master class term 1, 2014 comms strategy
DESCRIPTION
A presentation by The sponsor-ed Group to its school web administrators. The session divulged the findings of the school newsletter research conducted in late 2103 where 200 newsletters were analysed.TRANSCRIPT
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School Newsletter Research June 2013: Denis Masseni1
Master Class term 1, 2014
Communications Strategy: featuring newsletter research
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School Newsletter Research June 2013: Denis Masseni2
Master Class: Getting the communications balance right without driving yourself mad
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School Newsletter Research June 2013: Denis Masseni3
Communications for the time poor and low tech
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School Newsletter Research June 2013: Denis Masseni4
I’m only here because I needed to get some shopping done in the city
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School Newsletter Research June 2013: Denis Masseni5
The Punch line
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Communications; it’s that simple
You manage 2 content categories
Your website does 3 things
Engagement happens in 2 ways
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School Newsletter Research June 2013: Denis Masseni7
The Background
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School Newsletter Research June 2013: Denis Masseni8
The School Newsletter Research
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What prompted the newsletter research?
“I don’t know why we bother. You get tired of saying to parents - it
was in the newsletter”
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School Newsletter Research June 2013: Denis Masseni10
Research Methodology
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Content Mix
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Content Mix: By type
School Newsletter Research June 2013: Denis Masseni
COMMUNITY10%: Extra curricular activities10%: Community news10%: Advertising
INTERNAL15%: Principals message3%: Compliance2%: Admin impacts
STUDENTS25%: Student activities/showcasing5%: Student acknowledgements7%: Dates affecting students
PARENTS2%: Parents supporting learning2%: Parent education3%: P&F/C4%: Dates affecting parents
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School Newsletter Research June 2013: Denis Masseni13
Today’s newsletter
COMMUNITY 30%
INTERNAL 20%
STUDENTS 37%
PARENTS 11%
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The Statistics
Average number of articles 23Average number of pages 5Average number of hours to publish 5Average hourly rate $40PA cost weekly cycle $8,000Fortnightly cycle $4,000
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Observations
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The format of the school newsletter hasn’t changed since photocopiers were introduced to schools.
The Newsletter
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The newsletter format pre-dates the internet, smart phones and 2 working parents. It also pre-dates a time when
information was scarce.
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What schools told us
• No school said its newsletter readership was high
• Schools that moved from weekly to fortnightly publishing heard crickets
• No school could articulate its communication strategy
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The newsletter culture is so strong that ‘it’ drives the school instead of the school
driving ‘it’.
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The school newsletter is driven by
space and time, not by a communications
strategy
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More observations
• Almost no reference in the school newsletter to the school’s website– Calendar synch very low– Missing opportunities to build resource culture
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Managing 2 independent publishing mediums
• Word/Publisher & Website – Print vs Digital• Resource strapped environment• Merge and manage one
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Most of a school newsletter is a PR exercise
A definitionPublic relations is the deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organisation (or individual) and its (or their) publics.
Public Relations Institute of Australia
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Big assumption was audience is ‘like-minded’
“Our parents like ………….”
‘Squeaky wheel’ formed the research base
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Conclusion
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You manage 2 content categories
LogisticsPR
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Newsletter content
LogisticsPR
What do you want people to do?
What do you want people to feel?
20%
80%
Must know
Optional
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Culture is to publish articles rather than content outcomes
What business is Shell in?
EnergyWe’re seeking the article outcome. What do you want
people to ‘feel’ about the school?
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A Communication Outcome
1: Building community confidence in our teaching staff’s capabilities.
Even our teachers never stop learningCongratulations to Margaret Masseni on completing her Masters of Education – Student Wellbeing. It was 2 years of study giving up many nights and weekends following her passion. “It’s been a life long ambition of mine to study at Melbourne Uni. I’m very fortunate to have married such a wonderful husband as Denis who’s intellect has been a beacon of inspiration to me. I aspire to his greatness.” Said Margaret choking back the tears.
Communication Outcome
Content
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1: Building community confidence in our teaching staff’s capabilities.
Even our teachers never stop learningCongratulations to Margaret Masseni on recently completing her Masters of Education – Student Wellbeing. It was 2 years of study giving up many nights and weekends following her passion. “It’s been a life long ambition of mine to study at Melbourne Uni. I’m very fortunate to have married such a wonderful husband as Denis who’s intellect has been a beacon of inspiration to me. I aspire to his greatness.” Said Margaret choking back the tears.
Communication Outcome
Content + Frequency + Medium
Communications Strategy
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One reason why the newsletter is not being read; the ‘must know’ and ‘optional’ mix
not
timel
y
timel
y
not important important
How much of a newsletter effects me? Can be down to 4%
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wiifm
Dates effecting meMy kids
Classroom
The rest
My InterestContent Mix
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Communications Context: How platforms, devices and
publishing frequency matters.
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Context Rule 1: Frequency is context
http://allfacebook.com/socialcode-best-practices-engagement_b107019
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Frequency is ‘context’
2 choices;
to deliver 1,000 words every 2 weeks or
deliver 100 words per day, which has the best engagement?
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Imagine if Facebook was a fortnightly newsletter from your ‘friends’. Would you read it? Same
content, different context.
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Time of the day is ‘context’
Research: several thousand subscribersOpen rate 40%Highest open rates occurred on Sundays
emails sent from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. are about three times more likely to be opened than emails sent at 4 p.m
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Time of the day is ‘context’
• Most brands post during the week• Best engagement is on weekends
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505125_162-57411092/the-best-time-to-send-email-so-it-will-get-read/
Why not experiment and become the only school that delivers content to parents when they’re most likely to absorb it
…..on weekends. In fact why not send your newsletter twice?
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Often it’s not the content that’s missing the mark but the context
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Context Rule 2: Devices and platforms are context
http://allfacebook.com/socialcode-best-practices-engagement_b107019
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Receivers
Push out
Pull in
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PR/LogisticsStumble upon
Bite sizeTone/vibe
PR/LogisticsEfficient
SkimmableMultiple stories
LogisticsAlerts
Ergonomic
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Your website does 3 things
1: Community portal; latest news2: Allows community to self-serve 3: Your virtual front door
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Engagement happens in 2 ways
Relevance: hitting the mark; my child’s involved (20%<)
Content Merchandising: making content accessible; you’ve made me want to read.
device – platform – frequency - content
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Communications Eco System
Receiving
Push out
Pull in
Logistics
PR
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An uncomfortable map for you to consider
You need a communications outcome plan
Public Relations• Write on your homepage as you go – about 1 article per day• Push out the 10 articles fortnightly; experiment with
time/day• Email with notifications also via facebook and app
Logistics• Write on the homepage and populate calendar as you go • Push out as early as possible • Scoop up in fortnightly summary• Email with notifications also via facebook and app
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Future sponsor-ed upgrades
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The app: we love push notificationsAllowing web content to be pushed out to a phone app
An articleA calendar event
A webpageAn email
&
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Phone
Pushing out: web page
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Pushing out: a calendar event
Hawthorn West Primary School EVENT: Boroondara Division Swimming Carnival, August 5, 9:30AM – 12:30PM read more
This the way every post appears; exactly the same for facebook, twitter, and phone. For email the school’s name and email from are already in the email. The subject line becomes ‘EVENT’
http://hawthornwestps.vic.edu.au/eventdetails/175/2014-02-27
Date is converted
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What an email push looks like
• It’s the same whether it’s a push from an Article of Webpage
Article heading or Web page heading.In the case of an event, the subject line becomes EVENT.
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What a phone push looks like
Tagged with the school’s name
Goes back to Article url or web page from where it was written
Hawthorn West Primary School: Principal’s Message, our school is a …….. read more
Article or page title
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Alerts summary
The last 6 (?) items pushed-out to the phone are listed in an Alerts summary available in a section.
This is required because once a push-out has occurred there’s no way of checking what was pushed if you didn’t react to it on receipt.
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New Article rule
If nothing is written in the second box, the second box is auto populated with the content from the first box
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Pushing out in an email
In the email client, we need a facility to push out an alert that the newsletter’s now available. Notification to go to phone, facebook, twitter
I think if you add a second text box like in Article and allow the user to write what they want and have device tick boxes underneath to push to
Push-out text
Insert text here
Phone
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Calendar Summary
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Calendar Summary
14: Grade 5 Zoo16: Trivia night24: Parent teacher night28: 1 week to go to hols