I just had one of those “Aha! moments.”
I’m working on finding something worth tweeting about, something that is worth your effort to read. Most information out there is geared toward the corporate world and I wish I had the time to translate it from the corporate perspective to the independent school culture, but I don’t, so I give you the raw stuff and leave it up to you. I believe that we should make it common practice to learn from the corporate world’s knowledge. I believe that independent school professionals can take this knowledge of marketing or communications and put it to good use.
That’s when it dawned on me – my “Aha! moment”. It’s going to be the most difficult for those individuals who don’t have a coaching strategy. By coaching strategy, I mean a methodology, or strategy, in operating your marketing or communications programs; not a tactical approach. It is the one that you rely on as a guide for knowing when ideas being presented to you are useful, or not. Because they fit with you coaching strategy, you can say “Oh, I see how that improves my coaching strategy.” When you don’t have some strategic approach you will, more likely, be puzzled about why someone is saying what they are saying or making a particular recommendation. Unfortunately, that someone could be me. I don’t want this to happen.
Successful Coaching Strategies Are Few from My Experience
Although I don’t know of many successful coaching strategies, I list a few. You can work to develop your own, or use a strategy that someone else is using, or create a modified system – which is what I did. Below are a few suggestions to get you started.’
“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ― Sun Tzu
- Robert Seviers – His thinking is around an integrated marketing approach (on which he has written books that would be valuable in developing your coaching strategy). Robert was an influencer in the development of my own strategy. http://strategypublishing.com/index.html
- Brendan Schneider – Although I have not yet attended one of his workshops, I have read some of his materials and observed his way of thinking. He appears to have a coaching strategy for the process of internet marketing. http://www.schneiderb.com/
- Ian Symmonds – I have read some of the white papers Ian has produced and he appears to have a coaching strategy. Under his services, he says that he offers – “strategic marketing planning.” I am not sure if he teaches you to fish (helps you develop and understand your strategy) or gives you the fish (does the strategy for you). http://iansymmonds.org/
- Claude Anderson – Yours Truly – My strategy, the Five Pillars Paradigm is what most people could use to guide them in doing strategic thinking around marketing. It focuses on full-pay families, differentiation, and the right packaging that will be the keystone to your marketing – videos, social media, print materials, emails, open houses, shadow days etc.
Don’t confuse great tactical approaches with great strategic approaches – the coaching strategies. Collections of work that organizations put together whether it is a book, a series of webinars, or a conference done by disparate people is unlikely to be a strategic approach. Don’t let these confuse you. You could learn some great tactical approaches, but you’re not going to learn a strategic approach.
My blog – www.marketingtofullpay .com – is about tactical approaches. It has good information, but it’s not a strategy. The Five Pillars: A Customizable Strategy to Marketing to Full-pay Families is a systematic and strategic approach.
There are other groups that have their own strategic approaches, but typically, you hire them to implement their approach in your environment. You won’t necessarily be a master of the approach upon their leaving your school. This can be a good solution when a school doesn’t have the expertise to maintain a system. However, you do need to call them back every few years, so that they can realign your marketing or communications systems to the current market conditions.
If you know of any other marketing or communications strategies available for people to learn, please let me know so that I can add them to the list.