As you develop your marketing strategies for working with the educational community, don’t forget to consider collaborating with your competitors.

• Begin by asking professionals in education for the names and contact info of other health professionals they work with.
• Contact those individuals whose names your were given.  Invite them to meet with you to discuss possible ways for health professionals to collaborate.
• Create a resource directory / guide that details each professional’s services and areas of expertise.
• Use the internet to collect the names and contact info for other allied health professionals in your geographic area who focus on education issues.
• Don’t forget to include any professional association that may also focus on these issues.  Obtain mailing lists for these organizations.
• Send a personalized cover letter introducing yourself to each individual with a copy of your resource directory / guide.
• Invite each individual to complete a form (which you will include with the letter above) and return it to you if they wish to be included in the next version of the resource directory.
• Follow up with a telephone call to arrange a meeting with each one.

In this way, your competitors become your allies and you strengthen your position in the educational community.

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Public’s Perception of School Problems Can Open Doors for You

Tags: Collaborate, Community Resources, Competitor, Cover Letter, Mailing List, Professional Association, School

Health care professionals often forget that the general public is yet another constituent of  the educational community.  As such, it is another potential focus for your marketing in an attempt to get referrals from the school system.

Research has shown that the public perception of problems faced by schools is often very different than educator’s perceptions.  That discrepancy opens up many opportunities for you to orchestrate community dialogue and related services to facilitate constructive feedback and input between these two groups.

Listed below are some of the ideas that I have collected . . . .  Some of them I’ve tried; some of them I’ve only heard about.

"Woods Waterfall Door II" by John Banks

• Hold a focus group.
• Host a town “chat” at the local library.
• Facilitate a problem-solving group.
• Conduct research on a perceived problem.
• Write letters to the editor addressing the concerns of the public.
• Start a book club that deals with education-related issues.
• Create a collaborative education-community visioning group to set goals for the school system.

What’s going on in your community?  What has worked for you? I’m sure that you have other ideas and experiences to share.  Take a minute to add your thoughts below as we begin to mine the many opportunities related to public perception of school problems.

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Tags: Collaborate, Letter to the Editor, School, Vision