School Direct Marketing and Recruitment Guide. Carrie Blake Marketing Manager

Transcription

1 School Direct Marketing and Recruitment Guide Carrie Blake Marketing Manager

2 Part A: Seven Basic Steps CONTENTS Part B: Ten Promotional Channels Unique Selling Point. page 4 Visual Identity... page 5 Key Messages...page 6 Target Audiences.page 8 Good Systems.page 10 Warwick s Reputation page 11 Marketing Plan..page 12 Website...page 14 Events..page 15 Personal Recommendation...page 16 Local Media.page 17 Online Advertising..page 18 Social Media page 19 Newsletters, s & Letters..page 20 Print Advertising..page 21 CONTACT & SUPPORT page 22

3 TARGET AUDIENCES GOOD SYSTEMS KEY MESSAGES WARWICK S REPUTATION VISUAL IDENTITY MARKETING PLAN USP PART A - SEVEN BASIC STEPS

4 1. Have a clear Unique Selling Point What makes your Alliance special? Why should trainees choose you above other competitor Alliances? Emphasise this and the other things that the Alliance is most proud of 4

5 2. Have a consistent Visual Identity Ensure that your Alliance logo is being consistently used across all your School Direct communications Increase brand recognition by using the same graphic style and colours on all your print and online materials 5

6 3. Decide on Key Messages to use in all your marketing 6 Emphasise your USP Mention what is important to potential trainees Address their main concerns and motivations Highlight key values that you want to get across Provide a strong call to action on all your marketing encourage them to contact you and apply Clarify important facts to help filter out the wrong applicants

7 We asked 60 existing and potential trainees what their their top motivations for choosing to teach were: 7

8 4. Know how best to reach your Target Audiences (Career Changers & Undergraduates) Think about where your target audiences are most likely to live, work and how you can get messages out to them Consider the online and printed communications they are exposed to that you could advertise in Address your target audiences main concerns about becoming a teacher What are your target audiences favourite channels of communication? 8

9 We asked 60 existing and potential trainees what their preferred communication channels were to find out about teaching: 9

10 5. GOOD SYSTEMS Monitor success of any campaigns to inform your plans for the following year. Use your current trainees as focus groups or to fill out an anonymous insight survey. 4.MONITORING 1. ENQUIRIES Have a robust system for recording all enquiries about School Direct. Keep a note of who is not ready now but should be contacted in the future. Follow up contacts at least twice. Keep quality candidates in the Midlands! Filled the places, but have quality candidates? Share that knowledge with the University of Warwick. 3. SHARING 2. INTERVIEWS Start recruitment, interviews and offers as soon as possible don t lose quality trainees to competitors. Review interview process and speed of offers. Send an online questionnaire for feedback. 10 = ATTRACTION & RETENTION OF QUALITY CANDIDATES

11 6. Don t underestimate the power of The University of Warwick s reputation 80% of current students surveyed said that the reputation of the university ITE provider was the most important reason behind their application Link to the CPE website there is loads of useful information on there Use the Warwick logo prominently on your website and other marketing materials. Please check with us how and where you use our logo Have a Working in Partnership with The University of Warwick poster in your Alliance schools receptions 11

12 7. Create a robust Marketing Plan A Marketing Plan for the year is important to set out at the beginning of your recruitment activity and should include: Activity Deadlines Status Lead Person Costs/ Resources Preparation Time 12

13 PART B TEN PROMOTIONAL CHANNELS 13

14 Importance Rating Check list: 14 Ensure that Job Opportunities or Become a Teacher can easily be found on the front page of your Alliance website or have a small link always on the homepage (School Direct won t mean anything to most people) Develop simple webpages explaining what School Direct is and how to apply with any key deadlines Use the University of Warwick logo and some key messages about Warwick Create a no commitment sign-up form and nurture those contacts Make it really clear how to contact you and meet you (list events) Provide talking heads/quotes from existing trainees covering key messages Provide blogs from trainees, videoed mentoring sessions Create a memorable shortened URL to link straight to your materials e.g. /school-direct or /become-a-teacher Warwick support: Offer professional advice on your webpages Profile your school on our site with your trainee case studies List your places on our CPE website List any recruitment events on our Meet Us pages Offer advice on writing effectively for the web

15 Importance Rating Check list: Run Information Sessions/Open Evenings regularly and promote them on all your communication channels Offer Teacher Taster Sessions/Observations Join Train to Teach fairs run by DfE Sign up to local careers fairs all Universities have them for employers Hold a stall at any community events Have a stall at any of your schools events, such as Open Days, Parent Evenings and shows and hand out credit card-sized information for people to pass on Have a stall at the local supermarket or shopping centre Warwick support: Advise on effective promotion at an event Share our space at career events (only one school and two people maximum at a time) List any recruitment events on our Meet Us pages If you can offer a unique free talk or workshop around a specific subject, we can help organise and promote to relevant students 15

16 Importance Rating Check list: Gather quotes and online talking heads (short videos talking to camera) of trainees Provide opportunities to talk honestly to your trainees at events or career fairs Do an online Ask the Trainee session on Facebook Ask staff to post advert and link on their own Social Media sites Use a mix of career changers and UGs as trainee case studies, blogs or videos Warwick support: Promote and share on our webpages Offer advice on how to do these well what works 16

17 Importance Rating Check list: Find out where teachers who came through the SD route are from and see if their local paper will do a piece about them Send a Press Release you need an angle and a good relationship with local paper Invite a journalist to spend a day with a (well chosen) trainee or try to get them teaching for a lesson - as a discussion piece Advertise in the job section Ask local radio if they would be interested in an interview with a career changer trainee Work with the press to always put a line about job opportunities at the end of any positive press activity Link into any themed special edition such as career spread Warwick support: We can offer support and advice on working with the media, writing press releases and finding an angle 17

18 Importance Rating Check list: 18 Consider the external networks in the community amongst your staff. Ask them to post an advert on their webpages, social media pages, and newsletters. Ask parents to help promote SD (a simple link and a sentence) they will have contacts all over the area List your recruitment events on local What s On pages Investigate local online paid or free listing opportunities to advertise any job listings (Council pages, etc.) Ask your local organisations to re-tweet or share your Social Media activity Investigate graduate job sites to advertise under subjects or general sections Consider Pay Per Click advertising on Google, LinkedIn and Social Media sites Look at suitable forums/ online sites for career changers or UGs Warwick support: Provide a oneminute online video that can be posted online to link to YouTube Provide a list of job sites, ideas of costs

19 Importance Rating Check list: Use your Facebook to post and share School Direct adverts on all local community pages (ask Admins to re-share, so will appear on newsfeeds) Use national campaigns and local community pages and Tweet events they may re-tweet Create an alumni Facebook group if you have a Sixth Form they are potential trainees in the future Consider using LinkedIn job listings Ask trainees to blog (appropriately!) about their experiences ask them to promote SD on their Social Media sites Warwick support: We can offer advice on Social Media promotion and groups Follow us on Twitter and re-tweet our promotional activity 19

20 Importance Rating Check list: Write a regular section about School Direct in all your communications to stakeholders including parents and alumni Send a direct communication to parents by letter, addressing motivations and concerns about becoming a teacher Have a one-line agreed message and link about School Direct on all staff footer s Develop a mailing list of enquirers invite them to events and keep them updated about deadlines Try a Recommend a Friend campaign list what makes a great teacher and ask people to pass on to someone they think would be a good teacher Warwick support: Offer advice and guidance on any campaigns Provide logos and key messages about Warwick Provide in-house printable generic leaflets 20

21 Importance Rating Check list: Create a simple A4 poster and ask all your parents, staff and contacts to each find a place in the community to put it up Do a mail-out to local libraries, theatres, supermarkets, places of worship, job centres, high end coffee shops, leisure centres, dentists, surgeries to display a poster Banners are useful to attract attention keep them simple and make one main point Leaflets should be kept simple and encourage a visit to your website as this is up-to-date and should have lots of interesting information Depending on your budget, you could consider advertising on buses and local train stations Warwick support: Advice on effective posters and leaflets Advice on effective bus and train advertising as well as an idea of costs 21

22 Carrie Blake is the Centre for Professional Education s recruitment and marketing specialist, with nearly 20 years experience of developing and implementing successful recruitment, marketing and communication strategies across HE, FE, charities and schools. The Centre for Professional Education is pleased to offer free professional support and advice to our partnership Alliances for School Direct at any level and at any time through the year. Carrie Blake Marketing Manager c.r.blake@warwick.ac.uk Tel: