How To Successfully Market Your School
“Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care”
Theodore Roosevelt
I love this quotation and when it comes to defining your marketing strategies and positioning your school, this should sit at the heart of how you think and what you do. Some of us operate in Primary Schools in isolated rural communities, others within huge MAT’s in urban conglomerations but we share the same passion and commitment to do the best we can for our children. It’s easy to lose sight of this when labouring over strategic approaches to income generation or devising cunning new ways to engage on social media platforms.
But what do we actually mean by Marketing in the education arena? There are many definitions of course but perhaps my favourite would be that offered by David & Ellison (1997) – “The means by which the school actively communicates and promotes its purpose, values and products to the pupils, parents, staff and wider community.” There are two key words here; purpose and values. So, ask yourself, do you really understand your school’s purpose and values?
There are many of course who doubt the value of marketing our schools. And to be fair, if we indulge in ad-hoc and wasteful campaigns then we deserve to invite scepticism and doubt. On the other hand, if we’re clear on what we’re looking to achieve and are able to demonstrate a return on our investment, then we have nothing to shy away from and the results can be overwhelmingly positive.
It is really important to have a strategic approach, a plan which can be costed and evaluated. It’s equally important to get away from thinking of marketing as an isolated activity (an advert, a poster) – marketing is something that all stakeholders should be aware of and appreciate. Students, staff, parents and governors – they are all stakeholders in the schools and as such should be considered as “brand ambassadors” – engage with them and they can be very powerful advocates of your school brand. We should avoid the natural (and understandable) kneejerk and panic stricken reaction to the issues faced and instead look to deploy an approach which sits alongside the over-arching school improvement plan. Placing some additional advertisements in the local newspaper is the cherry on the cake (so to speak!), whereas school leaders should look for the cake ingredients first – defining key messages, clarity on our branding and identity and understanding our purpose.
Your marketing plan may look to address some or even all of the following:
•Defining Brand and Values & promoting key messages
•To manage Reputation – reinforcing or modifying?
•To attract and retain the best staff – talented staff help drive standards
•For Communications/PR/Media/Crisis Management – business continuity, press releases
•To sustain or recruit more students – why your school? Key messages and USP.
•To attract funding and support – sponsors, funders, commercial engagement. Aligning of values.
•To engage with alumni/former students – £1bn+ donated to UK Universities by alumni in 2017.
I often refer to “Start With Why” from Simon Sinek’s Ted talk – Simon extols the virtues of defining your “why” and articulating that to your community, rather than focusing purely on the “how” and the “what”. This works for us in education; we operate in an emotive, human-centric environment – the language and tone we choose is critical when it comes to crafting emotive connections with your audiences. Astute school marketeers should also recognise the part culture has to play.
Peter Druker, the renowned management consultant once claimed “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”. But how can we measure and articulate our culture? One way might be to run a small “brand mapping” exercise –pulling together a set of shared core values, involving students and staff. This is a very worthwhile exercise and will underpin your key marketing messages. Staff and students are ambassadors, engage with them first.
Remember Marketing and Income Generation go hand in hand – strategic marketing can help define and articulate key benefits to potential supporters and position your school so that it’s attractive to investors. Similarly, if you’re fully aware of the contents of your Income Generation plan then you can segment your target audience(s) and approach them accordingly. These two strategies need to synergise and support one-another – take the Independent/Private School sector – there’s a good reason why development, communications and marketing staff generally sit beside one another!
Developing sustainable partnerships with other organisations can be very fruitful and deliver real benefits to your school. Soft outcomes could include work experience opportunities, guest speakers and valuable insights into the world of industry.
Either way, marketing your school in a coherent and structured way can reinforce your reputation as an institution worth investing in.
The above is a guest blog from Justin Smith, the Managing Director of Chameleon Training and Consultancy