Top-Tips for Securing Strong Education Coverage
Carefully targeted education PR and marketing can greatly help to raise awareness, driving pupil recruitment in an ever-competitive market place. With many state schools producing results equally as good as independent schools, the choice of education provider between private and state is no longer as black and white. Similarly, the competition is heating up between state schools, offering parents increased choice. It now all comes down to who shouts the loudest.
Promoting a school or colleges key achievements whilst relaying the core values, is an integral part of the media relations work that we do. It is these USPs that we build into campaigns to generate engagement across a number of platforms including local press, glossy lifestyle magazines, blogs, social media and broadcast. Whether you want to strengthen your reputation, demonstrate your expertise or expand into a new market, it can come at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing and advertising.
We have put together some top-tips for securing strong editorial coverage in the education sector.
Think about your Story
The press receives an influx of varying new pieces on a daily basis, with any one journalist receiving up to 1,00 emails a day so, it’s always important to make your story stand out. Focusing on unique initiatives and achievements works well, but these do not always come about so, when they don’t write about key events throughout the year. Whilst your small bake-sale may not be a top-priority for the weekly newspaper, tagging the story onto topical events such as Mother’s Day or Christmas can be successful.
Focus on key education topics too, other schools and colleges will be shouting about their GCSE or A-Level results and World Book Day costumes so ensure that you’re included in the media round-ups.
Personalised Press Targeting
When issuing a press release personalisation is key – address the journalist directly, build a working relationship with them.
Think about the publication which you are sending the press release to. It’s key to consider editorial lead times - if you’re issuing a Father’s Day fundraising story to a glossy, local lifestyle magazine that you know has quarterly issues, perhaps suggest to the editor that the story may be more suited to feature online.
Branching Out
Supporting schools around the country we know just how easy it is to travel and so, parents and pupils will do this for a quality education too.
We always recommend to our education clients to extend out of their target catchment area with localised press releases. If you are hosting an art competition or talent show don’t just shout about it in the school’s local press and national education titles, extend your reach to a new area and tell the winning pupils local press too.
Safeguarding
The welfare and safety of children in schools is paramount and understandably, parents may not want their children’s name, age or address featured in the press. An easy way to overcome any safeguarding issues is to use images with more than six pupils in the shot, this way the journalists will not need to name each individual child.
Additional Coverage
We like to get our clients talking! When it comes to current events such as result’s day and exam season, contact local TV and radio stations offering expert opinion on revision tips and next steps. These ideas can also be put forward for thought leadership pieces in national education publications.
If you need any help raising awareness of your school and college with specifically targeted education PR and marketing, get in touch!
The Zeus Team at Pro Hair Live!
Last weekend the Zeus team headed to Manchester Central for Pro Hair Live 2018 to support our client, Joseph Lanzante as he exhibited and took to the Men’s stage!
Pro Hair Live is an annual event in Manchester that gathers hair and beauty professionals from across the country to demonstrate their incredible talents. It is a fantastic opportunity for businesses and salons to promote and discuss the work that they specialise in.
Joseph owns The Mens Room in both Clitheroe and Victoria Station Manchester, alongside his own branded training centre and aesthetic clinic, JL Aesthetics, providing him with excellent knowledge when it comes to anything barber related! Joseph was asked to speak on the Men’s Stage at Pro Hair Live on both days, giving him the opportunity to pass on his industry knowledge to a vast audience.
Joseph took to the stage to discuss his latest venture, JL Aesthetics and micropigmentation. Micro-pigmentation is a new confidence-boosting treatment that helps to rebuild your hairline through a non-surgical procedure, which Joseph also provides training in. On stage, Joseph demonstrated the treatment on a male model and discussed his industry knowledge of this procedure, including the marketing and business aspects.
Throughout the day, the Zeus team where on hand to support Joseph, taking a range of photographs and sharing engaging content on social media. To share the experience with his followers, the team also wrote a blog for the Joseph Lanzante website discussing the experience and how it benefitted the brand.