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Creative Communications
Day School Services Include:
Strategic Development &
PR Plans
News Releases
E-Letters
E-Zines
Newsletters
Brochures
Recruitment & Retention Campaigns
Board & Lay
Leadership Development
Grant Research
& Writing
Dynamic Event Planning
Web Page Design
& Maintenance
Ghostwriting
Cost-effective Mentoring
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Need help submitting releases or developing a strategic calendar?
Please call me at
(516) 569-8070 or send me an email.
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| If you think your colleagues would like to learn why advertising
should not be their only means of external communication, please forward this issue to them along with my invitation to subscribe to this newsletter.
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Greetings!
I hope that you enjoyed the Chagim. Last month, I promised to answer the
challenge:
How do you continue to convey the first day of school's
excitement to your parents, potential parents, and other target constituents?
Some readers wrote to me proposing that advertising is the
secret solution to effective communication.
Well, advertising doesn't work- IF- it is the
only element of your communications plan. Sure, advertising can be useful
but
publicity is more effective and cost efficient. I'm devoting this issue to
highlighting the distinction between publicity
and advertising and explaining
why I advocate publicity. In the coming months, I will offer concrete,
easy-to-implement suggestions to help you become a publicity whiz.
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 | Advertising vs. Publicity
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Advertising is something you get by paying for it. You
create an ad, paying meticulous attention to its content and design. You choose
your media outlets, and pay. Your ad appears exactly - and as often - as you
want.
Publicity, however, is something you try to obtain. You
submit a request for coverage or a story after the fact. The assignment editor
decides if a reporter should cover the story or if the submitted material
should be published. Your perfectly chosen inter-generational picture may end
up on the front page, your Chesed story may appear as a slightly edited
feature, or the launching of your smart board program may become part of a
larger feature about incorporating technology into the classroom. Your event
may even end up on TV. Or, your request or release may be ignored, edited
severely, buried in the back pages, or shelved until it is no longer relevant.
So, why try to get publicity that you can't control instead
of paying for a sure thing: advertising? Doesn't that seem counter-intuitive?
There are two answers: cost and credibility.
1. Cost: advertising can be very expensive while publicity
can be gained at relatively little cost.
2. Credibility: publicity has more credibility than
advertising.
Cost: You pay not only for an ad's creation but also for
each and every placement. Sure, you pay someone to write and submit your
releases, but one release can be sent to many outlets - merely by clicking
send!
Credibility: People who read or hear about you in the news
know that you are not controlling the message. Therefore, they perceive the
message to be credible.
The bottom line? Effective publicity is vital. It is simply
good sense to ensure that your parents and other constituents including
potential parents, grandparents, alumni, neighbors, vendors, and present and
potential donors are exposed to positive, consistent publicity about your
school.
Let's create a case study:
Perhaps you've heard some suspicious whispers from the
cynics:
Sure those kids learn Torah. But, I wonder if they're
prepared to enter the "real" world.
I bet they don't even know much about the presidential
election.
Your job is to convince your constituent groups that your
students will be tomorrow's responsible, savvy citizens.
Advertising
Let's say you decide to develop a low budget ad campaign. At
the very least, in addition to your time, you'll spend the following:
ad creation (two ads): $600
ad placement
2x in a small
Jewish paper: $1200
1x in the local
Anglo paper: $1200
Your ad might pose the question: do you vote to produce
students who can identify Plato, Palin, and the weekly Parsha? Perhaps it will
include a picture of your students engaged in learning about the election -
entering a "voting" booth, debating, or campaigning.
Publicity
Take the same $3,000. Put $1,800 in the bank (now, that's a
good vote)! Invest $1,200 and pay to have one request for coverage for your
"mock debate" and two election feature stories written (at $400
each). Each story would feature a unique focus and be sent with a different
picture. In fact, each story could be tweaked slightly and sent to additional
media contacts.
Chances are that for less than half the cost of advertising,
your school's commitment to creating solid citizens will be featured in the
newspaper, reaching your desired audience many more times than the three
guaranteed by your paid ads. You might even be featured on TV or radio. And
remember - due to enhanced credibility, one "earned-media" placement
can have an advertising equivalency that far exceeds the value of a small ad.
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Gaining solid, consistent editorial coverage requires more
than simply submitting a well-written press release about a unique event. That
is why it is known as "earned media" - you work to earn it! You work
hard to know what news each editor needs, you craft pitches and stories in the
format they desire, and you cultivate relationships with them. In an
understandable effort to save money, many administrators simply add
"monthly press release" to the list of responsibilities for their
intern, assistant, or favorite English teacher. In the long run, this is not a
good idea. If you don't have the qualified staff or time to earn the media
coverage you want, let me know. I'm here to help out in a cost-effective way.
Should you have any questions about developing and implementing
a winning 2008-09 PR and fund-raising plan or about any of my day school
services, please call me at (516) 569-8070 or send me an email.
Sincerely,
Candace Plotsker-Herman
Creative Communications
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