Here in the UK, we have an enormous amount of outstanding independent schools. Schools that are dedicated to educating students to become very enthusiastic and very strong participants in the 21st century economy. Inadvertently, this also means that students and their families have an enormous amount of choice too, when it comes to selecting an independent school in today’s highly competitive educational marketplace.
As professional specialist consultants and service providers for independent schools, here at Swoop Studios, we have gained some insights into the challenges that Independent schools face when it comes to increasing their prospects for recruiting new students. This have made us come to value the role that a progressive education can have in students’ lives.
Building a more streamlined and advanced method of marketing strategy for admission should not be a too difficult, however, for your school to move forward and succeed in its marketing strategy, it must clearly define the challenges it faces as well as explore some of the opportunities presented to it. To do this, some key questions need to be asked and answered truthfully before you begin your market strategy.
Try reviewing and evaluating the questions below to help you get started. Some of them might be very painful or difficult to explore, but to build a solid foundation on which to base your marketing plans, you need to process these questions as honestly as you possibly can.
1. What is the biggest challenging factor(s) to admissions marketing for your school? Have you identified it (them) yet? If not, then how do you know what your school’s weakest points are?
2. What are your school’s strategic marketing goals? What is it aiming to achieve by implementing this strategy? Have you defined these goals?
3. Has your school clearly outlined and defined its value proposition to prospective students and their parents? Do they understand it at a glance?
4. Is your current enrollment plan properly aligned to your schools’ vision and statement?
5. Do you know what your current student body and families think of you? Have you carried out a survey or focus groups sessions to find out? Do you know if your school is seen in a positive or negative light?
6. Why do some families decline to enrol in your school after their children have been accepted?
7. How do you think your school is been perceived in the educational marketplace today?
Like we said before, these questions may be hard to answer, but without going through a thorough checklist, it will very difficult and indeed unproductive to forge ahead with your marketing strategy. Each school we work with have a unique set of needs, but we also know that every school need to go through some basic steps, if they wish to establish a sturdy foundation to create a successful admissions marketing plan.
At Swoop Studios, we have adopted a phased methodological approach to making a success of Independent School Marketing.
The phases below have been developed by our team of experts, to show how we can help guide you on your journey to marketing your school as a brand.
Phase1.
Strategy and Research:
Restructuring, redesigning or re-defining your schools brand in the market place requires at the very least, a deep and total understanding of your schools image. That is to say; do you know how your school is perceived by both current and prospective parents?
For the purposes of a successful marketing campaign, we advise that a number of focus groups be carried out by our professional research team to help you assess and narrow down your school’s position and status. We recommend this because we believe that the expertise of an external market research will bring value to your school as it will be solidly rooted in objectivity. As professional research consultants, we are in the best position to recommend methods for your research design and also able adapt our approach to stand up to any new issues that may arise. We help by keeping the objectives and focus of your research very clear and concise, from the initial design process through to the finishing details.
Phase2.
Brand Development:
With the high rate of competition among independent schools these days, your schools’ ‘Value Proposition’ must not only be strong, but also very effectively communicated to current and prospective families. Value proposition is establishing the ‘essence’ of your schools’ existence. It is the reason a prospective student will pick interest in your school before others. What makes you ‘more’ special than other schools.
With years of experience as marketing specialists, we recognize the importance of ‘presence’ and making ‘lasting impressions’. Our team of creatives can help you define and articulate those core qualities that will set your school apart from its’ competitors.
Phase 3.
Media Awareness Campaigns:
In today’s market place, digital and traditional media will come into force in raising awareness for your school. A highly dedicated specialist team like ours, will help you maximise your use of digital media tools for your awareness campaign, bearing in mind that if you effectively communicate your value proposition to your target audience, it will serve as a flag for prospective parents or students to become much more aware of your school in a crowded market place. We will research and identify your audience, then begin a highly targeted campaign that will keep them engaged and interest all through the negotiation period.
Phase 4.
Word-Of-Mouth Campaigns
Every school needs to learn how to develop a great social media strategy that will enable them use it to their benefit for enrollment purposes. This same strategy can also help schools retain students after said enrollment. We have experienced social media strategists that can teach you how to develop, manage and excel at using social media channels to draw positive attention to your school and at the same time, target a very specific audience to suit your needs by creating a highly effective but economical advertisement campaign.
Phase 5.
Public Relations
At Swoop Studios, we provide schools with opportunity to gain ‘Earned Media’. This refers to publicity gained through promotional efforts other than paid advertising. We do this by engaging your target audience as well positioning your head of school as a ‘thought leader’. The idea behind this is; new emerging trends in education demands that local media will sooner rather than later, start to look for feedback and pick up on comments. When they do, you want your head of school to be the topmost person in their minds as an on-point resource for any new story. A great relationship with the media and general community as a whole, helps your school be seen as a beacon by the society and will definitely bring your school more publicity, simply but effectively!
Phase 6.
Websites: Optimising Mobile Devices.
Your schools website is one of (if not) ‘the’ most important tool it can ever have. In fact, it is the core marketing tool that your school will ‘need’ in order to raise awareness and communicate your school’s brand and value to prospective students and families. Dynamic websites can only be achieved when important factors such as; design, user experience and correctly targeted content, are all considered.
With that in mind, our team of web designers will use a strategic approach to create an informative architecture and designs that will seamlessly follow best practices for user interface. Our main focus is always on presenting you with the most important information as quickly as possible and in as plain a language as possible.
Fast responsive designs and optimised mobile web sites is considered and added in your web development, to effortlessly fit in with the rapidly increasing usage of mobile devices to access the web. Every school must have its own approach and strategy when it comes to mobile devices usability, and so, independent schools must consider the benefits of a mobile site that can be uniquely theirs.
Phase 7.
Measuring success by Return On Investment (ROI):
Creating a systematic and quantifiable approach to marketing, can help your school build foundations that can successfully meet with your admissions goals and objectives.
Important and crucial measuring system need to be created and diligently applied, to ensure that all the efforts put in by your school’s marketing teams are successful. Tools used should include those like Google Analytics, that will help you track and monitor inbound traffic to your web page. Also, Social media based Analytic tools can help you figure out what particular marketing campaign led prospective students and their families to your school.
Return on Investment, (ROI) can generally be measured by how much your enrolments rates increase as well as by the amount of contribution put in by parents who get involved.
Although none of these can happen overnight, it still can be done very successfully.
All it takes is an intensely dedicated team of digital marketing experts, like we have here at Swoop Studios, and a focused effort by your administrative staff, to create an integrated streamlined marketing strategy that will highly advance your brand as well as grow your admissions ratings.
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