How do you define school marketing?

How do you define school marketing?When I talk to Christian schools around the country, I find there is a great discrepancy in what “school marketing” really is. I get definitions like:

  • “It’s all about advertising and promotion.”
  • “Marketing is getting seats filled by any means possible.”
  • “It seems to me that marketing is all online now.”

There is a little truth in just about any of the above definitions. But when you are thinking through your school’s marketing strategy, having a definition of marketing can really help steer you in the right direction and away from wasteful spending. If you do not know what “school marketing” really is, you end up with marketing that is:

  • CHAOTIC (throwing $$ at any fad or offer that comes in the door)
  • COPYCAT (just doing the same thing your competitor is doing)
  • CHRONICALLY CONFUSED (repeating the same tactics year after year with little or no ROI)

You can see this definition on the home page of our site, but I will write it out here (or you can click here or on the image above and hear the audio inside of this article):

School marketing can be defined as:

“Getting your ideal families to know, like and trust you to build loyal ambassadors for your school.” 

In this definition, you will also see that we deal with the 3 Rs of school marketing:

  • RECRUITMENT
  • RETENTION
  • REFERRALS

The RECRUITMENT process of getting your ideal families to know, like and trust you is that effort to bring new families to the point where they enroll. However, enrollment cannot be the endgame. (click to tweet)

In order to have smart school marketing, you have to focus on RETENTION, or according to the definition, you have to be intentional about building loyal families who re-enroll without arm-twisting or costly discounts.

In addition, to complete the definition of school marketing, you have to build ambassadors for your school. This is an equally intentional strategy to get your current families, your community influencers and strategic partners to be great sources of REFERRALS.

How are you doing at implementing these 3 Rs at your school? If I can help you install a customized marketing strategy based around this definition, please contact me for a free 30-minute phone consultation.

 

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