From WOM to the WEB, Effective Marketing Strategies for your School, classical school conference

Rick Newberry, Ph.D.

[email protected] www.EnrollmentCatalyst.com

© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst

During this session, we will focus our discussion on word of mouth and web-based marketing strategies for enrollment success at your school.


Michigan State

Starbucks

Family

Blog

Coaching





Enrollment Catalyst partners with schools to provide coaching for school leaders in their

school’s enrollment management and marketing strategies needed to reach their goals.


Clients

Some school observations from travels and consulting across the country


We lack marketing knowledge, training and expertise.

We lack resources and staffing (and the commitment to make this a budget priority).

We gripe about not getting our school published in the local newspaper when we can publish anything we want for anyone to read about our school on the web.

We place priority on marketing externally to our community and often neglect our most important market—our parents!


We often take a shotgun approach to marketing.

We have a plan for improving our school but don’t have a marketing and enrollment plan for growth.

We are intrigued by social media and web-based strategies but don’t know how to use them effectively.

Our school brands and websites look like they were created many years ago!

We don’t tell our story very well.


The marketing landscape has shifted from outbound to inbound strategies.


School Growth

Leadership

Quality

School

Experience

Vision

Faculty and

Staff

Parent

Satisfaction

Reputation

Location

Price

Competition

Enrollment &

Marketing

Plan



“Traditional outbound marketing is where businesses push their messages at consumers.”

• HubSpot, The 2012 State of Inbound Marketing



“Inbound Marketing is a set of marketing strategies and techniques focused on pulling relevant prospects and customers towards a

business and its products.”

• HubSpot, The 2012 State of Inbound Marketing


“For the last 50 years, companies such as Procter & Gamble, IBM, and Coca-Cola used

huge amounts of money to efficiently interrupt their way into businesses and consumer’s

wallets using outbound marketing techniques. The outbound marketing era is over. The next 50 years will be the era of inbound marketing.”

• Halligan and Shah, Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using

Google, Social Media and Blogs


Excellent resource on how to get found by using Google, Social Media and Blogs Also see: www.hubspot.com for many online resources including webinars and presentations


http://www.hubspot.com/

Inbound Marketing Outbound Marketing

New media

Web-based

Pull

Listen

Engage

Hub

Authentic

Content

Stories

Old media

Traditional

Push

Interrupt

Broadcast

Megaphone

Slick

Ads

Slogans

The places we advertise

The world wide web

The desire for authenticity

The power of referral in an online world

The world of social media

The need to be in a conversation

The importance of creating remarkable content


Why do we hang on to the traditional outbound advertising strategies?

Why are our marketing budgets comprised of these strategies?

Why do we keep spending significant resources on strategies that don’t produce results?

Think about the top two ways that parents find out

about your school…


1. Word-of-Mouth Consistently ranks as the number one way that families hear about your school.

2. Web The Web is the first place a parent looks when they hear about your school from a word-of-mouth referral.


Word-of-mouth is still the number one way that your

parents first find out about your school.


Do you remember the old Faberge Organic Shampoo TV commercial?

Complete with 80’s hair, a young model appears on the screen and begins by saying: “I told two friends about Faberge Organic Shampoo with pure wheat germ oil and honey. “

She concludes by saying: “You will tell two friends, and they’ll tell two friends, and so on and so on and so on.”

We rely upon word of mouth in our own buying decisions.

“If your customers won’t talk about your stuff, you have to pay newspapers and TV shows

to do it for you.

But when people trust you, they are willing to put their words on the line for you.

Please them, inspire them, and they’ll bring their friends to you.”

• Sernovitz, Word of Mouth Marketing


Trust is Key to WOM

“It comes down to trust. And people don’t trust your company; people trust people.

People they know. People whose opinions and recommendations

they seek out and have faith in.”

• Phillips, Cordell, & Church: Brains on Fire


Trust is Key to WOM

We will apply a WOM framework to develop your school’s marketing strategy to ensure enrollment success.


Parent

Talk

Parking

Lot

Phone

Starbucks

Web Email

Church/

Club

Face to

Face


Web

Talk

Blogs

Social

Media

Sites

Great

Schools

Online

Reviews

Google

Facebook


“So what is word of mouth marketing? In this book, I define it as ‘Giving people a reason to

talk about your stuff, and making it easier for that conversation to take place’.”



What is Word-of-Mouth Marketing?


It builds credibility from satisfied customers.

It produces better results than traditional advertising.

It makes your brand stronger and more trusted.

Your parents can reach your target audience better than you can.

It’s your number one marketing strategy for your school!


Today’s marketing is about remarkable content and joining in the conversation.

Your marketing focus must be on telling the remarkable story of your school.

Your marketing strategy should facilitate and build word-of-mouth in person and online.

Your goal is to inspire a movement of passionate ambassadors for your school.


Are you giving your parents a reason to talk about

your school?


“Word of mouth marketing only works if you have good products and services. It only works if people like you and trust you.”



Are you giving your parents any stuff that they can talk

about?


“Word of mouth is natural conversation between real people. Word of mouth marketing is

working within this conversation so people are talking about you.”



How can you make it easier for the conversation to take

place?


“Word of mouth marketing isn’t about marketing at all. It’s about great customer service that

makes people want to tell their friends about you. It about fantastic products that people

can’t resist showing to everyone.”



Is word of mouth marketing part of your strategy?


“How can a business owner [Admissions Director, Head of School] know that word of mouth is so powerful and then do so little to

take advantage of it?”

• John Jantsch, The Referral Engine


We need a framework for our

Word of Mouth marketing plan


1. Talkers—who will tell their friends about you?

2. Topics—what will they talk about?

3. Tools—how can you help the message travel?

4. Taking Part—how should you join the conversation?

5. Tracking—what are people saying about you?


Find people who will talk about your school

Employees

Parents (Current and Former)

Students (Current and Former)

Alumni

Grandparents

Vendors

School administrators

Pastors

Anyone

A satisfied or an unsatisfied parent, grandparent, alumni, donor or friend.

A happy or an unhappy employee—your faculty, staff, and coaches.

Someone else that heard something, whether positive or negative, about your school.

© 2011 Cherry+Company

“One of the great misconceptions about word of mouth marketing is that it’s all happening

online…only about 20 percent of word of mouth happens online. When it does play a role, it

usually sparks the 80 percent of word of mouth conversations that actually happen face-to-face.”



Talkers Talk Face-to-Face

Passion for your school

Credibility among their peers

Connections at your school and in the community

Opportunity to be involved

New parents can be the best resources for your school to reach out to their previous school, church, neighborhood or other group.

Recruit a team of parents to help you in your enrollment effort by: ◦ Presenting tours of campus.

◦ Hosting new family “desserts” in their homes.

◦ Mentoring a new family throughout their first school year.

◦ Calling and/or writing personal notes to parents and welcoming them to your school.’

◦ Posting online reviews.


Provide a card in your admissions package that includes the names, child grade levels, phone numbers and email addresses of your parent ambassadors.


Identify the parents that are positive about your school.

Meet with them to give them things to talk about. ◦ Individual or small group meetings. ◦ Quarterly breakfast or lunch meetings. ◦ Share stories of students, faculty, alumni and

success!

Encourage them to share stories about your school.

Share your school’s vision for the future.


“This is the foundation of buzz: in order to get people talking about your product or service,

you must provide a great experience.”

• Rosen, The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited


A Great School Will Create WOM

Give people a reason to talk

Anything and everything about your school—the good and the bad!

Their own experiences.

The experiences of others.

What they’ve heard along the way.

What you’ve told them.

What you want them to talk about (that is, if you’ve told them what to talk about!)


Most school leaders haven’t considered this question as a key part of their marketing strategy. We need to begin asking the question:

What do you want them to talk about?


“When you offer great content—such as detailed how-to articles, expert interviews, case studies, and videos—that focuses on helping other people solve their problems,

you’ll experience growth.”

• Stelzner, Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition


Produce Great Content

“Produce great stuff, and your customers will come to you. Produce really great stuff, and your customers will share and disseminate

your message for you. More than ever before, content is king! Content rules!

• Handley and Chapman, Content Rules



“Something remarkable is worth talking about. Worth noticing. Exceptional. New. Interesting.

It’s a Purple Cow. Boring stuff is invisible. It’s a brown cow.”

• Seth Godin, The Purple Cow



We live in a story.

We relate to stories.

We listen to stories.

We can see ourselves in a story.


“Stories are real. Slogans are made up. Stories pull you in. Slogans try to push out a message.

Stories are deep. Slogans are shallow. Stories are personal. Slogans are impersonal.

Stories are passed on by word of mouth. Slogans are forced on us by ads.

Stories are part of who we are.

After all, you don’t tell slogans about your grandfather, or how your parents met, or even how

you were treated in a restaurant.”

• Phillips, Cordell, Church: Brains on Fire


Stories about your people ◦ faculty, students, parents and alumni ◦ Your USP’s in story form

Real stats connected to real stories Your school ◦ Vision for the future ◦ How your school is remarkable ◦ How your school makes a life-changing difference

in students

Educational topics Parenting topics

Help the message spread faster and farther.

People Tools Web-Based Tools

Leadership

Faculty and Staff

Parents

Alumni

Ambassadors

Referral generation

Customer service

Personal conversations

Group meetings

Website

SEO

Blog

Email newsletter

Social media

Photos

Video

Online reviews

The most effective way to spread word of mouth is through face-to-face conversations.


“More than 90 percent of the conversations about products, services, and brands that take place

every day in America happen offline, according to research the will be revealed in the chapters of

this book.”

• Keller and Fay, The Face-to-Face Book


Talkers Talk Face-to-Face

Every meeting and conversation is an opportunity to tell a story about your school and to spread positive word-of-mouth. ◦ Large group meetings

◦ Small group meetings

◦ Coffee chats

◦ Personal meetings


1. New love is powerful

2. Love and money don’t mix

3. Nobody talks more than a lover’s scorn


Faculty and Staff

Retention is the responsibility of every faculty and staff member at your school: ◦ Performance

◦ Relationships

◦ Quality

◦ Communication

◦ Service


#1 – Your first and primary role at your school is to serve the school with excellence in your area of responsibility. ◦ You are the school’s brand.

◦ What you do best when you close the classroom door.

◦ Everyone is equally important in this effort.



“The brand on the outside is only

as strong as the brand on the inside.” – Karl Speak, President, Beyond Marketing Thought

#2 – You have the opportunity and responsibility to turn negative conversations and gossip into positive brand moments.


Administrators

Faculty & Staff

Parents &

Students

#3 – Everyone should be a story-teller for your school. ◦ Stories about faculty, students and alumni should

be a regular part of your conversation. We need to communicate stories that will lift up the image of the school.


#4 – Celebrate your students, parents and colleagues. ◦ As a community, we have the opportunity to

celebrate the successes of our students, parents and colleagues.

◦ Acknowledge student successes—Send at least five positive emails every week to parents in your class.


#5 – Welcome visitors on campus ◦ When a prospective parent visits your classroom,

stop what you are doing and introduce yourself and your class to them.

◦ When you see a prospective parent on a tour, take a moment to welcome them to your school.


#6 – Focus on retaining students and families in your sphere of influence. ◦ Excellence in what you do.

◦ Positive communication.

◦ Timely response to parent concerns.

◦ Encouragement to remain part of the community.

◦ Channel concerns to the administration.

◦ Sell and promote the next level of the school.

◦ Make it your focus to retain the students and families in your class.


#7 – Provide outstanding customer service to the parents that you serve. ◦ Roll out the red carpet for your families.

◦ Create a “WOW” experience for your families.


#8 – Make every effort to make this one school where everyone works together toward the same goal. ◦ When the preschool wins, the entire school wins

◦ When the upper school wins, the preschool wins


#9 – Take the time to make personal connections with parents and students. ◦ A handwritten note.

◦ A positive email about their child.

◦ A birthday card on their special day.

◦ Something memorable that will be talked about.



Parents

Since your parents are the best marketers for your school, it is important to give them tools to share.

Card sent to parents at Wheaton Christian Grammar School

Postcard and car magnet sent to parents at Saint Stephen’s

Give away items that have your school’s brand on them: ◦ T-shirts

◦ Coffee mugs

◦ Car magnets

◦ Grocery bags

◦ Gym towels



Donna Cutting uses High Point University in The Celebrity Experience as a premier example of customer service. What do they do? ◦ Director of WOW!

◦ Wowing campus visitors

◦ Delivering birthday cards

◦ The President and his gumball machine

◦ Valentine’s Day

◦ Free valet parking

◦ Construction dust and car washes


High Point University provides “WOW” moments for prospective and campus students

When you serve your parents or students in an exceptional way or do something that is memorable, this creates a moment that will be shared by word of mouth.

“Companies create buzz with great follow-up, T-shirts and other promotional merchandise,

free events, outrageous acts of kindness—anything that contributes to an overall

culture of buzz.”

• Jantsch, The Referral Engine


It is better for parents to visit your school in a one-on-one environment than to attend an open house in the evening or on the weekend when the school is not in session.

Every day should be an open house for prospective families at your school.

Once you get a family to your campus, make sure you have an outstanding visit program set up for them.

An effective campus visit program should include: ◦ Tour of campus

◦ Meeting with admissions director and administrator

◦ Review of the application process

◦ Introductions to key staff

◦ Connections with Parent Ambassadors

Clear signage and great first impression Welcome sign with your name on it Friendly welcome from receptionist Entry area tells the story of your school Personalized tour with parent, student and

faculty connections Review of application process Photo of student by welcome sign Personal note sent immediately (email and

handwritten)

Host a special “friend’s” day for current students to invite their friends to spend the day with them at your school.

The goal is to encourage and motivate current students to focus on inviting their friends they want to encourage enrolling in your school, especially when students are key to the decision!

Refer a student form

Place a “tell-a-friend” link on every page of your website.

Link should provide you with fields to enter your friend’s name, email address, a short message and your information.

Friend should receive an automated email referencing your referral and the website link.


Programs ◦ Academics, Athletics, Arts, Service, Technology,

Faith, Character

People ◦ Students, Parents, Leadership, Faculty, Staff,

Coaches, Alumni

Results


Each “Dot” Represents an Alumni Story

Life After Chandler showcases the schools that their 8th grade graduates attend

Four “unbound” short books that tell the Dana Hall story in four different ways

Throwback Thursday Posts

Website features a story of the person of the week

Admissions “Drop-In Wednesday’s”


“I am CDS” allows you to click on a child’s face to read their story

“Student Voices” share their perspectives on the school

Homepage features several quotes from students, faculty and alumni. The user can click on the image to read and view more of the story.

Homepage features a rotating student story that can be clicked on to find out what CA means to the student.


In the Spotlight highlights key stories on the homepage



1. Opportunity to share dynamic content on your website.

2. Increase traffic to your website.

3. Provide significant search engine optimization (SEO) value for your website.

4. Provide a platform to share content.

5. It’s fun!


1. Publish your blog once a week.

2. Don’t bury your blog on your website.

3. Make sure your blog is attached to your website domain.

4. Use a team to strategize and write your blog posts.

5. Don’t use your blog to sell your school.

6. Include a RSS feed, subscription option and share/like buttons.

7. Use keywords in your posts.

Head of School Blog

Student bloggers tell the Crystal Springs story

Cushing Students and faculty write blog posts to share their trip to Bhutan

Student Ambassador Blog


Facebook can be used to connect to alumni, parents and friends of your school.

Provide regular updates on your fan page

Tell stories of your alumni and faculty

Encourage interaction among your fans

Enter into conversations with your fans


Pictures with captions and stories

Blog posts

Video vignettes

Ask for likes

Ask questions

Summer vacation pictures

Ask admitted parents to post the following on their FB page: “My children were just admitted to XYZ School and will be attending this Fall!”

Provide a timeline photo header with a school photo and logo in it to your parents.

This post features 27 photos from around campus in March

Photos tell the story at Miami Country Day


Produce short video vignettes to provide real-life testimonials and stories about your school.

Post videos to YouTube, Vimeo or another service.

Feed them back into your website or send them out through an email.


Ask Current Parents – “What do you like best about your school?”

Ask New Parents – “Why did you select this school for your child?”

Ask Alumni – “How did your school prepare you for success in college and in life?”

Ask Faculty – “What do you like best about teaching at your school?”

Ask Seniors – “What college do you plan to attend next year?”

Traditions

A Day in the Life

Lower School Students Say it Best

College Reps

Key Brand Messages

One Topic, Four Perspectives (Student, Parent, Faculty, Alumnus)

Affordability

Use video to share messages from the head of school

State of the School message

Video newsletter

Student produced news

Student contest—produce a one-minute video to “sell” your school; winners are posted on website and reward given

Student lip dub


Assumption “Firework” Lip Dub now has over 44,000 views on YouTube!

Homepage provides access to three videos to highlight the uniqueness of the school.

Video testimonials in the admissions section

Video tells the story from a student’s perspective of the 10 things they love about Deerfield

Video vignettes showcase why students and parents chose DVFS

• Homepage provides dropdown menus and special features

• The Current Online Magazine is in the format of a mini website.

Online magazine format for the school

Brookwood’s BTube page contains a variety of videos showcasing the life of the school.

Brookwood’s BPod page contains a picture and caption of the day.

Social Media Mash-Up Page

We can find online reviews about our school on a variety of sites including: ◦ Private School Review

◦ School Digger

◦ Google

◦ Yelp

◦ Great Schools




SEO Strategies

SEO is the process of adjusting websites and pages to gain higher placement in search engine results. ◦ Where does your school come up on a web search?

Organic versus Paid ◦ Organic – page titles and keywords in your website

◦ Google’s AdWords – pay-per-click advertising for keywords.


A successful SEO strategy begins with research to discover the keywords that your prospective parents use to search for your school. ◦ Use Google’s Keyword Analysis Tool

Competitor Keyword Research ◦ Go to their website

◦ Right click; view source

Every page of your website should have a unique title that is reflective of the content and keywords used on the respective page.

• The CSF website does not have unique page titles or meta page descriptions for search engine optimization.

Canterbury website description in a Google search:

Google Search: Private School in St. Petersburg ◦ Results

Google AdWords shows ads for Shorecrest and Northside Christian.

Canterbury listed #6 behind Shorecrest, Admiral Farragut and Keswick Christian.

Google Search: Christian School in St. Petersburg ◦ Results

Google Ads shows ads for Shorecrest and Northside Christian.

Canterbury not listed on first page in search results (appears on the second page).

It is critical for you to focus on search engine optimization as part of your marketing strategy. ◦ Keyword research

◦ Page titles

◦ Page descriptions

◦ Keyword-rich content

◦ Dynamic content

School administrators most often focus on website design when launching a new site but fail to focus on the most important elements – SEO and content development.

It is critical to focus on developing content that is: ◦ Relevant

◦ Keyword-rich

◦ Dynamic

◦ Compelling

Join the conversation.

The conversation is taking place all around you. The most important thing for you to do is to join in the conversation.

Take part in the conversation that is taking place: ◦ Web (blogs, school reviews, Facebook, etc.)

◦ Groups

◦ Individuals

◦ Events


Get out of your office and meet your parents in the parking lot

Take a “one-family-at-a-time” approach

Small group coffee meetings

Meetings or luncheons with the “talkers”

Actively engage your community online through Facebook and other social media sites

Write a blog and engage in conversation online


Measure and understand.

It is important to regularly review what people are saying about you: ◦ In the parking lot

◦ On the web

◦ GreatSchools, Google and other review sites

◦ Facebook and other social media sites

◦ Surveys

◦ Focus Groups

◦ Google alert



Survey your parents annually by conducting an overall parent satisfaction and perception survey. ◦ Look for areas of dissatisfaction to improve the

quality of the school.

◦ Report findings from the survey back to parents.

◦ Best time to survey parents is October and February/March.

Actually, this is the beginning for you to go and implement effective word of mouth and web-based marketing strategies at your school.

For More Information:

Enrollment Catalyst

Rick Newberry, Ph.D.

9770 Indian Key Trail

Seminole, FL 33776

727.647.0378

[email protected]

www.EnrollmentCatalyst.com


Documents

From WOM to the WEB, Effective Marketing Strategies for your School, classical school conference