2. Marketing your School
What is marketing?
“the means by which the school actively
communicates and promotes its
purpose, values and products to the
pupils, parents, staff and wider
community”
(Davies and Ellison, 1997)
3. Why market?
Improve (or manage) the school’s reputation
Raise the school’s profile
Schools with a positive image tend to have
better student behaviour/attendance
A positive image improves morale
Attracts quality staff
Develops a sense of pride
4. Why market?
Some schools have use marketing
strategies to overcome challenges, such
as falling pupil numbers and poor
reputations
The power of a positive image should
not be underestimated!
5. Why market?
Marketing needs to be
• central to school business management
• embedded into school development
planning
• the remit of all staff
Above all – marketing needs to be ....
Given high status – at leadership level
6. Who is the market audience?
Internal Market
Staff
Governors
Visitors/helpers
Current pupils
Current parents
External Market
Prospective pupils
Prospective parents
Prospective staff
Community
LA
Ofsted
8. Developing a marketing strategy
1. Agree a Vision
2. Identify your school’s “Unique Selling Point”
3. Devise a Mission Statement
4. Audit existing situation
5. Set up a Marketing/Publicity team
6. Agree actions to realise Vision
7. Implement the actions
8. Monitor and evaluate
9. Developing a marketing strategy
1. Agree a Vision
What kind of school do you want to be?
What are your goals, aims and
objectives?
10. Developing a marketing strategy
2. Unique Selling Point
Identify the things your school does
very well already
Stress these unique features wherever
possible
Promote them in marketing materials
11. Developing a marketing strategy
3. Devise a Mission Statement
Articulate the Vision and communicate
the Unique Selling Points of your
school
Needs to be clear and concise eg
“Everyone learning together”
or
“Success through achievement”
12. Developing a marketing strategy
4. Audit existing situation
Important to establish current perceptions
Helps to evaluate current strengths and
weaknesses
Determine who will carry out the research
External expertise or in-house?
Look at what is available already
13. Developing a marketing strategy
4. Audit existing situation
Open days / parents meetings
Questionnaires / attitude surveys to key stakeholders
Focus groups
Media reports
Ofsted reports
PANDA’s, performance and assessment data
School self-evaluation documents
14. Developing a marketing strategy
5. Set up a Marketing/Publicity Team
The team should include:
At least one member of the SMT
Governor
Support Staff
Parent
Community representation
15. Developing a marketing strategy
6. Agree actions
Use outcomes from research and input from
stakeholders to agree an Action Plan
The Action Plan should include:
Priorities
Actions required
Timescale
Costs
Who is responsible
How progress will be monitored
How it will be evaluated
Success criteria
17. Developing a marketing strategy
6. Agree Actions
Priority: Media - Increase the number of press releases
Action Time-
scale
Costs Who? Monitoring Evaluation Success
Criteria
Identify key events in
school diary
Create a half-termly
programme of press
releases
Write press-releases
and send out
Take digital photos of
events
18. Developing a marketing strategy
7. Implement the Actions
AUTUMN TERM SPRING TERM SUMMER TERM
Publications Prospectus
Student Planner
Termly Newspaper
Staff recruitment
Termly Newspaper
School Calendar
Termly Newspaper
Advertising Open Day Staff Recruitment Summer Fair
Website Development of
Contents
Website Update Review Contents
Primary links Roadshows in
primaries
Workshops for
Years 4/5
Visit of Year 6
intake
Research Student
questionnaire
Staff Survey Parental Focus
Group
Etc etc
19. Developing a marketing strategy
8. Monitor and Evaluate
Monitoring allows you to check things
are progressing according to the Plan
Consider your monitoring systems and
how they could be improved eg
Have a feedback section on website
Simple questionnaires to give feedback on
school events
Ask telephone callers and visitors about
their experiences
20. Developing a Marketing Strategy
8. Monitor and Evaluate
Have visitors to the website increased?
Is press coverage increasing?
What’s staff turnover like?
How many applications are you receiving?
Are school events well attended?
Have pupil numbers increased?
Are there improved links with local
organisations?
22. Marketing Techniques and Activities
People:
The 4 P’s:
•
Pupils
•
Parents
•
Professionals
•
Public
23. Marketing Techniques and Activities
Publications include:
• School Prospectus – statutory requirement
• Brochures – other promotional material
• Flyers – flat or folded sheet (cost effective)
• Newsletters – home/school communication
24. Marketing Techniques and Activities
Media
Make the media work for you
Have a named contact
Find out the ‘copy deadlines’
Invite journalists into school
Set up interesting photos
Send a regular flow of high quality articles
Do they want fax, phone or email contact?
25. Marketing Techniques and Activities
Media continued
News releases should have
A good quality photo and caption
The date and time
A descriptive headline
Factual information (eg about the school)
Include What, Where, When, Why, Who
Avoid jargon (eg HOD, SMT etc)
Contact information for the journalist to get more information
Send to newspapers, radio and television
Use to update the school website
Include in school newsletters
Display where they can be seen by community or visitors to school
Keep a file
26. Marketing Techniques and Activities
Events
Consider:
• How you meet and greet visitors
• Use students as guides (ensure they are
well-briefed)
• What information is available?
• Is there a range of appropriate displays?
27. Marketing Techniques and Activities
Website
Golden Rules:
• Update the site regularly
• Remember the “Three-Click Rule”
• Use short paragraphs and avoid
overcrowded pages
• Include a section highlighting current
news and events
28. Marketing your school
References
Best, B., Donnelly, I. and Grebot, M. (2006) Promoting Your School, Hampshire: Teachers’ Pocket Books.
Davies, B and Ellison, L. (2003) Strategic Marketing for Schools. London: Pearson Education Ltd.
Devlin, T., (1998) Public Relations & Marketing for Schools. London: Pitman Publishing.
Lockhart, Johanna M. (2005) How to Market Your School. Lincoln, USA: iUniverse.
Schools operate in a competitive marketplace.
Not only do they compete with each other to attract pupils, but also to recruit the best staff, gain partnership support and community approval.
As many schools are suffering falling pupil roles and reduced funding, it is increasingly important for schools to market themselves effectively.
A good marketing strategy can enhance internal and external awareness of the good work that is being accomplished by the school.
It provides a method of communicating to students, parents, staff and the community that the school is dedicated to achieving excellence as well as meeting the educational needs of its community.
Marketing is an essential part of school business. Effective marketing can influence every aspect of school life, but the most important result is an enriched learning environment for students.
Creating a positive identity and promoting your school effectively is all about improving the school’s reputation, raising its profile and contributing to it’s success. There are many reasons for promoting your school even if you think its image is currently quite good....
Schools with a positive image tend to have better student behaviour and higher attendance.
Creating a buzz can energise staff and students, improve morale and promote pride in the school.
Creating a positive identity improves morale.
A school with a positive image will find it easier to retain or recruit staff.
A good image fosters a sense of pride and belonging.
Its worth bearing in mind that some schools that have emerged from serious challenges have found the effective promotion of their image a KEY DRIVING FORCE for school improvement.
Why Market?
Central to business of the school –
Not an add on – but integral to the work and culture of the school
Development planning, whether short, medium or long term should inolve a marketing strategy – and promote the school’s aims, goals and activities.
Not just the concern of one or two people
Staff – need to be convinced this is something they need to be actively involved in. They have a role to play in promoting the school – success stories, speaking positively about the school.
Strategic operation – responsive to client needs and opinions. High status with full support of the HT, SMT and Governors
It is important to have a clear view of the target market audience. A simplistic view would be only to consider the parent and child.. However, this would ignore the broader set of stakeholders (internal and external) who are also significant in marketing terms.
It is essential that for the effective marketing of your school, it is important to raise awareness of your various client groups.
Each client group could be seen from the point of view of a market segment – having similar needs.
The process of marketing and developing a marketing strategy is often referred to as the marketing matrix. These are listed as.....
Product – is the education service provided to pupils and arguably the most significant. It includes:
The nature and extent of your curriculum
Extra curricular activities
After school care
Ethos
Religious denomination
Price – is not only applicable to the physical goods market. In education is could relate to:
Fee-paying (private sector)
Formula funding / pupil numbers
Place – This is the geographical and physical location of the school in terms of convenience / accessibility, as well as its appearance and condition
People – The education produce is delivered through the people in school, therefore successful marketing is determined by:
Quality of staff and their ability to communicate the vision and the purpose of the school
Promotion – there are a number of techniques that can be employed to broadcast the benefits of the product. This includes communication via publications, media etc
Positioning – In industry and commerce a great deal of attention is given to market positioning. This means the way your clients perceive your organisation in the marketplace. What is its reputation? Traditional? Academic? Caring? Good extra-curricular provision? Strong discipline? Religious ethos?
There are a number of marketing activities and tactics that you can use to promote your school.
Before rushing into any marketing effort it is important to ensure you have developed your Marketing Strategy.
It is important to spend time in the planning stages to ensure you are focussed on the right things and that you are working to a plan to meet your own school’s needs.
Vision
Look 5 years into the future. Imagine how you would like your school to be perceived in 5 years time – how will people talk about your school?
You could do this in small groups at school.
Involve all stakeholders – small group discussions.
Get them to write down statements which describe the future? Discuss them in groups and with a wider audience.
Summarise the statements, look for common themes.
Write the vision using positive language eg “Our school is...” “Our students are...”
Whilst your Vision will identify the things you might want to change, don’t lose sight of the fact that you already do some things very well. You need to make the most of these positive features.
Whenever and wherever you can, stress the unique features of your school.
Find ways to include them in positive messages about your school
Unique Selling Point can be identified from your SWOT ANALYSIS
The Mission Statement articulates the Vision and communicates the unique features of the school. It will be one of the hardest things to capture in a simple sentence or paragraph, but it is vital to produce one.
Be clear and concise – try and capture the essence of the school to include its aims and values for example
Everyone learning together
Or
Success through achievement
Audit existing situation
Important to take stock of how your school is currently perceived in the community. You need to be open to the views and opinions of others – even if you don’t agree with them.
Research will help you evaluate the school’s strengths and weaknesses and assess the effectiveness of its existing communications.
Who will do it? Buy in expertise – OR
You can use the normal pattern of school activities to gather information
Open days / Parents meetings– debriefing with staff after the event, or contact a random sample of those attending to gather information
Questionnaires / attitude surveys to key stakeholders
Focus groups
Ofsted reports
PANDA’s, performance and assessment data
School self-evaluation documents
A group should be established that has responsibility for your school’s marketing / PR work and a coordinator appointed to take the lead.
You should have:
At least one member from the SMT
A governor
A member of the support staff
A parent
A community representative perhaps?
The role of the group is to develop, plan, monitor and evaluate the progress of the marketing and publicity work. By identifying members roles and responsibilities you can ensure you are making the most of th team’s skills and experience.
The group should meet at least half termly for a focused meeting with an agenda.
Once the marketing group has the outcomes of the research and input from stakeholders, they will be ready to agree an action plan.
Decide on the priorities – internal and external
Plan the actions and timescale in accordance with the academic year and take into account activities on the school calendar
The plan should make clear any resources and costs and who is responsible for doing what and how the plan will be monitored and evaluated.
By identifying success criteria you will be able to judge whether the actions have been carried out effectively.
Share the plan with people who need to see it – staff and governors.
It would be a good to find a way of sharing successes internally.
It would be helpful to have the action plan laid out in tabular form under these headings.
It would also help to prepare a yearly schedule with termly actions.
Members of the group will have their individual actions – or might meet with sub groups to ensure activities and events are organised according to the plan and deadlines are met.
MONITOR
Monitoring your strategy and activities is an important element of the process.
It allows you to check that things are progressing according to the plan.
Think about the monitoring systems you currently have in place and whether they can be improved or increased. For example...
Does the school website have a feedback section?
Could questionnaires asking for parental feedback be given out at school events?
Do the reception staff ask callers and visitors for some feedback?
EVALUATE
Evaluation is more concerned with the degree to which you’ve been successful. It should take place at least once a term, measuring the results and learning from them. Look at any statistics or evidence that will help with the evaluation process.
How many visitors has your website received?
What about press coverage?
What’s staff turnover like?
What are the application figures for staff recruitment?
How many events are there and how many people turn up to them?
Have pupil numbers increased?
How many organisations do you have links with?
HANDOUT THREE – DEVELOPING YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY – SELF EVALUATION
ONCE YOU HAVE YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY IN PLACE, YOU CAN THEN FOCUS ON THE MARKETING TECHNIQUES AND ACTIVITIES
These include
People
Publications
Media / News Releases
Events
Website
Do not focus only on written communication. The most powerful means of promoting the school is by word of mouth. Important to have a pro-active approach to managing communications. The 4 P’s are
Pupils
Parents
Professionals
Public
First 3 P’s are part of the internal market. Important of internal communications cannot be overestimated. They should be equipped with the right messages and have positive attitudes.. Central task of school management is therefore how to encourage this type of attitude and pride in the school.
Professionals can also be part of the external market. These are the headteachers and staff of feeder / partner schools. They also need to have the same accurate information and positive views as the internal ambassadors.
The 4th P – Public very powerful determinant of the school’s image in the community. Whether positive or negative, the message soon spreads.
When schools deal with people in all these categories, the way the oral communication is transmitted and how it is perceived can be vital to the marketing effort. (How the phone is answered, how visitors are dealt with on reception).
Publications are a key way in which people form judgements about your school.
It is often self produced promotional material which includes:
Prospectus – probably the most important promotional tool. Think about distribution to whom, when and how? What are parents perceptions? Have you thought about using a CD or DVD version? Does any of your information need to be produced in different formats or languages?
Quality of production is as important as the quality of content. Use a professional photographer. Ensure photos reflect key messages. Consider content – not too much text. Think of needs of parent body – what would they want to see? What helps in their decision-making?
Think about sponsorship.
Give out our prospectus / folders
Regulations: A school must publish its prospectus at least 6 weeks before the final date by which parents are asked to apply for admission to the school. Governors should make sure that copies are available in languages other than English and that information is available in formats relevant to parents with disabilities. Copies should be available at the school and sent free of charge on request.
They must contain:
The name, address and telephone number of the schoool
The type of school and the names of the headteacher and chair of governors
Information about admissions
A statement of the school’s ethos and values
Details of any affiliations with a particular religion, the religious education provided, the right to withdraw their child from religious education and collective worship and the alternative provision for those students
Information about the school’s policy for providing for pupils with special educational needs and any changes to that policy from last year
The total number of registered pupils
Rates of pupils authorised and unauthorised absence
The school’s National Curriculum assessment results (primary)
Public examination results (secondary)
Student destinations (secondary) This can be very effective and create a more human picture than just statistics.
Beyond this information, you need to decide what additional information would be best included in this – or in other publications.
Key points in planning the design of your prospectus:
Decide your requirements eg recruitment of students, information from governors, staff recruitment?
Convey the unique selling point of the school
Decide on the main features and structure the prospectus clearly
Always have the parent / reader in mind when designing layouts
Have a simple, eye-catching and tasteful cover
Ensure a professional appearance
Avoid jargon – proof read
Use high quality photos / illustrations
Consider contents carefully – not too wordy or information that will date quickly
Brochures
Flyers
Newsletters
Newsletters – not every school does this, but they are ideal ways of making sure the stories you want to print reach a ready and wide audience. Ensure these are also of high quality. Decide on frequency (weekly, monthly, termly). Think about your readers – who is this aimed at? What are your key messages. Is this an information sheet or a promotional tool?
(Give out Adrenalins)
The media can have a very powerful effect on how your school is perceived – so it is vital that effective media relations form an integral part of your marketing and publicity strategy.
The media are especially important for schools because
They are one of the main outlets for getting information about your school into the public domain
The help people form opinions about your school
If you develop positive working relationships with the media they can be strong advocates for your work
They are one of the cheapest and most effective ways of getting your message across to your stakeholders and the general community
If students and staff see themselves in the press on a regular basis it will improve morale and self esteem
However, the media industry does not always enjoy a great deal of popularity amongst many teachers – due to inaccurate reporting, complaints about teachers long holidays and negative stories about the strife of modern schools – all contribute to their unpopularity. Yet for the most part, the press actually contain more positive stories about schools than negative ones. Its just the bad ones tend to stick in the mind longer.
Therefore its up to you to sent good news their way. This is an opportunity for your school.
It helps to understand how the publicity machine works. If you make it easy for journalists to report good news about your school, then the positive stories will follow.
Make their job easier by ...... (read slide)
News releases should have
A good quality photo and caption
The date and time
A descriptive headline
Factual information (eg about the school)
Include What, Where, When, Why, Who
Avoid jargon (eg HOD, SMT etc)
Contact information for the journalist to get more information
Send to newspapers, radio and television
Use to update the school website
Include in school newsletters
Display where they can be seen by community or visitors to school
Keep a file
Events
Open days, open evenings and other school events are excellent opportunities to show off your school to best effect. The way a school presents itself is crucial in terms of recruiting prospective students, parents and staff.
Opportunities to see the school is one of the most useful sources of information to those who are choosing schools.
Consider:
Who is there to meet your visitors –how do they appear?
Have the key ambassadors for the school as guides – use students and ALL staff. Ensure they are well briefed.
Consider what information you have available. Is it relevant and informative. Include your school prospectus, perhaps a map of the school, why your school is unique, a timetable of events and some recent newsletters
Is the reception area bright and welcoming with a range of appropriate displays?
Website – superb platform from which you can promote everything positive about your school. Easy to use mechanism to get feedback – not just about the website, but about other school matters and / or publications. Needs to be updated regularly with current news and photographs. Advantages of website are
Access to a wider world – online school community
Information that can be constantly and cheaply updated
A method of communicating directly with existing and prospective stakeholders
Interactive opportunities
Research tool
Golden rules about websites:
Update it regularly
Use short paragraphs, avoid overcrowding
Have a section highlighting current news and events
Have a frequently asked questions section
Show range of extra-curricular and out of school activities,
Invite requests for further information (eg using email facility)
Publish the school newsletter on the website
Use photos
Include a useful links section eg DfES
