Pamphlets and brochures aren’t enough anymore—and neither are photos and static social media posts. Video is the most successful medium on social media. They are dynamic, engaging, and can convey emotion and personality in ways that written content can’t match. Whether it’s a virtual tour of your campus, testimonials from current students and faculty, or highlights of exciting extracurricular activities, videos allow you to showcase your school’s unique culture and offerings. Most importantly, they can help you resonate with both current and prospective families.

Have a great arts or STEM program? Video can highlight it best. Do you have excellent sports or unique academic programs? TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram are great platforms to use videos to highlight them. Think of them as the 24-hour town square where your content can cross paths with prospective families.

The good news is, that you likely have the tools right in your pocket—no need to look further than your smartphone for making great videos. Here are tips to get you started.

The Power Of Video For Enrollment Marketing 2
1. Keep Your Audience in Mind

Who is your audience, and what are their interests, concerns, pet peeves, and priorities? Tailor your content to address these factors and highlight the aspects of your school most likely to resonate with them. You want them to see your content and think, “Finally, a school that understands my family’s needs!” Keep it simple but authentic, transparent, and relatable. Showcase the real people and experiences that make your school unique in a casual manner and engage with viewers who leave comments. (This is why it’s totally ok to use your smart phone to film—don’t worry about having super-polished videos! You want it to feel authentic).

2. Optimize Your Distribution Channels

Creating great video content is only half of the recipe for success. To maximize its impact, you must ensure it reaches the right audience. You can do this by leveraging social media platforms to share your videos with prospective families and engage with them meaningfully. Use relevant hashtags that families might search for (on TikTok and Instagram—hashtags don’t work as well on Facebook). Consider investing in targeted advertising to reach families in your local area or demographic groups most likely to be interested in your school.

The Power Of Video For Enrollment Marketing 1
3. Measure Your Success

Once your video content is published, tracking its performance and adjusting your strategy accordingly is essential. Pay attention to metrics like views, engagement, and conversion rates to gauge the effectiveness of your videos. Use this data to identify what’s working well and where to improve. Be bold and experiment with different types of content and distribution channels to see what lands well with your audience.

Schools can find creative ways to stand out and attract prospective students and families in an increasingly competitive landscape. Video content can be a powerful, low-cost way to showcase the culture of your school and better connect with your audience. By leveraging the power of video, you can drive enrollment, boost engagement, and enroll more students for the upcoming school year.

About the Author

Cheril Clarke serves schools as a Content Strategist for the Enrollment Marketing Team at Grow Schools, where she spends most of her time writing and researching blogs and drafting paid advertising plans for schools. Cheril attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY, and brings a wealth of expertise having written for a wide range of demographics, including children’s books, speeches for State Senators, and Fortune 500 executives.

In an era where digital landscapes shape the future of education, a school’s online presence isn’t just a checkbox – it’s the gateway to a thriving school. Every school boasts a unique mission and offerings waiting to be discovered by those seeking an exceptional educational journey. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the key to unlocking this potential. 

SEO may sound daunting—but fear not! The path to enrollment success is paved with simple yet mighty strategies tailored explicitly to your school’s online presence. 

How SEO Can Support Enrollment

Before we delve into the how of SEO, let’s take a minute to talk about why SEO matters for schools. Improving your school’s search engine ranking is not just about climbing the digital ladder; it’s a direct route to increased visibility and a robust enrollment pipeline. In today’s digital landscape, parents are turning to online platforms to explore educational options for their children. A higher-ranking website positions your school as a prominent player in the educational arena, capturing the attention of parents actively searching for the best learning environment.

Unlocking Enrollment Success Easy SEO Tips Fo School Websites 1
Ranking on the First Page

Consider the scenario of a prospective parent embarking on the quest for “middle schools with STEM programs” in your area. A well-optimized website ensures that your school stands out on the first page of search results. This heightened visibility is a golden opportunity – the first step in connecting with parents seeking specific educational offerings.

Relevant Content on the Site

As parents explore your website, they discover a wealth of information about your school’s mission, values, programs, and overall learning experience. An optimized website with relevant keywords and compelling content attracts initial attention and sustains engagement. Parents can easily navigate your offerings, understanding what makes your school unique and why it fits their child’s educational journey perfectly.

Clickclick To Enroll Redesign Your Schools Website For Growth (1)

For more on website content, check out the free webinar Click to Enroll: Redesign Your School’s Website for Growth.

The Power of Reviews

Positive online reviews and engaging multimedia content play pivotal roles in shaping the perception of your charter school. Reviews from satisfied parents act as testimonials, building trust and confidence in the quality of education and the overall school experience. Meanwhile, multimedia content, such as videos showcasing student achievements and school events, adds a personal touch, creating a connection beyond words.

Building Trust and Confidence

The ripple effect of effective SEO extends beyond the digital realm. As your charter school’s online reputation grows, so does parents’ confidence in choosing your school. A positive online presence becomes a powerful ally in the decision-making process, influencing parents to envision their child thriving within your school’s unique educational environment.

8 Simple SEO Tips for Schools

Let’s dive into eight simple SEO tips that will revolutionize how your school is perceived digitally, paving the way for increased visibility, connecting with new audiences, and—if paired with other strong marketing efforts—a surge in enthusiastic enrollments.

1. Optimize Your Website Content
  1. Ensure your website content is relevant, informative, and tailored to your target audience.
  2. Incorporate keywords related to your school’s mission, values, and programs within the content.
  3. Create compelling meta titles and descriptions for each page to improve click-through rates from search engine results.
2. Mobile-Friendly Design
  1. A mobile-friendly website is crucial for SEO in today’s mobile-centric world.
  2. Optimize your website design to ensure a seamless and engaging user experience on various devices. 50% or more of a school’s web traffic can come from mobile devices.
  3. Google prioritizes mobile-friendly sites in its rankings, making this an essential aspect of SEO for schools.
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3. Local SEO Focus
  1. Capitalize on local SEO by claiming and optimizing your Google My Business listing.
  2. Include accurate information about your school, such as location, contact details, and business hours.
  3. Encourage satisfied parents to leave positive reviews on school review sites, enhancing your school’s credibility.
4. Utilize Engaging Multimedia
  1. Enhance your website with engaging multimedia content, such as high-quality images and videos showcasing school activities and achievements.
  2. Optimize multimedia elements for faster loading times to improve user experience and SEO rankings.
5. Develop a Blog Section
  1. Create a blog section on your website to regularly publish relevant and insightful content.
  2. Share stories about student achievements, upcoming events, and educational insights.
  3. Blogging keeps your website fresh and provides valuable content that can attract organic traffic.
6. Social Media Integration
  1. Leverage the power of social media by integrating social sharing buttons on your website.
  2. Regularly share updates, achievements, and events on social platforms to increase your school’s online visibility.
  3. Social signals can positively impact search engine rankings.
7. Optimize Images for SEO
  1. Use descriptive file names for images and include alt text to provide context for search engines.
  2. Properly sized and optimized images contribute to faster page loading, a factor considered by search algorithms.
8. Monitor and Analyze Performance
  1. Regularly monitor your website’s performance using tools like Google Analytics.
  2. Analyze key metrics such as website traffic, user engagement, and keyword performance to refine your SEO strategy.

The journey through Search Engine Optimization (SEO) may seem daunting, but it unveils a path to enrollment success for school leaders. By implementing these tailored SEO strategies, schools can capture the attention of parents actively seeking the best educational environment for their kids.

About the Author

Lynn Ellis is a Project Manager and Content Strategist for Grow Schools Enrollment Marketing. Before marketing, Lynn’s diverse career background included conference planning, office management, and math teaching. Lynn is an avid knitter, an aspiring guitar player, and a nascent sailor. She is the proud parent of a 22-year-old son.

Search data show that families start looking for schools between January and April. This marks a critical time for you to showcase your school—and ensure your content and ads are getting in front of families. This foresight avoids last-minute scrambling as the enrollment season approaches in June, July, and August.

Here are some data-driven strategies you can use to ensure you meet next year’s enrollment goals:

Tip 1: Use social media strategically.

Maintaining an active presence on your social channels is essential, whether your audience engages with you on Facebook, Instagram, or X (Twitter). Leveraging these platforms helps in community building and plays a vital role in your targeted online campaigns. Tailor your posts to current events, sports, and other school events. Aligning your content with the community’s interests fosters a sense of stability and positivity.

Tip 2: Watch key metrics so you know what to improve.

Social media engagement, website traffic sources, top-performing posts, and conversion rates are great metrics to watch. As for what to watch, you’ll want to consider your goals. For example, if your goal is to build and maintain an online community, post engagement, and blog traffic are great metrics to track. For enrollment increases, you’ll want to keep an eye on lead conversions—or how many people are filling out a form on your site after viewing a piece of content.

Tip 3: Use Google Analytics.

By setting up and monitoring Google Analytics, you’ll gain a comprehensive understanding of website traffic, user behavior, and the effectiveness of your marketing channels. Metrics such as page views and new user browsing can help you understand who is spending time on your website; you can utilize these insights to refine your strategies.

By using these strategies, you’ll set your school up for success in the competitive landscape of enrollment marketing. For support, browse the free resources below or reach out about an enrollment marketing partnership.

Ashley MacQuarrie joined Tuesday Tips to give tips on social media, data-driven decision-making, and the importance of early planning. Watch the video here: Tuesday Tips: Data-Driven Enrollment Marketing – Grow Schools

According to a survey conducted by the nonprofit National School Choice Awareness Foundation (NSCAF), 53.7 percent of parents are considering new schools for their children. Most school searches start online, which means it’s important for your school to be both searchable and have online curb appeal. Here are 5 ways you can improve searchability and engagement with your school’s website.

1. Enhance Search Visibility
Tuesday Tips Cybersecurity

93% of school searches start at a search engine like Google, so if you’re considering advertising, you’ll want to enhance search visibility with Google Ads. To use Google Ads effectively, you’ll want to create content based on common search terms—or keywords—that someone might use when looking for a school like schools near me, schools with enrichment programs, or top 10 schools in my area. Provide content that responds to these keywords, and your ad will show up higher on the list.

Tip: Google’s free analytics offer insight into your ads’ effectiveness, allowing you to make data-driven decisions. Google Ads are also cost-effective: schools set their budget and only pay when someone clicks on an ad.

2. Design an Engaging Website

Your school’s website is a glimpse into your thriving, unique programs. Not only should you provide cohesive branding and authentic photos, but your site should be intuitive, easy to navigate, and engaging.

A good guiding principle is to design your site for current families and prospective ones. Feature enrollment information prominently both in the navigation bar and on a button on your home page. You can also choose to add a pop-up window when enrollment deadlines approach.

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Then, create your website content by anticipating prospective families’ questions. Present an authentic representation of all you have to offer by featuring videos, photographs, and testimonials from students, teachers, and parents. Professionally produced content adds value, but student and teacher-generated images and stories offer genuine insight into daily life in the classroom.

Another best practice is to keep the website up to date with a current calendar of events, visit days, and enrollment deadlines and include upcoming school events that are open to the public.

Clickclick To Enroll Redesign Your Schools Website For Growth (1)

For more on website content, check out the free webinar Click to Enroll: Redesign Your School’s Website for Growth.

3. Create Compelling Social Content

The list of social media outlets is ever-expanding. Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram are only a few of the channels schools use to attract prospective students. Your school doesn’t need to be on all of them—what’s important is that you are where your prospective families are online. Talk to current families about where they spend time online and go from there.

Each social media channel has unique viewers interested in different content, so what works on Facebook may not work on Instagram or TikTok. Follow other schools and see what they’re posting to get an idea of what might work for your school.

It’s a lot of work to manage several different social media accounts, so involve others in the fun! While a school representative should always approve any content before it goes online, trusted school ambassadors, including parents, teachers, and students themselves, can become your storytellers. You can create a digital media club for middle and high school students who, with the support of a trusted faculty advisor, can develop an effective social media strategy that will appeal to prospective classmates.

4. Keep Your On-line Data Up to Date

A first stop for many prospective families is a school review site like greatschools.org, niche.com, privateschoolreview.org, and publicschoolreview.com. Someone on your administrative team should have access to these sites to update information like enrollment numbers, course offerings, and demographics. Keep these up-to-date and correct any errors quickly. 

The reviews posted to these sites have become an effective tool for evaluating a school. Each review is vetted, so school personnel cannot ghostwrite these. A little persuasion may be necessary to encourage current parents and students to write the reviews, so offer some school swag as a reward for posting.

Recognize that not every review will be glowing, and a negative one will sit on the site for a while. The silver lining? It may be an opportunity to uncover a problem that your school needs to address. If you get a negative review, keep in mind the advice offered by Jay Baer in Hug Your Haters: How to Embrace Complaints and Keep Your Customers. Treat it like a phone call complaint. Ignoring it is equivalent to hanging up, but on social media, where others are watching. Respond promptly, address concerns, and turn it into an opportunity to showcase your commitment to transparency and good communication.

Tip: These sites are closely monitored internally. All information will be confirmed before your school’s profile is updated, so keep an eye on the progress. It may take 2 – 3 days to complete an update. 

5. Showcase the Talent at Your School

Blog posts are a great way to show your community the great things your students are accomplishing. Once you’ve posted to your website, share it across social media and on channels like LinkedIn to spread the word.

Teacher Retention Recap

Your educators have a wealth of information to share, and along with a guest blog post on your own site, there are plenty of digital media outlets that accept articles written by teachers: sites like Edutopia, The Educators Room, and We Are Teachers. Member publications of Parent Media may publish helpful how-to articles written by teachers as well. When a member of the school staff publishes, share the article broadly with praise. 

Other ideas include:

  1. Teachers can offer a webinar on classroom management
  2. A counselor could create a YouTube video on how to help a student get organized
  3. An administrator can present as a thought leader advising others on topics like navigating budget cuts or offering professional development
  4. A student can present a classroom project on TikTok as an example of how learning happens at your school

The greater the online presence a school has, the more effective its enrollment marketing strategy. Use these tips to expand your reach to more prospective families and see your school population grow.

In this session, Ashley MacQuarrie joined us to answer questions on using newsletters to foster stronger communication with families and the broader school community. They talked about tailoring newsletters for different groups, prioritizing content, and using newsletter sections to highlight important information.

Join the experts as they answer all your questions live on Tuesdays on YouTube at 10am PT / 12pm CT / 1pm ET. Charter School Capital – YouTube

Read Full Transcript :

Michael Barber:

Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Tuesday Tips. I’m Michael Barber. I’m joined by a familiar face this week, Ashley MacQuarrie. Ashley, welcome back.

 

Ashley MacQuarrie:

Hi. Thanks, Michael. Good to be back.

 

Michael Barber:

It’s good to have you here again. As always, we’re here every Tuesday around one o’clock Eastern, 10:00 AM Pacific, talking challenges for school leaders. And this week we have what I think would probably be a top of mind topic right now, given, top of mind topic, that’s an interesting turn of phrase, but a top of mind topic I’m sure as we are in back to school season, and that is enrollment marketing.

And I wanted to ask Ashley to come in and talk about all things newsletters this week because it feels like we have been getting a lot of questions lately about crafting newsletters and email in general. And so I thought Ashley would be a good voice to bring back to the conversation and talk about how to create an engaging school newsletter for your students and your community and your constituents and advocates. So we’re bringing Ashley back to have that conversation. But I thought I’d start us off with just a warmup question, Ashley. You’re around 30 plus school leaders talking about how enrollment is going for the back to school season. Would just love a sense of, hey, how’s it going out there? What are you seeing? What’s working for school leaders, what maybe isn’t, any lessons learned thus far?

 

Ashley MacQuarrie:

Yeah. It’s going well. I would say about half of our schools have started school, with the exception of a lot of our California schools, which had to push the first day of school back because of the hurriquake.

 

Michael Barber:

Yes, the hurriquake. I love that. I haven’t heard that yet.

 

Ashley MacQuarrie:

And then the rest of our schools, they start back around the end of August. But I think it’s been going well. It seems like the students who are back at school have been engaged. I mean, it depends, of course. There are always schools that have more of a challenge with getting those kids back, making sure that parents even know that it’s the first day of school. One thing that we have seen is staffing just continues to be a challenge. And even we’ve seen a lot of leadership turnover. So in a normal season, we might have one or two school leaders who change roles, and we’ve had about 10 schools where school leaders have felt that it was time for a change. And so that with it brings some uncertainty, but it also brings a lot of excitement because there is a lot of excitement around these new leaders. But it can also be kind of a double-edged sword where sometimes families leave. So it’s been an interesting time.

 

Michael Barber:

Got it. So not for the faint of heart as usual, working in education, continues that trend. And it feels like it is probably that time if a school leader is going to step away after what is a few challenging years of pandemic-related management that this might be the time as things have certainly not calmed down, but feel like we’re in a endemic period. So I can totally get that. But one way to turn this conversation back to topic of hand, newsletters, one way that school leaders can build a relationship and a two-way communication with their parents and constituents and community advocates is certainly in the inbox. So would love to understand how are you seeing school leaders that you’re working with or schools that you’ve seen in the past, how are they leveraging newsletters? What’s the purpose that they’re leveraging that newsletter for in their schools?

 

Ashley MacQuarrie:

So mostly we see schools use it for communication with enrolled families. And hopefully starting as soon as a family enrolls, you get added to that list so that you can include information throughout the summer that’s relevant to a brand new family. And we also see schools that use newsletters for people who have just started the enrollment process or expressed interest. I can tell you that the rates at which families engage with those newsletters is very different. So for an enrolled family, we’ll see open rates, so that’s just the percentage of people that open those newsletters, of anywhere from 50 to 80% is typical for those newsletters. And when we have our audience segment, that’s just folks who have expressed interest, we see that a much lower, maybe sometimes more typical five to 10% open rate. So your families who are enrolled though, they really want to hear from you and they’re looking in their inboxes and they’re engaging with that content. So it’s a really great tactic to stay top of mind.

 

Michael Barber:

Yeah, I think you bring up a good point about making sure, at least explicitly making sure who are the parents in your subscription lists or who are the individuals in your subscription lists that are connected to the school and who is maybe you’re trying to attract to the school. And probably a good case to be made for segmenting those lists so that the content that’s going out for current students, current parents, current advocates is targeted for them. And then the content for trying to attract school talent and school enrollments and kids to fill your school, you’re getting content that’s specific for them. Is that a good way to approach at least a baseline segmentation of how to write content and think about your audiences?

 

Ashley MacQuarrie:

Definitely. And then as schools get further along in this journey, we see schools start to segment even further with fundraising folks who might be interested in supporting the school and then people in the community. We’ve seen credit recovery schools have newsletters for district and councilors where they get referrals for students. So there’s opportunities as well to reach outside. But again, your biggest advocates, people who are going to hang on every word of your newsletter, are definitely your enrolled families.

 

Michael Barber:

Yeah. So let’s talk about those enrolled families segment. What are the types of things beyond, I think of the types of content that those families want to read about, I would assume it’s teacher stories about some of your school leaders. It’s events, it’s stories about the students. What are you seeing school leaders leverage well for newsletter content for your enrolled families?

 

Ashley MacQuarrie:

Yeah, I mean, a message from the principal’s always nice, especially if you have new leadership. Staffing spotlights are always great. We usually see schools start… I mean, you have to remember that especially on mobile, you want to put the most important stuff that you really want people to know about at the very top because people may not read all the way through. So any highlights, events, activities that you want people to know about, you would put those at the top. That’s where you’d start.

So we’ll usually see things like In The News or a science night or photos are great. We want to include photos and that can keep people reading and scrolling. So, “Here’s some photos from the recent field trip.” Student or staff spotlights are great. Any deadlines or important dates that people need to know about. And then one thing that I loved that some of our schools started doing, they would have a resources or a parents’ corner area of their newsletter which had tips for staying organized or how to prep for the first day back to school. And then we actually saw open rates start to increase a little bit when they added a students’ corner. So they would include a little printable PDF or coloring page or something, kids’ corner. And the families really enjoyed that as well. So different sections. Don’t try to cram too much and you can rotate out those different featured areas each time you send.

 

Michael Barber:

Yeah, such a good tip to make the thing that’s most important for those enrolled families upfront. Make it large, make it impactful so that you get across the thing that you really want to get across in that inbox. When you consider different platforms that are out there, because obviously there’s a ton of what we in the business called email service providers… As a school leader you may hear this referred to as an email marketing platform or something along those lines. What types of platforms, specific names that you’re hearing school leaders utilize and what’s working well for them? And across the board, maybe there’s ones that we want to let school leaders know that might be a little bit more complicated that they should maybe stay away from.

 

Ashley MacQuarrie:

So a lot of schools use ParentSquare or Smore for those enrolled families communications. You can create a newsletter in those kinds of platforms. Really, the limitation with those is if you do want to do that external communication, it’s more limited. You can’t necessarily import a list of interested families as easily. So when schools want to do that, we’ll usually see them use Mailchimp. We find Mailchimp to be pretty easy to use and very affordable for schools. But then ultimately it’s whatever you’re comfortable with. So whatever the person who’s running your newsletter feels like they can use is okay. So we’ve had schools who like, “I know Constant Contact and I’m just comfortable in that and it works,” and that’s great. We say the same thing with websites. If it works for you and it does what you need it to do, then it’s the right platform for you.

 

Michael Barber:

Yeah, good rule of thumb that, I guess, I’ve become well-known for inside Charter School Capital, is you don’t want to kill a bumblebee with a bazooka. So is the tool right sized for you? And I think you’re hitting on that very point there, is whether it’s Mailchimp or Constant Contact or any one of the, I’ll say hundreds, I don’t think that there’s thousands out there, but hundreds of different email service providers that you can use as a school leader, is pick the right one that works for the business. And if that’s the one that’s been working, then really no reason to rock the boat unless you’re thinking of potentially integrations that you need or something along those lines.

Yes, just some really incredible tips there. You mentioned open rate. I’m just going to do a bonus question as we cross over the 10-minute mark. And just a reminder, we’re here every Tuesday, 10:00 AM Pacific, 1:00 PM Eastern, talking all things challenges for school leaders. We’re talking to Ashley MacQuarrie today. Ashley leads our enrollment marketing services at Charter School Capital. Her and her team work across about 30 plus schools this year on their enrollment efforts. And we’re talking all things newsletters. Our bonus question for the day, you mentioned open rates. Specifically for engaged families, they can be 50 to 80%, and for those families you’re trying to attract to the school, they’re probably more along industry averages below 10%, depending upon how good you’re keeping that list up to date and relevant for those subscribers. But are there other metrics that you have conversations with with school leaders, and if so, what are those metrics and why are they important?

 

Ashley MacQuarrie:

Yeah, I mean, we definitely look at click rates, especially if there is a link that we want folks to follow to take action. And if you do have something like that, again, you want to put it higher up. So we would look at that. We also look at your bounce rate. So if your list isn’t up-to-date and your emails are bouncing, then you need to look at your newsletter list and make sure that you remove those bad emails because that can impact your email deliverability to different mail clients, which can be a problem that affects not just your email newsletters, but important emails that your staff might be sending. So that’s really important. And then your unsubscribe rates, I think. If people are routinely hitting unsubscribe, that’s a problem as well. If they’re just folks who no longer go to your school who are opting out, that’s okay. But if you have very high numbers of people marking your email spam or unsubscribing, that indicates a problem. So we would look at all of those kinds of things.

 

Michael Barber:

Yeah, super good tips there to keep in mind beyond just that simple open rate, that click-through rate, that bounce rate. You’re looking for those hard bounces, right, those email addresses that don’t exist, which, good news, most of the platforms do a pretty good job of filtering out for you, so you shouldn’t have to suffer from that from the beginning. But really great tips for newsletters, Ashley. I really appreciate you coming back and just want to say thanks for all the good work you’re doing with the schools. And I think we’re going to have multiple members of your team on over the next few weeks. We had Cheryl last week on all things video, so if you want to pop back to last week’s episode and you’re listening to this week, just head back a week and you’ll find that all things on video.

But really appreciate the time, Ashley. We’re going to wrap it up. We actually did a blog post that debuted, I believe, yesterday or today on how to create an engaging school newsletter. I will pop that into the chat right now so that anyone that is listening can hop over to that blog post and take a read of some really great tips that have come from the team looking at different school newsletters and what’s working and what’s not. But we’ll wrap it up and say thanks to Ashley MacQuarrie for joining us today on all things newsletters and enrollment marketing. We’ll have her back soon enough as well as multiple members of her team. And we’ll see you next week for our next Tuesday Tips. Until next time, bye, y’all. Take care.

 

Ashley MacQuarrie:

Bye. Thank you.

 

Newsletters are a great communication tool—one that, when used effectively, can help you build a strong school community and foster family engagement. Newsletters are more than just a simple email—when carefully crafted, they can deliver value to your community. Here’s how.

Planning Your Newsletter Strategy
1. Know Your Audience

Everything that goes into your newsletter comes down to one thing: knowing your audience. Understand your audience’s interests, concerns, and preferences. Keep the tone friendly and approachable as you feature a mix of valuable information, upcoming events, student highlights, and resources.

2. Find Your Purpose

Think about what your newsletter is trying to achieve. Include clear calls to action (CTAs) that guide readers on what to do next—whether it’s attending an event, volunteering, or reading an informative article. Also decide who will be writing them—a principle, school leader, or other administrator.

3. Decide on a Regular Schedule

Set a regular schedule for your newsletters, whether it’s weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. Stick to it so your readers know when to expect updates—and remember that consistency builds trust.

4. Choose a Platform

There’s a plethora of newsletter platforms—find the right one that aligns with your school’s needs. Here’s what to consider.

  • Templates: You don’t have to create your newsletter from scratch every time!
  • Cost: Find a platform that fits your budget.
  • User-friendly: Building your monthly missive should feel like a simple process.
  • Analytics and reporting: Understand how your newsletter is performing.
5. Work with your IT Team 

Create and securely manage opt-in lists of families.

Newsletter image

 

Crafting Your Content
1. Capture Attention

The subject line and main headlines are your audience’s first impression. Rather than sticking to the basics, try out intriguing headlines that hint at the content’s value. Use action words, pose questions, or share snippets to ignite curiosity.

2. Use Images

Include photos of students, teachers, and school events to add authenticity to your newsletter. Avoid stock photos if you can—they come across as generic. You can also experiment with infographics, charts, and visuals.

3. Make It Accessible

You’ll want to be sure your newsletter is accessible. Use accessible fonts, and consistent colors that contrast appropriately, and don’t rely on images alone to convey information. You’ll also want to be sure your newsletter is optimized for various screen sizes—smartphones, tablets, and desktops.

4. Be Concise

Break your newsletter into smaller sections with clear headings. Use bullet points and write short paragraphs. Lead with, highlight, or bold key takeaways and important dates to ensure your audience doesn’t miss it.

5. Share Success Stories

Highlighting student achievements, teacher spotlights, and event recaps can humanize your newsletter. Showcase the impact of your school’s efforts and the contributions of your staff and students.

6. Ask for Feedback and Continually Improve

Invite readers to share their thoughts, feedback, and suggestions—that way your newsletter is always evolving toward the needs of your community.

You’ll also want to regularly analyze open rates, click-through rates, and reader engagement. Experiment with different content types, layouts, and subject lines to understand what resonates best with your audience. Use these insights to refine your newsletter strategy.

Your Newsletter is One Part of Your Digital Marketing Strategy

An effective newsletter is one component of your overall digital marketing strategy for your school. For a deeper look, you can download the free Charter School Digital Marketing Guide.

This workbook will empower you to build and follow through on a simple digital marketing strategy for your school. You can use these pages to set goals for your school, refine your messaging, set strategic marketing goals, and achieve them through various digital marketing programs.

Digital Marketing for Charter Schools Guide (charterschoolcapital.com)

In this session, Michael Barber and Ashley MacQuarrie discussed specific enrollment marketing tactics for schools over the summer. They talked about social media content, planning events, website updates and how to balance all these things with getting some much-deserved time away over the summer break.

Join the experts as they answer all your questions live on Thursdays on YouTube at 10am PT / 12pm CT / 1pm ET. Charter School Capital – YouTube

 

Read the Full Transcript:

Michael B. (00:12):
Hi everyone, and welcome back to our weekly series on all things enrollment marketing for charter school leaders. My name is Michael Barber and I’m joined by my ever-present weekly co-host, Ashley MacQuarrie. Ashley, how are you doing today?

Ashley M. (00:26):
Doing well, thanks, Michael. How are you?

Michael B. (00:28):
Good to hear. I am well, thank you. We’re going to hop right in. We’re right on time today and going to give ourselves our 10-minute countdown timer and talk about all the things. We’re getting into what, we’re in the first week of April. It is May 4th for all the Star Wars fans out there. May the fourth be with you. We’re getting down to the last few weeks of the school year. Depending upon where you are in the country, you’ll likely be wrapping up the year in the next couple of weeks, maybe into the first parts of June if you’re in California or other states. So I wanted to turn the topic today to what should school leaders be thinking about as they’re heading into the summer to make sure they’re prepared for the fall? So we’ll start there. Tips and tricks that school leaders can think about right now as they’re heading into the last few weeks of the school year to get them prepared for fall.

Ashley M. (01:23):
Yeah. Well, something to think about is getting ready for the content that you’re going to publish maybe on your website or on social media during the summer leading up until the start of school, and making sure that you have what you need while you have folks on your campus. So with some of the schools that we’ve started working with a little bit later in the season, we’re making sure that we have video shoots scheduled, photo shoots scheduled, so that we can capture that content while there’s still kids and teachers on the campus. So that’s really important because if you don’t have summer school, we’ve had challenges where we’ve had to use stock photos through the summer or we use older photos, which isn’t-

Michael B. (02:02):
Such a good point.

Ashley M. (02:04):
And then stockpiling teacher profiles. We’ve said before on these that these are some of the best performing content that we see, but it can be hard to get that while teachers are hopefully unplugged through the summer. So trying to get some of that content, that Q&A content from your teachers just kind of ready or having them do a little short interview on video. And just capturing that so that you can roll it out throughout the summer and introduce folks on your social networks to the people that make your school special.

Michael B. (02:39):
Yeah, it’s such a good insight to make sure that you’ve got your photo shoots or video shoots scheduled before you break because any of that content, you’re going to want to make sure your school captures the essence of that school, and it’s certainly going to feel different if your students, teachers, and leaders are not there. When it comes to school leaders and potentially queuing up content for social media or for blog posts. Is it a good idea to preschedule things to help them maybe find some efficiencies through the summer? Do you see school leaders doing that?

Ashley M. (03:14):
Yeah, definitely. We’ve seen schools starting to adopt more of the social media scheduling tools or just using the built-in tools that Facebook offers for Facebook and Instagram. That’s definitely a great idea. And then just building out your content calendar so that you don’t have to think about it, oh no, I need to write a post today. Just start to plan that content ahead and think about summer topics. So what kinds of content would you want to publish around back to school prep or summer learning loss? Things like that. Educational type summer activities, that can all be great stuff that parents really like to see, and so starting to plan for that content now is a good idea.

Michael B. (03:54):
Yeah, such a good point. Question on timing as it relates to fall enrollments. If I’m a school leader and I haven’t spent a significant amount of preparing for the fall, is it too late? What should I be doing if that prep hasn’t happened yet? Things that have to get started, maybe things to think about if you’ve got a few weeks or a few months.

Ashley M. (04:18):
Yeah. Well, it’s not necessarily too late, but it is late. So definitely making sure, I mean, hopefully you have some pre-enrollment already of people who have expressed interest or a list of leads. And so you’re going to want to be following up with them consistently and have a plan in place for how you’re going to communicate with them through the summer, maybe plan events. I think events and getting people on your school campus or getting out into your community is going to be really important if you’re starting late. So a kindergarten roundup, an ice cream social, a movie night, meet the principal and teacher nights, anything that’s going to get newly enrolled families excited about their choice of your school and hopefully encourage them to bring their friends. I think that it’s just going to be more important that you’re on the ground working to generate that word of mouth in addition to the digital activities. You’re just really going to have to hustle a lot more at this point.

Michael B. (05:16):
Yeah, for the schools that we’ve worked with over the past few years… What are some trends that happen over the summer? Do you see schools’ website traffic dip? So what are the things that school leaders should expect to see from an enrollment trend perspective. That website traffic goes down? Does sort of the social media shares go down? How can they buck those trends if that’s the case? What happens from a enrollment ecosystem as we head into the end of May, beginning of June and into the hot summer months?

Ashley M. (05:48):
Yeah, definitely. I always prep our team and our schools of, your website traffic, everything is going to take a massive dive around the 4th of July. We see it just consistently the last week of June and the first week of July. Parents are totally disengaged, they’re not thinking about school. And honestly, our teachers and our staff and our school administrators are also just tired and they’re pretty-

Michael B. (06:14):
They’re disconnecting too, yeah.

Ashley M. (06:16):
It’s going to be quiet. And then it builds back up in July and we see that interest come back up, and then it really spikes in August. So August tends to be the biggest month in terms of website traffic. And it does also depend on the area, so it depends a little bit on whether your school goes back in the first couple weeks of August or maybe closer to Labor Day. It also depends on just the community that you serve. So there are some parents, some schools where they have more families who are really engaged in the spring and through the spring and early summer in that back to school. And then there are families where maybe they don’t even realize that school is starting so soon until they see the sign on the building that says, school starts August 4th or whatever. So you want to be engaging with both of those audiences. But it’s definitely not unusual to see really low traffic at this time of year.

Michael B. (07:16):
Yeah. Does that present an opportunity for work to be happening on the website, for school leaders to take a step back and maybe make some improvements? And if you have a couple tricks on what could be improved in a short amount of time, I’m all ears, and I’m sure our school leaders are too.

Ashley M. (07:35):
Yeah, it could be a good time to do some website work while traffic is low. If there’s development work that needs to happen or major updates, that could be a good time. I mean, ideally you will want to have updated your website or if you’re building a new website, you would’ve wanted to do that work sooner. But I think there’s swapping out photos, making changes, things like that. Definitely if you enroll year round, a lot of our schools are still enrolling ’22, ’23 students right up until the end of the school year. So making sure that everything is switched over to that ’23, ’24 language, removing those old forms that might have still been capturing year round enrollments so that there’s no confusion for families and making sure that everything is geared towards the fall enrollment. And then maybe just embracing the quiet a little bit and taking a break before the rush. Sometimes we see that our school leaders just really need that little bit of a lull.

Michael B. (08:39):
Yeah, I mean, we know some of the biggest struggles that school leaders have talked to us about that, and that is certainly mental health for their teachers, that is teacher and school leader burnout and wellness. And maybe that summer provides a little bit of a respite and maybe we shouldn’t be recommending that they work on things in that moment of respite, but certainly an opportunity to, if there is a little bit of time to put a fresh coat of paint on something, make sure things are working on the site, being prepared for those traffic spikes as you head out of July into August. Not a bad idea by any stretch of the imagination.
(09:16):
Let’s turn to social media for a second. Is there a right or wrong content calendar for social over the summer? I would imagine that if your website traffic is going down, I would imagine maybe the school’s engagement comments, like shares likely go down during the summer. Is that the case? And if so, do school leaders stop posting? What do you advise school leaders over the summer to either continue to do or discontinue during that time?

Ashley M. (09:46):
Yeah. I don’t think we see quite the same dip on social media because people are at home, they’re on their phones still on social media. I think it gets harder for school leaders to find things to talk about on social because you don’t have the events and activities going on. That sort of community building, here’s what’s happening on our campus content gets harder to come by. So it does become more about maybe sharing content that you have built up a bank or re-sharing content that’s relevant. Again, more evergreen stuff. Again, dripping out those school teacher profiles, highlighting your alumni who just graduated. So that kind of thing. But it gets a little harder because you can’t just say, we went on a field trip, here’s some pictures. That kind of stuff isn’t happening on campus. As far as right or wrong… Oh, sorry.

Michael B. (10:38):
No, no, no. Continue, continue.

Ashley M. (10:40):
I don’t think there’s a right or wrong schedule. I think whatever you can… If your calendar shifts a little bit in the summer and maybe you’re only posting twice a week, I think that’s okay. Whatever you can do to be consistent though.

Michael B. (10:52):
Yeah, for sure. And I think you sort of touched on a potential recommendation, which is make sure you’ve got that content either queued up or you’ve got enough to get you through the summer, because you certainly don’t want to be getting to certain times of the year and start to figure out, hey, we don’t have anything to post as we get through those summer months as well.

Ashley M. (11:15):
Yeah.

Michael B. (11:17):
Yeah.

Ashley M. (11:17):
The worst thing would be to just go silent, right?

Michael B. (11:20):
Yes. Yeah, I mean, you and I both have seen recommendations from all of the major social networks that say, to the best of your ability, don’t change your cadence because typically the social media networks will adjust their algorithms and your organic reach if your regular cadence isn’t consistent. So if you’re an everyday poster, continue that through the school year, continue that through the summer, I should say, and just keep that cadence up and make sure you’ve got that content prepared.
(11:55):
Well, hey, we are at now the 12-minute mark, so we’re going to wrap things up, but I did want to give a big shout-out to Ashley, we are on episode 17. We’ve been back here basically every week since mid-December, which has been just incredible to have her voice here. And also wanted to tease out that both Ashley and I will be at the National Charter Schools Conference. Charter School Capital is the diamond sponsor for that conference, and you will find both of us in the leadership lab inside of the exhibit hall talking all things enrollment marketing. We’re going to be having a little preview of what we’re bringing to the national conference over the next few weeks, so stay tuned for that here.
(12:38):
But did want to say a big thanks to Ashley for continuing to come back and answer all our questions and bring in her team members in here to talk all things enrollment marketing. So thanks for making it happen over the last few weeks, Ashley, we greatly appreciate it.

Ashley M. (12:53):
Thanks, Michael. It’s been fun.

Michael B. (12:55):
Always a pleasure. We’ll wrap it up there. You’ve got tips for getting you through the summer, and look out for our next episode right here on youtube.com/charterschoolcapital. We are here every usual Thursday, 10:00 AM Pacific, 1:00 PM Eastern talking all things charter schools and helping school leaders get where they’re going. So would love to see you here in the future. For now, take care.

 

In this session, Megan Ullmann joined Michael Barber and Ashley MacQuarrie to discuss specific enrollment marketing tactics for schools in that growth phase—years 2-7. They spoke about hosting events, analyzing academic data, using social media and Google search ads, and establishing a stronger “ground game” presence in the community.

Join the experts as they answer all your questions live on Thursdays on YouTube at 10am PT / 12pm CT / 1pm ET. Charter School Capital – YouTube

Read the Full Transcript:

Michael B. (00:16):

Hi, everyone, and welcome to our weekly Thursday series on all things enrollment marketing. My name is Michael Barber and I am joined by my ever-present co-host, Ashley MacQuarrie. Ashley, how are you today?

Ashley M. (00:31):

Doing well. How are you, Michael?

Michael B. (00:31):

I’m well, thanks for always coming in to duties on a weekly basis with us. We’re also joined by a new face, Megan Ullmann. Megan, welcome to the program.

Megan U. (00:41):

Hi, Michael. Thank you. Happy to be here.

Michael B. (00:44):

Thank you for being here. Do you want to take a quick second and just introduce yourself to all of our viewers this morning?

Megan U. (00:51):

Sure. My name’s Megan Ullmann. I’m a project manager, Charter School Capital, and work on the enrollment marketing team. This is my third season.

Michael B. (01:00):

Awesome. Well, thanks for joining us. We asked Megan to come chat with us specifically today because you’ll recall over the last couple of weeks, we’ve talked about different tips and tactics for schools depending upon the stage of growth that we are in. We often refer to schools in three stages of growth. Our startup schools, those could be year zeros or you’re just in the concepting phase of your school through about year two. Your growth phases. That year two, three period through about year six, seven, eight, and then our mature schools at about year seven or eight and beyond. Last week, we focused on our startup schools. This week, we’ll focus on our growth schools and Megan has some incredible experience there so we’ve asked her to come in to have a chat about specific tactics that school leaders could use as their schools are in that growth phase.

(01:53):

Megan, I’m going to allow you to just tee it up for us and answer that question. What are some key tactics or tips that school leaders can be using to drive enrollment as they enter that sort of two to seven year period of growth for their school?

Megan U. (02:11):

Well, as you know, a lot of the foundation is kind of late in that first year with helping a school get to know their voice and doing some kind of foundational things like building out a website or creating print collateral for them, working on logo, branding, maybe helping with the tagline. While there’s a lot of successful programs that we can do in that first year, it really gets interesting in that second and third year, even fourth year for a school I’m working with because I’ll take work and take that foundation and just enhance their presence in each market.

Michael B. (02:59):

Yeah, it’s such a good idea there in terms of getting them started. As they mature into that year two and beyond phase, obviously things are going to become more important. Things like events, things like your ground game. What are some things specifically related to events and ground game that school leaders can think about as they’re growing?

Megan U. (03:21):

Yeah, events is a good one because while they might have touched on that a little bit in their market, we can help them figure out where to be because we have a better sense of their market, who’s responding to them. Depending on where they are, we could help them set up tabling events at farmers’ markets or sporting events or malls, movie theaters, and we can also help expand what that event presence looks like. Sometimes, schools will just start with a six-foot banquet table with some flyers on top, but we can elevate that for them with some branding. If it’s a pop-up tent, depending on where they go, we could brand that. We could set them up with a branded tablecloth linen. We could help with some talking points to help some school staff put on a marketing hat and help steer their messaging a little bit.

Michael B. (04:25):

Yeah, it sounds like the opportunity, especially when you’re in those growth phases is to get more sophisticated, is to start thinking about how you bring that brand to life, maybe some events that you might have not thought about before and just showing up in a more sophisticated way. Is that sort of the case that you’re recommending to school leaders is as they’ve got that brand under control, they’ve built it up to a level where they can start doing more sophisticated events, more sophisticated opportunities?

Megan U. (04:56):

Absolutely, and we’re working with a couple schools right now who are repeat schools, where we’re actually exploring the opportunity of doing a brand ambassador internship where we might hire somebody who’s an alum from the school and they can hit the streets and go out and distribute collateral or stickers, where they know that their potential prospective students and families will be. It works really well with high schools in particular because high school students and recent graduates know where high school kids hang out so that’s something fun we’re exploring with.

Michael B. (05:40):

That’s such a good idea to think about your students and your kids and activating them in interesting ways potentially when it comes to events and your ground game. Because obviously if they’ve had a successful experience with you, and I’m making an assumption here that school leaders are going to find those kids that have had big, impactful, positive experiences at their schools, they become incredible brand ambassadors for their schools, correct?

Megan U. (06:08):

Absolutely. Really, somebody who’s been at the school or works at the school is probably the best person to talk about that school, but we can still help curate that experience and give some talking points and encourage and educate people on how to engage with the public.

Michael B. (06:31):

For sure.

Megan U. (06:31):

A lot of we do is digital marketing, which has been really successful, but I think we never underestimate the power of parents’ word of mouth, high school students’ word of mouth.

Michael B. (06:47):

I mean, word of mouth across the board is going to be incredible for schools, nevermind any other type of it or organization and how you activate that, whether it’s in the ground game or digitally on review sites and whatnot. It’s certainly an area that schools need to pay attention to.

(07:04):

Thinking about activating in a digital way, Ashley, Megan did such a good job of bringing ideas to life for school leaders as they’re going through this growth phase. But obviously school leaders have got to get more sophisticated when it comes to their digital efforts as they’re growing. What should school leaders be thinking about as they start to get into that two, three, four, five year period when it comes to digital efforts that they’re doing to drive kids into their schools?

Ashley M. (07:36):

Well, by a couple of years in, you should have some data. I think we touched on this the first week that we started talking about this. You have some data, and if you don’t have data, then that’s something that you need to start paying attention to is like how are people finding your website? What areas are they coming from? If somebody submits an application, are you starting to see trends of specific zip codes that they’re coming from? Are you starting to see that maybe you’re reaching a new population that maybe you didn’t even know about? Maybe people are coming to you from a new area that you weren’t specifically targeting. Maybe there’s an opportunity there, maybe word of mouth is getting out in that area. Looking at that data, tracking it, and then making decisions about how you’re going to grow your visibility in these areas, what’s working? What’s not working? Maybe there are things that you’ve been spending on that you don’t need to focus on because they’re not really having an impact for you, but maybe you’ll learn that maybe other things are working.

(08:38):

There are definitely other more sophisticated digital advertising tactics that we can do. We might start out with very basic social media ads and very basic Google Search ads, but we will learn what kind of ads people resonate with will. We also will maybe have opportunities for things like display ads that re-target people who have maybe engaged with you somewhere, maybe have visited your website and then we can show them an ad on another website somewhere else while they’re browsing. There are things that we can do as you start to drive more traffic to your website, as people engage with your ads more, as people enroll in your school, you can use that and use what’s working and what you’ve learned to expand your efforts.

Michael B. (09:27):

It feels like you’re both hitting on a common theme here, which is the level of sophistication that you can start to do when you get to year two, three and four and beyond, right? Hopefully, as a school, you’re less concerned about making sure that you’ve got at least the minimum amount of kids in the door and in that growth phase trying to grow your enrollment and it’s starting to get more sophisticated both on any of the ground game efforts, your community building, your digital marketing. It’s all about starting to refine those things, given you know where those kids are getting interested in your school and what’s ultimately converting for the school as well.

Ashley M. (10:02):

Yeah, and you should have, to Megan’s point about leveraging your students and your alums at events. I mean, you can do the same with your content, so publishing consistent content, updating your website frequently, highlighting, publishing on social media. Often, some of the best content that you can share is about the people who make your school special, so your teachers, your staff members and your students and alumni, and so looking for opportunities to highlight them now that you should have, hopefully, some people who’ve had great experiences with your school, maybe opportunities for PR to highlight an alum who’s doing something great or a counselor who’s won an award or things like that. There might be more opportunities for that kind of thing a few years in.

Michael B. (10:50):

Yeah, just hitting on the PR thing, I think we just worked with a school who was launching a new program. Micanopy. Am I saying that correctly?

Ashley M. (10:58):

Yeah, that’s right. Micanopy.

Michael B. (11:00):

Micanopy. Sorry, I have never been there and I at least didn’t totally butcher the name. Micanopy had launched a new program and turned to us for some help with some PR efforts, and we got some placement in local media, which can be, as your school’s growing, either one of you talk to just how school leaders can start to build relationships with the reporters or local publications? What do you see school leaders doing there? Either one of you, either Megan or Ashley, any thoughts there?

Megan U. (11:35):

What do you think, Ashley?

Ashley M. (11:37):

Well, one thing I can say is that your agency, if you’re working with us, if you’re working with another marketing agency or a PR agency, they can help you find those opportunities. They can figure out okay, what reporters cover education in your area? Where should we pitch our story to? But it’s really the school leader that should have that relationship with those reporters because that’s going to be something that you can maintain over time and you’re going to have somebody that you can reach out to and say, “Hey, we’re having an event. Why don’t you come on out to your local radio station or a TV station?” I know that especially in smaller communities, smaller community publications, you have a pretty good shot of getting somebody to come out if you’re having an ice cream social or a big game or something like that. They’re looking for stories, and so if you have that relationship with local reporters, they can get you some attention.

Michael B. (12:32):

Yeah, certainly a very good play, for sure. Anything to add there, Megan? I saw you starting to talk.

Megan U. (12:38):

Yeah, I was just going to add, depending on how active the school is in their community with partnerships and programs, I think that could also turn into a story, depending on what that relationship looks like and how much a school is doing for giving back.

Ashley M. (12:56):

Yeah.

Michael B. (12:58):

Yeah, and also thinking about maybe your school has the executive director or the school leaders, maybe a teacher that’s a thought leader in a specific space relates to school challenges like teacher attention and whatnot. Those could be areas where you could potentially offer some perspectives as well for reporters as they’re looking for sources.

Ashley M. (13:20):

Yeah.

Michael B. (13:20):

Well, I want to be respectful of time. We always go over on our usual commitment of 10 minutes, and we are plenty over at this moment and feel like we’ve done some good work this morning on providing some tips and tactics for schools that are in that growth mode. I’m going to say thank you to Megan for joining us. I hope you’ll come back again in the near future and have a conversation about other tips we could provide for school leaders. And as always, a big thanks to Ashley for joining us every week. Thanks, y’all.

Megan U. (13:48):

Thank you.

In this session, Karen Shih joined Michael Barber and Ashley MacQuarrie to discuss enrollment marketing tips for start-up schools. They discussed how, at the start-up stage, focusing on building awareness is essential—things like deciding on brand elements and beginning to build an online presence.

Join the experts as they answer all your questions live on Thursdays on YouTube at 10am PT / 12pm CT / 1pm ET. Charter School Capital – YouTube

 

Read the Full Transcript:

Michael:

Hi everyone. Welcome to all things enrollment marketing for charter leaders. My name is Michael Barber and I’m joined by my weekly co-host Ashley MacQuarrie. Ashley, how’s it going?

Ashley:

It’s going well. How are you, Michael?

Michael:

I’m good. Thanks so much for asking. We’re also joined by someone who I believe, Karen, this is your second time on our Thursday chats, correct?

Karen:

It’s my first time, actually.

Michael:

It’s your first time?

Karen:

Yes.

Michael:

I feel like you’re an alum. Why do I feel like you’re an alum? Oh, well, my mistake. First time joining us, Karen, can you just take two seconds and introduce yourself to our YouTube subscribers?

Karen:

Hi, nice to see you. I’m Karen Shih. I’m a project manager here at CSC on the enrollment marketing team. Nice to be here.

Michael:

Awesome. Well, we appreciate you being here even if it is your first, or maybe in my head, second or third time, whatever it may be, but thank you for taking the time to join us. We are going to talk all things startup schools today, and we look at schools in three different phases of growth, startup and then growing and sustainable maturity as the three phases of growth. And if you think of different years in terms of how long schools have been around, we’re talking our year zero through about year two ish when we consider startup schools. So all our questions today are going to be on startup schools, what they can do to help drive enrollment. I’ll start the conversation there. What are the tactics or the things that school leaders that are either starting their school or about a year or two into their journey as school leaders need to do? I’ll turn it over to Karen first for some thoughts.

Karen:

Thank you. So I feel like these startup schools have some really unique challenges. They don’t have name recognition yet. They’re moving into a new building, all new staff. So I think getting your name out there, getting some credibility is really important. And I think I would start with having a website and some social media presence and updating them on a regular basis to get your name out there.

Michael:

And Karen, before we started, you mentioned one creative idea from a school that we worked with in the past. Can you talk about some of the community engagement that’s required and maybe some creative ideas for how you can connect with people that are in… If your school is a physical location, how you can connect with your community to try and increase the number of kids you’re serving?

Karen:

Sure. Yeah. So this idea I was sharing with Michael is something one of my schools did. It was really successful. They went to apartment complexes that were near the location where the school was going to be and had pizza parties. So they would ahead of time post flyers at the apartment complex, of course with the support of the management at the apartments. And then they would have an information session where people could come meet the school leaders, maybe the principal, some of the teachers who were already engaged with the school, hear about what programs they were going to have at the school and what was going to be special about this school. And then they made it really easy for people to sign up on the spot. So having the paperwork you need, having an iPad there, just making it really simple for people to show that they’re interested or if they’re ready to sign up, do it right then.

Michael:

Yeah, such great ideas to think about. You’ve got to engage, especially when you’ve got a physical location, engaging that community that’s surrounded by your school. Ashley, I’ll turn these two questions over to you. We’ll start first with tips and tricks for startup schools that they can use for their enrollment efforts. Anything to add beyond what Karen said?

Ashley:

Yeah, and I think just what you kind of added, it’s just so important to get out in the community around your school. A lot of times more mature schools, they might find that maybe as the years go on, they’re attracting students from other areas, their community is changing. But as a brand new school, you probably want to just start with a radius around your location once you’ve identified that and just get out in the community and make people aware that there’s a school here now. I mean, that could be as simple as signage and yard signs, giving yard signs to families when they enroll, if they have a place to put them and we’re putting them around the neighborhood. Flyering or door hangers or a direct mail postcard to a really targeted area around your neighborhood could also be a good idea to just get that visibility.

Michael:

Beyond the social media profiles and making sure that you’ve got obviously, your website and those social profiles secured, even if you’re not using it right, probably a good tip I should say, for a startup school to at least go secure those profiles so nobody takes advantage of them in the future. But in thinking about what else a school leader might be thinking about when they’re starting a school beyond… The school flyers are always going to require logos and things like that as a startup school. So what are you thinking in terms of graphic design and brand? How much focus needs to be on those elements for a startup school?

Karen:

I think it’s really important to have something really solid. I would hire a professional to create that logo, I would say, and then have colors and fonts and use them consistently on your website, on your flyers, all your signage, everything that you’re doing. I think it helps build credibility for your school if you’re staying consistent and look really professional with those things.

Michael:

For sure. Anything to add there, Ashley?

Ashley:

No, I was just reflecting. I think for every new school that we’ve started with, they had someplace to start, maybe even just a logo that the executive director found or made in Canva, but I think we’ve done some of that brand work for all of them to help them really hone in on those colors. Or maybe they just had a really basic website and we kind of helped to build it out. So if you can get some help to do that, because I mean, I know a lot of times starting these schools, it’s just one passionate person at first. But to Karen’s point, it really can make a big difference. So even just defining your brand colors and building your brand guide in a tool like Canva could help you stay on track.

Michael:

For sure. So step one, as I’m hearing it, is make sure you at least start with just the brand basics. So logo, pick your colors, make sure that they’re working well. We’ve actually got a couple episodes ago had one of our graphic designers, Nikki, talk all about best practices. I’d encourage you to go take a look at that video. Next step, as Karen alluded to, make sure you secure that url, build a website, and then secure those social profiles as well, even if you’re not going to use them just so that you have access to them in the future. What about engaging your advocates? Even as a startup school, you’re going to have a board. Especially as you get into year one and year two, you’re going to have parents that could be vocal advocates for you or even community members that may be contributing to the school. I’m going to turn this question initially over to Ashley. How can you leverage those relationships to help drive enrollment for the first couple years of your school?

Ashley:

Yeah, I think those people are so important, especially in the first year because you probably don’t have students. We love student highlights. We love photos of students having fun and living out the school’s mission on site, but you probably don’t have those at least in that first year. So it’s really important to create content or create videos of the founder, maybe founding families about why they’re excited about this school, maybe board members, and really leverage why they’re passionate, why this school is being founded, and perhaps if the people who founded the school have a background with other successful schools, you can leverage some of that name recognition. I mean, that’s huge because that’s probably the best advocates that you have at that point.

Michael:

And question, I know obviously one of the big tools that parents use is search engines. And naturally when a school starts, or as it’s going through that startup phase, it’s going to get listed on places like Great Schools, on review sites. It’s going to have hopefully a listing on Google Maps. So Karen, asking you, how important is it for school leaders to pay attention to places like Great Schools or review sites like Google that are on Google Maps or Google Reviews? Do startup schools need to be paying attention to those? What’s some thoughts there?

Karen:

I’m glad you brought that up. I think it’s really important for schools to be checking them on a regular basis. Some of them, you can claim your profile and then you have the ability to curate what’s showing up there. For instance, on Google Maps, it’s called Google My Business, and you can add your own photos. You can add information about your school. You can have little announcements that pop up and that’s free, and it’s all things that you as a school leader can have control over. Sometimes people are going to make reviews of your school, and so you want to be up on those and maybe comment on them. If people are really positive ones, sometimes it might be a negative one, but you need to be aware of what’s out there and respond.

Michael:

Yeah, I think that’s such an important thing, is that response, right? Knowing what people are saying about you taking the time to respond. There’s plenty of research out there that I know all of us have seen that say no response is often worse in the eyes of someone who is looking at reviews than a bad response from a customer or parent or student in this case and then you actually taking the time as a school leader to respond in a thoughtful and hopefully approachable manner to potentially those negative reviews. And also positive reviews. All of these reviews should be acknowledged by the school, both negative and positive, just to build that goodwill so that when you are asking for reviews, people see that you’re taking the time to respond to them.

I want to ask a question that’s slightly out of left field and get some thoughts here. And it may be a quick answer. But when it comes to social media, obviously you have an enormous amount of kids that these schools are serving are on social media. They’re on the likes of TikTok, they’re on potentially Snapchat, and a fewer of them are probably are on Instagram depending upon what their passions are. Have you seen a school potentially leverage students to help drive word of mouth for their school, particularly for a startup school? Like any high school programs that are out there where they’re engaging potentially some of their students to help create content or act on behalf of the school and their social media profiles?

Karen:

I think that that’s something that happens definitely in high school settings. I think that there’ll be clubs and maybe classes at the school that are going to have social media accounts. And that’s a great way for kids leverage social media. Yeah. A lot of these high school students are really good at creating content and sharing it. So I think that’s a fabulous idea.

Michael:

Yeah, I wonder how high schools could take advantage of that content if it is positive or at least shows off the school in an impactful way to leverage that content for just helping get the message out about that school. So just an idea I would love to see more schools take advantage of because certainly all that content’s being created out there.

Karen:

Yeah, it’s so easy. I would recommend that the school follow all these other tangent accounts related to their school. And when they see something that’s really positive, they can share it in their Instagram stories, and then they can even create highlights in their Instagram if they have things that they want people to be able to see ongoing.

Michael:

For sure. Yeah. Such a good tip to leverage all of those little features that these social media networks have. All right. Well, we’re 13 minutes into our usual 10 minute chat. So I’m going to wrap it up and just say thank you to Ashley and Karen for joining me on, this is I believe our 15th episode. Every Thursday we’re here for 10 minutes at 10:00 AM Pacific, 1:00 PM Eastern.

Next week, we’re coming to you two days early because there are two members on this YouTube live that will not be available on Thursday. So you will see Ashley and myself on Tuesday next week. I believe that’s the 25th or the 26th. Let’s make sure I get my dates right. It is the 25th at 10:00 AM Pacific, 1:00 PM Eastern. We’ll be back here for another conversation on all things enrollment, marketing, and next week we’re going to talk about schools as they grow. So what do you do after startup? What are the more sophisticated marketing tactics or new channels or things that school leaders have to be thinking about as they transition from that startup phase into more of a growth phase?

And with that, I’ll say thank you one last time to Karen for joining us for the first time. And Ashley, as always, for joining us every single week. We’ll see you next Tuesday. Thanks everyone.

Ashley:

Thanks.

Karen:

Thank you.

In this session, Michael Barber and Ashley MacQuarrie discussed how to market your school at all stages of growth: the start-up stage, the growth stage, and the sustainable maturity stage. They discuss how, at the start-up stage, awareness is key. In the growth stage, it’s time to prioritize building out your website and utilizing the data you have to inform your marketing strategies. The maturity stage can be dedicated to highlighting your achievements, such as adding new grades or expanding our facilities.

Join the experts as they answer all your questions live on Thursdays on YouTube at 10am PT / 12pm CT / 1pm ET. Charter School Capital – YouTube

 

Read Full Transcript:

Michael B (00:19):
Hi everyone, and welcome to our all things enrollment marketing, YouTube Live Weekly. I am Michael Barber and I’m joined by my fearless co-host, Ashley Macquarie. Ashley, how are you doing this week?

Ashley M. (00:29):
Doing well. How are you, Michael?

Michael B (00:31):
I’m doing well. It’s been a long week, I think for everyone. It feels like the post spring break, post Easter push towards the summer, and I’m feeling a little pace around the company, so it’s been a long but a good week. But I’m doing all right. It’s good to have you here again. We are going to hop right in. As a reminder, we meet every week here on YouTube and our YouTube channel to talk all things enrollment marketing. If you’re joining us, please feel free to drop your questions into the chat. It should be located if you’re on the app right below the fold, and if you’re on youtube.com on your browser, then it’ll be on the right hand side of the window over here. So feel free to ask any questions. We do this every single week. This is episode 13 or 14, which I mean, this year is flying by, but we want to get into it. We’ve got 10 minutes to talk all things enrollment marketing, and today we’re going to talk about, I think, a really fun topic.
(01:33):
What marketing tactics do you need to worry about at different phases of growth for your school? At Charter School Capital, we think of schools in three different phases of growth; startup, your growing stage, and then your sustainable stage. So your startup stage is that year zero school through year one. That growing or growth stage is two through about year five, and then your sustainable stage is five to 10 years plus. I’m going to ask Ashley some tactics that we should be thinking about as school leaders. We will start right at our year zero schools. Ashley, what are the tactics that schools need to be thinking about in their startup phase?

Ashley M. (02:12):
For a startup school, I mean if we think about our marketing funnel, it starts with awareness and then engagement, conversion, retention. And for a startup, you’re really thinking about awareness. Nobody knows who you are. You do need to be able to engage with leads as they start coming in and convert them to enrolled students so that you have students when you open. But the first step, you have to get your name out there. You need those elements in place so that you can get out into the market. You might need your logo, some basic branding, a website, but maybe you don’t have a ton of content on it, but it just kind of tells a little bit of your story and a way for people to get in touch with you. Then you’re really getting out in the community, finding your audience.
(03:02):
You’re probably getting crisp on your positioning, your differentiators, starting to develop your voice, and you probably did some of that when you applied for a charter or found your board members and maybe you would be leveraging those board members and really just getting out there. So big awareness tactics. We’ve done things like radio. If you have a building, then just making the neighborhood aware that, “Hey, there’s a school here now,” with some signage. And then just maybe getting out in the neighborhood if you think that your families are going to come from that area, then flyers and door hangers, maybe postcards, and then just getting out maybe at neighborhood events like farmer’s markets or block parties, things like that. You just have to get out there and make people aware that you’re an option now.

Michael B (03:50):
Should schools be worried about a big splash on social media? I mean, I know as a startup school you’re going to want to make sure that you go secure your handles right, but how much investment, whether it’s money or time, should schools be making in that zero to one phase within social media?

Ashley M. (04:09):
Yeah, I mean, it’s definitely important. You got to secure your handles for sure. So you are activating your social media and probably starting to post, but you may not have a lot of content to be posting. Certainly we’ve seen schools do some Facebook advertising to try to get some awareness and leads, but they’re usually a little bit less targeted. It is more just about showing ads to the people in your neighborhood who maybe fit the general demographics. Absolutely Google ads. We always do Google ads and social ads for any school, whether they’re what we call a year zero or a more mature school, but you may not be as active on social media as you might be later on when you have a school full of kids and you want to talk all about everything that’s going on in your school.

Michael B (05:00):
And also, probably good to think about if you’ve got a board member or a parent that’s thinking about joining your school, maybe helping allow them to activate on your social channel so it doesn’t feel like such a burden on your school as you’re thinking about all the other things of getting your mission and vision in place, creating the curriculum, hiring teachers, finding the facility, all the things you have to do in that startup mode.
(05:23):
Let’s move on to that growth phase. So year two to year five, more sophisticated team, likely you’re starting to grow your school. Enrollment is increasing. Where should our investment dollars start to go from a marketing tactics perspective? Are we reinvesting in the website to make it more sophisticated? Are we potentially investing in new things? Where do we go as we’re growing our school?

Ashley M. (05:49):
Yeah, definitely. Certainly building out the website more, spending a little bit more time on SEO. Hopefully when you built your website, you put in some kind of basic keywords, but now you’ve got some data. You’ve got people who are visiting your website. You have hopefully an audience on social media. You can learn a little bit about what people are engaging with online as well as now you kind of have families in your school, and so you know how they heard about you, you know how new families are finding you, and you can use that data to try new things in marketing or keep doing what’s working. So doing those kinds of things.
(06:31):
People may already kind of know about you, so it’s more about getting them to come meet you where you are. So it might be about doing a lot of in-person events and things like that at your school to get people in the building so that they can meet your staff, meet other families, leveraging your existing families for referrals, profiling your staff, and you can maybe do more sophisticated online advertising, like some remarketing. So reaching people who have maybe engaged with you online before and then showing the ads later elsewhere on the web. Or even doing re-enrollment type campaigns with maybe families who have left your school or families who applied but didn’t end up enrolling. You can start doing things like that that maybe weren’t an option when you didn’t have students yet.

Michael B (07:22):
Yeah, I think there’s so many good points there. I want to emphasize one you made and that’s continuing to invest in your website. I think one of the things you and I always see and our team sees regularly is just I think school leaders think you sort of put it on the shelf, you put it up, it’s good to go, stays there, and it’s going to continue to pay dividends, and that just is not the case by any stretch of the imagination. You also have to keep in mind that the parents and students that we’re serving these days, this is a sophisticated digital audience in some cases, right? Every time they go to a website that they perceive as better, easier, insert whatever adjective, they don’t just change their expectations of what your school’s website’s going to be for them, do they?

Ashley M. (08:09):
Yeah. No, absolutely. We’ve been asked that too. How often do I need to be completely overhauling my website? And if you’re in those years two to four, it might be about time. Certainly you want more content and you’ll want to be continually investing and improving in it, but by year four, it might be time for a brand new theme or moving to a more sophisticated platform that allows you to do more. The other piece of it is getting your processes in place. So early on when you’re just trying to get as many leads as possible and you’re just maybe a small team following up on them, that’s okay, that probably got some kids in the door. But in order to really grow, do you have a way to manage leads? Maybe you need to look at a CRM to help you manage leads as they’re coming in and make sure that you’re not losing kids along the way because of poor communication or poor processes.

Michael B (09:03):
Such good insights there. Okay. That’s the growth stage. We talked about startup to begin with. We went to growth. Let’s talk maturity. So your year five and above, you have likely leveled off at an enrollment number that is steady for your program. You might be thinking about adding a grade to grow enrollment, right? There could be a lot of things that are happening. As you get into that maturity phase, what do we have to be thinking about from a marketing perspective? What are some of the more sophisticated tactics that you’re seeing? Are we starting to talk about retention activities, those sorts of things?

Ashley M. (09:37):
Yeah, definitely. Definitely retention. That’s huge. You may have had had some classes graduate, and so you need to be replacing those classes. Retention too. Staff might be leaving at this point, and that can mean that that families leave with them. So that communication and continuing to provide that great school experience is really important. How’s your reputation? You might be needing to do a little bit more active reputation management, whether that’s online reviews and trying to get more positive reviews and referrals, or maybe doing some proactive PR about what you’ve been doing. A lot of times at this stage, maybe there are exciting changes, like adding a grade, moving to a new building or expanding your building. Those can be great things to market around because that’s exciting.
(10:27):
But the key here is if you’ve been around this long, people probably know about you, and so it’s less about, “Hey, we are an option,” and more about, “Here’s why you should choose us.” Because they’ve already heard about you, but maybe they haven’t engaged with you or maybe they’ve kind of written your school off or haven’t really considered you, so how can you get in front of them and convince them to enroll in your school?

Michael B (10:52):
Yeah, such good insights there. So we talked about today, let’s do a little recap. We are going to wrap it up at our 10 minute mark, which would be the first time, I think in 17 episodes or 14 episodes that we’ve wrapped in 10 minutes. I want to try and stand on this promise of being only 10 minutes. But we talked about different growth stages and what school leaders should be thinking about when it comes to marketing tactics, that startup phase, that growth stage, and that maturity phase. As always, Ashley, appreciate the insights from you.
(11:21):
I want to mention to everyone, please go ahead and hit that subscribe button. You’ll get a notification when we go live. We’re here every Thursday at 10:00 AM Pacific, 1:00 PM Eastern for about 10 minutes on all things enrollment marketing. If you’ve got questions on digital marketing, if you’ve got questions on enrollment marketing, if you’ve got questions on growth stages of your charter schools and what you should be thinking about as a leader, we have some great guides at charterschoolcapital.com that can help you get you where you’re going. So feel free to stop by our website and hop in there to find those guides right in our resources section. With that, we’ll see you next week and thanks again for joining us, Ashley.

Ashley M. (11:59):
Thanks.