FCM Blog

Building Staff Capacity for Fee-Based Services

The Riverside County Office of Education (RCOE) has a core mission of providing specific educational, financial, legislative, and leadership services and support to all K-12 school districts in Riverside County, California. The primary work of the RCOE is divided into the following three areas providing:

1. overarching educational goals, support and services leading to high school graduation, college readiness, and career preparedness of all county students enrolled in public education;
2. financial oversight and support of the school districts in the county to ensure fiscal solvency and compliance with statutes; and
3. credential oversight and support to ensure all teachers in the county are properly authorized for the subject area(s) they are assigned to teach.

Several RCOE divisions determined that it was important to launch a “Marketing Transformational Initiative” (MTI) in light of new legislative trends creating a more competitive market place. The MTI engaged divisions and staff that was facing funding changes to their programs in order to develop systems and processes to better market to a variety of customers and stakeholders, and to inform, educate and engage new prospective customers about the relevancy of RCOE’s work.

FCM partnered with Business U, Inc. (BU) to work with RCOE and design and deliver the MTI, a series of onsite and online professional learning events with accredited outcomes driven curriculum that led to the development of divisional marketing and communications plans and brand strategies, as well as enhancing the technology and social media capacity of staff for deployment. The MTI was designed to elevate the skill sets of staff and raise awareness about the need for an entrepreneurial culture to identify fee-based opportunities.

The RCOE Public Relations staff served as a central coaching team through Business U’s train-the-trainer model supported by subject matter experts from FCM and BU. Topics for the learning events included the following.

• Understanding Customer Centric Models
• Obtaining Data to Evaluate Current Market Position
• Rebranding & Messaging Formulas
• Marketing & Communications Planning & Tracking
• Social Media & Technology

Congratulations to RCOE participants who are finalizing their marketing and communications plans next month.

If you would like to build the capacity of staff for fee-based services, contact us for more information.

Customer-Centric Digital Engagement Strategies

The Digital Government Engagement 2016 study reports that government organizations around the world continue to look for new ways to improve their communications strategy and connect with an increasingly mobile and tech-savvy audience. In 2016, the top three digital channels organizations are focusing their efforts include: website (nearly 87%), social media (63%) and email (51%). These results point to why a customer-centric digital engagement strategy is an important component for connecting with key target audiences every day.  What are the major barriers to digital strategies?  More than 60 percent of the government organizations surveyed cite budget as a reason for not investing in technology for communication. 

In a series of columns, FCM will share resources, tools and information to build a digital engagement strategy on a tight budget.  Click here to read FCM’s blog: How Much Should a Customized Website Cost?

Moving the Awareness Needle through Brand Strategies

FCM conducts brand awareness surveys across the country for workforce organizations. These surveys are an important first step in understanding various target audience perceptions about the workforce organization, in order to make a shift in those perceptions if necessary.

On average an aided brand awareness question (in which the respondent is given the name of the organization) yields about a six (6) percent affirmative response in that the survey participant has heard of the organization. Why is it that 94 percent of businesses and job seekers on average are unaware of the workforce organizations within their communities? It points to the need for a comprehensive brand strategy.

Workforce organizations spend substantial energy on developing strategic plans that detail how their work within the community will be accomplished. Often FCM will note that within these strategic plans there is generally a goal to “raise awareness” about the organization. However, what follows this awareness goal is generally a list of marketing and communications tactics (e.g. social media, newsletters, etc).

Identifying tactics before the development of a brand strategy is premature. A brand strategy describes why the organization does the work that is detailed within the strategic plan.  Your workforce brand is more than a mission statement or programmatic details; it’s what differentiates your organization from others in the community and the promises that you want to uphold. 

So what should be included in a brand strategy?

1. Quantitative Data – determine a baseline of awareness, understanding and value of your organization through random objective brand surveys administered to target audiences.
2. Qualitative Data – interview key stakeholders and current customers to identify what they think your organization does best in the community.
3. Positioning Statement – develop a brand story that describes what key issues your organization solves and your unique differentiator from other organizations in bringing your services to the community.
4. Tagline – create a tagline that is no more than seven words that summarizes your positioning statement.
5. Logo – design a unique mark accompanied by the tagline that denotes the brand name.
6. Brand Architecture – develop a document on how various logos (e.g. partners, contractors) should be displayed visually.
7. Target Audience Messages – tailor messages for each target audience that describes the key issue that you are solving; the solution you provide; and the value proposition (benefits) for engaging with the organization in a specific call to action.

If your organization needs a brand strategy, contact us. We’ve helped organizations all across the nation to substantially move the needle on brand awareness through a comprehensive brand strategy.