8 Ways to Ensure Your School District's Marketing Actually Works
WRITTEN BY KATIE TEST DAVIS
Attention school leaders! Can you answer one simple question: do you know why parents choose your school (or district)?
And moreover — why did they choose your school out of all their options? And finally, consider this...why do they stay?
Now, reflect on how often you reinforce their choice — or, equally important, attract new parents — by regularly sharing news and information about exactly the things your community values about your school(s) the most.
At Forthright Advising, we’ve done the research and have answers to many of these questions. The data shows eight key factors that parents consider when picking the right school for their child. If you’ve been in the education space long, the eight likely won’t surprise you. The research shows parents care about factors such as location and convenience, access to technology, high-quality teachers and more (see the full list in this free PDF download).
But after you nod your head at me — because that list sounds familiar — I challenge you to stop and consider the list from a marketing lens. How often do you remember to talk about your school’s technology use or how amazing your teachers are publicly? How often are you posting about those things on your school’s social media channels? Does your website even mention them?
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Why do these questions matter?
Consider the case of Jessica — a busy mom of a fifth grader and a pre-k student. Jessica and her husband Michael recently moved to a new city where they began looking into different school options for their kids. Jessica, a member of the millennial generation as a 34-year-old, does most of her school research online, checking out her local public school district’s website, and researching private schools and charter school options in her new town. She turns to online reviews, searching for information on each school on her smartphone and logging on to Facebook where she asks her friends for recommendations.
If Jessica was new to your district, would she quickly find information on the factors studies prove she cares about when she chooses a school? Better yet, would she be able to find that information where she tends look for it? Will Jessica choose your school? Are you sure?
Build a plan to meet your audiences where they are
As school districts face unprecedented competition in the era of school choice, it’s more important than ever that you’re tapping into the things district parents care most about, and deliver that information to them where they already are.
Doing so is one of those funny combinations of easy and hard: easy, because it’s so simple to highlight the things your parent community cares about — and yet hard, because designing a marketing plan can take time.
During the next few months I’ll be posting tips and tricks about how to build — and automate — a marketing plan that is easy to execute for your school community.
But in the meantime, click the link to download Forthright’s free one pager about how savvy superintendents are using smart marketing techniques to stand out in the era of school choice. Inside, you’ll find a full list of what studies show parents care about as well as data-driven recommendations on how you can meet potential parents where they go to find information about schools.
