Coaching Session 3 – Online School Branding Set Up

Lesson Notes

1. Website Creation
2. Booking System Creation  SimplyBook.me
3. Teacher’s Profile/Resume
4. E-mail Signature with Photo, Logo & Social Media Links

 

Impressive e-mail signature is part of branding and catches the recipient’s attention. As you communicate with your contacts, your attached social media is part of your digital marketing.

This is a very exciting course as your creativity will be drawn from your passion to reach out to people through education. As much as you want to offer important educational services, you want them to be very attractive, stand out in the digital world and even easy for people in your locality to remember your online school. What is your brand? What makes your online classes very unique?

In Branding an Online School that you can even extend to an onsite school, what are the considerations? What comes to mind when you think of top schools like Harvard University? The name of the school will automatically distinguish the kind of enrolled students. They are the brightest ones around the world and they passed through rigid exams and requirements to be accepted. When you think of your own school branding, what do you envision the kind of students who will enroll? Or, what image would you like to plant on the minds of the people so they will enroll in your school?

As you create your own school brand, you must give emphasis on branding your learning programs. Building a brand is like creating a “team.” A brand identity unites everyone—designers, developers, programmers, artists, writers, social media managers—under a single banner and creates a “team” out of disparate functional groups. When the “team spirit” abounds, people feel motivated to work cohesively towards a common goal. Team spirit encourages cooperation and harmonious relations. The reality is you are still on your own. This is a real big challenge but it’s rewarding once you put all together your ideas. There’s no need then to set a meeting with other parties but just put all your creativity, passion and vision together. You must also include brand loyalty. Your students will stay longer in your school and they will not go to another school.

In your brand identity, it shines the spotlight on the personality of your educational services. One of the greatest benefits of branding is that you can infuse a personality into your course offerings. People respond more readily and warmly to personalities than simple-plain marketing messages.

A brand identity is like a stamp of your integrity, ethics, and professionalism. When you have a distinct identity, you strive to uphold the right that your brand stands for. You keep up this positive image, and others too want to know that you will go the extra mile to preserve your brand identity.

In your business brand strategy, you communicate that you care about your students. You make them feel assured that you care about their development and are willing to invest in their skills. To quote a popular saying, “You walk the talk.” You mean what you project as your school image. People can easily see your sincerity. Indeed, you are your own brand.

A brand elicits loyalty. Whether it is your students who are buoyed by your commitment to their career growth or your teaching team that feels committed to delivering excellence.

A brand identity elicits loyalty and support from varied quarters. Building a brand drives growth. People online or your community will be talking good things about you and your school. Word of mouth advertising is very convincing. Student testimonials far attract more students because they’re social proofs of your good school lessons. One example is the total rating of your students when it comes to national tests. Can you say or people say that your school produced 100 % board passers? In my own school in Japan, Olives Language School has the reputation to have a 100 % passing rate of the national English Language Proficiency Test in all levels. There may be a few times we have 1 failed student but still a very minimal rate in this national language test. So, we have many students and parents enroll in my school.

 

How to build your school brand and make it work for you?

1. Commitment. In developing a curriculum, you must ensure that the programs align with the school goals and bring in results that are envisioned. As the teacher or your hired teachers, you must invest time, effort, and money in creating a sustainable learning culture.
2. Teacher as Brand Ambassador.  There is no better branding tactic than having an engaged and committed teacher spreads the good word about your own school. The enthusiasm rubs off on others, and motivated to join forces with you or seek you out when they need to learn.
3. Learning Culture Influences Branding.  Your brand won’t evoke trust and loyalty if you do not practice what you preach. If you have built a brand for your online school program, it is natural that you are expected to exhibit a commitment to spread knowledge and encourage learning. What better way to achieve this than to create an organizational learning culture?
4. Purpose. Learners are sensible, prudent individuals who value their time and do not want to waste energy on the trivial or the irrelevant. They look for meaning and purpose in everything they do. They search for relevance in every learning program that you ask them to take.
5. Consistency and Recognition. They are critical pieces of the puzzle. We don’t like our loved ones to change overnight. It is no different with the brands we love. Familiarity is comforting, and when it comes to brands, consistency aids recognition and gives the impression that they will continue to provide the same top-notch quality of service as before.
6. Focus on your target audience.  The power of your brand relies on the ability to make your students feel important. That is why knowing your target audience thoroughly will help to build a strong brand.
7. Use Emotional Appeal. Nothing resonates more with human beings than emotions. We love to laugh. Tears move us. We are inspired by the success stories crafted by other people. You have to make your brand memorable by evoking emotions in your audience. So instead of just focusing on creating courses or lesson plans, you should focus on creating learning experiences that stir emotions in learners.

 

In a “noisy” world, branding ensures students recognize your school as an authority to turn to and where they want to learn. So, in your School Branding, choose a design, color, fill gallery, add logo, fill unique educational services or create an image.

To make your school visible online, create your school website and booking site. You can use Jimdo, Wix, WordPress, Weebly or any available free host sites. For your booking site, you can use SimplyBook.me

 

How to sign up on Simplybook.me:

1.  Go to https://simplybook.me/
2.  Click the “Sign Up” button.
3.  Enter the Company login (part of URL, cannot be changed).
4.  Fill in the required Email, Work Phone, Business category, Company Location, your Booking Page Title and Write a short description.
5.  Click “I agree to Terms and Conditions”.
6.  Click “Sign Up Now” and ready to launch your Online School Booking Site.

 

In your booking process, the simpler, the faster and it’s really better for the students or parents or guardians of your students. When you set up your booking system with all the business and service information your clients need, it eliminates any need for email trails, missed calls, and phone tag. Your clients can fill your appointment book online, without you having to answer the phone, respond to an email, or give up your home life to accommodate late callers.

In SimplyBook.me online scheduling software, it offers fair and affordable pricing that varies depending on the size of your business. If you are just starting, you can start with a free plan and upgrade when you get more clients and more revenue! As you are still starting, avail of the free plans and just upgrade when you already have a lot of students so you will not incur any financial troubles.

 

What will you prepare? From the first basic setup, you can invite your clients to book online whenever they want. You must consider the following:

1. Daily display of your scheduled appointments.
2. Log on all of your appointments.
3. A reminder system to reduce no shows.
4. Less double-bookings.
5. A dedicated booking website, if you don’t have one already.
6. A booking widget to place on your existing website.

 

How to use Simplybook.me as a scheduling website?

1. Select Manage then Providers.
2. Select a provider or Add a new Provider. The name can be anything that fits your class.
3. Choose how many participants you want to add in the class at the same time.
4. Click Save after the changes.
5. Go to Manage then Services.  Select or Create the service that will be in the class.
6. Remember: The Service is in fact the Class! Then select a photo to display for your class. This makes your site look much better.
7. Click Save after changes.
8. Click Service Schedule to set the times of the class.
9. You will see the opening hours of the company. Only leave green where class takes place each day.
10. Go back to Service and click Service Providers.
11. Click YES to Confirm this is OK.
12. Click Save.

Note: You can see on your booking page what times are available. Your clients can easily book your class with the BOOK button.

 

Where to find bookings?

1. In the Calendar tab on the left-side menu, you can choose the view convenient for you.

1. In Reports then Booking details. You can use filters to easily find your bookings for specific service, provider, client or date range.

 

How to edit bookings?

1. In the Calendar tab on the left-side menu, click on the booking to open details and then press “Edit” to change any information about the booking.
2. To change the time of the appointment, simply drag and drop booking to the available time you need. You can easily add Comment to Booking or view other bookings of this client by pressing “Client Report.”
3. In Reports then Booking details, click on “View” button for the necessary booking to open details and then press “Edit” to change any information about the booking. You can use filters to easily find your bookings for specific service, provider, client or date range.

Please note! It is not possible to edit booking that was already cancelled.

 

How to cancel bookings?

1. For admin or user in the Calendar tab on the left-side menu or in Reports then Booking details, click on the booking to open the details or use the “View” option if in Reports and then press the “Cancel booking” button.
2. For a student to cancel his or her bookings, the student can click “Cancel Link” in their confirmation emails. If you want to prohibit students from cancelling, you may need Cancellation Policy Custom Feature.

 

How to create your resume as a teacher?

1. Highlight your education and credentials.
2. Showcase your skills.
3. Use examples.
4. Include all of your relevant teaching experience.
5. List accomplishments, not duties.
6. Consider the format.  Tailor each resume to the job.  Proofread and edit.

 

How to create an email signature? 

1.  Login to your Gmail account.
2.  In the top right of the screen, navigate to the gear symbol.
3.  Click on the icon and go to Settings.
4.  Scroll down through the various settings until you reach the Signature box, where you will see a text section.
5.  You now want to start typing out the contact information to use in your new template. As this is going to be a professional email signature, you will want to include these elements at a minimum: Your full name, Job title, Company name, Phone number and Email address.
6.  You can then add additional formatting to make your signature look a bit more interesting without going too overboard.
7.  You will want to add at least one hyperlink for something like your website, email address or your social media accounts.
8.  Click OK and the text will now have a hyperlink.
9.  Choose an image you want to use.
10.  Finally, if you are happy with your signature, scroll to the bottom and click Save Changes.

 

Sites for E-mail Signatures Generator: HubSpot, WiseStamp, FreelnacingGig 

 

Portfolio 3

1.  Create a school website.  Options: Weebly for Education, Jimdo, Wix, WordPress
2. Create a Booking System Site. Option: Click SimplyBook.me
3. Create a Teacher’s Profile/Resume.
4. Create an E-mail Signature with Photo, Logo and Social Media links of your school.

 

Email Subject: OSMC – Portfolio 3

Sample Photos for OTC – Portfolio 3

1.  Olives, Inc. : www.oliveskk.com

2.  Booking System Site: Global Social Venture

3.  Teacher’s Resume: http://shorturl.at/ixN15

 

4. E-mail Signature

 

“Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace,

seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”

Colossians 4:5~ 6