How do you build and protect your school's reputation?

Defining your brand values is the first step in creating a strong brand identity. Your brand values should be the guiding principles that drive your organization and should be reflected in everything you do. To define your brand values, ask yourself these fundamental questions: What is the purpose of your organization? What are your goals? What are your values? What makes you unique? Who is your target audience? You need to ensure that your brand values align with the needs and values of your target audience. This will help you create a brand identity that resonates with your audience and sets you apart from other organizations.

It all starts with knowing who you are. Schools that stand out have a clear sense of identity. They know their mission, vision, and values and communicate these consistently across all platforms. It's about understanding your unique strengths—be it academic excellence, innovative programs, or a vibrant community—and ensuring these are at the forefront of your brand's message.

Building and maintaining our school's brand reputation is a journey deeply rooted in aligning our marketing efforts with our mission. 🌿 Our strategy revolves around capturing and sharing these authentic stories. We believe that showcasing real experiences, challenges, and triumphs in education resonates far more than mere words. By doing so, we connect with our audience on a deeper level, allowing them to witness the impact of our mission firsthand. However, it's not just about content; it's also about the people behind it. Our brand ambassadors are carefully selected individuals who are not only passionate but also deeply committed to our mission. They believe in what we stand for and are dedicated to living and promoting our values.

Yes vision, mission, and values are integral to defining who you are as an organization. These are the foundational elements on which you build your strategic plan, inclusive of goals, resources, and marketing. Your vision and mission are tied to your competitive advantage and value proposition for your organization. It is through your actions that you exemplify your organization's values, which in turn helps with attracting partners, employees, and vendors. Your vision and mission should include the identification of your target audience.

There's nothing more critical than unmet expectations. Schools that excel in maintaining their reputation do so by delivering on their promises. Whether it's academic rigor, student support, or career opportunities, ensuring that your offerings align with what you advertise is key. Personal experience has taught me that this alignment fosters trust and loyalty among students and alumni, which in turn serves as a foundation for a strong reputation.

A few years ago we branded a performing arts charter school. They talked a good game and we created a beautiful brand. But they couldn't live up to their own hype. The student performance was so much lower than neighboring public schools they lost their charter. For educational institutions, your reputation is your brand. I've seen schools with absolutely horrible marketing but their performance is off the charts. No amount of paper decoration is going to make a bad school successful. The educational model is based on building a long-term relationship with the parent(s). You may convince a parent to enroll for a year, but if they have a bad experience they aren't coming back. Get that right and you'll build a brand people love.

Schools are not just educational institutions; they're ecosystems. Engaging your community—students, faculty, alumni, and partners—in meaningful ways can significantly enhance your reputation. From regular meetings to alumni networking events, creating platforms for dialogue, feedback, and collaboration enriches the sense of belonging and investment in the school's success.

You must be able to identify who are your internal and external stakeholders. Such identification should not be done solely by only one member of the organization. This should be team, collaborative identification. When you truly know who are your internal and external stakeholders, then you are better able to tailor how you will be building relationships with those individuals. Relationship building takes time and requires a strategy. That strategy should be connected with your vision and mission. Be authentic when engaging with your internal and external stakeholders. That authenticity will help to strengthen your relationships and helps with building trust within your relationships.

When working with a number of academies in the UK either setting up new schools, or trying to change public perception setting up and maintaining a social media presence has been key. It has enabled schools to be engaged with parents/caregivers and the wider community as to what is going on behind closed doors, the type of things children and learning and the education and opportunities they have access to. This helps build trust and in turn creates advocates. Of course, if there are other issues going on in the school this can leave the platform open to abuse, so all areas of communication need to be considered to ensure you are prepared to handle a social media presence.

Proactively monitoring what's being said about your school online and offline helps you stay ahead of potential issues. Regularly reviewing social media, forums, and review sites, and even conducting surveys can provide insights into the public perception of the institution.

Appropriate analysis and evaluation of our actions are processes that are often overlooked by organizations to monitor progress. When starting on any campaign, it is crucial to identify the benchmark or baseline data. Then you will need to identify the metrics that will be collected to monitor progress. Goal setting and implementation are steps involved in monitoring progress. We need to know the goal that we are working towards. Appropriate goals would include benchmarks, metrics, and destination. Not every organization needs to track the same metrics. The metrics that you identify, should be connected with your vision and mission. A SWOT or SOAR analysis can be helpful in identifying gaps and opportunities.

When challenges arise, and they inevitably will, having a robust crisis management plan is crucial. This includes clear communication strategies, swift response mechanisms, and, most importantly, transparency. Addressing issues head-on can often turn potential threats into opportunities to strengthen trust.

You build & protect your school's reputation by delivering on what you say you will provide students. This starts with the recruitment process. If the recruitment message is not aligned with the student's experience, the student will feel jaded & bamboozled & share their experience with others in-person or on social media, which takes a life of its own & is not easy to control once that narrative is out there. It's also essential that the school's leadership be open, honest & communicative with its stakeholders (students, staff/administrators, faculty, alums, board members, etc.) about school-wide/institutional issues. Information always gets leaked, so it's wise to anticipate that & get ahead of it to control the facts & narrative.

Consistency is essential for building a strong brand identity. Your brand identity should be consistent across all of your marketing and advertising channels. This means using the same brand voice, messaging, and visual elements in all of your marketing and advertising materials. Consistency helps create trust and loyalty with your customers and sets you apart from your competitors.