Telling Your Story When the Media Won't - marketing efforts of Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district, Charlotte, North Carolina

School Administrator, August, 2001 by Nora Carr

One-to-One Contact

Going direct at its purest means targeting communications to key stakeholders on a one-to-one basis. This is not as difficult as it seems.

Common sense-and good marketing strategy-holds that people respond better to communications that are crafted to address their individual interests and concerns. Made famous by Amazon.com, one-to-one marketing for school systems means bolstering mass media's one-sizefits-all messages and communications with more personalized approaches.

When Newsweek ranked 10 of our 14 high schools among the nation's "top 500," we did more than put out the obligatory news release while dancing around the central office. We sent personalized messages from our superintendent via e-mail, including a hyperlink to Newsweek's on-line version of the story, to more than 1,000 Realtors and community leaders.

The net result? Even though our local media deigned to cover this recognition, our mass electronic release, followed by a mailing of full color reprints a few months later, had key people throughout Mecklenburg County talking positively about the school district's strong academic program at the high school level.

CMS also uses this technique for internal audiences. When the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals partially vacated a lower court opinion regarding the district's unitary status, principals, teacher leaders, senior staff, department directors and education center employees all received talking points to share with parents and colleagues within a couple of hours via fax and e-mail. The information also was posted on the Web. Talking points were listed on the district's password-protected intranet while news releases, background information and related sites were highlighted on the CMS home page for all the world to see. As our database and technology infrastructure becomes more sophisticated, we re hoping to shave our response time from hours to minutes.

Our goal is to get there first with critical news and information to the people who matter most. Mailing lists and "dear colleague and dear resident" communications just don't cut it any more. We're dealing with the most educated and demanding consumers in world history. They expect 24-hour, seven-days-a-week access to high-quality information. If we can't provide it, they'll go "directly" to someone who will. And we probably won't be happy with the result.

Nora Carr is assistant superintendent for public information for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Schools, 701 E. 2nd St., Charlotte, N.C. 28202. E-mail: n.carr@cms.k12.nc.us