The Story of – Marketing Schools on a Budget
The challenge: in 30 minutes inspire a group of new school Principals in marketing
The result: lots of fun, some fresh ideas and good healthy discussion
I was asked to speak on Marketing a school on a limited budget. The event was part of a 2 day workshop put on by Independent Schools Victoria to help new school Principals. This organisation provides resources, training and support to schools throughout the state.
So how do you make the most of 30 minutes when you hop up to speak after the main meal in the midst of a 2 day conference? The first was to demystify marketing for the school Principals. The 17 Principals represented Catholic, Coptic, Greek Orthodox, Uniting, Christian and Rudolf Steiner schools. Some were brand new schools and others were well established ones.
For many people, including teachers and Principals marketing and schools are rarely used in the same sentence. By defining marketing as Storytelling it helped them see it was not so complicated. Throughout the session I tried to tell as many stories and case studies as possible. I gave them 5 things they could do to help hear and tell stories in their school communities. There were some great questions and ongoing discussion afterwards.
May I say thank you again for that excellent presentation on Sunday night. It was most helpful to the new Principals and they really appreciated your insights and the style of delivery. They certainly resonated with the concept of marketing as ‘story telling’.
I am sure that many of them will be working hard at their websites and exploiting the other ‘cheap’ strategies you suggested.
Many thanks, Neil.
Cheers Yvonne
Independent Schools Victoria
Here is a 6 minute summary of the Marketing a school on a Budget Presentation
