marketing your school

Marketing Your School

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Agenda

Objectives

School marketing 101

Communicating about your school

Developing marketing materials: Working session

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Objectives

Review why school marketing is important and how you can use it to attract quality candidates that are a great fit for your school.

Identify the best ways to communicate your school’s strengths and your focus on student achievement to prospective teachers, community members and students that you meet at recruitment and interview events

Anticipate questions that candidates may have about your school and develop thoughtful answers to address them

Develop materials that can help you communicate your school’s strengths and your focus on student achievement at recruitment and interview events

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Agenda

Objectives




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How do you currently share information about your school?WHAT do you currently use to market your school?

WHEN do you market your school?

WHO markets your school? WHO is your intended audience?

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A strong school marketing campaign will help to attract and cultivate high-quality candidates.

Share your school’s unique programs,

strengths and focus on student achievement to keep the school

community involved

GOAL: Create effective marketing materials and

concrete messages to communicate about your school.

Position your school to cultivate high

quality teachers in a competitive market within your district

and in others.

Make strong matches between your needs and candidates’ skills

and interests to increase teacher satisfaction and

ultimately impact retention.

WHY?

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Developing a variety of marketing materials will prepare you to communicate about your school to any audience at any venue.

Materials School introduction

School one-pager or brochure School website

Event displays (tri-fold, banners, etc.)

School-based interviews

Networking sessions

Internet Presence

H E L L O

Recruitment Events

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Agenda

Objectives




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Create messages about your school that are relevant and compelling to ensure a strong match between you, your school and the candidate.

Inspire candidates: Compel individuals to take action by inspiring them with the mission and vision of your school along with your goals to increase student achievement.

Serve as a point of comparison: Contrast your school strengths, or those you intend to build, with what someone might find at a typical school.

Share information about yourself: Discuss your strengths as a leader as well as the strengths of your leadership team and school community.

Be strategic:• Avoid cliché statements.• Provide specific examples about systems you put in place and

accountability measures you are using.• Share the progress your students have made and your goals

for increasing students achievement and teacher effectiveness.

• Share opportunities for individuals to be part of the success of your school and how everyone contributes to the school community.

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Inspire Candidates: Consider the factors that inspire teachers to select a position in an urban district.

1. Teachers appreciate the challenges of working with a diverse, high-needs student population

2. Teachers are most inspired when the school leadership invests the staff in the school vision.

3. Collaboration and involvement in school leadership gives the teachers a sense of community and value.

4. Collegial support and any kind of buddy/mentor system is very attractive to new teachers.

What inspires you about your school? How can you use this to your advantage and best position your school to inspire candidates?

Brainstorm

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Serve as a point of a comparison: Describe what makes your school unique.Key Information: • School name • A school strengths and

your student achievement goals for this year

Additional Details:• Your leadership style• Additional strengths• Recent accomplishments

Next Steps (should be determined by the setting):

• Do you want the candidate to contact you?

• Schedule an interview?• Visit the school?

Delivery is crucial. With only a minute or two, a candidate’s interest is based just as much on the speaker as it is on the information.

Key Information:

Additional Details:

Next Steps:

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Construct your 30-second school pitch to briefly summarize your school at hiring events and networking sessions.Key Information:1. ____________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Next Steps for the candidate:________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Expand your school pitch to 2-5 minutes to use at a school-based interview.

Add details, strengths, unique programs or accomplishments:___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Next steps are your first interview question or specifics about the position: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Be strategic: Anticipate and be prepared to discuss the challenges inherent to your school and district.

Nationally, teachers were most concerned about gaining information

about school challenges during the interview process:

• Neighborhood and demographics information • High turnover of teachers that impedes the culture of collaboration• School safety concerns• Past reputation of the school or school building/surrounding area

What are school-specific challenges you want to be prepared to address? Brainstorm

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Be strategic: Challenges can inspire candidates if you also share your strategies to address the issue.

Low parent/family participation

• Added a back to school breakfast for parents that can’t attend after school

• Hired a Parent Outreach faculty member

Challenge 1: What we’re doing 1:



Example Challenge: Example What we’re doing:

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Consider which staff will help your efforts to inform and attract candidates to your school

Are punctual for events Come prepared with questions and

materials Exhibit the skills needed to be

successful Seem approachable

Are consistent with follow-up Work well with a team Have an active interest in new

teachers Possess strong verbal

communication skills

High-energy recent hires or students to help recruit candidates The AP or lead teacher who will most closely manage the new hire A parent who can talk about community involvement

Consider adding …

When selecting staff or community members to be on your marketing team, look for individuals who…

Members of your staff or school community you want to add to your team:

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Create at least three marketing materials to market your school based on your key messages.

School brochure or one-page flyer

School website for online access

Event display or school poster

Match between school’s needs and candidate’s skills

and interests

Key messages about what makes your school unique

Equals

Build

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School brochure: a simple, effective marketing tool to share your key messages with candidates.

Learning community and professional atmosphere in your school

• Clearly state your vision for the school• Highlight yourself as a leader, cite a strength• Update each year with recent school achievements

Current statistics and long term goals• Explain how you will meet these goals• Highlight your vision for the future

Personal connection to the school community• Teacher bios or testimonials are inspiring and an opportunity for

individuals to connect to current staff• Student bios support the focus on achievement and those the

school serves• Share information on community highlights and activities

Be sure to include information about what makes your school unique.

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School web presence: a powerful recruitment tool for teachers to explore the school’s details from home.

Keep it simple and incorporate your key messages to draw in candidates that are the right match for your school.TI

P

Website Contents - Start with the basics• Determine staff members to help with web content and

creation:• Content writers/editors• Photographers• Tech-savvy web designers

• Involve your students to design and write content, or depending on skill, to maintain updates.

WHY websites work• 71% of job seekers reported using the internet to look for a

position – a higher percentage than any other source – according to a survey by the non-profit group The Conference Board.

• Newly hired teachers site web searches as their number one source for gathering information about a school in focus groups.

• School websites can often be created for free or little cost,

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Event displays: allow your school to stand out at hiring fairs or other district events.

Event Displays can include:• Tri-fold poster board with school information• Quote board with student, teacher, and administrator

comments• School banner• Examples of bright, colorful student work• Recent awards or recognitions• Additional materials in school colors (balloons, tablecloth, etc)

What materials do you already have to build or enhance your school’s event display? Who on your staff could create the display for you?

Brainstorm

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Remember: the purpose of marketing is to ensure that you recruit high-quality candidates that are the best fit for your school.

School marketing messages…

•Highlight unique school programs.

•Focus on your own strengths as a school

leader.

•Are honest about challenges, yet focus on

positives.

High-Quality Candidates…

• Have diverse backgrounds with varied strengths and

experiences.

• Value strong school leadership.

• Want to learn more about how schools are addressing their

challenges

Ultimately work to yield strong matches between potential teachers and your school.

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Next Steps

Share your school introduction and key messages with your leadership team and anyone who takes part in the hiring process.

Complete your school flyer

Create a positive web presence for your school by starting the process of publishing a website or updating the information on your current site for this school year.

Gather materials to create your school’s event display to bring to upcoming hiring events.

marketing your school

Documents

school strengths

typical school

school community involved

effective marketing

variety of marketing

student achievement

schools strengths

candidates skills