If you have been marketing to the educational community with little success, you may need to slow down and reassess your own educational history. Your personal relationship with education may be getting in the way . . . .
Linda L. Lawless and G. Jean Wright suggest in their book, How to Get Referrals: The Mental Health Professional’s Guide to Strategic Marketing, that you ask the following questions when reviewing your educational history:
"Not My Hat!" by Alan Levine / cogdogblog
- Are there any teachers in your family? Are any family members employed by the school system? What is their input to other family members regarding their work and the system?
- What has been the family response to their vocation?
- What educational levels have been attained by family members? Did they attend public or private schools? If private, was it religious or nonsectarian?
- What has been shared about their experience? What was the quality of the experience?
- What has been your educational experience from kindergarten through graduate school? Your siblings? How do you rate it?
- Who were your favorite teachers? Worst teachers? In your experience and /or perceptions, what were the characteristics of each that made them “good” or “bad” teachers? As you reflect on these relationships, what are you feeling now?
- What are your family’s belief systems, biases, prejudices, regarding education and the educational system (school taxes, the school board, election of board members)?
- Did any family members ever serve on the school board?
- What is your trust level of teachers?
- Do you have special training that would correlate with the experiences and needs of educational professionals?
- Do you have children in school? If so, public or private? How do you make decisions regarding your children’s education?
It is critical when marketing to the educational community that you feel comfortable and that they know that. Liberally share your unique school stories with other professionals in the educational community. Use your unique experiences to help guide where you choose to enter the market. If you attended a private or parochial school, consider focusing your energy on the same.
By taking the time to reflect on your own school experiences, you will increase your comfort and effectiveness in marketing to this community.
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Another Strategy for Marketing to the Educational Community:
Collaborating with Your Competitors
Gathering Market Research on the Educational Community
Teachers Needs Vary and So Should Your Marketing Strategies
Tags: School, Stories
Marketing your services to the educational community requires a long term commitment to building relationships. To make your investment work for you, pay attention to teachers’ needs.
Elementary school teachers in public schools commonly contend with resource gaps i.e. student poverty and lack of parental involvement resulting in students being unprepared to learn.
Elementary school
"Classroom 6" by Martin Deutsch
teachers in private schools report their primary needs focus on student apathy.
By secondary school chemical abuse and student apathy are major concerns for educators.
As a precursor to completing a needs assessment, tailor your initial marketing strategies to meet the needs of teachers based on what you know about their particular work settings.
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Public’s Perception of School Problems Can Open Doors for You
Another Strategy for Marketing to the Educational Community:
Collaborating with Your Competitors
Gathering Market Research on the Educational Community
Tags: Needs Assessment, School
If you are interested in conducting market research on
"School Buses" by John Williams, Ph.D.
education in the United States, don’t miss the website for the National Center for Education Statistics. The NCES collects and analyzes data related to education.
Congress and other federal agencies as well as state departments of education, local officials, educational organizations, news media, business organizations and the general public rely on NCES statistics for an accurate representation of progress and needs and you should, too.
Do you have other resources / ways of conducting market research on schools in your area?
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Another Strategy for Marketing to the Educational Community: Collaborating with Your Competitors
Tags: Market Research, School
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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Back-to-School Marketing for Your Private Practice
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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
Students (K-12) often perceive their needs to be different than teacher’s perceptions of students’ needs. Polls commonly report students’ concerns focusing on violence and other issues of safety. If you are interested in working with children or adolescents, you may be able to begin meeting some students’ needs by creating workshops that address gang violence, date rape, intimidation and bullying.
"Kids in the Classroom" by Chris Suderman
What other ideas can you come up with to support students and draw them into your practice?
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Back-to-School Marketing for Your Private Practice
Tags: School, Workshop
You have a new opportunity to market your services to meet the needs of your community now that educators and children are back in school. Marketing to the educational community includes addressing the needs of many different groups including:
- administrators,
- educators,
- support staff,
- students (of all ages),
- parents,
- and the greater community.
"Hold It Kids" by Jeffrey Errick
As you start to consider back-to-school marketing, begin by selecting just one of the groups above to initially target. Then, select a point of entry for that group. You might choose an age group i.e. pre-school / kindergarten, elementary, junior high, or senior high school. Or it could be an organizational entry point like the local Parent-Teacher Association, the American School Counselors Association, or the National Association for Music Educators.
By selecting a single point of entry into education, you will be able to efficiently learn about this particular group’s culture and political history. For example, teachers’ responsibilities, salaries, and schedules can vary from one school to another. Becoming familiar with one particular group within your school system you will strengthen your marketing position among them.
Check out these Fast Facts for additional Back To School statistics.
Tags: School
