Can you guess the two key places where you need to publish your school’s remarkable qualities?<\/p>\n
If you said 1) in the local newspaper and 2) in the yellow pages, that would be incorrect.<\/p>\n
In fact, a meme I once saw suggested a new advertising slogan for the Yellow Pages: “Throw This Away.”<\/p>\n
Although advertising has its place, what we’re dealing with is marketing, and advertising is only a part of marketing.<\/p>\n
The correct answer is: 1) On your school’s Web site and 2) in your school’s marketing collateral.\u00a0 ANYTHING you print for your school now needs to have a QR code to your school’s “Inquiry” form or the page where you want them to land (which is why it’s called a “Landing Page”).<\/p>\n
And yes, while the brochure is a print item, you still need some kind of well-produced print piece that’s also unique and different to reflect the distinctiveness of your school…and that might or might not be the beloved tri-fold brochure.\u00a0 It might just be a postcard!<\/p>\n
I’m sure there are still some of you who are reading this, lead a parish-based elementary school, and are thinking to yourself, “We have a Web page on our parish’s Web site, and that’s all our parish says we need,” or “We’re working on getting a Web site,” or “Web sites are expensive.”<\/p>\n
If that’s where your school is right now, make getting a Web site – no, let me re-emphasize that – make getting a functional, attractive, compelling, and responsive (one that adjusts to the device it’s being viewed on) Web site your number one<\/strong> marketing priority!<\/p>\n In fact, you really need two online marketing tools.\u00a0 Today, you need a Web site to market your school to parents of prospective students, and an app to serve your current parent community.\u00a0 It’s the essence of creating a great experience for your parent community…but more about that in a different article.<\/p>\n The third place, and, some would argue, the most important, where those remarkable qualities need to be, is in the minds of your raving fans of your school…which is a small segment of your current parent community, and one that needs to grow.<\/p>\n Parents of young children today don’t look to the newspaper to find out about schooling choices since news”papers” are going away and are posted online (and now, one must subscribe to have access).<\/p>\n However, they don’t even necessarily go to the Web first either. The first thing they do is talk to their neighbors and friends.\u00a0 Positive “Word of Mouth” is still, and, even more so today, the best type of advertising there is when it comes to enrolling children in your school, and, most especially, for an elementary school.<\/p>\n Some surveys says that 82% of schools consider Word of Mouth to be the most important marketing channel they have.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because today’s parents enrolling children in an elementary school environment are Millennials.\u00a0 They are incredibly social.\u00a0 After all, they were the early adopters of social media technologies like Facebook and Instagram.<\/p>\n Members of Generation X, in large part, have children enrolled in 11th grade through college and post-graduate studies.\u00a0 These are the folks that began complaining about the student loans they were going to have to pay for their children, causing the beginning of the student loan crisis about 12 or so years ago.<\/p>\n Why did this mushroom into a crisis?<\/p>\n That was when they<\/strong><\/em> (not their children) started to get notices that they<\/em><\/strong> were responsible for paying their student’s loans back because they co-signed for them.<\/p>\n The sad truth is that this is a characteristic of Generation X – agree to something, then want an exception because of an unforeseen situation, or refusal to take responsibility for what they agreed to.\u00a0 That’s also another topic for another day (and it’s not a pretty conversation, either).\u00a0 In fact, it’s something we’re seeing in today’s polarized political climate.\u00a0 Items of truth are viewed and talked about as lies, and rather than taking responsibility to do something about solving problems, one side blames the other for the problem, which just perpetuates the problem.<\/p>\n After today’s parents of young students hear about your school through positive word of mouth, the next place they look for more information and recommendation validation is the Web.\u00a0 That’s why you MUST have a Web site<\/em><\/strong> for your school – a functional, attractive, compelling and responsive Web site – and not<\/strong> <\/em>just a page.<\/p>\n If you are the leader of a Catholic school and have a Web page as a part of your parish’s site, consider it to be the first step toward closure.\u00a0 The fact of the matter is that if your school’s Web presence looks “old,” your school is viewed as old and irrelevant – no matter what you say about it, nor think what’s relevant or not.<\/p>\n And it’s not that difficult to do, either, which is an indication of how fast technology has changed.\u00a0 Seventeen years ago, I was in a position where I advised schools to engage a professional Web designer.\u00a0 Many of the schools I was working with at the time had parents that dabbled in Web creation.\u00a0 But even then, Web design – especially as the era of the mobile device began to emerge – was moving out of the “home-grown” look, and instead, into an era where the Web site reflected the professionalism, image, and “brand” of the school.<\/p>\n Today, there are an abundance of great Web designers out there, and sites are now designed with mobility in mind as a first priority!\u00a0 Further, while there are many designers that can design for many types of businesses, there are only a handful that have the education vertical as their primary market.\u00a0 If you have specific requirements and design elements in mind for your school, they’re the experts you need to seek out.<\/p>\n In fact, if you’d like to take a look at what a Web site that’s “Mobile-first” looks like on a computer, check out the site you may go to connect with ChatGPT – https:\/\/openai.com\/<\/a>.\u00a0 \u00a0Look at the whole home page, and how big everything is!\u00a0 That’s so when it squeezes down on to your phone, you’ll still be able to read the text and see the graphics.<\/p>\n But the Web is changing again.\u00a0 It used to be text heavy, with rotating\/fading photos to add a visual component.\u00a0 Now, the text is large, there is an abundance of white space, and pictures are of a professional quality.\u00a0 There is a de-emphasis on menu navigation, and new emphasis on scrolling.\u00a0 It used to be that scrolling was frowned upon, and the number of “clicks” to get to a certain location was important.\u00a0 With today’s focus on mobile devices, navigation menus are losing prominence, and scrolling is the new design standard (just think of how you scroll through your photos on your phone to find one you want to show to a friend).<\/p>\n And since technology is always changing, those design standards also change!<\/p>\n Indeed, there are many teenagers today that can do html coding and Web design better than many of their parents that “dabbled” in it over a decade ago.\u00a0 But if you’re going the professional design route, there are three things that you need to discuss with your Web designer, since this is a tool which is essential, <\/em>and not just something that’s “nice to have” to effectively marketing your school today.\u00a0 Let’s call them the 3 A’s:<\/p>\n 1) Architecture,<\/p>\n 2) Appearance, and<\/p>\n 3) Analytics<\/p>\n Architecture<\/strong> happens before the first piece of code is written, the first template is chosen or the first link is created.\u00a0 This step is the pen and paper sketch of where you want to direct those who visit your site.\u00a0 Do you want a special place for parents to log in, and keep that separate from where parents of prospective students can visit, or do you want just one top row of navigation choices with several drop down menu levels?\u00a0 Where will key elements be placed?\u00a0 The architecture is the framework that holds all the elements of the Web site’s structure.<\/p>\n Appearance<\/strong> deals with “real estate” on the computer screen, and now, on the mobile device.\u00a0 What are the most important elements that should be on the front page, or on the top portion of the site?\u00a0 If not part of the first thing a visitor sees, then where should they be placed?\u00a0 Is there a lot of white space so that the site looks “uncluttered and clean?”\u00a0 Is the font in a size that’s easy to read and professional-looking?\u00a0 If your Web site uses Comic Sans for its main font, or has other “fun” fonts, change it now.\u00a0 While your school can be a fun place to learn, a “fun font” doesn’t suggest that learning is “fun,” but rather that fun is more important than academic excellence.\u00a0 Something “fun” is great for a summer playtime event, or a company whose main function is entertainment, but if it’s your desire for parents to seriously consider your school as the<\/strong><\/em> educational option for their children, then the appearance of the site needs to convey that attitude.<\/p>\n Analytics<\/strong> deals with all the stats about your site.\u00a0 Where did visitors come from?\u00a0 Where did they go after they left your site?\u00a0 Are there certain times they visit during the day than others?\u00a0 These and other metrics are important to evaluate the impact your site is having on parents of prospective students of your school.\u00a0 You’re also going to want to have your site optimized to appear in searches (called Search Engine Optimization or SEO) that parents do when putting words like “faith-based school near me” in their search engine – like Google or DuckDuckGo – or their browser – like Chrome, Safari, Edge or Firefox.<\/p>\n Remember that your school’s Web site is a virtual reflection of your school, and may be the first visual impression a parent has of it.\u00a0 Therefore, if you have a Web site with flashing banners, rotating crosses (not kidding) and multiple-color pages with twinkling stars, chances are that prospective parents will look for something that they can actually read without having to wade through glitz to find what they’re looking for. If they like what they see, THEN they’ll call the school…perhaps to schedule a tour (SPOILER ALERT: They’ll probably just show up and expect you’ll drop everything to accommodate them), or ask what the tuition is (SPOILER ALERT: If you’re still posting your school’s tuition schedule on your site, chances are that you’re not getting those calls…and it’s a potential reason why enrollment in your school is declining.\u00a0 Send an email to schooladvancement@gmail.com<\/a> with the words “Website Tuition” in the subject line for more details).<\/p>\n