10 Steps Towards Branding Success

All too often, schools do the work of branding without providing the people and processes to insure its success.

For branding to work, the school must:

1. Have philosophical and financial backing from the board of trustees and head of school. 
2. Insure that faculty, administration, and staff have bought in and will promote the brand freely and easily.
3. Acknowledge that branding is a marathon, not a sprint, and be in it for the long haul.
4. Hire qualified personnel to steward the brand with strong writing, speaking, organizational, and interpersonal skills.
5. Support them with an adequate budget to do their job and with access to ongoing professional development. 
6. Establish a centralized communications office.
7. Give this office the power to steward the brand and be its arbitrator.
8. Determine that the head of this department reports directly to the head of school.
9. Create a school-wide marketing communications plan.
10. Institute a system for tracking results, then use those results to plan future efforts.

Clearly, there is much more to brand success than this, but these key elements are critical to a sound foundation.

Are Viewbooks Dead?

Have viewbooks past their prime? Do they have one foot in the grave? Our answer is: not yet. And here’s why:

MOST SCHOOLS HAVE NOT LET GO

Independent schools are, by and large, traditional institutions with traditional ways. “We’ve always had one.” “We don’t want [read: are afraid] to change.” “Our competitors are still producing one, so we feel we have to.” By themselves, these are not good enough reasons to keep producing a viewbook, which, like all your school’s marketing materials, needs to be strongly branded to get your target audience to take the action you want.

WHAT IF THE WEBSITE DID ALL THE HEAVY LIFTING?

Most independent school websites are nowhere near as branded as they should be. We wish they were. However, even well-branded websites have a fundamental problem: it’s difficult to control the visitor experience. Which pages will visitors view? In what order? Will they take away the messages you want? Control and customize the visitor experience. Viewbooks, on the other hand, control the reader’s experience. If done effectively, they deliver your school brand messages, differentiate it from its competitors, show why it worth tuition dollars, deliver proof points to back up claims, and make prospective families want to visit. Different pieces of the viewbook package can be designed to appeal to different audiences: parents of lower or upper schoolers, upper schoolers themselves, or even grandparents (the frequent funders of an independent school education).

WHERE DOES THE BRAND SHOW MOST CLEARLY? THE VIEWBOOK.

Independent schools struggle with creating and promoting their brands. We don’t mean to be pejorative. It’s just been our experience. (Most colleges and universities have the same problem.) Within schools, the office most likely to handle the brand well is enrollment marketing, often the result of working with brand-savvy professionals in creating the school’s viewbook.

VIEWBOOKS DONE RIGHT RESULT IN RESULTS.

Admissions directors would be the first to tell you that, when effectively branded and designed, viewbooks positively impact the admissions funnel. Consider the results some Turnaround clients have enjoyed:

Flint Hill School: Almost 100% increase in ninth-grade applications in the first year.

Ridley College: 35% increase in inquiries, 4% in applications, 45% in enrollments, and 21% in campus interviews in the first year.

Newark Academy: Highest application pool in the history of the school in the first year.

Our frequent partner Andrea Jarrell just completed admissions branding for Yale, including a stupendously well-received viewbook. She comments, “Even the Ivies like Yale, Columbia, and Penn still think it’s important to create viewbooks to communicate their brands.”

VIEWBOOKS AREN’T DEAD.

They’re not even having trouble breathing. They do, however, need to justify their existence by trumpeting the school brand to generate interest and draw right-fit families.

Brand Aid Part 1: Style Guide

Directors of Marketing Communications need a number of tools to steward their brand effectively. This is the first in a series of blog posts that will help make your job much easier and insure brand adhesion in your marketing efforts.

Consistency may be the hobgoblin of little minds, but it is also the hallmark of professional marketing efforts and a key element in a strong brand. A style guide will help you achieve consistency by providing guidelines on graphic identity and editorial preferences. Whenever a designer, copywriter, teacher, development staff member, or anyone else creates something for the school, it will appear to come from the same place. (Yep. This is what you’re going for.)

Do you capitalize job titles? How about references to “school?” How do you refer to proper names within the community? Is it seventh grade, grade 7, or 7th grade and 2011-12 or 2011-2012? What gets capitalized in a heading? Do you use serial commas? What colors can you use in logos and other official school graphics? Can you use the mascot with the logo? How do you give directions to the school?

These and many other questions—whatever is important to your school—can be cleared up early and easily with a style guide or two. (Larger institutions sometimes separate graphic identity style guides from editorial ones. Most schools we’ve worked with need only one.) You’ve got plenty of bigger fish to fry. Why tussle with this stuff all the time? 

Tough to Create, Easy to Use

A style guide is difficult to create because it requires foresight, decision-making, and commitment, but it’s worth its weight in gold once completed. (Warning: It may be a work in progress for a while, as new issues crop up and are dealt with.) It tells both your internal and external communities that you have hard-and-fast rules about your graphic identity and editorial conventions, and that there are few exceptions. 

No Bad Guys

It makes decisions less personal. It’s not you saying, “I don’t like that color so don’t use it.” It’s, “Fuchsia is against Leaf Academy’s style guide, and we can’t use it.” The Director of Marketing Communications then needs only to enforce the style guide, not mediate disputes.

By Example: Take a Look

I’ve gathered a number of sample style guides for your review. As you will notice, they range from simple, three- to four-page Word docs generated by small independent schools to ginormous tomes that are created to feed university machines.

The first example is a compendium of higher ed ones.

These are more like what you might develop:

LaSalle College High School

Kimball Union Academy

Albany Academies

The Pingry School

Exeter

For graphic identity guidelines, remember KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid), and try to include examples of what not to do. (Showing what not to do seems to sink in with users better than showing only what to do.) Turnaround created this graphic identity style guide [PDF] for Millbrook School. We think it gets the job done without a lot of fanfare.

Don’t Forget the Web

You might want to include specific website rules, such as the maximum number of words on a page, positioning and size of the school logo, permitted RGB colors, standardized link formats, etc. For some of you, your web developer will already have many of these guidelines built into your template.

Editorial North Star

For the truly picky, choosing a published style guide as your default and declaring it as such may work well. Most choose between the AP Stylebook and Chicago Manual of Style, but there are others. You might also want to pick a particular dictionary, such as Merriam-Webster.

Missing Component: Brand Messages

How can you be expected to promote the school’s brand without the brand messages? A style guide is a great place to include these messages along with your brand story. Washington State University has a great example.

Guide Them Along

Whatever format you choose and however simple or detailed your style guide is, by creating one, you will be giving your marketers a tool they need to do what you want them to do: adhere to the school’s approved graphic identity and editorial style and advance the school’s brand messages.

Brand Aid Part 2: Keeping "Customers" (a.k.a. Parents) Happy

Like it or not, independent schools, like all academic institutions, are businesses. As such, schools must pay attention to keeping parents happy, much as businesses must keep customers happy.

Keeping parents happy can be a nightmare, because some parents, particularly Gen-X parents, are all about the individual experience. They can seek customization beyond what a school wants to, or should, provide.

But schools should make every effort to keep “normal” parents—those with appropriate expectations—happy, because parents are your best marketers. When parents are happy, they are much more likely to tell their friends and colleagues about how wonderful the school is and how their family has benefited from their relationship with it. They will be your best marketers. They are more likely to become donors and/or volunteer for the school.

In addition, the more satisfied and engaged parents are, the more likely they are to forgive school slip-ups. One way or another, happy parents resolve or accept issues and choose to move on emotionally because they value the relationship over the event.

How do you keep parents happy and make them strong marketers for your school?

• Be responsive to their needs. Answer emails and phone calls promptly, even if just to say you can’t respond now but will as soon as possible.
• Keep the lines of communication open. Many schools promote the relationship triangle (student, parents, school), but parents usually have the least information. Make it clear whom parents should turn to with which questions or problems, and provide contact information.
• Be proactive. Anticipate a problem that may befall their child (or communicate one that has befallen her), and contact parents before they hear news secondhand. Do the same with general school issues before they hit the carpool line.
• Acknowledge them. You may not always agree with parents, but it’s important to acknowledge their point of view.
• Make their life easier. Make sure your communication channels are easy to navigate. Give parents advance notice of student events, activities, homework and deadlines, where their child should be when, what supplies are needed, etc. Consider an easy-to-read grid, rather than prose, for this kind of information.
• Flow what they want to know. Some schools disseminate information right and left, left and right, and parents still say they missed something or feel left in the dark. It can be like trying to drink from an information fire hose. Don’t burden parents with unwanted information. If you can tailor the information flow to specific interests, do it.
• Make their child’s experience positive and productive — and promote it.  Creating great educational experiences is why independent schools exist, and most do it exceedingly well. But kids are not the best communicators. Tell parents about their student’s little victories as well as the big ones with a quick email as they happen.
• Ask parents to promote the school. While there is a fine line between making parents good ambassadors and making them shills for the school, let them know that you need their help. Encourage them to talk about the school with friends, colleagues, and neighbors.
• Give them the tools to do it. Provide parents with key talking points. Encourage them to give the Director of Admission’s name to anyone who inquires and “tell him I sent you.” Remind them to tell people that financial aid is available and that they won’t be hounded if they make an inquiry or take a tour. Consider printing a business card with your brand messages and Director of Admission’s contact information, and give each parent a few to keep in their purse or briefcase.
• Ask them. Conduct an annual survey measuring parent satisfaction. Ask them what you’re doing well, how you can improve, what ideas they have for making the school the best it can be. Report your findings to them in an annual overview. Praise individuals for great ideas. Acknowledge weaknesses and tell parents what you’re doing about them.
• Thank them… early and often for trusting the most important people in their world to your school, for spending their hard-earned dollars on it, for telling their friends and family about it, and for helping it become better by pointing out areas for improvement as well as areas of great satisfaction.

School marketers spend a great deal of time and energy on marketing approaches and tools. The best marketing for a school is word-of-mouth and the best tool is right under your nose: parents.

Brand Aid Part 3: No Silver Bullet

Independent school marketing is no different from for-profit marketing in most respects. It’s a marathon to build your brand, not a sprint.

The hot, trendy marketing stories that come to the forefront of our minds are wildly successful, but rare. Yet we all wish we could be that organization and reap the rewards of becoming a household (or social media) name overnight.

Truth is, strong school brands are built over time — a long time. It takes knowing your brand messages like the back of your hand and being able to tell the stories that prove those messages in multiple mediums to reach the widest audience possible. And to do it again, and again, and again.

We like to say, “When you’re horribly bored with your brand, your audience is just getting it.”

There is no silver bullet for effective branding. It takes work, perseverance, consistency, and creativity.

But you’re up to that challenge, right?

Brand Message #1: Your School's Name

With so much branding, marketing, and social media going on, we rarely look at what gives people their first impression of an independent school’s image: the name itself.

While you can’t do anything to change your school’s name (unless there’s a powerful reason), you can and should look at it from your external audience’s point of view.

Let’s break independent school names down into segments. 

The “The”

When independent schools (a.k.a. “private schools” - a term many schools have decided to leave by the wayside with good reason) have “The” as the first part of their name, it projects a certain… snootiness.

According to the New Oxford American Dictionary, “the” in this case means

(pronounced stressing “the”) used to indicate that someone or something is the best known or most important of that name or type : he was the hot young piano prospect in jazz.

While the use of “the” may benefit your school by elevating it above the crowd, it may harm it by making it seem unapproachable, inaccessible, and elitist

The “Distinguisher”

The part the distinguishes one school from another is the foundation name.

This can reflect a location:
Millbrook School (Millbrook, NY)
Saint James School (Saint James, MD)
The Lawrenceville School (Lawrenceville, NJ) 

Or the name of the founder:
Emma Willard School (Troy, NY)
McCallie School (Chattanooga, TN)
William Penn Charter School (Philadelphia, PA)

Or a religion:
Saint Andrew’s School (Boca Raton, FL)
Friends Academy (Locust Valley, NY)
Marymount High School (Los Angeles, CA)

Or a teaching philosophy:
Montessori School of Denver (Denver, CO)
The Waldorf School of Atlanta (Decatur, GA)

There are more in this category, but the point is that the name provides information about legacy, religion, or teaching style, which in turn projects an image. Occasionally, the audience may get tripped up if they don’t know what the distinguisher means. Is William Penn Charter a “charter school?” Does “Friends” mean buddies? How is a Montessori school different from other independent schools?

The “Tail”

The tail end of a school’s name adds its own punch. “School” is the simplest, most neutral description. “College Prep/Preparatory” conveys that all students are on a track to go to college or university and are being properly prepared to do so. But it also connotes the term “preppy,” bringing with it visions of Lilly Pulitzer, Ralph Lauren, bow ties, and monograms. “Academy” conjures up a Hogwarts kind of place, or a military school. “College” signifies the school’s roots are in the British secondary school.

The lesson here is that when branding your school, be sure to take into account the very first thing that establishes its image: the name. 

Brendan Schneider Invites Us for a Cup of Coffee

Brendan SchneiderYou know who Brendan Schneider (aka SchneiderB) is, right? He’s Director of Admission and Financial Aid at Sewickley Academy by day, and independent school social media, branding, technology and inbound marketing superhero in his spare(!) time. If you have questions, Brendan has answers. 

We first met online when I challenged his post “Independent Schools Shouldn’t Brand…They Should Blog!” and it’s been a vibrant conversation about independent school marketing ever since. 

Brendan asked to interview Turnaround for his segment called “A Cup of Coffee,” and lobbed some fantastic branding questions over the net. 

Brendan, it’s always a pleasure to talk branding with you. And thanks for the cup of coffee.

Bridal Showers, Camels, and Marketing

There were five of us who agreed to co-host a bridal shower. We were brought together not by our organizational skills or experience in creating stunning, Martha Stewart affairs, but by our love for the bride’s mom. 

The planning felt like the Keystone Cops at times. Who was in the lead? That was me because the mom asked me. Then the bride’s aunt wanted to do it. Who keeps track of the moving parts? That was the bride’s aunt. Then it was me because I saw the hole and decided to fill it. Who determines the menu — making sure there are no nuts or seeds that the bride is allergic to? That was another host and me. We had the same vision, so all was good there. What about hand-made favors? The aunt again. But she changed her mind multiple times mid-creation. (I’m glad I wasn’t involved in this one.) The invitations? Me. Nope, change that to the aunt’s daughter…aka bride’s cousin…who wanted a job to do. And got them out late. 

If it sounds like I’m whining (I am), the bottom line is: Could the process have gone better? Yes. Could the outcome have been better? No. The place, food, decor, and weather couldn’t have been more perfect. The bride was beautiful and glowing with the prospect of a loving partner to travel with on life’s journeys. Her mom — my friend and the person who usually does this kind of thing truly “Martha Stewart style” for everyone else —was thrilled and appropriately emotional. The bride got a ton a great stuff to feather her nest. And the groom got the hot dog toaster he always wanted. (Who knew there was such a thing? And why would anyone want one?) This shower ended well, but committee work isn’t always successful.

While I don’t advocate “death to committees” as Speider Schneider does in his blog post for Smashingmagazine.com, he does make a few of good points that are appliciable to independent school marketing committees. One of the weaknesses about committees he points out is the “’Commidiot’” [who] is a committee member who has no idea what is going on in front of them but feels they have to say something of importance to justify their presence in the room.” (You know that person, right?) This kind of contributor only misdirects the committee’s focus and slows down the process. 

I am pleased to say that I’ve worked with a number of truly excellent independent school marketing committees over the years. They were superior because their members were:

• Comprised of five individuals or less
• Committed for the long haul and made meetings a priority
• Focused on goals that were results-oriented
• Experienced in academic marketing or were open-minded and eager to learn
• Quick to appoint a committee decision-maker as well as a point person to communicate between the committee and our firm
• Clear on the role of the Head of School
• Skilled at running efficient meetings, summarizing action items after each gathering, and being decisive as a group
• Welcomed the opinion of others as well as the firm they hired for their expertise

I’ve also worked with a number of independent school marketing committees that generated marketing efforts, which confirmed, “A Camel is a Horse Designed by Committee.” These committees may have produced a viewbook that missed the branding mark, a campaign case statement that didn’t hit the emotional high notes needed to motivate givers, a solicitor manual so long that it was daunting and unused, and a graphic design that we never put in our portfolio because it assaulted the eyes. We can lead a horse (or is that a camel?) to water, but we can’t make them drink. 

By keeping your marketing committee small, focused, with clear roles, and designated decision-makers, you will increase your chances of producing a gleaming stallion instead of a spitting dromedary. Or, put in bridal shower terms, a marketing effort that results in “Love, Laughter, and Happiness Everafter.”

Photo credit: Me. The yummy dessert table for Emma’s shower. 

*************

While we’re on the topic of committees, which by inference also means meetings, I like the Apple approach to them as chronicled by Ken Segall in his article for Fastco called “Meetings Are A Skill You Can Master, And Steve Jobs Taught Me How”.  Here’s Segall’s 3-step system:

HOW TO HAVE A GREAT MEETING

1. Throw out the least necessary person at the table.
2. Walk out of the meeting if it lasts more than 30 minutes.
3. Do something productive today to make up for the time you spent here.

Can You Send Me a Sample?

Imitation is the highest form of flattery. And sample sharing among schools is a great way to research how others handle their marketing. At Turnaround, prospective clients often ask for samples as a measure of our work. Sample sharing among schools and requests for samples from a marketing firm come with the same caveats. An effective marketing piece isn’t just a pretty face. The strategy behind it is the most important part. Who is the audience? What result do you want from the piece? What barriers or misperceptions do you want it to overcome? How will you measure the results? So enjoy pouring through samples, but when it’s time for you create a marketing piece for your school, make sure it’s strategy-driven…not just a copy of a pretty face.

Checklist for a New Communications Office

Congratulations to all the new directors of communications who are about to take their positions in July. This is a fabulously fun and varied job that will keep you hoping. It can also be very gratifying as the fruits of your labor will be clearly evident if you are performing well.

As a little welcome gift, I’ve prepared a checklist of things you’ll need to get you going. While it’s just a beginning, it should give you a jumpstart.

You veterans out there: Please feel free to leave a comment if you want to add to the list.

Here goes:

• Your school’s brand
  • Graphic identity: school logo and usage, athletic logo and usage, school colors, secondary color palette, fonts, preferred stock, computer fonts
  • Brand messages
• Styleguide that outlines your school’s graphic identity as well as editorial guidelines. See examples from colleges and universities.
• Editorial styleguide your school uses as your Bible. Two popular ones:
  • Chicago Manual of Style
  • Associated Press (AP)
• Proper spelling of frequently used words:
  • Indicia not indesha, indesia, et al
  • Stationery (as in letterhead) not stationary (as in a fixed position)
• Online dictionary and thesaurus
• Marketing plan
• A thorough review of your existing website for optimal visitor experience. (Shameless self-promotion: Consider a web assessment from Turnaround.)
• RSS feeds for social media gurus like edSocialMedia, Brendan Schneider, Andy Shaindlin, and William Stites, to name a few.
• Pantone color books
• 18-24 inch ruler, preferably metal
• Envelope size chart & corresponding insert size chart
• Fractions to decimals conversion chart
• Knowledge of current postal regulations (or a great mail house on call)
• Current bulk mail permit/indicia
• Current business reply envelope or card (BRE or BRC) permit, if needed, usually for annual giving
• Production schedule for active projects
• Time tracking software (to help budget for production and turnaround time in the future)
• Knowledge of proof reading marks
• Graphic design software: Adobe CS (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator)
• Automatic backup protection like Retrospect
• 11 x 17 inch (or larger) printer, if your office can afford it
• Good quality digital camera. This Canon has been a workhorse for me for many years and does everything well except sports. My pride and joy for higher end stuff is the Olympus Pen 2.
• A few good type and stock image sources like iStockphoto, Veer, and Shutterstock.

Coaches Gone Wild on Spring Break

You’re the Director of Marketing Communications at an independent school. You’re just back from spring break and the baseball coach wants to show you something. He’s very excited. He’s very proud of himself. He tells you about the new publication he has developed called the “Leaf Academy Baseball Bulletin.” It’s aimed at parents of team members to showcase the accomplishments of their precious sons.

Ok. Not a bad idea. Good for school spirit. Good for support for the baseball team. Good for student retention.

And then Coach shows you the piece that he has already dropped in the mail to said parents.

Yikes.

Not only is the design a stellar example of 80s desktop publishing, but the photos are dark, taken from a distance, and dismal. The colors are burgundy and grey, when your school colors are blue and green. Why? “Because I like those colors,” Coach says. Typos, misspellings, and incorrect identifications abound. The return address is wrong. And, to top it all off, the school logo looks nothing like the official logo, but something pulled off the internet that “kinda, sorta looked like it,” according to Coach.

In your role as Director of Marketing Communications, you know that it’s a mixed blessing when your independent school colleagues take it upon themselves to create marketing pieces. The good part is that it takes one thing, no matter how small, off your plate. The bad part is when others go rogue, creating a piece that reflects poorly on the school’s brand. What’s a communications director to do?

First, thank Coach for his enthusiasm and for taking initiative. It’s great that he is excited about the baseball program and wants to boast about it. After you’ve heaped some more praise, ask Coach (well, this really isn’t so much an ask as it is an imperative, but you know how to do this nicely) to show you all future pieces before they go out. (After all, players shouldn’t try to steal second unless they get a sign first, right?) Make it clear that you don’t mean the night before it’s due to go out, since you need time to give it a proper review.

Then show Coach your school’s style guide, which contains information about your school’s graphic identity and brand messages. (If you don’t have one, you should. Read more here.) Tell Coach that this isn’t your style guide, it’s the school’s, and every piece that goes out from the school must conform to it. Tell him that the Head of School says so. (And make sure you actually do have the Head’s backing.) Most of all, tell him that branding your school is a team effort, and all team members need to do their part in order for the brand to be successful.

Explain to Coach that the purpose of your job is to promote and protect the well-earned image of the school, which is fragile and can be negatively impacted by even small things. Provide examples that don’t involve him, such as a crabby receptionist, peeling paint, or litter around campus. Every person in the school, from the maintenance crew to the Head of School, has the power to help or harm the school’s brand by how they do their job and interact with internal and external communities.

Show Coach good examples of other schools’ baseball bulletins. Perhaps you could create a “master template” that conforms to brand identity for Coach to use as the basis for future issues.

A poorly designed baseball bulletin isn’t the worst thing that can happen on spring break. But a fastball to the head of the brand has gotta hurt.

Control Over Your Website (Or Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen)

In the Beginning
In the early days of school websites, there was a web master. The only way content could be updated was by code and only a web master (usually someone from the Math department!) could do it. So control over the website was centralized. Many would argue too centralized. It took too long to get something posted because only one person could do it. (Hear the coaches screaming? That echo’s lingering from a few decades ago when game scores were posted in the next season.)

Ah! Progress!
Enter web development companies that specialize in independent schools. They heard your cries of frustration and developed content management systems to let “lay people” update their websites. Now almost anyone with the password can get the job done. 

Careful What You Wish For
Look who’s posting now:

• Teachers
• Administrators
• Coaches
• Students
• Parents
• [add your posters here]

A Blessing and a Curse
The ability for anyone to post is a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that it takes the weight off one person or office, allows for fresh and timely content, and encourages individuals to take charge of their own postings. The curse is that school websites are decentralized with many contributors who have different goals and various methods for achieving those goals. Contributors frequently create pages that aren’t driven by brand messages, common graphic identity, shared editorial style guides, or cohesive, results-driven approaches. This often culminates in an inconsistent visitor experience as they move from page to page and a school brand flounders without guidelines and oversight.

Website vs. Social Media
Social media is all about legions of contributors, posting comments on the fly and speaking extemporaneously about the school. These posts are generally fleeting and can get buried under hundreds of posts that come after them. Content on your website is more permanent, particularly primary and secondary pages. While updates can always be made, these messages should be carefully crafted to put the school’s best foot forward. 

Too Many Cooks
I’ve been working on a web assessment for a school and included in that assessment is a competitor comparison. What is blatantly clear from this exercise is how many cooks are in this kitchen and how negatively this impacts the image the school wants to project. Its competitors seem to have a more cohesive, brand-centric overview of their content. By comparison, this school looks disorganized, unclear about its mission and brand, and less professional than its peers.

Use the Same Recipe
While we don’t want to go back to the one-person, math teacher model, schools should want to, insist on, and have policies in place to have more control over web content. This will mean different things for different schools based on its personnel and organizational structure. While it may take more time to execute, the benefit will be a stronger, positive, brand-centric visitor experience. 

Enrollment Marketing = One Answer: Why is Your School Worth It?

There is one question independent schools need to answer for prospective families in this economy:

Why is it worth it?

Why is your school worth $15,000 a year for a 5-year-old?

Why is your school worth $100,000 for high school?

Why is your school worth $20,000 a year when I have good (or OK) public schools for “free”?

Why is your school worth $45,000 a year for boarding when I don’t want to “send my child away”?

Why is your school worth “sending my child away”?

When you answer the “worth it” questions, you’ll have a long waitlist.

Getting on the Brandwagon

We’re glad schools are thinking strategically and deliberating about their position before they market themselves to their constituents.

But before you jump on the “brand wagon,” be aware that, in order to be successful, you need to know how to rollout the brand, achieve buy-in, and have the personnel and organizational structure in place to steward the brand going forward.

Don’t: simply try to put out today’s fires, try to foist the brand on the community, or let “right-fighters” dominate the brand process.

Do: think long-term, have the backing of the head of school and the board, and work for the common good of the school. 

How Long Does It Take to Create a Viewbook?

How long does it take to create a viewbook? 

In order to create a strategic viewbook, a comfortable time frame is 18 months. You can accelerate this process and complete it in less than a year, but this timetable allows for careful reflection, well-planned strategy and unhurried production.

Spring: establish committee and budget; interview and choose creative partners

Summer: take off your many hats and relax by the pool

Fall: conduct research and execute photo shoots

Winter: review position paper; review comps, writing sample and outline

Spring: review writing and design

Early summer: final approvals

Mid-summer: printing 

Late summer: delivery of books

September: bask in the glory of a job well-done

Is Social Media Free?

Social media channels are attractive to independent school marketers for many reasons, not the least of which is that they’re free. Signing up for Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest is free. So is blogging. And free is highly appealing where marketing dollars are limited.

But is free really free? The answer is no. Though independent schools don’t have to lay out money up front, they do have to pay the salaries and benefits of the individual(s) who develop content for and monitor social media. Unless you have a dedicated—and capable—volunteer who is responsible for your social media efforts, it costs the school plenty.

For this reason, the marketing communications office should assign a time budget for social media in its annual marketing plan. Pick something, say 2-3 hours per week, and try to stick to it. We all know how easy it is to get sucked into the black hole of social media. After a few months, adjust the time budget as necessary, but don’t leave it open-ended.

Time is money, and money is a valuable commodity in independent school marketing. 

Is Your School a Brand-Message Drop-Out?

It seems that when brand messaging is new and fresh, independent school communications are teeming with the stuff — garnering buzz and excitement with internal and external audiences. Most independent schools build on this energy and take the brand to greater heights year after year. But for some, a year after launch, the brand messaging is hard to find. What happened?

Did the school…

A. lose momentum,

B. lose their way,

C. lack a brand steward,

D. lack leadership support,

E. lack motivation,

F. any of the above?

The answer is “F.” Depending on the answer(s), it means the school wasn’t prepared for or didn’t commit to brand messaging for the long-term. This is disheartening, but, more importantly, it is an expensive waste of time for the entire school community.

These answers are interwoven. It’s easy to lose your momentum and way without a strong brand steward. It’s likely a strong brand steward will lose momentum without leadership support. Leadership will lose momentum without powerful motivation.

There’s another reason independent schools become brand-message drop-outs. On occasion, a school hires a new Director of Marketing Communications who goes rogue and sets out branding the school on his/her own. If the school has a strong brand in place that is effective, new hires should take a year to learn the community before making changes. After that, it’s appropriate for the Director of Marketing Communications to assess the existing brand, look for places to improve it, and, perhaps, make the case for re-branding. Making a mark is less important than protecting the school’s hard-earned brand.     

Don’t become a brand message drop-out. Raise your baby brand into an honor-roll student.

Part Director of Marketing Communications, Part Octopus. You Know Who You Are.

As the director of marketing communications at an independent school, do you feel overwhelmed? Do projects rarely run as smoothly as you’d like? Have trouble keeping track of their status?  

As a principal at Turnaround Marketing and its creative director for two decades, I feel your pain. Many’s the day I felt like an octopus—or wished I was one—trying to keep more than 30 clients’ projects on track. My experience in the creative communications trenches taught me about good design, positive client relations, effective team management, quality control, and achieving stated goals in marketing pieces. It also taught me about organization and time management.

To keep all the balls in the air, I instituted policies and procedures that ensured effective workflow so that small projects wouldn’t slip through the cracks and large ones got the attention they deserved. Though we only had two designers, we produced many award-winning, results-driven marketing pieces with the aplomb of much larger firms. You, too, are probably charged with doing a lot with a little. (How many arms does your boss think you have?) It can be done.

In higher ed, communications offices call their colleagues in admissions, development, alumni relations, etc., “clients” and treat them as such. In best practice situations, they meet with the client for intake about the project, ascertain goals, ensure brand adhesion, develop a production schedule, assign duties, submit comps for review, design the project, revise it, get final approval, produce it, and follow up to measure results. They frequently bill clients for services rendered by taking money from other offices’ budgets and moving it to theirs. You could call these offices “internal advertising agencies.”

Communication offices in independent schools, in higher ed, and firms like ours want to get design projects from Point A (a new job ticket) to Point B (delivery):

• efficiently (save the most money for the school and the firm),
• effectively (get the results sought),
• accurately (get as close to perfection as possible),
• creatively (create the most compelling designs within designated parameters),
• on time (keep to the deadline), and 
• on budget (or as close as possible given circumstances not always in our control).

Here’s my suggestion for effective workflow procedures.

First, create a job sheet to keep track of projects. Or how someone else can get up to speed quickly if you disappeared tomorrow in the witness protection program.  This is view of all current projects from 30,000 feet. It covers the major milestones, but doesn’t go into much detail. Creating a job sheet is easily done in Word or Excel. Columns could include job number, “client” (admissions, development, etc.), project, first-proof due date, in-hand due date, and notes. At Turnaround, we also include scope (hours budgeted), and hours to date (see time-tracking software later in this post). You might also include a column for who is working on the project such as writers, photographers, printers, web developers, videographers, etc.

Hold regular, weekly meetings of your team even if it’s just two of you. Or how to avoid the dreaded, “Gee, I thought you were doing that.” Run down the job sheet and update each project’s status. Don’t skip projects unless they are completely idle. There were many occasions when this weekly meeting saved someone’s rear end at our firm.

Create a job folder for every project using anything from a simple file folder to a bigger job jacket. Or how not to lose the critical information that was scribbled on a post-it note. Label the folder with the job number, client, and project. We used to use colored folders that matched one of the school’s colors. You might want to assign one color each for admissions, development, alumni, all-school, etc.

Develop and use a creative brief that outlines the job’s scope, goals, budget, and deadlines as well as personnel assigned to it, printing guidelines, etc. Or how put all details of a project on one sheet of paper for focus and fast reference. Make sure you ensure brand adhesion by aligning key messages with your school’s brand messages. If you are developing a marketing effort that includes social media and website, add information about that process and deadlines as well.

Establish an approval process, and don’t veer from it. Or how to protect your patootie and your colleagues’ as well. At Turnaround, we require a physical sign-off when a job is approved. Clients sometimes wonder why we are hard-nosed about this, but we have found it keeps everyone on the same page and prevents problems.

Determine the number of revisions. Or how to prevent revision after revision, after revision, after revision, and a pile of your hair accumulating on your office floor. If you tell clients you expect two rounds of revisions, they will generally be more thoughtful about changes. Then you’ll end up with three or four rounds. If you let them revise ad infinitum, believe me, they will. (The record at Turnaround was 31. We instituted our policy after that.)

Use time-tracking software. Or how to learn from your successes… and your mistakes. Though small independent school offices may not need it, it shows how long each project and its components took to complete, which will help you predict future projects. It also points out “problem” projects, which helps with internal time management and workflow as well as assessing which projects should be outsourced. FunctionFox and Clients & Profits are good time-tracking tools and have production-tracking capabilities, but there are less sophisticated and expensive ones out there as well.

So is all this paperwork worth it? Or why would anyone in their right mind want to do this? If you use these tools regularly and track results, your office will become more efficient, productive, and valuable. And, hey, this can only help when asking for a raise or an assistant.

Recipe for a New School Logo

Change is difficult. It creates feelings of being unsettled and anxious. As a result, people resist change and defer to the status quo, even when they know what is in place isn’t working. If you know you need a new logo, try this recipe to help your school embrace the change.

1 logo committee (representatives from communications, admissions, alumni/ae, 
development as well as the head of school)

1 talented graphic designer who listens

1 old logo

1 school mission combined with 1 set of brand messages to guide the design

1 school shield

Gather first three ingredients for meeting.  Show and review existing logo’s merits and faults. Add “wish list” for new logo.  Set aside.

Have talented graphic designer mix up a dozen or so concepts in his/her kitchen with knowledge of mission and brand messages.  Reconvene second meeting where he/she explains process for each design and its pros and cons. Blend with thoughts of the committee. Give committee copies. Bake for a few weeks. Don’t let others who are not on the committee peek into the oven.

Remove from oven and continue with a handful of meetings until the logo is done. Know that the final will not be to everyone’s taste. 

Reserve school shield as garnish for alumni and official use. Otherwise, discard.

Serving suggestions: You can roll out the logo while it’s hot with a lot of fanfare. Or you can let it cool and begin to replace the old with the new slowly, starting with external audiences. 

Rethink Your Magazine

THINK BACK Most schools have changed the name of their magazine by now from “alumni/ae magazine” to just “magazine,” acknowledging that their audience is not just alums and articles are not of interest only to alums. 

RETHINK  Turnaround challenges schools to take the next step and rethink the purpose (and therefore content) of the magazine all together. Think of the magazine as a “brand book.” Fill it with articles, large and small, that mirror your brand strategy and promote the school’s image to all of its constituents (parents, alums, donors, colleges, prospective families, the local and national community).

THINK TWICE Avoid loading your magazine with content that should be online. Move a good portion of your current content online to your website, social media, constituent-specific newsletters, and/or push pages. This means moving [gulp!]: sports scores; full coverage of graduation and reunions; the lower, middle and upper school plays; student awards; “around campus” department, etc.

THINK BIG Fill the magazine with articles that anyone would want to read even if they had no connection to the school. Ask yourself, “If this magazine were sitting in my doctor’s office, would I pick it up and read it? Would I be drawn in by a few key articles?” By loading it with compelling content, a wide range of individuals will learn about the school, its mission, outcomes, expertise, creativity, and its people.

THINK SMART Magazines cost a bundle to design, print and mail. Consider segmenting. Mail a full magazine with class notes to everyone in the class of 1975 and before. Put the magazine online for the rest. Do the same thing with your annual report.

WHAT DO THEY THINK? Survey your constituents. Ask them what they want in a magazine and how they want it delivered.