Useful Tips To Market Your School Effectively

Just like every other business, your school needs a marketing strategy. What use would it be to have a good school and nobody knows about it? Reaching your target market is essential to achieving your business goals.

Private schools need to compete for students in an ever-increasing competitive market.

Here a few tips you can use to market your school effectively:

1.    Accept that your school is not for everyone

Most schools come claiming to have it. Do not be a school that tries to be everything to everybody. Truth is, many schools are similar, but each school has something a little different from another. That little something you have that other schools do not have should form the basis for your marketing strategy. That unique feature is what makes your school the right school for a certain family.

Do not be pressured to appeal to every family. After all, your school is not for everybody. Just focus on how to attract the best families to your school. And do not worry about the families you do not attract. Attract those that are just right for you.

Understand that there are families that would never agree with your approach. Try not to waste time and energy to appeal to them. Let your focus be on families that appreciate your approach and want what you provide.

2.    Build a strong brand

Brand is simply your image or reputation. It is how people see you. It is not only corporations that need strong branding, schools need to build a brand.

Your brand is what parents will identify with and what makes them trust you and want the quality of education you provide.

Your brand is the sum of the emotions that arise in the minds of your prospects about you. Your brand is not the name of your school, it is not your logo, neither is it your mission or vision. These things only help to reinforce your brand.

Building a strong brand is identifying how you want your school to be perceived. Create a compelling and effective story that will communicate this to your prospects. A clear brand will help people understand your school and will attract the right parents and students.

3.    Consistency is key

Now you have created a strong brand, bring it to life. Let your brand messaging be consistent with the reputation you want to build. Craft messages that are authentic and one your prospects can easily understand.

Come up with taglines that capture your school’s brand. Use them everywhere let people get used to it and let it stick in a way that whenever your school is mentioned they can identify it with the short phrase. Communicating a message over and over is a great way to tell people who you really are.

Be intentional in your brand messaging and stick with it. Do not change your brand messaging frequently. Allow your audience to absorb it well. For your audience to get a hold of your message, they need to encounter it repeatedly. Bear in mind that your audience does not come in contact with your message as much as you do, as a matter of fact they encounter it only a small fraction of the number of times you do. Give them time to let it sink in. Be consistent.

All your communication materials should carry same brand message. Your school’s website, social media profiles, brochures, and other printed materials should all reflect your brand and be identical in your brand messaging.

4.    Remember your 4 P’s

Four things make your school standout – price, prestige, pedagogy, and personality. A clear understanding of your school’s position in the market in regard to these four P’s. It will help in your brand positioning.

Price: Your pricing should be worth the service your offer. What you provide your students should be worth every naira. Do not be expensive just for the sake of it. Let your school be worth it.

Prestige: What quality of alumni does your school have. Have you graduated students that are notable leaders in the society? Do your students have outstanding achievements even while in school? Do they gain admission to prestigious institutions of higher learning? Some parents are drawn to schools with a prestigious history.

Pedagogy: The kind of education your school provides is essential. What are your learning styles? Do you provide traditional or progressive education? Parents are interested in how your school will support an effective learning style for their children.

Personality: If your school were a person, what kind of person would it be? Is your school trustworthy? Would it be everyone’s favourite person? Define your school’s personality for that may just be what will make a parent choose your school over another.

A great marketing plan for your school may not always be about the big budget your set aside for marketing. It is about the time and effort you put into it and how relevant it is to your target market.

These four simple marketing strategies could help you engage the right audience, build relationships, increase your enrolment and ultimately help you attain business success.

This post was first published on DucoBrands.