When it comes to announcing any list, you’re bound to leave off something. Nevertheless, I start a 3-part series talking about the importance of the 3 Rs of private school marketing.
I guess I could have included any of the following:
- Real-time search results
- Relationship building
- Reaching out
- Real results
Any others I missed?
But for me, every school must have a sound marketing strategy focused on the following Rs:
- Recruiting
- Retention
- Referrals
In this first post in this series, I will discuss RECRUITING. In the final two posts, I will speak about cultivating LOYAL AMBASSADORS. I believe private school marketing can be effective with a sound school marketing strategy (like one based on Duct Tape Marketing).
Recruiting is part of your school’s ability to attract the ideal family (yes, admit that although there are some families who can afford your school, yet they are not ideal). Recruiting is intentionally seeking to bring families to your school who will be:
- great students (academic and character assessments),
- supportive families (financial ability + actively engaged),
- great referral sources (willing to talk about, write about and post about your school), and
- generous donors (while enrolled and certainly as alumni)
(If you can’t get all 4 in one family, at least shoot for the moon when evaluating your families.)
Many schools fall victim to filling seats with less-than-ideal students with more challenges than can be tolerated, families who are overly critical and unsupportive of the school’s efforts, parents who never speak of your school in a positive light, and never give back in any way. While their tuition money may help satisfy a bottom line, there are consequences to poor recruitment strategy. They are a drain on your marketing energy.
So while we could talk for hours about various tactical approaches to recruit great families, none of the promotional efforts will be worthwhile unless you have clearly identified the IDEAL FAMILY for your school. Do you have your criteria for an ideal family?
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