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Marketing Your School Nutrition Program

KSNA Conference

June 2023

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TODAY’S AGENDA

Setting the Stage
Overview of Marketing
Traditional Marketing
Digital Marketing
Q & A

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Kate McDonald Goodin

No Kid Hungry

Kentucky Campaign Director

kate@feedingky.org

NO KID HUNGRY CAMPAIGN

No child should go hungry in America. But 1 in 7 kids will face hunger this year. No Kid Hungry is ending childhood hunger through effective programs that provide kids with the food they need. ��This is a problem we know how to solve. The No Kid Hungry Kentucky campaign, a partnership between Share Our Strength and Feeding Kentucky, is the key strategy to ensuring kids get the food they need by increasing access to school breakfast, summer meals, and afterschool meals.

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Follow in Action!

Let’s follow each other to help increase your reach.

@FeedingKY

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Setting the Stage

What is important about your program?
Who is your audience?
Where is your audience?
How much time do you have to devote to marketing?
What area of marketing are you most uncomfortable?

Use the sticky notes and markers in the room to write down your answers to the following questions:

What is important about your program? Think what are the benefits - why should people care

What is your audience?

Where is your audience (like what to they view)?

How much time do you have to devote to marketing?

What area of marketing are you most uncomfortable?

Once you write your answers on the sticky notes, use your handout one titled “SWOT Analysis” to identify the effectiveness of your marketing plan.

As you are thinking everything through - each piece of our marketing strategy should point back to our mission - what are we trying to accomplish?

Allow time for them to complete -

Ask for anyone to share their thoughts (questions/SWOT - whichever they are most comfortable)

We will use these answers as we consider the various marketing strategies to establish a marketing plan

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Calculating Marketing Return on Investment (ROI)

As we start to plan and think about how marketing can be beneficial to our programs - we need to discuss money

We all want to be able to say - “Show me the money!”

So as we walk through the various marketing programs - think about what your program’s ROI is. Use this basic formula to calculate what that would be for each type of marketing you want to add. Some of the choices may be free so already off to a great start, but this calculation will also help you to have concrete evidence when presenting to the school board of why you need a social media post scheduler.

As a rule of thumb, digital marketers should aim for an average ROI of 5:1 — that’s $5 gained for every $1 spent on a marketing campaign. ROI below 2:1 is non-profitable and is indicative that your marketing strategy needs some work.

This could also be used for an entire new program implementation, think Breakfast in the Classroom, what did you spend on marketing versus what did you gain. This doesn’t have to be an exact science but it helps you to set goals.

*Reference

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Impact

Cost

Direct Outreach (Calls, Texts)

Low Impact

High Impact

Cheap or Easy

Expensive or Time Consuming

Digital Ads

Social Media

E-mail Outreach

Signage

Earned Media

Paid Media

Events

Website

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Tips to Boost ROI

Reduce cost (money or time)

Don’t reinvent the wheel - use freebies and templates whenever and wherever possible
Use available tools to cut down on time and improve quality
Engage students!�

Boost impact

Go to your audience - use channels that already exist and are utilized

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Traditional Marketing

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Traditional Marketing

Media (Print and Broadcast)

Face to Face

Direct Outreach (Mail, Text, Call)

Signage

What is traditional marketing?

This could be categorized differently, but we want to focus on the things students/admin/parents/community members can see, hear or hold.

Direct Outreach

Messaging Apps

These apps allow you to send a text message to parents
One example is ParentSquare

Announcements:

Morning announcements for all students/teachers to hear

Robo Calls:

Prerecorded calls sent to parents - think snow days

Signage

Flyers:

Provide program information - like date, time, location - we can think of summer meals banners here

Handouts:

Information we send home to parents or this could be sent to students to engage in our program

Media:

Use press release templates from USDA or SNA - tons of freebies out there
Main points to include are: location, time, date, who is this for, and why should the news station care (why is this a good story)
Get to know the media and radio - these relationships are great to rely on when starting a new program or announcing Summer meals

Face to Face:

Some secondary schools have a TV station that can use “commercials” as a project
Student groups create a flyer/handout about a new program - like art class
Theme days

Who in here has used one of these for their school nutrition program?

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Traditional Marketing Benefits

Low Cost Tool

Peer-to-peer marketing strategies are well received

Good ROI

Meet them where they are

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Traditional Marketing

Best Practices

Announcements
FREE Don’t reinvent the wheel

Flyers
Low Cost New Programs Out of school time events/ meals

Handouts
Low Cost Promotional Marketing Home Information

Student-Created
FREE Commercials Flyers Increased response

Here are some tried and true uses of these modes of communication:

Announcements:

Free! Just need the content and someone to say the words
Student/School Staff facing
Several organizations, like SNA and USDA, have morning announcement templates - great to use as a resource and rework for your specific needs
Great to remind the school of a new program or menu item or special event

Robo Calls:

Most likely you pay part of this service - super low cost
Parent facing
At the beginning of the year, this would be great to remind parents to submit their F/R lunch applications

Messaging Apps:

School district may pay for one of these services - see if school nutrition programs can be part (out of all the options - highest cost)
Parent facing
Able to schedule messages to out to a group of parents, entire school, or entire district
With the messages coming right to their fingertips - more likely to get a response
This would be great to send reminders of completing F/R lunch applications, allergy information, etc.

Are you celebrating something special, let parents know and how they can participateFlyers/Banners:

Low cost - based on the need and design - easy to get printed
Student/School Staff/Community facing
Most business allow you to upload (or email) your design and they will take care of the printing (less time for you to worry)
Some organizations provide free banners
For banners, make sure to generalize the design to reuse. For example, SFSP banners - simple logo/image with spaces to write in dates, location, time (this way you can use it more than once)
Great for announcing new programs - like breakfast in the classroom
Make sure to place flyers in the highest trafficked hallways (take a walk during passing period - secondary schools - to see what the students see)

Handouts:

Low -cost - may be able to simply print at school
Student/Parent Facing
Great to use for promotional marketing - something tangible that students can see their progress

Example - punch ticket for eating so many breakfasts in a month and they get a free token
Example - bundle promotion - do this based on the price of item you are “bundling” - so like for every complete meal purchased student gets a new smart snack beverage (highlight the exact beverage or snack so there’s no question)

Send program information home to parents - next steps for them - think back to school nights

Student-Created:

Free! Always can give students a token for their work - or certificate for such a great job done
Student/School Staff facing
Use secondary students that have a TV station to create “commercials” on an upcoming program
Use students in a marketing class to create flyers or banners to learn how to market to their peers
Students can even do artwork to promote your program - think NSBW, F2S
Whenever you get students involved - the response will be much higher - peer to peer marketing has a much better result

Which of these do you find most appealing?

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Theme Days

Planning

Start several months out
Identify who needs to part of the planning process

Buy-in

Your Team
School Staff Team

Options

NSBW, NSLW, F2S Month

Theme days are an easy way to increase excitement around your program - and get the community involved. With tons of freebies and marketing tools out there (like SNA), these are easy way to increase your marketing. If you are thinking of one new thing to add to your school district marketing plan, i would start here.

When utilizing theme days, there are a few things to consider:

Planning

Start several months out
Create tasks that you can do a month or week at a time to set yourself up for success

Use our marketing plan as a way to jumpstart your idea

Don’t wait to the last minute - it won’t be fun for anybody

Buy-in

Because everyone’s plates are so full, you want these to be actually fun and not just one more task on my overflowing plate
Your Team - maybe get them a fun shirt to celebrate the day or have a cafeteria decorating contest - most importantly get their feedback on what students would enjoy and what went well (and what didn’t)
School staff team - these are the students role models (like teachers) so the more that they talk up these days the more likely students will actively engage. How can you get them on board? Some teachers enjoy time to recoup during the day - offer to read to students on a nutrition topic or provide a special nutrition education segment on this topic. Or make it much easier on their time - by creating a handout for a simple student activity and/or something to send home to parents (ready to go)

Options

So many options - National School Breakfast Week, National School Lunch Week, Farm to School Month, Apple Crunch Day, School Lunch Hero Day (great places to start as there are tons of marketing materials ready to use for FREE)
Also can look at a national holiday calendar to find specific food holidays - like tacos, pizza, watermelon, and a ton more - use these to add some spunk to your menus

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Digital Marketing

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Digital Marketing

Emails and Newsletters

Digital Ads

Social Media

Website

What is digital marketing?

For this category, we are going to focus on marketing that uses a digital mode of communication to our audience

Social media - dig in deeper in a few slides
Emails:

These can be sent to parents or students
Some systems can be set to automatically send out emails to the audience

Newsletters:

A monthly marketing tool to update your audience on all the “happenings” of your programs
Most schools have one - could you add a section to theirs?

Digital Ads:

You can pay for ads to hit your community - targeted outreach
This can be done through Google
Check with school district on their policy for this (as well as IDOE for allowable expenses)
Recommend using for a specific community event - like an open site for summer meals

Who in here has used one of these for their school nutrition program?

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Benefits of Digital Marketing

Highest ROI

Promote program with consistent modes of communication

Schedule to save time

Low cost Tools

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Digital Marketing

Best Practices

Website
Low Cost Work with admin Special events/ celebrations

Emails
Low Cost Surveys New Programs Out of school time events/ meals

Newsletters
Low Cost Consistent mode to reach audience Start small

Digital Ads
Medium Cost Higher response rate New programs needing engagement

Here are some tried and true uses of these modes of communication:

Website:

Make sure civil rights, wellness policy info, and other required items are listed on the website
Can be used to keep your parents and community informed about programs, menus, etc.
Recommend having an easy to use button for completing F/R applications
If you have a social media account, tie the posts to your website to see the current chatterings about your program (and increase followers)
Most districts do a have an admin in charge of the website - work on the relationship to be able to promote your program

Emails:

Most likely free - unless you pay for a scheduling service, like Mailchimp
Parent/Student/Community Facing
Inform students of a new program or menu item
Send surveys to parents/students on your programs
Can tie newsletters with this

Newsletters:

Free templates on word - could pay to get a more designed template
Student/Parent Facing
Most parents are aware of newsletters - they are familiar which makes is a comfort-friendly tool
Don’t have the time to create your own newsletter - ask to add a section to a school/school district newsletter (they already have a large, established reach)
Potential to ask secondary yearbook editors for assistance to get started

Digital Ads

Based on what you want to do, this could be a medium type of cost
Meets the user where they are
Will need to identify who the users are - by zip or proximity to your site
Best to promote new programs that are available community wide - like summer meals or F/R applications

Which of these do you find most appealing?

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Social Media

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Why Use Social Media?

Engage broad audience

Share knowledge and information with your community

Promote your program

Connect with partners

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Starting with why social media is important & how can it be used?

In today’s world, social media plays a large role in informing the public about your program and offerings. Different posts can target key audiences (from students, to parents, to even elected officials). You all on this webinar know the importance of trying to reach audiences in as many ways as possible, especially when you need responses whether that be a meal application form or feedback on menus, and social media can be a great way to engage if you aren’t already.

It can be the most effective way to share information with kids, parents & members of the community; raise awareness & promote your meal program; and highlight the successes of your program while connecting with partners.

There’s also no one size fits all solution when it comes to social media. What works for one, might not necessarily work for another - depending on audience, size of district, etc.. The child/school nutrition department doesn’t always have its own social media handle or page. And in some cases, the department might be part of a broader school district’s social media page, so we’ll talk about some ways to work through that challenge as well.

Who in here has used social media? Are you willing to share what platform you use (personal or professional)?

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FACEBOOK

TWITTER

INSTAGRAM

Audience: Parents/community members

Audience: Media/community partners/elected officials

Audience: Teens/parents asdf

77% of adults ages 30-49 have an account

38.5% of users are between ages 25-34, the largest age group on the platform

81% of teens use Instagram on a regular basis

Largest variance in demographic representation
Long & short form posts mixing text with photos
Options for fundraising/events/paid ads

Short & sweet posts (280 characters) to share info & photos
News/current event space with real-time focus
Easy to engage in trends

Most visually interactive
Tends to be a more positive platform
Options to create stories and reels to showcase short videos.

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