Four Essential Elements Of Educational Value
In the daily uphill scramble over wet boulders that describes school marketing and communication these days, you can count on there being more challenges ahead. How do we maximize social, CRM, website and SEO, video, content, photography, and digital ads to attract and retain families and faculty? How do we best monitor conversion and yield? Understand Google Analytics? And while we’re talking analytics, have we considered the impact of how ChatGDP will modify how parents search for schools? Is it time for traditional Google search to step aside? Say “hi” to AI SEO?
An endless stream of new, shiny, and fleeting technologies is bidding for our minds and budgets! But if we place all of our attention on the means and methods of communication, as the saying goes, we may well be putting the cart before the horse.
“In marketing and communication, our success depends not on the means, but rather on the ends and outcomes: on whether we can prove that what we are ‘selling’ has overwhelming value to the lives of the families investing in it.”
For the education industry, the perception of value is enhanced by paying attention to its four key elements, seen from the customer’s viewpoint. Understanding and communicating value is the foundation for doing everything else you do effectively. Answer these four questions to ensure your messages will resonate with families and encourage them to find out more about your school:
1. Can we prove tangible and intangible return on investment (ROI)?
Outcomes are just as important as a school’s stated intentions in its mission, or its philosophy. What evidence do we have of outcomes and return on investment for tuition and philanthropy? Do our students perform better than students from schools with no tuition or less tuition? What do we call success, and by what means are we measuring it? How do your customers define success and how will they measure you? What value-add can be credited to the school?
2. Can we prove we provide transformational teaching and learning?
What evidence can we offer that we are on the leading edge of best educational practice and applied learning research? That our teachers’ skills are exceptional? Do they have a reputation for training other teachers?
3. Can we prove we have a constituent-first orientation?
This includes providing intimacy, connection, convenience, and community. We hear a lot about the customer journey and experience lately. But how do we ensure customer service and individualized attention are always at the forefront? How can we be sure we are successful at delivering this?
4. Can we prove cost-consciousness and stewardship?
How can we show that our institutional budget is the quantification of our mission statement? How are we saving money and becoming more financially efficient? How are we stewarding tuition and philanthropic dollars to ensure fiscal prudence and accountability? Can our alumni and alumni parents/guardians claim that the value they received was far greater than the cost?
“Remember that our school’s value is determined by our customers, not by us!”
Parents want positive impressions and provable answers. What's in it for me and my child? Is it new, different, or unique? Is it significant? Does it differentiate your school from your competitors?
What kind of community and student are you intentionally trying to create? Why should that matter to those you seek to serve?
“Everything you communicate should be evaluated by ‘so what?’ In all your communications, your audience will ask, ‘Why should this matter to me, my student, and my family?’”
If these four elements of value are clear and broadcast over all of your communication channels, you will ensure that all the applied technology you use to market and communicate will make an impact and move the needle as far into the positive as possible.
One thing you can count on, though: Communicating the value of independent schools will continue to be an uphill scramble over wet boulders!
To ease your path upward, make it a point to objectively know how those you serve — and those you seek to serve — perceive the assets, shortfalls, and opportunities of your school before you promote it. Your customers want evidence, not promises!
Connor Associates stakes its value on its experience with providing comprehensive services, including ensuring proof of ROI through Image Audits (reputational asset and risk management), Alumni and Alumni Parent Surveys, Enrollment Feasibility Studies which identify qualified appropriate prospects at rooftop level, Five-Year Enrollment Forecasts, Location Studies, Business Office Evaluations and Plans (pricing sensitivity, tuition elasticity and analysis, benchmarking, reliable revenue streams, and capital management), Strategic Marketing Plans based on research, and onsite training and coaching to get everyone in your school and your trustees supporting enrollment, retention, and philanthropy.
Our recent offering, Administrative Leadership Search, is a very creative, fast, and effective approach to finding, training, and keeping the best people on your leadership team — and it’s a surprisingly different approach and a better value than you may get from job boards or other search firms. Find out more about Leadership Search and other new services such as Compensation and Benefits Studies, Strategic Financial Planning, and Ten-Year Financial Modeling here.
If it’s about cost and value, Connor Associates has you covered!
Is Your Team Pulling In The Same Direction?