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Your school marketing strategy… don’t forget these important steps

While you’re busy collating new information for your school marketing plan, don’t forgot to include data from channels that your school might already have in place – like your website. Does it have a feedback section? Is this feedback monitored, passed along to your school’s marketing team, and analysed? Does anyone ask potential new parents where they heard about the school? 

Evaluation

You should be evaluating progress at least once a term. Things to look at include:

• • Staff attendance and turnover.
• • The number of applications you receive when recruiting staff.
• • Website traffic.
• • Organisations that the school has links with.
• • How many events the school hosts or participates in, and attendance figures.
• • Enquiries from potential new parents.

Parameters that could indicate success include:

• • Stability in the student and teacher rolls.
• • More positive press coverage.
• • Better relations with external organisations.
• • Higher participation in events.

You should be evaluating your plan and results on an ongoing basis. For example, seeing stability in the numbers of students at your school should prompt you to ask whether you’re attracting quality students. Likewise with teachers.

Glowing reports in local media should be the precursor to seeking coverage in regional and national media. You should be asking whether the organisations that your school has links with are generating better sponsorship and other opportunities.

Here’s a handy list of elements that need to be evaluated:

• • Publications: Prospectus, direct mailshots, newsletter, yearbook.
• • Media: Partnerships with key journalists.
• • Events: Special days (like world environment day), events linked to local shops and business associations, and community events.
• • Research: Annual surveys of community, staff and focus groups.
• • Photography: Compile a library of good quality photographs.
• • Feeder schools: Nurture links.
• • Internal communications: Parents, students, staff and community.
• • External communications: Media and community newsletters.

Evaluate – then modify

If evaluation shows that you’re not quite on track, then you should modify your plan to improve effectiveness. At the end of every year, it’s useful for your team to query:

• • Which tasks were completed?
• • How was progress monitored?
• • What factors the team stick to the plan?
• • Which tasks were not completed – and why?
• • How can the situation be rectified?
• • What was really successful and can be repeated next year?
• • What was really successful and can be expanded on next year?

Revisit the vision

Remember your vision? You should revisit it every few years because priorities change, and society evolves. If you need to adjust your vision in order to remain relevant, then you’ll need to rework your plan and strategy as well. 

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