What can K-12 School Districts learn from a power company?
By Greg Turchetta, Strategic Communications Advisor, Apptegy
It’s hurricane season. As a Florida resident, I am eagerly awaiting our next tropical system of the week and the storm-related TV commercials for Florida Power and Light. In Florida, you cannot select a power company. You get assigned one based on where you live. So why then is FPL advertising to me?
As a former K-12 Chief Communications Officer in Florida and now serving as Strategic Communications Advisor for Apptegy, I see a much more strategic communications play at work here. It’s all about creating a bulletproof brand and building customer trust and admiration well before the company ever needs to cash it in. It’s a smart strategy that school districts need to employ right now.
Speaking of cashing in, imagine if the state gave power customers $9,000 to go and choose the power company that is best for their families. How much more would FPL spend on marketing then?
As savvy school and district leaders, you just jumped a step ahead of me and already see my point. Florida school districts are in that exact choice conundrum right now. As universal vouchers are leading to decreased enrollment and multi-million dollar budget shortfalls, now is the time to be strategic and pour more time and resources into marketing and branding, not cut it. As we are downsizing communications and marketing budgets in some cases by 20 percent or more, our K-12 financial storm has already made landfall.
So where do we start to recover? You need a strategic marketing plan to position yourself as a school and a school district of choice. You need a content creation plan that transforms your digital marketing tools to showcase the excellence happening in your schools every day. We have to prove that we should be a parent’s first choice because we are a parent’s best choice. Our Apptegy/SchoolCEO research shows clearly that virtual, charter, and private schools are already far ahead in enrollment marketing. Enrollment marketing is far more than just communicating to parents about upcoming events and awards. It is about proving our superior value and influencing their choice. We can no longer assume that students are just going to show up. We have to earn their business.
Also, we seem to assume that parents know the incredible programs and people in our schools. Many community members only hear the political rhetoric of their choosing on social media or have not even been in a school in 20 or 30 years. These folks are your voters and taxpayers. We have to prove our value, show off our innovative programs, and entice parents to invest their most precious resource with us!
This doesn’t take a lot of money to accomplish. It takes a top-down commitment to execute and a proven plan to follow. You can schedule a call with me for free and I will show you how Apptegy can help you strategically communicate to change the way people think and feel about your schools. Apptegy has helped 5,000 school districts nation-wide become better communicators. We have combined our own original research with best practices from our most successful clients around the country to create a marketing framework for all 5 phases of the enrollment process. This is incredibly effective when delivered through a centralized communications system that makes it easy to showcase your excellence daily to parents and exceed all communication expectations.
Apptegy pushes our K-12 education partners to look outside of what it has always done to succeed. Private industry has changed the way consumers engage with brands and products. Want to learn from the nation's top branding experts? You can join other education leaders from around the country at our Apptegy SchoolCEO conference called “What Parents Want: Breaking Through the Noise in an Era of Choice” to discover how strategic parent communication drives enrollment and community trust. Our experts will teach you proven approaches to reach modern families, differentiate your district, and build lasting connections through effective digital engagement.
To see Apptegy in action, click here: https://www.apptegy.com/schedule-a-demo/
To learn more about the SchoolCEO conference, visit https://www.apptegy.com/conference/
To learn more about school branding and enrollment marketing, visit www.schoolceo.com
As a former K-12 Chief Communications Officer here in Florida, I have fought on the front lines of this battle. It is time to prove our value and showcase our student success in a bold new way. I believe tough times always force us to be better. I am sure that public education, like the power company, can battle through the worst of storms and come out stronger. We have to tell our story, or our critics will continue to loudly tell it for us. We would love to be your thought partner on this journey.
Greg Turchetta
Strategic Communications Advisor
Apptegy