Are you ready to market your school nutrition program in the new school year?
Do you know what to say? Have you thought about what you want or need people to know?
Chances are those questions produced a little anxiety, since marketing is the thing that most often gets pushed to the bottom of the to-do list. It can also feel overwhelming - like you have to do everything all at once. But you don’t.
We like to help clients get started and build on each success. So to kick off the school year we have three steps you can take to start your marketing process. In taking time to develop these steps you’ll likely come away inspired by the amazing things you’re already doing and the chance to tell people about them.
STEP ONE: Determine Your Core Message
School nutrition programs do a TON! And it’s tempting to want to flood your audience with every bit of great news, every program, and every success story you have. The challenge is that in a limited attention economy, too much information often means that nothing gets across.
To get past that, we recommend you find a defining theme, program, or value that your program can focus on and communicate. It could be your Farm 2 School program, menus packed with options, or a commitment to the best customer service around.
Whatever it is, be sure that it is something you’re delivering and that you’re ready to talk about all year long. Using the examples above, your core message could be:
Built on Farm 2 School
Your Dining Choice is Clear
The Best Service, Serving The Best
Whatever it is, think of it as the top section of a pyramid, and everything else will flow up to that message.
STEP TWO:
Identify How You’re Delivering Your Core Message
Once you have your core message, think of the ways you can showcase how you’re delivering that message. You want to be able to SHOW how you deliver that message, not just tell people about it. For example:
Do you have salad bars with produce from local or regional farms?
Do you participate in Harvest of the Month?
Do you do taste tests or coordinate with school gardens?
Each of those examples are ways that your program delivers on being Built on Farm 2 School. This could look like a post that says, “check out our amazing salad bars, choc full of fresh, seasonal California foods every day. That’s how we’re Built on Farm 2 School.”
Drive it all to your core message.
For the second example, perhaps you want to highlight the number of entree options available on a daily basis. You can spotlight your focus group taste tests with students to show how students have a voice in meal selection. Or you can explain your offer vs. serve approach to encourage students to build lifelong healthy eating habits. It all adds up to choices and student empowerment.
Your core message should be specific enough to make a strong and clear statement, as well as broad enough to include many aspects of your program. Using the pyramid example, these are the components that make up the base of the pyramid and flow up to your core message. They hold up your core message by proving your case every day.
STEP THREE:
Repeat & Stay On Message
This can be the toughest thing to do because you’re doing a lot every day. It’s easy to just rattle off a post about an isolated event, or exchange, or success, but if it isn’t tethered to your core message, the impact of the great thing your team just did will be minimized.
Remember this: when you’re getting tired of your messaging to your core message, your audience (students, families, and school staff) is most likely just starting to pay attention.
One example of this is GEICO Insurance. For 20+ years they came up with hundreds of ways to say the same thing: “15 minutes can save you 15% or more on your car insurance.”
I guarantee that if it wasn’t working they would have changed their message. But it did work, and they used their creativity to say it in different ways while keeping the core message the same.
There’s plenty of thought and intention that goes into this, but the most critical factor is execution. If you can do the work to clarify your message, identify the ways you’re delivering on that message every day, and stay focused, you will see that message getting through.
DON’T WAIT TO PROMOTE YOUR SCHOOL MEAL PROGRAM
Marketing and outreach is often the thing that school nutrition leaders desire the most, and yet have the least time to enact. But it doesn't have to be that way. Take the first step toward letting your community know about the amazing food and team that is being provided each and every school day.
Schedule a FREE consultation to see how we can help boost your school meal program.