Your School’s Publicity and Public Relations
What publicity and public relations efforts does your school already have in place? What is working and what is not? What changes do you think you can make to improve your results?
Our campus support center takes the lead on National and local advertising. However, the instructors and I form personal relationships with the vendors, lecturers, advising groups and businesses to better support our students. This effort puts our name out there as well as aid our students in finding positions.
My school has a culinary department and this is a great opportunity for social media exposure and publicity. Currently, each campus allows for minimal contributors. I'm working on gaining admin access to help bolster brand awareness, prospect interaction,and ultimately increase enrollment.
We have been doing some charity events in our area - raising funds/supplies for area food bank, collecting donations for a children's school supply basket for a shelter and various other things. We are a relatively new campus and are trying many things to get the name out. We are inviting the local paper that puts happy stories and pictures to all these events. Right now, the only thing I believe we need to do is participate in more events and then decide which ones give us the best result and/or make the campus/students feel the best.
We put advertisements in the Vietnamese community magazines, since we draw a large proportion of our students from that community. In terms of public relations, we should do more. Right now, even though we do think about going to events like holiday events, school fairs, etc., we do not do much, mainly because of a lack of personnel.
Alicia,
Your marketing sounds great. Are you doing a lot of pre and post publicity like sending announcements to print and other media and letting your community know about the event after? There are lots of photo opps from a great event. It sounds like you are creative and can generate a lot of interest. Fashion, entertainment, and lifestyle have a lot of draw - especially in light of all the bad news around! Thanks, Susan
Dr. Susan Schulz
Sandra,
Good points. The brand has to be clear as well as your target market. The goal is to determine who your ideal students are for each program. It is also good to research what students would be successful for each program that you are not reaching. Flyers are great if you place them in the right places. Events are good if you invite the ideal prospective students. Both strategies are fairly low cost. Social media is good again if your ideal students use that media. We think that marketing can be effective when targeted and doesn't have to cost a lot. Thanks, Susan
Dr. Susan Schulz
At the moment, pretty basic - charity, fashion show and competition events and paid advertisement. Now I am on board as their new PR girl, so I will definitely bring more lifestyle/entertainment contacts, social media strategies, and media relations to the table. My mission will go beyond getting more leads but creating and maintaining a grandeur brand awareness.
From what I've learned from our school we advertise through flyers and events. Our goal is to extend our publicity through social media and public relations. Probably the first step is to make sure that all branding is in place, making sure that we are sending the right message. It also needs to be consistent, that way any effort we make to bring awareness will produce the best results.
Antonio ,
This is all great. What kind of training do you give your students and staff who attend the events? It is important to remind them about what they can and cannot say and how to represent your school to the public. It is great that you are attending industry trade shows and expos as well. This tells your community who you are and your interest in being a contributing part of the community. Yes, getting help is always a challenge especially if there is limited staff and volunteers. This is a good reason to stay in touch with your alumni on a regular and formal basis. There are a lot of alumni and they are usually happy to help out. Creating checklists of each task will help to. It makes it easier for your volunteers and they can clearly see what they have to do. Good luck, Susan
Dr. Susan Schulz
Our school often participates in community and charity events. Depending on the event, we staff them with admissions personnel, students, staff, and/or faculty. We will often provide free massage to the less fortunate, at fundraising walks/runs, at community organized street fairs, and cultural events. We also attend industry trade shows and small business expos to gather information and share information about our programs. One of the challenges is getting everyone on board. I am often left to do things alone or with limited help as there are so many events and we are not a large school. We often have to say no to events because we just don't have the people to staff them all.
Lucy,
We agree in the importance of community outreach. Being members of professional associations is key. There are many other organizations in our communities such as economic development boards, Lions and Rotary, charitable organizations and more. Many would welcome presentations about the careers your institution trains for. Getting out to talk with employers is also part of community outreach. All these activities tell your community that yours is THE school for training and trained workers. Thanks, Susan
Dr. Susan Schulz
We are currently a member of our local and national professional organization and have an advisory board in place. I think I can get more involved with those avenues on a more personal basis and continue to reach out to more businesses and organizations in our community to spread the word about our offerrings.
Randy,
It's great that you have a PR firm that can ideally get your story out. It sounds like now you need the "story." Career schools and colleges have a lot to say. You just have to look in the right places. We suggest you start with your Alumni. What are they doing that is newsworthy? If you keep in touch with them you will know. Many go on to accomplish a lot in their jobs. Others contribute to the community and help others. Some of them may be involved in your school helping students prepare for the job search. Do your students contribute their time in some way practicing their skills? If you train in allied health they could be at assisted living centers taking blood pressure or using other skills to help out. If you offer massage therapy training you could be at sports events like marathons and offer chair massage. Are you researching the kinds of industries that are coming into your area and the kinds of trained skilled workers they need? You could offer that training and promote how your institution addresses the skills gaps. All these are newsworthy stories that your PR firm can promote. Thanks, Susan
Dr. Susan Schulz
We currently have a PR firm working with us who has well developed contacts with the various individuals, media and organizations that we try to reach. Our current problem is that when they ask us to submit "worthy" pieces for them to help us make use of, many staff do not see that what they/we do as being something worthy of PR.
So, we have developed "leave behind" pieces that are not specific to our campus but do try to tweak the receivers imagination..
We also do some other activities, host events, attend various organizations and functions but truthfully, it does seem that most people are just so overloaded with advertising of any kind that reaching them is a constant challenge.
Paul,
Great idea to focus on the success of your grads. Ideally you stay connected with them long fter they graduate. Great to have relationships with high schools and the community. Building community relationships is essential in our opinion. We recommend that every institution have a community outreach specialist on staff. It is important to get to know employers and their needs and ask them to visit your school and invite students to their workplaces. We feel it is vital for career schools to be seen as a resource and there is interaction among students, staff, and members of the community. Thanks, Susan
Dr. Susan Schulz
Currently we concentrate on the success of our graduates, publicizing those accomplishments and the schools partnerships with business. The college promotes relationships with High Schools through donations, internships, guest speakers, scholarships and staff and faculty development. These functions have worked fairly well, however, we continue to find other ways to build relationships. One of the most effective activities is holding venues at the school and acting as judges for their academic competitions.This allows the students and administrators/faculty to see what we are about and witness first hand our school culture.
Gracie,
Great that you are trying different forms of marketing. What is important is to measure all results. Are you reaching your target market? Are they qualified students and do they enroll and graduate and get jobs? Outdoor media and radio and TV can be too broad for many schools. It is important to know who your ideal lead is the how to reach them. Sometimes it is as easy and inexpensive as word of mouth and referrals. Thanks, Susan
Dr. Susan Schulz
We are currently doing some outdoor media, radio commercials & direct mail. I do see the power of direct mail and I can improve that for my department by incorporating email blasts- these also help to keep in touch with potential clients.
Marcie,
Rebranding sounds like a great opportunity. We also believe in engaging students as well as faculty and staff. They are all sources of information, ideas, and new strategies. And they love to give their opinions. Word of mouth, in our opinion is THE best way to get qualified leads. And it doesn't cost anything except giving students an awesome experience. Ask your students and staff about the one or two messages they think will brand the school. Work one at a time. Measure. You'll do fine. Thanks, Susan
Dr. Susan Schulz
