the comment section. You can find this podcast and all new episodes by searching Social Media Schoolhouse on iTunes.

School Marketing Trends to Own in 2017

With the first semester coming to a close, it is time to start thinking about what strategy we will have in place for 2017.  

Last year saw quite a few changes in the why and the how school districts are marketing to their parents, students, employees and community. Marketing is an investment all of education will have to adopt going into the new year.

This is part one of two focusing on the first five trending areas.

Part Two Can Be Found Here

Here are my first five thoughts of where school districts should concentrate their marketing in 2017:

1. Tell Your District Stories

You have to stand out.  You have to differentiate.  What makes you stand out from all the other school districts, charter schools, and private schools are your stories.

Your audience wants to feel an emotional connection to the content you’re publishing.  Since the dawn of time, people have communicated with stories.  People remember a good story.  People remember stories that make a connection or they can relate to. This is why it is important to treat your department like a newsroom.

Read my post: In 20 Years... A School District Will Buy a Local Newspaper

Your team must track down the emotional stories that will make your district rise above the rest.  And when you do find these impactful stories, you will see engagement with your content go through the roof. 

Read my post: Visual Storytelling: Part 3 - Tell a Story

2. Unlock Your Education Influencers

Your department is no longer the public relations department or the District Communications Department. Your department is the whole district.  Use the experts in your district to tell your stories and create your content.

We are not all experts of everything in education, but I do know there is someone in your district that can make you look like you are. Influencers are a huge talking point for the future of marketing.  Lucky for us we have a whole district full of them.

We have educators, administrators, parents, senior citizens, students, voters, and many different community members that can tell a much better story about their niche than we can.  Use them… and don’t hide that you are using them. People tend to trust outsiders rather than listen to a paid spokesperson.

Make a list of all of you influencers and start tapping into their expertise.  Have them write a blog post, or maybe give a testimonial.  Utilize their power to make your district standout.  

3. Paid Social to Engage

The dreaded algorithm… Facebook has it. Instagram has it.  Twitter is developing one.  Sooner than later we are not going to be able to reach everyone we want to reach. It is going to eventually lead us to paying to play on social media.

Yes, you are going to have your moments of a stellar organic vial post, but that is not the norm anymore.  Social media advertising is going to be key in reaching what we want to reach.

The beauty of social media advertising is that can pinpoint a niche that we want to target with our promotions or ads.  Did you know on Facebook you could send an ad to mothers who have two kids that have researched private schools in a certain zip code? You can even narrow it down to if they watch General Hospital in the last week. Niche targeting is a very powerful tool.  Use it to your advantage.

Watch a video on my thoughts of Social Media in School District

4. You Must Have Video

Video is a must! What was once a nice to have in school districts due to the large cost and massive undertaking is now vital tool to communicate with your community.

Video does not have to be a Hollywood production. Your smartphone is a powerful tool that allows you to plan, film, edit, and publish your video masterpiece.  Story is key, with good sound quality a close second. You image is not as important as you might think. 

Read my post: Camera Basics to Tell a Better Story

So many people are use to smart phone videos that having an expensive camera for your productions is a thing of the past. Nobody cares if you are Steven Spielberg, as long as you tell a compelling story they can understand and hear.

Live streaming video on your social platforms is a must in 2017.  Facebook, Twitter, and now Instagram all have some form of a live video component.  Live video is becoming so important that for the first time, Facebook has invested millions in television commercials to promote Facebook Live.

Read my post: 12 Easy Facebook Live for Your District 

5. Develop a Strategy Around Your Analytics

There is no excuse not to study your analytics while making decisions about your school district’s marketing. There are so many powerful tools that are free and easy to use. Data is a very powerful mechanism that should drive your strategy.

Your districts first step is to make sure your website is connected with Google Analytics. It does not matter if you did not create your own website. Apply this free tool from Google on all of your sites.

Your second task is to make sure you are using your insights and analytics within your social media platforms. It is vital that you know which posts and tweets are having the biggest impact with your followers.

Once you have mastered some of the free analytic reports, it might be a good idea to use some pay services that dig deeper into your data. Sprout Social, HootSuite and Buffer are some tools you might consider. The key is not to be afraid of data, but embrace your data.

Read my post: My 6 Job title Predictions for School PR 

Part Two Coming Soon

These are my first five trends in school marketing for 2017.  Make sure to check back next week when I reveal my next five trends. Have a safe and relaxing winter break. 

Please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

My Top 5 Books I Read in 2016

For as long as I can remember I always preferred non-fiction, business books to fiction novels.  I always had a thirst for knowledge.  This year was no exception as my favorite books I read this year are all marketing books.

I read many books for my job that deal with education, but my true passion is marketing. My top five books for 2016 concentrate on content marketing, digital marketing and analytics.  One of the top five books was even written by a graduate of the very district I work for.

So without further delay, in no order, here are my top five books of 2016:

1. Welcome to the Funnel by Jason Miller

I got to here Jason speak at Social Media Marketing World 2016 and really enjoyed his passion for marketing and rock and roll.  While I was at the conference, I picked up his book and had it read before I left San Diego. Very nice ideas about content marketing and social media.

Buy the Book Here: Welcome to the Funnel

From Amazon.com

Raising brand awareness, building trust, establishing credibility, and ultimately driving revenue, that’s what the top of the funnel is all about. It can be a marketer’s “Paradise City”, but without focus, it can quickly become overwhelming. The one-two punch of social media and content marketing is a vital part of any successfully integrated marketing approach. If you are not pairing these two powerhouses together then you are simply missing opportunities to grow your business. The tactics and strategies in this book have come together through a tremendous amount of research, trial and error, expert input, and real world applications. 

From startups to enterprise—what’s included here works across the board and can very quickly make an impact. Just like your favorite double album, this book is separated into four sides, each one addressing a different aspect of Content and Social Media.

2. Momentum by Shama Hyder

I have been a fan of Shama since her first book The Zen of Social Media Marketing. Like her bio says, she is one of the top voices in marketing and social. She is also a graduate of the district I currently work in. Her book is chock full of great digital marketing examples to use in your own business or school district.

Buy the Book Here: Momentum

From Amazon.com

Today's online ecosystem can be summed up in one word: overwhelming. With new social media platforms popping up all the time and new technologies disrupting even the most “reliable” marketing strategies, business and nonprofit leaders and marketers are faced with the challenge of getting ahead in an environment that makes it seem impossible to keep up.

Momentum: How to Propel Your Marketing and Transform Your Brand in the Digital Age will help you figure out what’s important and what can safely be set aside. No matter your industry, if want to gain momentum for your marketing efforts—along with the just rewards—Momentum is the resource you’ve been waiting for. Based on her experience as CEO of The Marketing ZenGroup and her work with clients ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies, Shama Hyder cuts through the complexity and explains the five essential principles required to develop a successful marketing plan that will withstand the digital world’s constant changes and result in real ROI.

3. Content Inc. by Joe Pulizzi  

When I first fell in love the with the strategy of Content Marketing it was because of Joe Pulizzi and his book, Epic Content Marketing. He is the go to source for all things content marketing. I also highly recommend his podcasts called Content Inc. and This Old Marketing.

Buy the Book Here: Content Inc.

From Amazon.com

In Content Inc., one of today's most sought-after content-marketing strategists reveals a new model for entrepreneurial success. Simply put, it's about developing valuable content, building an audience around that content, and then creating a product for that audience.
Notice a shift?
 
Author Joe Pulizzi flips the traditional entrepreneurial approach of first creating a product and then trying to find customers. It's a brilliant reverse-engineering of a model that rarely succeeds.
 
The radical six-step business-building process revealed in this book is smart, simple, practical, and cost-effective. And best of all, it works. It's a strategy Pulizzi used to build his own successful company, Content Marketing Institute, which has landed on Inc. magazine's list of fastest growing private companies for three years straight. It's also a strategy countless other entrepreneurs use to build their own multi-million dollar companies. Build an audience and you'll be able to sell pretty much anything you want. 

4. The Analytical Marketer by Adele Sweetwood 

My professional goal for the year was to heighten my knowledge on analytics. I use Google Analytics, but I needed better background to really drive our districts strategies. This book not only discusses analytics, but it also explains how to build an organization around the concept. It is a great book for anyone wanting to expand their knowledge on the subject.

Buy the Book Here: The Analytical Marketer 

From Amazon.com

Analytics are driving big changes, not only in what marketing departments do but in how they are organized, staffed, led, and run. Leaders are grappling with issues that range from building an analytically driven marketing organization and determining the kinds of structure and talent that are needed to leading interactions with IT, finance, and sales and creating a unified view of the customer. The Analytical Marketer provides critical insight into the changing marketing organization—digital, agile, and analytical—and the tools for reinventing it.

Written by the head of global marketing for SAS, The Analytical Marketer is based on the author’s firsthand experience of transforming a marketing organization from “art” to “art and science.” Challenged and inspired by their company’s own analytics products, the SAS marketing team was forced to rethink itself in order to take advantage of the new capabilities that those tools offer the modern marketer. Key marketers and managers at SAS tell their stories alongside the author’s candid lessons learned as she led the marketing organization’s transformation. With additional examples from other leading companies, this book is a practical guide and set of best practices for creating a new marketing culture that thrives on and adds value through data and analytics.

5. #AskGaryVee by Gary Vaynerchuk

What's not to love about the fouled-mouth marketer from New York? Gary tells it how it is and what he is saying is always spot-on. His fast-growing Vayner Media is on of the fastest growing digital agencies in the country. His short burst of insights in his book are a great resource for any entrepreneur and marketer who wants to take the digital age by storm.

Buy the book Here: #AskGaryVee

From Amazon.com 

The New York Times bestselling author draws from his popular show #AskGaryVee to offer surprising, often outrageous, and imminently useful and honest answers to everything you’ve ever wanted to know—and more—about navigating the new world.

Gary Vaynerchuk—the inspiring and unconventional entrepreneur who introduced us to the concept of crush it—knows how to get things done, have fun, and be massively successful. A marketing and business genius, Gary had the foresight to go beyond traditional methods and use social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to reach an untapped audience that continues to grow.

#AskGaryVee showcases the most useful and interesting questions Gary has addressed on his popular show. Distilling and expanding on the podcast’s most urgent and evergreen themes, Gary presents practical, timely, and timeless advice on marketing, social media, entrepreneurship, and everything else you’ve been afraid to ask but are dying to know. Gary gives you the insights and information you need on everything from effectively using Twitter to launching a small business, hiring superstars to creating a personal brand, launching products effectively to staying healthy—and even buying wine.

Whether you’re planning to start your own company, working in digital media, or have landed your first job in a traditional company, #AskGaryVee is your essential guide to making things happen in a big way.

What are your top choices for books in 2016? Leave your list in the comment section below or let me know on Twitter at @wheelercfb

 

My 2nd Annual Summer School PR Guide to Beating the Competition

As I stated last year, the main thing I remember from all of marketing classes in college are that you have to market during the good times, and you have to market during the slow times. 

For us as communicators in education, it is crucial that we conduct our business during the school year, but it is especially important to concentrate our efforts during the summer months as well.

Related Post: Your Quick Summer School PR Guide to Beating the Competition [2015]

Why is this the best approach? Because most of us don’t do it. By putting in the extra effort during the summer, you can beat your competition that is sleeping in and not working on Fridays.

In this year’s article you’ll four brand new initiatives to concentrate on this summer to rock your marketing during the off-season.

Here are four new tips and strategies to out-market the competition:

1. Facebook Live

With over 1.5 billion active users on Facebook, it’s probably time to make the shift to the “King of All Social Media”.  Facebook has done so much in the past year to make the platform better for the individual and the business; it is most likely going to hit live video out of the ballpark.

Related Post: 12 Easy Facebook Live Ideas for Your District

If you are really serious about Facebook Live, Facebook has a nice website setup to learn more about their live streaming feature.

https://live.fb.com/

Here are their 8 Tips and Tricks to be successful on Facebook Live:

1.Tell fans when you're broadcasting ahead of time.

2. Go live when you have a strong connection.
3. Write a catchy description before going live.
4. Ask viewers to subscribe to Live notifications.
5. Say hello to commenters by name; respond to their comments live.
6. Broadcast for longer periods of time to reach more people.
7. Use a closing line to signal the end of the broadcast.
8. Be creative and go live often!

A more in-depth explanation of each tip can be found here:

https://live.fb.com/tips/

I think the best thing to do is to practice.  Live video can be tricky sometimes.  Some people tend to overthink things and complicate things.  Be natural, and always try to tell an engaging story.

2. 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. 

Here is a post from Social Media Examiner: Snapchat Gains Momentum

Even if you scared to dive into posting pictures and video on Snapchat, you can still get into the SnapChat Ballgame with Geofilters.  Geofilters are graphic overlays that you can create for SnapChat users to place on top of their pictures and videos they post on the platform. 

Geofilters are displayed to users in a certain geographical region that you define when you create your filter.  It is a great way to target a younger audience around a certain school or district event.

Here is a great post by Social Media Examiner 

5 Creative Ways to Use SnapchatGeofilters for Business.   

They provide some great ideas you can use in your district.

A great resource for all things SnapChat is Carlos Gil. 

He always posts excellent tips and suggestions to excel at SnapChat.   

He has an excellent beginners guide on SnapChat that can be found here: The Beginners Guide To Using Snapchat

3. Analytics

Always be checking your analytics. You need to determine what is working and what is not working. Study them closely. Look for the trends that will help you develop a strategy for the upcoming school year.

The best platform we use to track all of our websites is Google Analytics.  If you do not have it setup on your website, do it ASAP.  Don’t know how… Here is a video tutorial of how to install it on your site:

How to Install Google Analytics on Wordpress 

Here are some great articles on what to look for in your Google Analytics:

The 8 Most Important ConversionMetrics You Should Be Tracking

The Top 10 Essential Google Analytics Metrics  

FiveGoogle Analytics Metrics Every Business Should Run  

4. SlideShare

SlideShare is an excellent visual way to repurpose your content from you your blog or other publications.  Think PowerPoint, but on a LinkedIn network of power users.  It's an excellent way to reach educated influencers on certain topics.

My district has had great success on the platform.  In one year we have had our slideshows been viewed tens of thousands of times and some of our top content has been downloaded or shared thousands of times.

Here is a link to our SlideShare site for CFBISD to give you some examples of content we share on the platform. 

CFBISD SlideShare Page

The key is to be strategic on what you post and make sure to be very visual in your presentation.

That's it for this year's summer tips.  Have a great rest of the summer and remember... Always be marketing.

Do you have any other tips or suggestions? Leave them in the comment section below.