School Promotion

If you can get a prospective parent to visit your school, their likelihood of applying skyrockets as high as 80% (according to research). But you have to make them WANT to visit you in the first place. And therein lies your biggest school marketing challenge. This is where inbound marketing shines.

World’s leading marketing agency Hubspot defined inbound marketing as a marketing strategy focused on attracting customers through relevant and helpful content and adding value at every stage in your customer’s buying journey. With inbound marketing, potential customers find you through channels like blogs, search engines, and social media.

In context, Inbound marketing is an internet-based marketing strategy that involves creating relevant, engaging online content that draws potential families to your schools, establishes a relationship with them, and in so doing, convinces them to enroll.Have you noticed that most schools no longer print flyers to distribute (randomly ) to prospective parents and the number of newspaper (and other print media) adverts of schools are not what it used to be before?

The idea that the traditional means of advertising are falling by the wayside with today’s audiences (i.e., parents of little ones) in favor of non-intrusive online engagement. Outbound marketing which is the traditional marketing is not only expensive, it is intrusive, not effective, time-consuming, energy-sapping, and non targeted.

In simpler terms, Inbound marketing is an online marketing strategy. We all engage in it every time. NO big deal! If your school has a facebook & Instagram page, SchoolsCompass page, Whatsapp group of prospects, blog page etc, you are already implementing inbound marketing.

The big deal is:

• How well do you use it?
• What type of contents are you churning out to who?
• What medium are you using?

Your ability to answer these questions correctly determines how effective your inbound marketing strategy would be.

SchoolsCompass is a startup that specializes in carrying out inbound marketing strategies for schools, so we are understandably biased towards the decision to use ourselves as an example in this blog. But there is a reason we exist, and why we’re passionate about helping schools like yours achieve your enrollment goals and project their brand through inbound strategies: because to do it right on your own takes an immense amount of time and possibly costs more. And just as many schools are tight on money, we know that their staff is likewise pretty short on time to handle it in-house, too. In order to identify a good inbound marketing strategy for your schools, let us examine some of its characteristics

1. Targets parents through online platforms such as blogs, social media and search engines:

Any inbound platform that is not accessible through consistent blog posts, social media, and most importantly, search engines cannot be said to be very effective because these are places you can target parents genuinely looking for schools.

SchoolsCompass has all these in excess -arguably, it is the most visited school-related website in Nigeria and the most optimized website for school-related keywords

2. Attention is a Finite Resource:

According to a recent survey by Microsoft, the average human’s attention span has decreased from 12 seconds to eight seconds. Good inbound marketing strategy understands that attention span of online readers is very short- therefore it  pushes ONLY what is relevant in a non clustered form preferably in bullet points with the right spacing so that eyes can rest before reading the next points. Your school’s profile (if well done by you) on  schoolscompass understands this psychology

3. Earn parents’ interest  rather than buying it

Any marketing strategy that is not forceful in approach is considered to be the best. How well would you describe the SchoolsCompass tagline;  ‘we guide, you decide’?  It is not just in words, but in deeds whenever we are relating with parents.

4. It is permission-based, not interruption-based

Imagine a room filled with parents looking for schools and you are asked to come and pitch (not preach)  your school to them. Your chances of conversion is 750% higher than interruption-based marketing.

SchoolsCompass is one of the few places you could advertise your schools where prospective parents are actually looking for you and you aren’t interrupting them. Most social media campaigns are interruption-based. No wonder, SchoolsCompass routes a minimum of 25 families to different schools all over Nigeria via telephone calls and text message on a daily basis.

If you need an effective and non-intrusive, well researched inbound marketing strategy for your school to attract parents, SchoolsCompass is an option you can’t afford to ignore.

September 2018 is just around the corner. This is probably the busiest period for your admission office this year. And  If you have a dedicated line for your prospective parents’ enquiry, you may have to invest in a ‘power bank’ so your phone does not go off.

As the list of prospects grows, you begin to figure out the percentage of these parents that will finally make it to the final line – the Enrollment. Typically, for an average school, it is 10% and could be far more or less in some schools.

In order to increase this number,  It is important to understand the various steps/stages parents go through in their journey to finally enrol their wards in your school.

The stages are called ACE: A for Awareness, C for Consideration, and E for Enrolment.

Awareness

This is the stage with the highest number of prospects. Depending on what works for you –  your advert budget, class of parents you are targeting, etc. there are different tools you can use to create awareness to more prospects. They include but not limited to

1. Your website
2. Social media – Facebook Instagram
3. Dedicated sites for school marketing like schoolscompass and others
4. Google AdWords
5. Flyers and billboards
6. End of year events that attract more families especially neighbours
7. Branded schools bus
8. Your brand and reputation as a school

Considerations

After the awareness, the next step is the consideration. Parents prefer to visit the school for a first-hand view. They can even go further to write your entrance examination depending on how they got to learn about your school and of course, their need.

Your goal here is to push them to the next and final stage and this is where the bulk of your job is. Truthfully, a lot of factors determine your success here- some are beyond your control, some are not.

Photo credit: Glowing Ages Academy, Abuja

Here are some of the tools you can also use (in no particular order) to increase your chances:

1. Make sure you address their needs whenever they call for an enquiry or pay you a visit
2. Have a well structured but personalized strategy for your prospects
3. Let them know your strength as a school and try not to cover up where you are not good at. A lot of parents understand that you can not have it all
4. Use 3rd party to speak about your school – this is called Multi-level marketing (MLM)

Enrollment

This is the finishing line where the holy books say ‘many are called, few are chosen’. If you get them to this stage, you sure deserve a cup of coffee.  Available data shows that less than 2% of those who start from awareness get to this point. The rule of thumb is not to attempt to increase this percentage, rather, strive  to increase the value of your 2% by increasing the number from the awareness stage and retaining some at the consideration stage using some of the tools highlighted plus the ones you know that already work for your school

For the purpose of illustration, let’s work with 2% conversion rate which means that if 100 parents know about your school, only 2 of them would eventually enrol their wards. The number reduces as they cascade through your ‘sales funnel’. I know the statistic is scary but that is the reality.

Imagine this scenario…

You have nailed it, you put in your best – showed them some of your state-of-the-art facilities and it appeared they were very impressed. Two weeks later, you did not hear from them and you called to follow up. The wife ignored it but the husband summoned enough courage and reluctantly picked it your 3rd time of calling.“Hello sir, you said, I am calling to follow up with you. Ahhh sorry, we are no longer considering your school was the response.”

You may end up trying to figure out what went wrong. Could it be something with the pricing or location? I am sure you wish to get this feedback in order to improve strategy next time other parents come knocking at your admission office door. As a third party who is not “emotionally”  attached to your school, parents feel more obliged to give us this feedback. 

Because our platform  helps parents find the right school, we get tons of feedback on a daily basis. Let’s share some of the feedback that the parents may not necessarily share directly with your school.

1. ‘Not Enough’

   

This is a very passive feedback as most of your prospective parents would not even wear it on their faces even if it is ringing on their heads. If you have the means of peeping into their minds, you will hear something like ‘your library is too small’, ‘classrooms are not spacious enough’, ‘I would prefer a bigger playground’.

Recently, a parent called our office twice to give us feedback on the school we referred her to. She said the school’s library is quite small and doesn’t see the school as a good fit for her.  It was later discovered that the school actually have a bigger library; out of oversight, the school did not tell her about it when she visited.

Helpful tip: It may be necessary to ask prospective parents what is important to them to establish their pain points before taking them round the school during inspection to ensure nothing is left out.

2. Too much emphasis on Academic Excellence:

    More and more parents are fast facing the reality that academic performance alone is not the reason they should entrust their treasures into your custody. A parent once told me that ‘if it is just academic, then schools are not much different from each other’. To great extent, I believe this is true.  In this parent’s case, he was interested in any school that teaches self-defence. 

A good number of parents may not bother to  ask you during their visits to your school. If they don’t see evidence of what they are looking for, they simply assume it does not exist. To some, it could be a coding and robotic club or any other extracurricular activities.

3. The School is Fading   –   Cracked lawn and peeling paints

 Some parents are perfectionists – they expect everything in your school to be in perfect conditions, anything fall short of this is a turn off to them. If you have the privilege of playing host to this type of parents, then welcome to their world.  It is most likely they keep all these flaws into themselves thinking that telling you could embarrass you and may even make someone to lose his/her job. They just move on to the next school – no point crying over spilt milk.

Helpful tip: The good news is that you can actually satisfy them if you are also the type and pays attention to tiny details in your school.

4. The School is still Early – When the Age of Your School is a Concern:

    

   Every school started at a point. Unfortunately, many parents don’t understand this. To them, the thought of making their children ‘a guinea pig’ (sic) to experiment and grow your school is scary.

Personally, as a parent, I do not think this is a major concern as long as the school can deliver her promise, but I can only speak for myself. Every parent is entitled to his/her feedback about your school.

Helpful tip: If your school is less than 5 years, letting parents know the combined experience of individual teachers is your school from their various places of employment, your (school owner) passion and experience as a parent and your background  as an educator could go a long way in helping them see more than the present in your school.

Another way is to take prospective parents around the state-of-the-art facilities their children can enjoy. This works most especially when they know such facilities cannot be found in most schools they consider ‘old enough’.

5. Value has not been properly communicated:

   

   It is a good idea to communicate what your school stands for the very first time you meet prospective parents in order not to give room for speculations. Your value system should demonstrate your stand on religious belief as a school, curriculum, policies (anti-bully etc).

   Helpful tip: Every parent has his/her own expectations before visiting your school, alignment of values from the onset is very important to both parties to avert future clashes.

All successful marketing starts with buyer personas – Author Anonymous

Yeah, you’ve got that smashing billboard yelling to motorists and pedestrians about great things about your school and telling them why they should consider your school. You also have all sorts of beautifully designed (by a designer who is probably not a parent or not the type you expect in your school) flyers garnished with your marketing messages (also put together by a copywriter who is as guilty as your graphic designer).

No matter how impressive your marketing messages and materials are, your marketing strategy will fall flat if it doesn’t speak directly to the heart of mission-appropriate families who are most likely to benefit from your school community. A good school marketing strategy starts with a firm handle on your Parent Personas

What is Parent Persona?

A Parent persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal parent based on market research and real data about your existing parents. The good thing about parent persona is that it works for you, independent of how low or high your marketing budget is.

Now that we have established the importance of parent persona to our enrollment,  the next thing is ‘How do we go about this?’

To create parent personas, get the list of all parents/families who have spent at least two sessions in your school (based on the assumption that they have paid for your services at least 6 terms ). You may create a spreadsheet for this. Find out the following information about them and populate your spreadsheet.

1. Name: Bring it to live, give it a real name – Mr Ojo, Mrs Yusuf, Ms Uche etc. It helps you to connect and make a realistic guess where it requires
2. Demographic Details Include information such as such as age, income level, education, employment details, marital status, gender etc
3. Interests and desires. Do they enjoy travelling, clubbing, etc?  What is their level of internet savviness?
4. Pain Points: Identify why they choose your school over others, why do they leave their previous school?
5. Customers’ journey: How do they find out about your school when they first visited?

These points are inexhaustible and not one-size-fits-all, you can tweak them to suit your specific purposes.  At the end of this exercise, you will have something like this for each record of parents:

After understanding your parents and where they hang out, you’ll get a better sense of the channels that will work best in advertising to them.

The Nigerian private school sector is highly saturated and as such, it is becoming increasingly difficult for school owners to grow student enrollment consistently. Parent, guardians and decision makers are becoming more sophisticated and selective as they look to settle down with an institution which caters to the immediate educational needs of their wards and most importantly sets them on the right path to a successful career and future.

While there are many uncontrollable factors that affect the growth of enrollment rates, here are some of the most effective hands-on strategies that help your school leverage its strengths to stand out in a fully saturated market and boost enrollment rates for your private school in Nigeria.

Create and Communicate a Strong Brand

In order to establish your school in your community and successfully market it far and wide, it is important to create a remarkable brand. So much more than just a catchy logo and great graphics, your school’s brand is that defining factor that differentiates you from the crowd. It describes your story, your unique advantage and communicates why your school is the top choice amongst the rest.
To craft a strong brand that sets your school apart from the other private schools in Nigeria, find out what it is that makes your school special; what influenced parents in selecting your school as final choice for their wards; do you have programs that help struggling learners; are there counseling opportunities; what special extracurricular activities to your offer enrollees. Responses garnered from this come together to define your school’s unique selling point(s) which helps you form a solid brand identity and as a result boost enrollment rates.

Build a User-friendly Informative Website

Your school’s website is one of the most important marketing and communication tool at your disposal. Parents will look to the web to research every school online before settling on their final choice. An easy to navigate website must be populated with all relevant information regarding the school, a parent needs to make a decision. Your website should communicate your brand effectively, display school programs, show testimonials and present enrollment information. Most importantly, for your website to help drive enrollment rates for your school it must reflect your brand as well as your unique approach to learning and guidance for students at all stages of their life.

Launch a Parent Ambassador Program

Word of mouth is by far the most effective strategy leveraged by Nigerian schools to boost enrollment rates. Take advantage of your existing pool of highly satisfied parents and access their networks by recruiting them as Parent Ambassadors for your school. These parents boost your grassroots marketing efforts by reaching out to other parents in their family network, church network, neighborhoods, and workplace.
The ideal Parent Ambassador is selected as a result of their visible passion for the school, their reputation and credibility within their network, relevant connections in the community and most importantly their willingness to join the program. To support this program, an active forum should be created – preferably online with a Facebook Group – where important information is shared and the Parent Ambassadors are constantly inspired to be active. Incentives for the Parent Ambassadors may be decided upon based on your discretion.

Financial Aid

Every parent desires the best education for their child; however, most are unable to meet up with the financial implications of enrolling their child in a top performing school. Offering financial aid to such parents is a great way to attract and retain more students in your school. Financial aid can come in the form of flexible fee payment, access to school loans, and access to grants and scholarships.
For schools using services such as School Credit*, their parents are granted access to collateral-free loans to meet their tuition needs at an affordable interest rate. These loans are processed with minimal documentation and disbursed within 24 hours of approval. Financially savvy parents will naturally gravitate towards these schools, and as result enrollment rates begin to grow. The added advantage of this service is it also allows schools to take out loans to invest in the infrastructural development of their schools which in turn also delivers a positive effect on enrollment rates.

Online Marketing   

Increasingly, schools are taking advantage of the internet and social media to create a wider reach in the market. Your first step should be to create a social media account, most importantly Facebook and Twitter, and share special events, stories, accomplishments, and announcements with the general public; if setting this up is too tedious to add to your overwhelmingly full to-do list,  AllPro Tech can handle this process at no cost. Encourage students, teachers, and parents to get involved on these platforms. Parent Ambassadors should be encouraged to leave positive and educative reviews on the school’s social media pages.
Online and social media adverts must be well designed, direct and engaging. With the use of social media platforms advertising tools, schools are able to hyper-target their adverts, thereby delivering tailored promotional messages to a specific audience. This is a great and cost-effective way to boost enrolment rates.

Conclusion

Generating and consistently growing enrollment rates is arguably one of the most daunting tasks faced by the school administrator in Nigeria, adopting the right strategies and implementing them in a timely and effective manner is the difference between a constantly struggling school and a highly sort after top performing school. Feel free to try out the strategies listed in this article and leave a comment on your progress below.

First published by Allprotech.