IS IT TIME TO AUDIT YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT S BRAND?

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Roberta Walton
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1 IS IT TIME TO AUDIT YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT S BRAND?

2 BE BRAND AWARE Your district s brand it is more than just your logo, colors or mascot. It goes beyond taglines or mottos. When you think about your brand, you want to think about your entire community experience everything from your website, your social media presence, the way you answer the phone, to the way your students interact with your staff. An effective brand can distinguish your district from other education options, including neighboring districts, private schools, charter schools, online or virtual schools and even homeschooling. A brand is successful when it is consistently communicated and marketed to stakeholders and the community as a whole. It is critical to be aware of your brand perception and have a plan to create the brand experience that you want to have. Best-selling author and noted branding expert Seth Godin has defined a brand to be: The set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer s decision to choose one product or service over another. The set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer s decision to choose one product or service over another. Seth Godin 2 THE BRAND BOOK: IS IT TIME TO AUDIT YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT S IMAGE?

WHY IS BRANDING IMPORTANT FOR SCHOOLS/DISTRICTS? Unlike twenty years ago, parents have a range of options for primary education for their children. Based on the most recent U.S. Department of Education study, between 2003 04 and 2013 14, total public school enrollment increased by 3 percent, reaching 50.

3 WHY IS BRANDING IMPORTANT FOR SCHOOLS/DISTRICTS? Unlike twenty years ago, parents have a range of options for primary education for their children. Based on the most recent U.S. Department of Education study, between and , total public school enrollment increased by 3 percent, reaching 50.0 million students. Although private schools have seen a 12% decrease during the school year, charter schools have grown in popularity from 1.6% to 5.1%. These trends demonstrate a larger percentage of those seeking alternatives are using some form of public school choice. When it comes to student enrollment and teacher recruitment, an effective brand strategy can dramatically increase the number of people interested in an academic institution. Building a positive brand image is critical for districts and schools that want to attract and retain top administrators, quality teachers and students. Just like local businesses, schools are integral to community identities. Educators and parents have options when choosing schools, and it s your brand that will attract them to your district. A positive brand image instills pride in your staff and students. It showcases the good work being accomplished by your district and schools, driving goodwill throughout the community you serve. BETWEEN AND , TOTAL PUBLIC SCHOOL ENROLLMENT INCREASED BY 3 PERCENT, REACHING 50.0 MILLION STUDENTS. 3 THE BRAND BOOK: IS IT TIME TO AUDIT YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT S IMAGE? U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (2016)

4 DOES YOUR SCHOOL/DISTRICT HAVE A STRONG BRAND? When was the last time you took an honest look at all the elements that make up your brand? Is your brand positioned against your competitors? Academic leaders need to ask themselves why their schools are best and what features and benefits they provide that others do not. Strategic brand differentiation is the positioning of your brand against others in a way that matters to key stakeholders and the community. A brand audit can analyze your current position and provide new insights. Brand audit benefits Helps you determine the positioning of your school/district and to plan corrective strategies Empowers you to discover strengths and weaknesses Guides you to align your offerings more accurately with the expectations of your parents, teachers, and students, and community members Enables you to know your school/district perceptions A BRAND AUDIT CAN ANALYZE YOUR CURRENT POSITION AND PROVIDE NEW INSIGHTS 4 THE BRAND BOOK: IS IT TIME TO AUDIT YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT S IMAGE?

5 FOUR-STEP AUDIT PROCESS We will walk you through a four-step brand image review you can use to ensure your district marketing program is doing more than just delivering facts and information. By following these steps, you ll create a positive brand image that attracts interest and builds positive support for your schools IDENTITY MESSAGING ANALYSIS ACTION PLAN Take a hard look at your identity Manage brand messaging and search engine optimization (SEO) Review your current marketing strategies Put your plan into action SO, LET S GET STARTED. 5 THE BRAND BOOK: IS IT TIME TO AUDIT YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT S IMAGE?

6 STEP 1 IDENTITY TAKE A HARD LOOK AT YOUR IDENTITY Your identity as a school or district is composed of several interactive components, including: Your school /district name and tagline Your logo, signature graphics, and colors Your voice and tone of messaging Most people are visual learners. According to the Social Science Research network, 65% of all people learn visually. That means the look of your school district is critical to creating a strong brand image. 65% OF ALL PEOPLE LEARN VISUALLY 6 THE BRAND BOOK: IS IT TIME TO AUDIT YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT S IMAGE?

7 STEP 1 IDENTITY Your branding audit should start with looking at your district s identity. Ask yourself a few questions to start: How old is your district logo? Have you had the same logo for more than ten years, twenty years, or more? How does your logo make you feel? What are your first thoughts when seeing it? Does this tagline accurately and concisely convey the mission and identity of your school or district? Is the written material appealing? If so, what do you like about it? If not, what makes it miss the mark? Is there a consistent look and feel across your community facing materials such as: Mobile app Website Social media accounts Publications Letterhead Flyers Posters s, texts, and push notifications Do you have design standards published and available on your intranet that explain the correct use of your logo, fonts, and layout guidelines for all staff? Do you have a summarized version to provide the media? BRAND HINT Google offers free fonts that are optimized for the web and can be used across all channels. FIND FREE FONTS 7 THE BRAND BOOK: IS IT TIME TO AUDIT YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT S IMAGE?

8 STEP 1 IDENTITY Many districts haven t changed their look for years and still rely on a logo and messaging that is outdated and not reflective of the district mission or modern design trends. Surveys are one of the most important tools you can use to learn how the community feels. Conducting an internal and external survey will help you have a better sense of your school s identity. Ask your community questions like: Would you recommend our school district to friends and family? What do you like best about our school district? Based on your experience, does our mission statement reflect your perception? The point of a brand audit is to determine how fundamental and effective each component of your identity is. Reviewing the brand will help with the areas you can improve on without alienating your current audience. Should you find your look needs an update, good places to start are with your logo, website, and mobile app. BRAND HINT Many districts use a website redesign to launch a new logo and visual brand identity! 8 THE BRAND BOOK: IS IT TIME TO AUDIT YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT S IMAGE?

9 1 IDENTITY KEY TAKEAWAY 1. Take a critical look at the visual elements of your district and schools brand; update as needed. 2. Ask critical questions of internal and external stakeholders to better understand brand perceptions 9 THE BRAND BOOK: IS IT TIME TO AUDIT YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT S IMAGE?

10 STEP 2 MESSAGING MANAGE BRAND MESSAGING AND SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO) Whether, it s your district website, your ranking in search engine optimization, or your Facebook and Twitter pages, you should strive for consistency in image and reputation in managing your brand. Building a strong brand requires communications to be consistent across all the channels you use. Are your stories and messages getting out everywhere? Are you retelling the stories on your website in other channels like social media, mobile app communications, video channels and in print? Brands can be built and strengthened by proactively developing message themes and then incorporating them into your communications program. Consider developing a theme for each month of the school year and then developing a series of publications around the monthly theme. BRAND HINT Try using COPE ( Create Once, Publish Everywhere ) to build consistent messages. COPE allows you to write your message once and click a button to send it out to all your communication channels including voice, text, , social media, mobile app, website announcement, website pop-up alert, and more. COPE infographic 10 THE BRAND BOOK: IS IT TIME TO AUDIT YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT S IMAGE?

STEP 2 MESSAGING Here is an example of a monthly communication theme schedule: September: Back-to-school stories October: Athletics and scholarships November: Winter preparations December: Cultural

11 STEP 2 MESSAGING Here is an example of a monthly communication theme schedule: September: Back-to-school stories October: Athletics and scholarships November: Winter preparations December: Cultural diversity January: School highlights February: History highlights March: School nutrition April: Teacher highlights May: Student achievements June: Academic summer activities It doesn t matter what your theme schedule is, just the exercise of building one will help organize your communications around positive messages and stories. Each month, communications can be proactively developed to tell positive stories about the theme, including your SEO keywords, which we will cover later in this section. Repurposing is now essential for any communications program. So, when you have a good story to tell, tell it everywhere you can. Repurposing is taking the same story, changing its length and content, but not its message, and sending it out to your stakeholders in different ways. BRAND HINT Not sure if you can come up with themes by yourself? Gather staff members together for 30 minutes and brainstorm ideas for your monthly themes together. 11 THE BRAND BOOK: IS IT TIME TO AUDIT YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT S IMAGE?

STEP 2 MESSAGING Message consistency check list: School success stories are posted at least once a week on district/ school websites Positive stories contain keywords and phrases from district

12 STEP 2 MESSAGING Message consistency check list: School success stories are posted at least once a week on district/ school websites Positive stories contain keywords and phrases from district mission and goals Positive stories include photos or videos Positive stories are repurposed and sent through a variety of outside channels like local media, social media, and news sites SEO as part of your brand management Look at your mission statement, district values, and strategic plan for keywords that reflect the brand image you want to convey. Make a list of five to ten keywords words. These keywords should appear strategically across your website and publications. Building SEO also relies on the repetition of keywords throughout your website. Identify the key search terms that your larger community may use to search for your district, your schools, and programs. Ensure your website content contains those words/ phrases. As you add new content, keep SEO keywords in mind as you add news releases or informational pages to your site. BRAND HINT Build a positive brand image on the repetition of the five to ten keywords. Identifying the distinctive words and phrases that best describe your district is important and is critical to use the keywords on the website as well as in social channels associated with your brand. Search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo look for keywords that are relevant when scanning your website. 12 THE BRAND BOOK: IS IT TIME TO AUDIT YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT S IMAGE?

13 2 MESSAGING KEY TAKEAWAYS 1. Repurpose, recycle, and reuse each piece of content for all channels; it saves time and effort and drives consistency of message 2. Identify and utilize your district s keywords across your website and all your communications 13 THE BRAND BOOK: IS IT TIME TO AUDIT YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT S IMAGE?

STEP 3 ANALYSIS REVIEW YOUR CURRENT MARKETING STRATEGIES After you established how your identity fits in the present, it s time to review your current marketing.

14 STEP 3 ANALYSIS REVIEW YOUR CURRENT MARKETING STRATEGIES After you established how your identity fits in the present, it s time to review your current marketing. This covers everything from your website and mobile app to your social media posts and notifications. Some of the metrics you should look at include: Web traffic, including how many new visitors you receive to your website and where they re coming from Marketing channel statistics to compare the effectiveness of your different messaging platforms (e.g., mobile app downloads, social media interactions, traditional advertising views, etc.) Student lead generation and conversion based on the marketing campaigns After the audit, you should set key performance indicators (KPIs), so that every marketing tactic has a goal. KPI s are the amount of social followers and likes, student registrations from a mailer, mobile app downloads, etc. This evaluation may uncover areas of your marketing campaign that are drifting away from the core structure of your brand. This is the time to optimize current marketing and plan future campaigns to represent your brand more effectively. BRAND HINT As part of the analysis you should consider examining neighboring public, online, and charter schools recent marketing efforts. What are the competing schools or districts doing from an advertising perspective. Has your brand fallen behind in ways to communicate to the community? 14 THE BRAND BOOK: IS IT TIME TO AUDIT YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT S IMAGE?

15 3 ANALYSIS KEY TAKEAWAYS 1. Conduct an analysis of your marketing metrics to discover areas for improvement 2. Determine how other districts are marketing themselves to see if your strategy measures up 15 THE BRAND BOOK: IS IT TIME TO AUDIT YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT S IMAGE?

STEP 4 ACTION PLAN PUT YOUR PLAN INTO ACTION Now that you understand your strengths and weaknesses, it s time to put together a plan and make data-based decisions.

16 STEP 4 ACTION PLAN PUT YOUR PLAN INTO ACTION Now that you understand your strengths and weaknesses, it s time to put together a plan and make data-based decisions. Deciding what you want to do with the brand is the most significant part of the process. There are three major actions to consider: Keep your identity logo, mission statement, tagline, images Overhaul your identity and start a rebranding process Keep your identity, but refresh it for a newer more modern look and to more closely align with your goals Using your findings, create a detailed project plan report that lists the issues found from the audit. Create an action plan with your anticipated results. Whether you opt for a full rebrand or a refresh, it s important to follow up over the course of the next few months and measure the results. Only then will you be able to determine whether the changes were successful, or if further adjustments are necessary. Ultimately, you should be prepared to develop, monitor and constantly push your brand message in the marketplace. ULTIMATELY, YOU SHOULD BE PREPARED TO DEVELOP, MONITOR AND CONSTANTLY PUSH YOUR BRAND MESSAGE IN THE MARKETPLACE. 16 THE BRAND BOOK: IS IT TIME TO AUDIT YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT S IMAGE?

17 4 ACTION PLAN KEY TAKEAWAYS 1. Make your brand updates and measure results in a couple months to determine if you re moving in the right direction 2. Brands need constant maintenance. Consistently check in on your communication channels, SEO, and online presence so you can keep up with building a positive image 17 THE BRAND BOOK: IS IT TIME TO AUDIT YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT S IMAGE?

18 ONGOING BRAND MANAGEMENT Keep a close eye on your progress and remember that the brand audit process should be carried out regularly. Always think about how to maximize brand communications activities you are currently using. It s not enough to have a Facebook page or a Twitter account. Districts must participate in all communication channels and spark conversation by making regular posts and replying to direct messages. SEO strategies are a constant exercise. It s important to keep information flowing to harness key search words that can lead searchers to your district. Branding is crucial to building a positive image around your district that will ultimately strengthen your community, attract professional staff, and help students succeed. BRANDING IS CRUCIAL TO BUILDING A POSITIVE IMAGE AROUND YOUR DISTRICT THAT WILL ULTIMATELY STRENGTHEN YOUR COMMUNITY. 18 THE BRAND BOOK: IS IT TIME TO AUDIT YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT S IMAGE?

19 ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Social media ebook Read this ebook, written by K-12 communications leaders, to get tips on how to create an engaging social presence that showcases your district s brand and student successes. GET SOCIAL MEDIA ebook Free Website Grader Put your website to the test to determine how it stacks up on marketing, accessibility, and technological capabilities. If your branding and marketing need some improvements, you ll get a list of ideas to help. TEST YOUR WEBSITE Peer success story Check out this branding success story to hear how Santa Ana USD turned around their reputation as a problem district by conducing a brand overhaul. READ SUCCESS STORY ABOUT BLACKBOARD Blackboard is the leading education technology company for teaching, learning, and community engagement. Blackboard s Community Engagement Solution helps schools and districts optimize communication and increase involvement so families and community members can play an active role in student achievement. Providing on-demand access to important information via websites, mobile apps, social media, and mass notifications allows districts to reach their stakeholders through the communication channels and devices they prefer. Blackboard s entire Community Engagement Solution also integrates together to create seamless workflows for district staff and to enable crucial connections with other third party systems. Blackboard.com/k12 Copyright Blackboard Inc. All rights reserved. Blackboard, the Blackboard logo, Blackboard Web Community Manager, Blackboard Mobile Communications App, Blackboard Mass Notifications, Blackboard Social Media Manager, Blackboard Collaborate are trademarks or registered trademarks of Blackboard Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries. Blackboard products and services may be covered by one or more of the following U.S. Patents: 8,265,968, 7,493,396; 7,558,853; 6,816,878; 8,150, THE BRAND BOOK: IS IT TIME TO AUDIT YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT S IMAGE?

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