When the message is the medium

Communication is critical at any time. Macia Grebot emphasises the importance of getting your message across to parents

The question of whether your messages are getting through is fundamental to a communications strategy. The starting point, however, is to achieve clarity about your school’s vision and what it stands for. Once you have a shared understanding of these, you are ready to plan an integrated communications strategy, ensuring that all your PR and marketing activities and promotional materials convey your clearly considered messages.

When parents make decisions about their children’s education, they are making a decision about their children’s future. Parents will buy into (or not) the promise that the school will support their children to grow into the young adults they (the parents) hope they will become.

A school that understands the importance of this has the starting point for its communications strategy. If, however, your school’s starting point is a prospectus, a website and a reliance on a historical reputation to see you through what is probably one of the most challenging, if exciting, periods of educational change, then you may want to look away now.

If you are still reading, then we must surmise that you understand the importance of ensuring that the right messages about your school get through to the right people, at the right times. So, having clarified what messages you want to communicate, the next step in your communications strategy is to identify the different audiences to whom you want to communicate them – internal and external. At this stage, we recommend that you carry out a health check on your branding and consider whether it represents your school as it actually is, whether your school’s unique qualities and the benefits you bring to pupils are clearly conveyed. Too many schools overlook the importance of their brand and its importance to the communication strategy.

Branded
Branding is a way of creating a series of associations in people’s minds to persuade them to buy in to an organisation, product, event or idea. Your school’s brand is made up of its logo and strapline and is built on experience, perception and reputation. The consistency of messaging, print and online publication all have a bearing on the brand, the strength of which depends on the extent that you understand and protect its integrity. There are some straightforward mechanisms you can put in place to do this:
• ensure that your school community understands the brand identity and that brand guidelines are consistently applied to all communications;
• make sure the website is consistent with other publications and is up-to-date;
• understand that the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words” has survived the test of time for good reason and never allow a photograph to appear in any context that does not represent your school in the way that you would wish. A number of schools tend towards using a formulaic approach to photographs which are fun, but don’t necessarily provide the visual images that convey the ethos of the school. Photographs, as much as words, should be carefully considered. Think about distribution of publications from the outset. Your current parent body, by and large, will understand the qualities of your school. However, prospective parents may not and their misconceptions can be countered by ensuring that news about what your school is actually like is communicated widely; and
• remember that everyone connected to your school should be an ambassador for it – staff, pupils, parents, visitors etc. This is the cheapest, and in many ways the most powerful, form of PR and marketing available to you.

Paper, please
In our increasingly technological age, there continues to be a reliance on paper publications. A few schools have gone down the route of digital prospectuses, but feedback from parents suggests a continued preference for hard copy publications. However, there is no reason not to use a combination of both – an up-to-date, bright, accessible and easily navigable website, regular news and updates available digitally, a head’s blog supported and enhanced by high-quality newsletters with a broad distribution and a school prospectus. The prospectus is probably the most significant document, as well as the most expensive your school is likely to produce. The prospectus is, first and foremost, a guide for parents and should do your school justice visually, and in terms of content and presentation. The messages it conveys are key and should be consistent with all other publications, including digital.

Research and experience confirm that parents choose schools for a number of factors but reputation – what your school offers and how you are perceived – is probably the single most important element and is absolutely within your control.

At a time of economic, political, social and educational upheaval, ensuring that messages about your school are getting through is one thing you have the power to manage and has never been more important.

Macia Grebot is the co-founder and managing director of Grebot Donnelly Associates. Macia can be contacted on 020 8892 2242 or info@grebotdonnelly.com or through www.grebotdonnelly.com.

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