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 (1) What are the
most common mistakes in Christian school marketing?
There are many. For
smaller schools, the biggest problem is failing to get help,
particularly through a volunteer Marketing Taskforce.
For larger schools, the biggest problem is failing to have a
comprehensive marketing plan.
Other mistakes we frequently
see are:
(A) Inadequate or
non-existent marketing research, particularly related to
prospective parents (that is, the outside community).
(B) "Milk toast"
differentiation (positioning) in comparison to other schools
in the community. The resolution is more than studying
your competitors, and simply deciding how your Christian school
will be different.
First, you
ask, "What is
God's unique vision for our school?" Once you discover
and implement your core vision and values, you are very likely
to be different than your competitors.
(C) Financial chaos
... which translates into poor tuition and financial aid
decisions. (Or is it vice versa?) Many
Christian schools don't know their numbers well enough to make
realistic pricing decisions.
(We actually felt the pricing
chapter of
Marketing Christian Schools: The Definitive Guide,
was the most important chapter of the entire book. School
start-ups, particularly, need to be very careful in initial
pricing decisions.)
(D) Failure to
proactively work at
word of mouth referrals. Today's
marketing universe is abuzz with idea viruses and tipping
points. GraceWorks is moving aggressively to translate
the most helpful of these principles
into practical strategies for Christian schools.
(2) Realistically,
what else can be done to increase word of mouth referral besides
having a high quality program?
Much more can
be done! In fact, word of mouth marketing is one of the
hottest marketing topics around. I have half a shelf of
books related to word of mouth ... and there are still more out
there.
Distilling it
all out, there are two kinds of proactive word of mouth
strategies.
First, there
is internal combustion: reminding, thanking,
training, and empowering people who are already making referrals
to your school (Promoters.) For example, your small,
two-fold brochure can have a blank panel which Promoters can use
to describe their own experience with your school before they
give it to a new prospective family. There are
literally dozens of tactics like this, which we make available
in our
Marketing Essentials Coaching Program.
Note that your
Promoters are a bigger group than simply current parents.
Past parents, donors, volunteers, all make referrals to your
school. Plus, Promoters typically make referrals for other
reasons besides making money ... which is the problem with
tuition reimbursement programs many schools offer for successful
referrals.
Second, there
is spontaneous combustion: ways that we
encourage current parents to speak positively about the school. This does have a lot to do with program quality, but does not
stop there. For example, we can create a culture of referrals.
Or we can ask parents for a referral, such as during the
re-enrollment process.
Because of being
the most cost effective marketing method, word of
mouth leads usually result in the highest quality new parents.
This message is motivational to existing parents, for whom a
high quality student body is very important.
(3) We are struggling to keep
our web-site current. How important is it?
The overall
problem with today's technology is not so much the technology
itself, but how human beings use it.
When it comes
to the web, many of us are comfortable buying a part or a
software package or a book on-line. A few of us might even
trust Dell enough to buy a computer on-line without even once
talking to a real, live person.
But a
Christian school is not like that at all. You are not a
computer part, you are not a commodity. (At least, you
better not be!)
How many
people actually registered on-line without once talking to a
real person at your school?
If the answer
is some number less than 1% -- the reality -- then why is your
registration packet or parent handbook on the public portion of
your web-site? Sure, from a technology point of view, it's
easy, easy, easy.
But does it
make sense from a human being point-of-view?
I (Dan) have a
friend who was desperate enough to seek out his wife through an
on-line dating service. He used the technology to become
aware of potential spouses. Then, he discarded the ones
whose profiles don't seem quite right to him ... without even
contacting them.
The ones he liked,
he wrote a tentative email to, and
tested the waters.
Eventually, he called a few of the finalists. Last I
heard, someone from the southeast was coming to visit ....
The point
is, how a prospective parent deals with your public web-site
presence is much like my friend and the online dating service.
Dozens of compatible spouses gone ... with one click of the
mouse.
All because
some lonely lady could just not quite express her real self.
Think of it, all those potential lifetimes of wedded bliss ...
lost forever.
The same thing
happens with Christian school websites. With one click,
a prospective parent is lost because a Christian schools'
website is out-of-date or poorly written. Or because
someone hated your uniform policy or your heavy-handed
discipline policy. Or because your third teacher was
in a hurry and had a few typos in her last on-line homework
assignment.
Should you
put your tuition rate and registration fees on your web-site? Imagine
if my friend's online dating service did that:
Wanted, one
husband, age 40 to 50. Attractive female with these 23
outstanding characteristics .... Price: I require high
maintenance as I am subject to emotional breakdowns from time to
time. In addition, I expect a large house, three weeks
vacation per year to exotic locations, and eating out three
times a week, plus a big diamond ring upfront.
Should we add
... limited financial aid is available!
My personal favorite is Christian school web-sites that put out
their sports team schedule in the public portion of their
web-site. That's great for our parents. And it is
also great for prospective parents, who now have a very
convenient list of all the Christian schools in town -- that is,
your competitors.
(The last time
we went church-shopping, we stayed at the first church we
visited -- it's been over seven years now. Would it hurt if a new move-in
to your town did the same thing with your Christian school?)
Here are two realities
about web-sites:
(1) Web-sites have multiple objectives and
(2) One of those objectives must be to get a prospective parent
to pick up the phone and call you.
Because of a web-sites'
multiple objectives, you should have an insider's portion that
the general public does not see. That makes it easy
for you to expand what you offer to your parents ... without
worrying about how a potential parent might react to "family
business."
Put your handbook,
registration materials, alumni blog, etc. in the
password-protected portion of your web-site, and focus the
public portion on getting a prospective parent to "darken your
doorstep."
Keep in mind, people actually
believe they can accurately assess your school based on your
web-site. To some degree, this perception will
become the reality in the future.
On the other hand, I believe
positive word of mouth
referrals will become the ultimate power in the marketing
universe.
With all the abuses of the
truth on the web, everyone will eventually develop a realistic
dose of skepticism about everything web-related.
In the end, human beings
will continue to trust other human beings the most.
Meantime, every Christian
school must deal with the powerful reality of the web.
(4) We are a
denominational school with several other denominational schools
in our area. Realistically, how can we differentiate our
Christian school in any meaningful way?
This is a huge
problem, a problem many Christian schools must solve ... or they will
ultimately die. Many of our sponsoring churches are also
struggling, and are less able to help us financially.
Right now, you probably feel
like a little fish in a big pond. You need to reverse
that, and become a big fish in a little pond.
Building on both what your parents like about you, and what you
feel God is calling you to be, what niche should you focus on?
For example, you could be the
Roman Catholic school in town that provides a classical
education, or the Lutheran school that focuses on math and
science, or the fine arts.
In many ways, this kind of
differentiation helps you attract the wider audience of
Christians from other faiths -- families that many
denominational schools already serve.
People outside your
denomination are choosing you for distinct reasons -- find out
those reasons, and accentuate them, or build on them.
(5) In your judgment, what
is the most important marketing fundamental that Christian
schools must have?
Ultimately, it is asking,
"Is God at work here? If so, where?" Then, focus on
those areas.
A secular way to say to this
is differentiate ... or die. However,
GraceWorks firmly believes that finding God's unique purpose is
ultimately spiritual. God does have a wonderful plan for your
Christian school!
GraceWorks can help you
find God's purpose for
your Christian School!
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