Publicity
Discussions (Week/Topic 1): What publicity and public relations efforts does your school already have in place? What is working and what is not? What changes do you think you can make to improve your results?
I think that building strong relationships is essential. Every member is crucial and important in building the marketing efforts. We currently have strong relationships amongst the staff and within the community. We work closely with South Florida Workforce and Vocational Rehabilitation. We attend and participate in job fairs and health forums. We also work with local high schools with job fairs and career expos. Outreach programs, such as the above mentioned, have been crucial to our growth and success. Internally, we have meetings and distribute surveys to the staff and the students to generate ideas. Some of our outreach programs were not successful, with a low turnout rate. However, we believe that with extra promotions and publicity we will achieve more turnouts in the future.
Lauren,
We agree Lauren. It is about building and maintaining relationships. And that can happen throughout the school. It sounds like you are training and coaching your faculty and staff to be emissaries for your campus. That is so great. Also important to clearly identify who your market is so everyone recognizes potential students. Also important to identify the market you are not reaching. Many career schools find it is the senior citizens. Formal and informal events all generate some kind of attention. The goal is to be seen as THE source for training and for staffing. Reminder that Alumni are great resources for publicity. Thanks, Susan
Dr. Susan Schulz
I have tried the same type of out reaches and its amazing to see how reluctant some of these community centers are.
Charlotte,
Good points. Everyone thinks that success comes from one contact. Ah - if only that were true. We find that to make contact it takes at least 3 attempts. This could be phone call, email, mail, or just showing up. And sometimes it takes one more try after three strikes. But it can be very worth while. Thanks, Susan
Dr. Susan Schulz
