Designing a Thought Leadership Framework | Right At School

My golden rule for content strategy is to value what has come before. I try to ensure that future content builds on existing content in an organic way, and we never make previous content obsolete, unless it truly does not represent who we are or what we do anymore. This is especially important from a sales enablement perspective, as my goal is to add more tools to the sales toolbox in a way that builds on what is already working, and keeps things simple. Through our content and thought leadership, we want to build awareness and demand (long-term) while also supporting sales conversations that are happening right now (short-term).

So, back to the framework above.  The idea of a "holistic approach to student success" speaks to the reality that in 2022 and beyond, there is not enough time in the day for schools to provide students with all the support (academic, social, emotional, etc.) that they need to be successful.  Look at any district's strategic plan today, and you will see that almost all of them have a vision for supporting "the whole student," leveraging supports inside and outside of the classroom, and trying to engage families and the community in supporting students.

This is a conversation that Right At School is well-positioned for, and we can break that larger conversation into smaller pieces, based on who we are talking to, and what the primary focus is.  We can talk about how Right At School can increase the capacity of a school or district to meet the needs of its students. We can talk about how our programs  expand opportunities for students to build skills and relationships that will help them succeed in and out of school. And we can talk about how we are really good at engaging families, and can actually improve family engagement for a school, as our programs are onsite. All of these topics go deeper than that, but you get the idea.

On the thought leadership side, we are trying to change the perception of what before and after school programs can be. We want schools and districts to expect more from programs, as the perception for many is that before and after school is care only, and there is not much else happening. Right At School provides so much more, and we want schools and districts to view us as a strategic partner, not just a vendor who provides a service. 

On the sales enablement side, I want our sales team to understand that the larger conversation, and the three main components of it, are lenses they can use for any conversation they are having, about anything we do.  So in the framework above, all the green boxes are examples of different elements of our programs and services (there are more, but for the sake of the graphic I limited the examples). You can one or more of those green boxes, and filter that through any (or all) of the lenses in the middle, tying it back to the larger conversation  (holistic approach to student success).  For example, I could have a conversation, or create a piece of content around how we align to national arts standards and  embed the arts in our program and activities. I could then explore how by doing that, we are actually increasing a school or district's ability to provide more exposure to the arts. If I wanted to further connect to the larger conversation about the holistic approach to student success, I could provide examples of how we have worked with local artists in different communities to help build that larger ecosystem of support and opportunities.

That's just one example, but I think it illustrates how the framework can be applied, and how it can support our current conversations, as well as provide a roadmap for where we want to go.  Again, the key for me is that this framework should not feel cumbersome to anyone--marketers, sales reps, leadership team members, etc. In fact, it's not even something people need to be thinking about all the time, they just need to know it's there, and what we are building in terms of content is aligned to this framework. As we develop our content library, we will eventually have content to support all of the conversations we are having on the thought leadership front, as well as the sales enablement front.