A look back at 2024
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Can you believe 2024 is coming to a close? The steady flow of time is always hard to perceive while you’re in the middle of it. As the great American philosopher Ferris Bueller once put it, “Life moves by pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it.”
That’s why it is always nice to take a step back in December and reflect on everything you’ve accomplished in just 12 short months. For the SchoolCEO team, we are proud of the issues we’ve published this year that touch on everything from enrollment and experiential marketing to the superintendent-communications director relationship to perennial leadership.
A few highlights from each issue:
Winter 2024
Enrollment Marketing: The Customer Journey — There are five phases in every family’s enrollment journey, and we’ll walk you through each one from awareness to advocacy.
Dr. Joe Gothard: A Place to Call Home — AASA 2024 Superintendent of the Year Joe Gothard, Ed.D. is meeting needs and building belonging as a passionate school leader.
Spring 2024
A Seat at the Table — SchoolCEO and National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA) 's original research on what school communicators need to thrive in their roles, with input from 600 comms pros from across the country.
Full Steam Ahead — Rebecca Bultsma , APR makes the case that generative AI has a place in any school communicator’s toolkit.
Summer 2024
Harnessing the Power of Experiential Marketing — In-person experiences can be incredibly valuable touchpoints with your district brand—here’s how to make the most of them.
The Power of Principals — Principals are important brand ambassadors for your schools, and William D. Parker of the “Principal Matters” podcast explains how to orient your campus leadership team around the magic of everyday experiences
Fall 2024
Becoming a Perennial Leader — As a school leader, your fellow administrators, teachers, and staff more than likely crosses generational lines. Here’s how to make your district a thriving environment across generations.
Dialing Back Distractions — Our Q&A with school communicator Jessica Hull ( Jessica H. ) dives into how California's Roseville City School District was able to build buy-in around a new mobile device ban policy.
One question for you
1. What is one accomplishment, big or small, that you are most proud of this year?
Email us at editor@schoolceo.com or book a time on our calendar and let us know.
Two resources to help
1. Season 3 of SchoolCEO Podcast is your cheat-sheet to school marketing—bringing together insights around topics such as digital experience and effective communications all in bite-sized lessons. Catch up on every episode of season 3 here.
2. This year, Apptegy has conducted a series of webinars covering everything from branding and social media to SchoolCEO research findings. You can find recordings for all of this year’s webinars here.
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Three ideas to ponder
1. “For a business to be truly customer-focused, it needs to ignore what people say. Instead, it needs to concentrate on what people feel.” —Marketing Executive Rory Sutherland , quoted in The Counterintuitive Guide to School Marketing.
2. “You don’t have to be an incredible writer to influence behavior. You just have to understand the psychology of words and how to use them in your role at your district. A turn of a sentence on your enrollment page could be the very thing that grabs parents' attention. A subtle shift in language could convince hesitant community members to support your bond.” — How Words Change Minds: Writing Tips for School Communication
3. “You already know who your district’s superfans are—from the parents who bring in coffees for the students who treat spirit week like it’s their full-time job…Do your part to help train these superfans so that they can serve as trustworthy ambassadors for your school district.” — Top 8 Enrollment Marketing Strategies for 2025