If there’s one topic that ignites our email signup list or our Facebook page engagement, it is word-of-mouth marketing! In this post, I wanted to share with you 23 easy-to-implement word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing ideas that any private Christian school can work on starting today:
- Stories are WOM fuel – curate them and create them and showcase them!
- Treat families like kings and queens – they will tell their friends about it.
- Engage your fans – especially on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter.
- Give families reasons to talk – take queues from bigger brands who offer memorable customer service.
- Empower them to share – put videos on YouTube or Vimeo, post them on Facebook and invite families to share.
- Explain how families can refer – map out a system and exactly the procedure for referring (and outline any incentives)
- Educate families about any perks or bonuses – referral incentives should be simple to understand, not so complex no one does it.
- Do something unexpected for families – it doesn’t have to cost a lot of money but the ROI can be huge.
- Send hand-written notes of gratitude – be unique and surprise families in ways that they remember and share.
- Create family pages on your school website and allow families to generate the written, audio or visual content
- Invite community voices to write for your school blog – Chamber president, business owners, nonprofit leaders (they drive traffic, too)
- Seek out community blogs and have your head of school write an article about education – reach out into the community media
- Do something creative in your acceptance letter (send it in a creative package or invite them to visit a private YouTube link)
- Create a private Facebook group of loyal parent ambassadors and remind them about FB posts to like, comment and share
- Hold a photo contest where participants get to submit photos holding a sign with school logo from vacation spots
- Give away your school space to a new church on a Sunday (if you don’t charge them, they’ll publicly thank you for your generosity)
- Randomly pick families and send them a sweatshirt, a new decal or some other spirit wear and ask them to post a picture with it
- Unleash the creativity of your students with a student-generated video that shows what THEY like about the school
- Host a webinar about parents, tax preparation or something else of value to parents (but not self-promotional) – friends will invite friends
- Send an email out once a month with a unique student story and some key facts that arm parents with WOM fuel
- Ask specific ambassador families to write 5-star reviews on Google, GreatSchools.org and on your school Facebook page
- Issue school-generated images that families can grab and post on Instagram with a unique hashtag for your school
- Have parents of long-time families make phone calls, drop by for in-person visits or send emails to new families
Other great resoures on WOM:
- 6 Factors that Drive Electronic WOM – http://www.buzztalkmonitor.com/blog/bid/316552/6-factors-that-drive-electronic-Word-Of-Mouth
- Teachers Can Be Your Best Source of Referrals for Your Christian School – https://www.yourschoolmarketing.com/2013/referral/3-ways-your-teachers-can-be-your-best-source-of-referrals-for-your-christian-school/
- Referral Marketing for Your School – https://www.yourschoolmarketing.com/2012/word-of-mouth/3-rs-of-school-marketing-referrals-pt-3-of-3-2/
- What Drives Word of Mouth Marketing at Your School – Rick Newberry, Enrollment Catalyst – http://www.enrollmentcatalyst.com/2014/01/30/what-drives-word-of-mouth-for-your-school/
- Word of Mouth Marketing Ideas [Podcast] – (only 14 minutes and 29 seconds) – https://www.yourschoolmarketing.com/2014/podcast/school-marketing-podcast-38-word-of-mouth-marketing-ideas/
- Duct Tape Marketing – John Jantsch articles about Referral Marketing – http://www.scoop.it/t/dtm-referrals
- Learn How to Be a Great Word of Mouth Marketer – http://wordofmouth.org/
- Learn How to Get People Talking – http://wordofmouthbook.com/
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