5 Reasons School Marketing Flops
Marketing is one of the most frustrating topics for faith-based schools and their teams. Here’s why:
Faith-based schools LOVE to share the great news about God’s love with students and their families. Increasingly, ministries see the opportunity to use their schools as outreach arms, especially as our culture shifts to a post-Christian society.
Many principals do not have a degree in marketing…nor anyone on their board or school team who understands this specialty.
Frustration exists when we DESIRE to do something, but don’t have the MEANS or the KNOW-HOW to do it.
Many schools have tried marketing efforts of one kind or another, investing hundreds of hours or thousands of dollars…only to have theses efforts flop.
If you’re someone in this boat, read on. You CAN figure out how to market your school effectively and efficiently. You CAN reach more families with your Gospel mission.
Einstein once said, “If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes identifying the problem and 5 minutes solving the problem.”
I agree with Einstein. Sometimes the best place to start is by identifying the problem before trying to find a solution. Read on for 5 ways that a lot of school marketing flops. You might just identify the root of your school’s marketing issues.
ONE: No Target Audience
This is an issue I find at almost every school, so it’s a great place to start.
Why is naming a target audience so important?
Most faith-based schools don’t have unlimited budgets. Trying to reach a whole community is EXPENSIVE and INEFFECTIVE, especially if the school is located in an urban area.
The key to great marketing is understanding the people you are trying to reach. What are their needs? What are they looking for in a school? Where do they spend their time? Understanding the answers to these needs helps a school understand what kind of program to build, where to reach new families, and what messaging will pique their attention.
TWO: Inconsistent Efforts
If my husband only talked to me three months out of the year, we wouldn’t have a good marriage (and the opposite is true, of course…if I ignored him for 9 months a year, I don’t think things would be going very well).
Healthy, growing relationships require consistent tending.
Consistently showing up. Consistently reaching out. Consistently engaging. Consistently communicating.
This is true in ALL relationships, including the ones that we are trying to form with our community and prospective parents.
Too many schools only market a few months of the year–during enrollment season or the summer. This isn’t effective in relationship-building, and it isn’t an effective strategy in marketing either.
THREE: Not Building Trust
Another reason that school marketing isn’t effective is that it doesn’t build trust. Low quality materials, dated technology, and missing information all cause prospective parents to question the quality of a school’s program.
One of the biggest leaps of faith a parent makes in their lifetime is choosing a school for their beloved children. Pause and think about that for a minute…when parents choose a school it takes an ENORMOUS amount of trust. Parents are ENTRUSTING a school with their child’s safety, education, and well-being for 7+ hours a day for 35-40 weeks of the year. Because of this large quantity of time, a school has a HUGE potential influence on a child: spiritually, emotionally, physically, socially, and academically.
When pondering the magnitude of a prospective parent’s decision, it is easy to see how CRITICAL it is that a school’s marketing, communications, online presence, brand, website, social media, and admissions materials BUILD trust.
A professional brand, beautiful website, quality photography, and user-friendly admissions system are not luxury items for a school. They are an integral part of earning the trust of prospective parents.
When parents observe professional, quality, engaging, and thoughtful marketing, it builds trust that a school’s education will also be professional, quality, engaging, and thoughtful.
FOUR: Program Not Meeting Needs
There are two key reasons schools do not enroll new families:
Prospective families are not aware the school exists. This is an awareness problem that is solved with increased marketing.
Prospective families do not perceive that the school meets the educational needs of their children. Sometimes this is true because a school’s marketing isn’t building trust. And sometimes the problem is the program itself. Program problems are amended with programmatic change, growth, improvement, expansion, or development.
Sometimes it’s not the marketing that’s the issue; sometimes it’s the program. Quite often it’s a combination of the two and requires a team effort to fully address.
FIVE: Not Really Knowing
Sometimes a school thinks it’s marketing is flopping…but is not really sure. Why? Because SO VERY OFTEN schools do not measure their marketing efforts consistently over time.
ANY and EVERY marketing effort should be measured and tracked so that over time the school can pitch what isn’t working and double-down on what is.
Questions for Your Team to Ask
“Who are we trying to reach?” Get as SPECIFIC as possible. Identifying the kinds of families your school currently serves is a good place to start.
“What are their needs? After naming a target audience, determine what their educational needs and desires are. What kind of school, program, education, and environment are they looking for?
“Does our program meet those needs?” Once you understand what your target audience needs, take a look at your school. Does it meet these needs? If not, what do you need to change/build/grow?
“Are our efforts building trust?” Take a critical look at your school’s website, materials, online presence, and social media. Do they earn trust? If not, what needs to change?
“Are we consistent?” Plot out your marketing efforts over a year. Where are the gaps?
“How are we measuring it?” EVERY marketing effort should be measured and evaluated. Before beginning a new marketing effort ask each other, “How will we measure this? How will we know it worked? What does '“success” look like for this effort? Some examples are number of attendees, clicks on ads, shares of posts, and responses to events.
Blueprint Schools loves helping schools reach more families in their communities. If you feel stuck or need advice about your marketing and admissions, we’ll listen to your unique situation, answer your questions, and share how we can help your school thrive.
Take the first step by scheduling a Zoom consultation with us.
