Do you feel that your school runs an effective school enrollment marketing program?
Many school leaders that I work with struggle to answer this question. There really aren’t a lot of forums or other resources that school
leaders can look to for benchmarking their school enrollment marketing efforts. Most schools know they need to do better, but they don’t
know what “better” is.
Though each school is different, in my work to help schools improve their enrollment I’ve noticed some commonalities of what the successful
schools do as well as the deficiencies that struggling schools have. Here’s some insight into what I would consider best practices in
school enrollment marketing from the dozens of schools that I have worked with.
This is the foundation for any good school enrollment marketing program. The schools that do this effectively have three things in common:
There can (and should) be others who are responsible for certain aspects – but at the end of the day, you need to know who is running the program. Designate the person who owns this function.
Everyone needs to assist in marketing and having a specific goal (not “more students”) helps to provide clarity and know if you were
successful or not. The goal should be specific, ie. “we will increase our enrollment by 12 more students.”
There is no “marketing season”. Marketing efforts need to be happening constantly at your school. And remember, that something that is in your head is a dream. When it is on paper, it is a plan. You must write out your plan. Don’t worry if it changes. It is supposed to be a living document, but write it out!
If you can’t measure your success or failures, you are just guessing at what to do. This can lead to wasted money and time, and no school
has an infinite amount of either. Here are things that schools who run a good school marketing program do:
Having a potential parent’s contact information is gold. You need to know your potential customers and have a way to contact them.
This is key to the fundamental success or failure of your marketing programs. Know this.
We are in an era of increasing school choice. If you don’t understand the different things that other schools offer, how do you know that
what you are offering is compelling? This helps you to answer the biggest challenge in marketing; are we going to be cheaper, better or
different?
Is it awareness? Is it you don’t meet their needs? Do they drop out after hitting your web site? Do they sign up after taking a tour? Knowing where you are losing potential customers allows you to focus your efforts.
Do you really know what your existing parents and potential parents think about your school? Sure, word of mouth is your biggest means of
attracting. But is it any good? What are people saying? Schools that are good at marketing:
Get a Net Promoter Score to understand satisfaction levels and check to see if they are truly recommending you to their friends and family.
Being transparent and acknowledging that you are taking their feedback to make the school better goes a long way in building loyalty.
By tailoring your marketing to your ideal customer type – you will attract more of the students and families that will make your school successful. But you have to identify what that customer looks like.
Why your school? What sets you apart? What can a student only get at your school? Here is what successful schools do:
“Mr. Parent, this is why you should send your child to our school.” They know, based upon customer knowledge that this will resonate with their customer.
Want good word of mouth? Make sure that parents know what is important and how to talk about your school.
These are the building blocks and some higher-level things that good schools do that set them apart. These are things that a school gets when it thinks strategically about marketing. Part II will talk about the tactics that these schools use.
Nick LeRoy, MBA, is the president of Bright Minds Marketing and former Executive Director of the Indiana Charter School Board. Bright Minds Marketing provides enrollment and recruitment consulting to private, Catholic and charter schools. For information about how Bright Minds Marketing can help your school improve its’ student enrollment, send an email to nick@brightmindsmarketing.com or call us at 317-361-5255.
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