SchoolCEO: Marketing for School Leaders

Experiential marketing started with flash mobs and has since become the cutting edge of advertising. Live branded events that are interactive, multi-sensory and emotionally resonant have a much greater pull on audiences than other forms of marketing. That’s why it’s so important K-12 leaders think about how they can adapt experiential marketing tactics for their own use.

In this episode, we’ll share what experiential marketing is exactly, why it’s so effective, and ways schools can use it to improve their brands. 

Featured in this episode are Layne Braunstein, William D. Parker, Zhecho Dobrev and Sherese Nix. 

Max Lenderman is the author of Experience the Message: How Experiential Marketing is Changing the Brand World. 

Listen to William D. Parker’s podcast, Principal Matters on Apple Podcasts. 

Zhecho Dobrev is the author of The Big Miss: How Organizations Overlook the Value of Emotions. 

Visit SchoolCEO’s website for more information about our research 

A Seat at the Table

 and 

Layers of Leadership

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Follow SchoolCEO on LinkedIn or X/Twitter @school_ceo. 

Subscribe to SchoolCEO at SchoolCEO.com for research, stories, and strategies for leading your schools. And if you have a story you’d like to share, email us at [email protected].

Learn more about SchoolCEO and all of our resources on our About page. SchoolCEO is powered by Apptegy, the maker of the leading K-12 communications and brand management platform.

Organizational culture has become a buzzword like AI, NFT or Bitcoin—everyone is talking about it but very few people know how it actually works. In this episode, we explain what organizational culture really is, and how it shapes the success of individual employees and your company as a whole. 

We’ll take a look at real world examples of excellent organizational culture at work, hear expert opinions on the science of employee motivation, how to shape a strong company culture and actionable steps you can take to start transforming yours. 

Featured in this episode are Neel Doshi, Margaret Heffernan, Dr. Curtis Jones and Karen Borchert. 

Visit SchoolCEO’s website for more information about our research What Do Millennial Teachers Want and 2023 Teacher Satisfaction Survey.

To read more of Neel Doshi’s research on the science of motivation, visit  https://www.factor.ai/about and read his book, “Primed to Perform: How to Build the Highest Performing Cultures Through the Science of Total Motivation.”

Read Margaret Heffernan’s book, “Beyond Measure: The Big Impact of Small Changes.”

To learn about Alpaca’s work to change school culture and measure how teachers and staff experience it, check out https://www.alpacapacks.com/.

Toyota/NUUMI story excerpts taken from This American Life episode 561. 

Follow SchoolCEO on LinkedIn or X/Twitter @school_ceo. 

Subscribe to SchoolCEO at SchoolCEO.com for research, stories, and strategies for leading your schools. And if you have a story you’d like to share, email us at [email protected].

Learn more about SchoolCEO and all of our resources on our About page. SchoolCEO is powered by Apptegy, the maker of the leading K-12 communications and brand management platform.

How does effective communication shape your schools? What are the best practices to keep your community informed & to allow them to know that you’re listening to their concerns? Schools communicate all the time which means families are inundated with information, but schools need to listen to know what’s actually important to their families. 

In this episode, we’ll explore exactly how to engage with effective communication and the importance of listening to your community. Listen to hear from experts who provide insights into communication strategies, how to listen to your community, and the tools to shape a community's perceptions and expectations of a school.

Featured in this episode are Jeff Horton, Lesley Bruinton, Greg Turchetta, and others.

Follow SchoolCEO on LinkedIn or X/Twitter @school_ceo. 

Subscribe to SchoolCEO at SchoolCEO.com for research, stories, and strategies for leading your schools. And if you have a story you’d like to share, email us at [email protected].

Learn more about SchoolCEO and all of our resources on our About page. SchoolCEO is powered by Apptegy, the maker of the leading K-12 communications and brand management platform.

What is marketing? How can you take the best marketing ideas from the private sector and implement them in your schools? Marketing has evolved over time to become more brand & identity focused. Having a strong set of values & consistent core messaging is the pathway to developing a strong marketing strategy.

In this episode, we’ll explore exactly how marketing has changed and what you can do to strengthen your school’s identity. Listen to hear from experts who provide insights into marketing, branding, positioning, and storytelling to shape a community's perceptions and expectations of a school.

Featured in this episode are Jack Trout, Dr. Carmen Simon, Dr. Jonah Berger, Neal Foard, and others.

Follow SchoolCEO on LinkedIn or X/Twitter @school_ceo. 

Subscribe to SchoolCEO at SchoolCEO.com for research, stories, and strategies for leading your schools. And if you have a story you’d like to share, email us at [email protected].

Learn more about SchoolCEO and all of our resources on our About page. SchoolCEO is powered by Apptegy, the maker of the leading K-12 communications and brand management platform.

Every great school district’s heart lies in its identity What is the identity of your district? What is it known for? What is uniquely true about your schools? Your district’s identity is made up of its values, strengths, and culture. These, along with your community’s direct interactions with your district, ultimately shape your community’s perception and reputation of your brand. School marketing begins and ends with establishing a brand that is true to itself and delivers a consistent experience to students, parents, teachers, staff, administrators, and the larger community.

In this episode, you’ll be reminded why your district’s brand should be of paramount importance to you as a school leader. Listen to hear from experts who provide insights into branding, positioning, marketing, and storytelling to shape community perceptions and expectations of a school.

Featured in this episode are Laura Ries, Dr. Julie Sweetland, Dr. Pete Hannigan, Dr. Jonah Berger, Karen Eber, Neal Foard, and others. 

Follow SchoolCEO on LinkedIn or X/Twitter @school_ceo. 

Subscribe to SchoolCEO at SchoolCEO.com for research, stories, and strategies for leading your schools. And if you have a story you’d like to share, email us at [email protected].

Learn more about SchoolCEO and all of our resources on our About page. SchoolCEO is powered by Apptegy, the maker of the leading K-12 communications and brand management platform.

School marketing has gone from a rarity to a necessity for public schools. From public opinion to family engagement, capturing and keeping the attention of your school community is a must to leading and running a successful school district. 

In each episode of Season 3, SchoolCEO explores some of the most important and foundational concepts to change how others think and feel about your schools. We talk to experts, share stories along the way, and equip you with a framework that can help you build a strong, thriving identity for your district. Welcome to Season 3!

In this introductory episode, you’ll get a taste for how season 3 is different from our past seasons. You’ll also get a sneak peek into how storytelling can transform a community and how you can learn as much from another industry about your job as you can from within K-12. 

Featured in this episode are Michael C. Bush, Neel Doshi, Margaret Heffernen, and Joe Sanfelippo, 

Follow SchoolCEO on LinkedIn or X/Twitter @school_ceo. 

Subscribe to SchoolCEO at SchoolCEO.com for research, stories, and strategies for leading your schools. And if you have a story you’d like to share, email us at [email protected].

Learn more about SchoolCEO and all of our resources on our About page. SchoolCEO is powered by Apptegy, the maker of the leading K-12 communications and brand management platform.

In Season 2 of the SchoolCEO podcast we have had some of the brightest school leaders tell us about their work, inspiration, and strategies. Along the way, experts in influence, storytelling, culture building, hiring, and more from outside of K-12 have joined in to share additional perspectives. 

We’ve curated some of the very best comments and insights on how to build a high performing culture, the best way to reach your community, working with and across different generations, becoming a great leader, and how to hire teachers and staff. These insightful segments come from some of the most popular and most shared episodes.

Links to the full SchoolCEO Conversations Episodes:

E65: Neel Doshi

Spotify | Apple Podcasts

E66: Jeff Mayo

Spotify | Apple Podcasts

E70: Jonah Berger

Spotify | Apple Podcasts

E72: Dr. Jeffrey Collier & Coty Kuchinsky

Spotify | Apple Podcasts

E73: Julie Lythcott-Haims

Spotify | Apple Podcasts

E76: Karen Eber

Spotify | Apple Podcasts

E77: Jennifer Hines

Spotify | Apple Podcasts

E78: Donald Killingbeck

Spotify | Apple Podcasts

E80: Aurora Meyer

Spotify | Apple Podcasts

E82: EDU Openings

Spotify | Apple Podcasts

E84: Melissa Thompson

Spotify | Apple Podcasts

E86: Michael C. Bush

Spotify | Apple Podcasts

E89: Debbie Critchfield

Spotify | Apple Podcasts

E90: Margaret Heffernan

Spotify | Apple Podcasts

E91: Dr. Joe Sanfelippo

Spotify | Apple Podcasts

E92: Andrew McPeak

Spotify | Apple Podcasts

E94: Kim Lear

Spotify | Apple Podcasts

E96: Paul Coakley

Spotify | Apple Podcasts

E97: Greg Turchetta

Spotify | Apple Podcasts

Follow SchoolCEO on LinkedIn or X/Twitter @school_ceo. 

Subscribe to SchoolCEO at SchoolCEO.com for research, stories, and strategies for leading your schools. And if you have a story you’d like to share, email us at [email protected].

Learn more about SchoolCEO and all of our resources on our About page. SchoolCEO is powered by Apptegy, the maker of the leading K-12 communications and brand management platform.

In this episode, Dr. Rafal-Baer discusses her work in addressing the gender gap in education leadership and various initiatives such as the Forum for Educational Leadership and Women Leading ED,  a national network of women education leaders she founded. She also highlights the importance of supporting current and aspiring education leaders, providing comprehensive project management and implementation support, and creating a powerful network to promote gender equality at the top of education systems.

You can learn more about the ILO Group and Dr. Rafal-Baer’s work at https://www.ilogroup.com/. You can learn more about Women Leading Ed at https://www.womenleadinged.org/. You can learn more about the Forum for Educational Leadership at  https://www.tffel.com/. 

You can also follow Dr. Rafal-Baer on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @juliarafalbaer.

Follow SchoolCEO on LinkedIn or X/Twitter @school_ceo. 

Subscribe to SchoolCEO at SchoolCEO.com for research, stories, and strategies for leading your schools. And if you have a story you’d like to share, email us at [email protected].

Learn more about SchoolCEO and all of our resources on our About page. SchoolCEO is powered by Apptegy, the maker of the leading K-12 communications and brand management platform.

In this episode of SchoolCEO Conversations, we speak with Greg Turchetta, the Senior Chief Communications Officer for the Richland Two School District in South Carolina. In this conversation, we discuss the importance of storytelling, how every school staff member can contribute to your district’s story, and the power of transparency in schools.

Greg and his team are responsible for district-wide communication, marketing, media relations, and strategic partnership management for the 29,000 student school district. Before he began his K-12 career, Greg spent 4 years as Executive Director of Marketing and Media for Florida SouthWestern State College in Fort Myers, Florida were he executed a half million dollar brand campaign. Then, before even that, Greg had an award-winning 21-year television news career where he spent 12 of those years managing newsgathering efforts in some of the most prestigious newsrooms across the country including in Fort Myers, Atlanta, Orlando, Seattle, and Austin.

Follow Richland Two School District at https://twitter.com/RichlandTwo and Greg Turchetta at https://twitter.com/NewsBoss

Main Discussion Points:

- How every school staff member can contribute to storytelling and branding [00:31:54]

- Using social media and websites to share the "extraordinary" stories happening daily in schools that the public doesn't see [00:41:34]

 - De-escalation training for teachers as a teacher retention strategy to deal with difficult parent confrontations [00:51:23]

 - Creating an "environment that's more Ritz Carlton than it is DMV" for families [00:42:18]

Quotes:

“Our job is to move the needle and to move it fast, because honestly, in the education space, there's no time to waste.” [05:38]

“Transparency has to be your calling card. You have to do it at all cost. You cannot no comment things. The public takes that as an implied guilt.” [13:20]

“If parents are that fickle, that means we're doing a horrible job of proving the quality of what we do every day.” [41:37]

“Deescalation training is probably one of the best things you can do for teachers right now to keep them in your building.” [51:30]

“Urgency and quality. You have to use urgency to prove the quality of your district. You don't have time anymore.” [52:25]

Follow SchoolCEO on LinkedIn or X/Twitter @school_ceo. 

Subscribe to SchoolCEO at SchoolCEO.com for research, stories, and strategies for leading your schools. And if you have a story you’d like to share, email us at [email protected].

Learn more about SchoolCEO and all of our resources on our About page. SchoolCEO is powered by Apptegy, the maker of the leading K-12 communications and brand management platform.

In this episode of SchoolCEO Conversations, we speak with Dr. Paul Coakley, the Superintendent of Multnomah ESD in Oregon. Dr. Coakley has spent a lifetime as an educator and as a school administrator. He shares how he united a community to pass the first successful bond in nearly two decades. He also shares his insights on the importance of leaving a legacy, building a personal brand, and knowing when to transition in your career. 

Dr. Coakley discusses topics such as: how to brand yourself effectively to gain community trust, when the right time to pass on the leadership baton is, the importance of knowing your “WHY” as a leader, and so much more.

Dr. Paul Coakley has over 20 years of experience in education as a teacher, principal, human resources director, and superintendent and is currently the Superintendent of the Multnomah Education Service District (ESD) in Oregon. Dr. Coakley holds a doctorate in Educational Leadership and recently published his memoir, "A Reason for Every Season: Memoirs of a Black Superintendent” which we discuss in this episode.

You can pick up your copy of “A Reason for Every Season: Memoirs of a Black Superintendent” from Amazon or Barnes & Noble

Main Discussion Points:

Shifting Your Why Over Time (04:43)

Building Relationships to Lead an Organization (21:11)

Making Difficult Decisions as a Leader (29:46)

When to Transition in Your Career (40:40)

Advice for Superintendents Feeling Isolated (53:53)

Key Quotes: 

“One of the most important things for all school leaders and educators in general is to know your why and to understand what it is.” (02:44)

“If we are constantly working and we don’t make time for ourselves, we actually are less effective than when we’re rested.” (26:06)

“One of the things that I always say is the way you measure a healthy culture is: it’s how long does it take for a group of people to stop talking about a problem and start addressing it?” (48:05)

Follow SchoolCEO on LinkedIn or X/Twitter @school_ceo. 

Subscribe to SchoolCEO at SchoolCEO.com for research, stories, and strategies for leading your schools. And if you have a story you’d like to share, email us at [email protected].

Learn more about SchoolCEO and all of our resources on our About page. SchoolCEO is powered by Apptegy, the maker of the leading K-12 communications and brand management platform.