Thoughts on the challenges schools face with education marketing
A bit of context
Rachael and I recently worked on a schools video marketing campaign with Suzy Rai and the Transform Trust. We are a brand studio based in Torquay, South Devon, offering branding, website design & brand video to creative businesses across the UK - find out more about our branding services for businesses.
With that in mind, I (Simon) wanted to invest more in our local community, so I attended my first meeting this week as a school governor at St Chad's Nursery & Infant School, which is on St Chad’s Road in Normanton, not far from the centre of Derby.
I was really impressed by what I found, and really had nothing to compare it with or any prior expectations, so it was a good exercise in reviewing and reflecting on what I found.
As mentioned, we work with local schools and academy trusts on their marketing and customer experiences, so these reflections should feed into what you do on the ground.
An example of one of our schools videos with the Transform Trust. If the video above does not load or you’re reading this via an RSS reader, click here: https://youtu.be/ZVQQoExdZvY
Challenges & opportunities
Direction comes at a strategic level
A few years ago the school faced significant challenges, although you wouldn’t think so now, as it is in a much healthier state - the smiles and happy faces tell you everything!
Fortunately, the governing board was able to see the situation for what it is and ask for external help
It knew to look for experienced professionals who had a track record in a similar situation
Overall, it was committed to making the right decisions, which were long-term and focussed on the strategic growth and benefits; it just needed help getting there
Often there is a false dichotomy between those that make the decisions and those that implement them; the reality is that both parts of the school pulled together and carried out their responsibilities
What do to about it
In our design-led marketing work with schools and academy trusts and more broadly, this is critical
Getting the top-level management and leaders involved, aware and engaged is critical
In other words, it’s alignment and without alignment behind a direction of travel, projects and campaigns become very difficult indeed
Practitioners can practise, but without direction, it is futile and wasted
Change starts with a vision
The first thing that the new leadership team did was look at the vision of the school
The results show that this was absolutely the right thing to do, but why?
Well, a nice definition of vision is:
A clear and inspirational hope for the future
Or, in other words:
The long-term change that you would like to see brought about in an ideal world, as a result of your work
As you can see, these statements talk about the future and an ideal scenario
Without that clear picture of what things could look like, and for the better, it makes the process of change much harder
The vision acts as a sort of target, and targets always provide incentive and something against which you can measure yourself, or change, if required
By clarifying and committing to a vision, the school leadership gave itself the best footing on which to launch out, however daunting it may have felt
It allowed them to look back and ensure that they were progressing in the right direction - setting and following the compass for change
What to do about it
If you’re struggling to find and define your vision, I’ve found the following resource from the DIYCommitteeGuide.org very helpful
It suggests a group exercise in which you draw a diagram ‘of what your organisation would be like if it was doing everything you think it should be doing and had all the resources it needed’
A way I like to approach this is to ask, ‘if you were wildly successful, what would your organisation and work look like in 5-10 years’
Download the worksheet here: Developing a Vision Statement from the DIYCommitteeGuide.org
Be true to your values
Alongside vision, the leadership team also invested heavily in clarifying and safeguarding its values
It went through a process of redefining them, and as a faith-based school, this was a crucial step
Again, why is that important?
Starting with a definition again, values are:
The set of beliefs and principles that guide your work: in particular, how your organisation operates; how it is perceived externally; how staff carry out your services. These will guide all aspects of your programmes and activities in terms of principle and practice
In the same way that vision acts as the incentive and benchmark for action and change, values underpin the means by which that direction of travel is outworked
There’s more than one way to skin a cat, which is the beauty of work in general, but particular ways of working will not always sit well with every team or community
Values ensure that the way that you work reinforces the direction of your work so that your people and audience are fulfilled
The other good thing about values is that they allow you to differentiate yourself from others, which is important when you are in a competitive environment or engaging with marketing
What to do about it
Values and being value-led is becoming a bit of a trend of late, but going from having no ostensible values to operating by them is not as easy as it sounds
I made some note on a recent talk by Mark Saxby, 'How We Developed a Truly Values-Led Business'
One of the main reflections was that values start by solving a problem
Don’t try and necessarily engineer something; instead look at the things you are facing and the solutions that are coming forward naturally
What do you draw instinctively from the approaches that arise?
How do the solutions you choose start to define the sort of values that guide how you operate?
Create an experience for your people or audience
The school’s vision is ‘Love God, love neighbour, love self’, which is taken from the Bible, and defined its values as ‘love, friendship, compassion and respect’
As such, taking love, which underpins all the rest of them, it looked to outwork it in everything it did
Two things struck me when listening to the staff and parents in the meeting:
The head of school’s first action was to overhaul the visual fabric of the school ahead of her first term, creating a warm, welcoming atmosphere for children
The parents sing her praises, as they have recognised her genuine love for the children and her commitment to making it a loving placing in which to learn and grow
The fact that parents pour such praise on her speaks volumes to the benefit out outworking vision and values on the ground
Creating a conducive environment for the purpose of that space is critical, as everything from colour, light and space work together
What to do about it
This is another one that sounds easier than it actually is to implement
For me it comes down to customer journeys, and I wrote about this process in a previous blog: ‘Why your customer's journey on your website matters & how to influence it‘
The key thing here is helping people along a scale from aware, informed to engaged
Fundamentally, you start by drawing or writing it down
Until you have mapped it out it is very hard to evaluate whether you are being idealistic or how you can take steps to influence it
Be part of a network
As mentioned above, the governing body had the presence of mind to look for outside input and help
On its own before, the school was isolated and vulnerable, which is a particular weakness for small organisations that have limited resources
As part of the change process, the school joined a local school academy trust, Derby Diocesan Academy Trust (DDAT), which gave it the support and investment it needed to get back on track
The network facilitates a comprehensive programme of support, training and oversight that would be impossible for a small organisation to facilitate on its own
While the arrangement with DDAT delivered a lot of hands-on investment, as the school has got stronger and more confident, that investment can be reduced according to the needs of the school
The principle here is that to gain new perspectives, ideas and ways of doing things, you need to expose yourself to a wider pool of influences, and a network enables that
Equally, a sign of a healthy organisation is independence and resilience, so over-dependence is a danger sign
What to do about it
Er, join one!
Whether it is your local business networking group or an academy trust, if you’re not getting regular external input, I suggest that you consider where you can get it
Equally, is there someone you can ask to mentor you, even a one-off, introductory chat to get you going on some key areas
We benefited a great deal from Suzy Rai’s input as part of The Big House, supporting creative, digital businesses across Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire
The key thing is to think about what you need - where are you weak - and then right the setup to speak into that and help
Certainly, don’t look for someone who will just say nice things to you; appropriate challenge is critical
Nurture talent, preferrably internally
One of the things I love about the St Chad’s success story is how the leadership identified talent within its local teaching pool
Generally, teaching practitioners love their work and are not necessarily looking for a rapid career development
They love the children and love making a difference, so the invitation to leadership was a surprise, but taken hold of
As such, it was fulfilling for the individual and fulfilling for the community when someone with a local connection is able to make a greater impact through leading others
In addition, a happy by-product of change management delivered internally and locally is that others notice and begin to ask why
As a school becomes known as a centre of excellence it draws in talent, interest and investment on a variety of levels that helps it grow further
Because it is all tied together with the local connection, people take more pride and cannot help but feel part of the success story
What to do about it
This is self-evident, although perhaps not if you are a smaller or start-up business
In that case, look for local talented entrepreneurs with whom you can collaborate
You may not be in a position to employ someone and take on the overheads, but can you develop a relationship with someone who can feed into projects on a case by case basis?
Balancing policies with sales & marketing
My initial evaluation of the school context is that it is very strong on administration, management and policy & compliance
These areas make for a very strong internal unit that functions well within itself and its immediate connections
However, compared with a business, a school has no immediate need for marketing and sales functions, as its funding comes from local and central government
There is no need for it to sell its products and services, although interestingly, it needs to be able to demonstrate its identity as unique from other schools
Still, we live in a challenging and fluctuating financial environment, so central funding is never secure and market dynamics are constantly shifting
My view is that the most successful and robust schools will be the ones that develop their sales and marketing
However, not in the business sense, but through fostering links with local businesses, fundraising and creating thriving parent-teacher associations
Policies are good and necessary, but schools will need to shift their paradigm to include more of an external focus with the necessary communications, revenue streams and marketing strategies to survive
What to do about it
Schools often have business leaders and administrators these days, but what about the sales and marketing functions?
How can you develop revenue streams that allow you to be more robust and resilient?
Perhaps start by analysing your financial strengths and weaknesses
Where are there opportunities for you to develop new areas of income? It could be grant applications or partnerships with local businesses - stoke your creative thinking!
Schools and academies love working with us - here’s what one said recently:
“Rachael’s ability to capture the essence of the day was exceptional, she interpreted the brief insightfully and brought additional ideas, which resulted in an extremely professional film, which impacted the event so positively. Simon’s project management and communication skills ensured the whole project ran smoothly throughout. Working with Wildings Studio has enabled us to raise the bar in terms of our corporate communications and branding, and I wouldn’t hesitate to commission them for further projects of this nature.”
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