Post on 19-May-2015
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Rick Newberry, Ph.D.
Rick.Newberry@EnrollmentCatalyst.com www.EnrollmentCatalyst.com
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
During this session, we will focus our discussion on word of mouth and web-based marketing strategies for enrollment success at your school.
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
Michigan State
Starbucks
Family
Blog
Coaching
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
Enrollment Catalyst partners with schools to provide coaching for school leaders in their
school’s enrollment management and marketing strategies needed to reach their goals.
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
Clients
Some school observations from travels and consulting across the country
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
We lack marketing knowledge, training and expertise.
We lack resources and staffing (and the commitment to make this a budget priority).
We gripe about not getting our school published in the local newspaper when we can publish anything we want for anyone to read about our school on the web.
We place priority on marketing externally to our community and often neglect our most important market—our parents!
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
We often take a shotgun approach to marketing.
We have a plan for improving our school but don’t have a marketing and enrollment plan for growth.
We are intrigued by social media and web-based strategies but don’t know how to use them effectively.
Our school brands and websites look like they were created many years ago!
We don’t tell our story very well.
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
The marketing landscape has shifted from outbound to inbound strategies.
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
School Growth
Leadership
Quality
School
Experience
Vision
Faculty and
Staff
Parent
Satisfaction
Reputation
Location
Price
Competition
Enrollment &
Marketing
Plan
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
“Traditional outbound marketing is where businesses push their messages at consumers.”
• HubSpot, The 2012 State of Inbound Marketing
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
“Inbound Marketing is a set of marketing strategies and techniques focused on pulling relevant prospects and customers towards a
business and its products.”
• HubSpot, The 2012 State of Inbound Marketing
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
“For the last 50 years, companies such as Procter & Gamble, IBM, and Coca-Cola used
huge amounts of money to efficiently interrupt their way into businesses and consumer’s
wallets using outbound marketing techniques. The outbound marketing era is over. The next 50 years will be the era of inbound marketing.”
• Halligan and Shah, Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using
Google, Social Media and Blogs
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
Excellent resource on how to get found by using Google, Social Media and Blogs Also see: www.hubspot.com for many online resources including webinars and presentations
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
Inbound Marketing Outbound Marketing
New media
Web-based
Pull
Listen
Engage
Hub
Authentic
Content
Stories
Old media
Traditional
Push
Interrupt
Broadcast
Megaphone
Slick
Ads
Slogans
The places we advertise
The world wide web
The desire for authenticity
The power of referral in an online world
The world of social media
The need to be in a conversation
The importance of creating remarkable content
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
Why do we hang on to the traditional outbound advertising strategies?
Why are our marketing budgets comprised of these strategies?
Why do we keep spending significant resources on strategies that don’t produce results?
Think about the top two ways that parents find out
about your school…
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
1. Word-of-Mouth Consistently ranks as the number one way that families hear about your school.
2. Web The Web is the first place a parent looks when they hear about your school from a word-of-mouth referral.
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
Word-of-mouth is still the number one way that your
parents first find out about your school.
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
Do you remember the old Faberge Organic Shampoo TV commercial?
Complete with 80’s hair, a young model appears on the screen and begins by saying: “I told two friends about Faberge Organic Shampoo with pure wheat germ oil and honey. “
She concludes by saying: “You will tell two friends, and they’ll tell two friends, and so on and so on and so on.”
We rely upon word of mouth in our own buying decisions.
“If your customers won’t talk about your stuff, you have to pay newspapers and TV shows
to do it for you.
But when people trust you, they are willing to put their words on the line for you.
Please them, inspire them, and they’ll bring their friends to you.”
• Sernovitz, Word of Mouth Marketing
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
Trust is Key to WOM
“It comes down to trust. And people don’t trust your company; people trust people.
People they know. People whose opinions and recommendations
they seek out and have faith in.”
• Phillips, Cordell, & Church: Brains on Fire
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
Trust is Key to WOM
We will apply a WOM framework to develop your school’s marketing strategy to ensure enrollment success.
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
Parent
Talk
Parking
Lot
Phone
Starbucks
Web Email
Church/
Club
Face to
Face
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
Web
Talk
Blogs
Social
Media
Sites
Great
Schools
Online
Reviews
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
“So what is word of mouth marketing? In this book, I define it as ‘Giving people a reason to
talk about your stuff, and making it easier for that conversation to take place’.”
• Sernovitz, Word of Mouth Marketing
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
What is Word-of-Mouth Marketing?
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
It builds credibility from satisfied customers.
It produces better results than traditional advertising.
It makes your brand stronger and more trusted.
Your parents can reach your target audience better than you can.
It’s your number one marketing strategy for your school!
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
Today’s marketing is about remarkable content and joining in the conversation.
Your marketing focus must be on telling the remarkable story of your school.
Your marketing strategy should facilitate and build word-of-mouth in person and online.
Your goal is to inspire a movement of passionate ambassadors for your school.
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
Are you giving your parents a reason to talk about
your school?
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
“Word of mouth marketing only works if you have good products and services. It only works if people like you and trust you.”
• Sernovitz, Word of Mouth Marketing
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
Are you giving your parents any stuff that they can talk
about?
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
“Word of mouth is natural conversation between real people. Word of mouth marketing is
working within this conversation so people are talking about you.”
• Sernovitz, Word of Mouth Marketing
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
How can you make it easier for the conversation to take
place?
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
“Word of mouth marketing isn’t about marketing at all. It’s about great customer service that
makes people want to tell their friends about you. It about fantastic products that people
can’t resist showing to everyone.”
• Sernovitz, Word of Mouth Marketing
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
Is word of mouth marketing part of your strategy?
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
“How can a business owner [Admissions Director, Head of School] know that word of mouth is so powerful and then do so little to
take advantage of it?”
• John Jantsch, The Referral Engine
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
We need a framework for our
Word of Mouth marketing plan
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
1. Talkers—who will tell their friends about you?
2. Topics—what will they talk about?
3. Tools—how can you help the message travel?
4. Taking Part—how should you join the conversation?
5. Tracking—what are people saying about you?
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
Find people who will talk about your school
Employees
Parents (Current and Former)
Students (Current and Former)
Alumni
Grandparents
Vendors
School administrators
Pastors
Anyone
A satisfied or an unsatisfied parent, grandparent, alumni, donor or friend.
A happy or an unhappy employee—your faculty, staff, and coaches.
Someone else that heard something, whether positive or negative, about your school.
© 2011 Cherry+Company
“One of the great misconceptions about word of mouth marketing is that it’s all happening
online…only about 20 percent of word of mouth happens online. When it does play a role, it
usually sparks the 80 percent of word of mouth conversations that actually happen face-to-face.”
• Sernovitz, Word of Mouth Marketing
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
Talkers Talk Face-to-Face
Passion for your school
Credibility among their peers
Connections at your school and in the community
Opportunity to be involved
New parents can be the best resources for your school to reach out to their previous school, church, neighborhood or other group.
Recruit a team of parents to help you in your enrollment effort by: ◦ Presenting tours of campus.
◦ Hosting new family “desserts” in their homes.
◦ Mentoring a new family throughout their first school year.
◦ Calling and/or writing personal notes to parents and welcoming them to your school.’
◦ Posting online reviews.
© 2011 Cherry+Company
Provide a card in your admissions package that includes the names, child grade levels, phone numbers and email addresses of your parent ambassadors.
© 2010 Cherry+Company
Identify the parents that are positive about your school.
Meet with them to give them things to talk about. ◦ Individual or small group meetings. ◦ Quarterly breakfast or lunch meetings. ◦ Share stories of students, faculty, alumni and
success!
Encourage them to share stories about your school.
Share your school’s vision for the future.
© 2011 Cherry+Company
“This is the foundation of buzz: in order to get people talking about your product or service,
you must provide a great experience.”
• Rosen, The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
A Great School Will Create WOM
Give people a reason to talk
Anything and everything about your school—the good and the bad!
Their own experiences.
The experiences of others.
What they’ve heard along the way.
What you’ve told them.
What you want them to talk about (that is, if you’ve told them what to talk about!)
© 2011 Cherry+Company
Most school leaders haven’t considered this question as a key part of their marketing strategy. We need to begin asking the question:
What do you want them to talk about?
© 2011 Cherry+Company
“When you offer great content—such as detailed how-to articles, expert interviews, case studies, and videos—that focuses on helping other people solve their problems,
you’ll experience growth.”
• Stelzner, Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
Produce Great Content
“Produce great stuff, and your customers will come to you. Produce really great stuff, and your customers will share and disseminate
your message for you. More than ever before, content is king! Content rules!
• Handley and Chapman, Content Rules
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
© 2011 Cherry+Company
“Something remarkable is worth talking about. Worth noticing. Exceptional. New. Interesting.
It’s a Purple Cow. Boring stuff is invisible. It’s a brown cow.”
• Seth Godin, The Purple Cow
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
© 2011 Cherry+Company
We live in a story.
We relate to stories.
We listen to stories.
We can see ourselves in a story.
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
“Stories are real. Slogans are made up. Stories pull you in. Slogans try to push out a message.
Stories are deep. Slogans are shallow. Stories are personal. Slogans are impersonal.
Stories are passed on by word of mouth. Slogans are forced on us by ads.
Stories are part of who we are.
After all, you don’t tell slogans about your grandfather, or how your parents met, or even how
you were treated in a restaurant.”
• Phillips, Cordell, Church: Brains on Fire
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
Stories about your people ◦ faculty, students, parents and alumni ◦ Your USP’s in story form
Real stats connected to real stories Your school ◦ Vision for the future ◦ How your school is remarkable ◦ How your school makes a life-changing difference
in students
Educational topics Parenting topics
Help the message spread faster and farther.
People Tools Web-Based Tools
Leadership
Faculty and Staff
Parents
Alumni
Ambassadors
Referral generation
Customer service
Personal conversations
Group meetings
Website
SEO
Blog
Email newsletter
Social media
Photos
Video
Online reviews
The most effective way to spread word of mouth is through face-to-face conversations.
© 2011 Cherry+Company
“More than 90 percent of the conversations about products, services, and brands that take place
every day in America happen offline, according to research the will be revealed in the chapters of
this book.”
• Keller and Fay, The Face-to-Face Book
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
Talkers Talk Face-to-Face
Every meeting and conversation is an opportunity to tell a story about your school and to spread positive word-of-mouth. ◦ Large group meetings
◦ Small group meetings
◦ Coffee chats
◦ Personal meetings
© 2011 Cherry+Company
1. New love is powerful
2. Love and money don’t mix
3. Nobody talks more than a lover’s scorn
© 2010 Cherry+Company
Faculty and Staff
Retention is the responsibility of every faculty and staff member at your school: ◦ Performance
◦ Relationships
◦ Quality
◦ Communication
◦ Service
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
#1 – Your first and primary role at your school is to serve the school with excellence in your area of responsibility. ◦ You are the school’s brand.
◦ What you do best when you close the classroom door.
◦ Everyone is equally important in this effort.
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
“The brand on the outside is only
as strong as the brand on the inside.” – Karl Speak, President, Beyond Marketing Thought
#2 – You have the opportunity and responsibility to turn negative conversations and gossip into positive brand moments.
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
Administrators
Faculty & Staff
Parents &
Students
#3 – Everyone should be a story-teller for your school. ◦ Stories about faculty, students and alumni should
be a regular part of your conversation. We need to communicate stories that will lift up the image of the school.
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
#4 – Celebrate your students, parents and colleagues. ◦ As a community, we have the opportunity to
celebrate the successes of our students, parents and colleagues.
◦ Acknowledge student successes—Send at least five positive emails every week to parents in your class.
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
#5 – Welcome visitors on campus ◦ When a prospective parent visits your classroom,
stop what you are doing and introduce yourself and your class to them.
◦ When you see a prospective parent on a tour, take a moment to welcome them to your school.
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
#6 – Focus on retaining students and families in your sphere of influence. ◦ Excellence in what you do.
◦ Positive communication.
◦ Timely response to parent concerns.
◦ Encouragement to remain part of the community.
◦ Channel concerns to the administration.
◦ Sell and promote the next level of the school.
◦ Make it your focus to retain the students and families in your class.
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
#7 – Provide outstanding customer service to the parents that you serve. ◦ Roll out the red carpet for your families.
◦ Create a “WOW” experience for your families.
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
#8 – Make every effort to make this one school where everyone works together toward the same goal. ◦ When the preschool wins, the entire school wins
◦ When the upper school wins, the preschool wins
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
#9 – Take the time to make personal connections with parents and students. ◦ A handwritten note.
◦ A positive email about their child.
◦ A birthday card on their special day.
◦ Something memorable that will be talked about.
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
© 2010 Cherry+Company
Parents
Since your parents are the best marketers for your school, it is important to give them tools to share.
Card sent to parents at Wheaton Christian Grammar School
Postcard and car magnet sent to parents at Saint Stephen’s
Give away items that have your school’s brand on them: ◦ T-shirts
◦ Coffee mugs
◦ Car magnets
◦ Grocery bags
◦ Gym towels
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
Donna Cutting uses High Point University in The Celebrity Experience as a premier example of customer service. What do they do? ◦ Director of WOW!
◦ Wowing campus visitors
◦ Delivering birthday cards
◦ The President and his gumball machine
◦ Valentine’s Day
◦ Free valet parking
◦ Construction dust and car washes
© 2009 Cherry+Company
High Point University provides “WOW” moments for prospective and campus students
When you serve your parents or students in an exceptional way or do something that is memorable, this creates a moment that will be shared by word of mouth.
“Companies create buzz with great follow-up, T-shirts and other promotional merchandise,
free events, outrageous acts of kindness—anything that contributes to an overall
culture of buzz.”
• Jantsch, The Referral Engine
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
It is better for parents to visit your school in a one-on-one environment than to attend an open house in the evening or on the weekend when the school is not in session.
Every day should be an open house for prospective families at your school.
Once you get a family to your campus, make sure you have an outstanding visit program set up for them.
An effective campus visit program should include: ◦ Tour of campus
◦ Meeting with admissions director and administrator
◦ Review of the application process
◦ Introductions to key staff
◦ Connections with Parent Ambassadors
Clear signage and great first impression Welcome sign with your name on it Friendly welcome from receptionist Entry area tells the story of your school Personalized tour with parent, student and
faculty connections Review of application process Photo of student by welcome sign Personal note sent immediately (email and
handwritten)
Host a special “friend’s” day for current students to invite their friends to spend the day with them at your school.
The goal is to encourage and motivate current students to focus on inviting their friends they want to encourage enrolling in your school, especially when students are key to the decision!
Refer a student form
Place a “tell-a-friend” link on every page of your website.
Link should provide you with fields to enter your friend’s name, email address, a short message and your information.
Friend should receive an automated email referencing your referral and the website link.
© 2011 Cherry+Company
Programs ◦ Academics, Athletics, Arts, Service, Technology,
Faith, Character
People ◦ Students, Parents, Leadership, Faculty, Staff,
Coaches, Alumni
Results
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
Each “Dot” Represents an Alumni Story
Life After Chandler showcases the schools that their 8th grade graduates attend
Four “unbound” short books that tell the Dana Hall story in four different ways
Throwback Thursday Posts
Website features a story of the person of the week
Admissions “Drop-In Wednesday’s”
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
“I am CDS” allows you to click on a child’s face to read their story
“Student Voices” share their perspectives on the school
Homepage features several quotes from students, faculty and alumni. The user can click on the image to read and view more of the story.
Homepage features a rotating student story that can be clicked on to find out what CA means to the student.
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
In the Spotlight highlights key stories on the homepage
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
1. Opportunity to share dynamic content on your website.
2. Increase traffic to your website.
3. Provide significant search engine optimization (SEO) value for your website.
4. Provide a platform to share content.
5. It’s fun!
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
1. Publish your blog once a week.
2. Don’t bury your blog on your website.
3. Make sure your blog is attached to your website domain.
4. Use a team to strategize and write your blog posts.
5. Don’t use your blog to sell your school.
6. Include a RSS feed, subscription option and share/like buttons.
7. Use keywords in your posts.
Head of School Blog
Student bloggers tell the Crystal Springs story
Cushing Students and faculty write blog posts to share their trip to Bhutan
Student Ambassador Blog
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
Facebook can be used to connect to alumni, parents and friends of your school.
Provide regular updates on your fan page
Tell stories of your alumni and faculty
Encourage interaction among your fans
Enter into conversations with your fans
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
Pictures with captions and stories
Blog posts
Video vignettes
Ask for likes
Ask questions
Summer vacation pictures
Ask admitted parents to post the following on their FB page: “My children were just admitted to XYZ School and will be attending this Fall!”
Provide a timeline photo header with a school photo and logo in it to your parents.
This post features 27 photos from around campus in March
Photos tell the story at Miami Country Day
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
Produce short video vignettes to provide real-life testimonials and stories about your school.
Post videos to YouTube, Vimeo or another service.
Feed them back into your website or send them out through an email.
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
Ask Current Parents – “What do you like best about your school?”
Ask New Parents – “Why did you select this school for your child?”
Ask Alumni – “How did your school prepare you for success in college and in life?”
Ask Faculty – “What do you like best about teaching at your school?”
Ask Seniors – “What college do you plan to attend next year?”
Traditions
A Day in the Life
Lower School Students Say it Best
College Reps
Key Brand Messages
One Topic, Four Perspectives (Student, Parent, Faculty, Alumnus)
Affordability
Use video to share messages from the head of school
State of the School message
Video newsletter
Student produced news
Student contest—produce a one-minute video to “sell” your school; winners are posted on website and reward given
Student lip dub
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
Assumption “Firework” Lip Dub now has over 44,000 views on YouTube!
Homepage provides access to three videos to highlight the uniqueness of the school.
Video testimonials in the admissions section
Video tells the story from a student’s perspective of the 10 things they love about Deerfield
Video vignettes showcase why students and parents chose DVFS
• Homepage provides dropdown menus and special features
• The Current Online Magazine is in the format of a mini website.
Online magazine format for the school
Brookwood’s BTube page contains a variety of videos showcasing the life of the school.
Brookwood’s BPod page contains a picture and caption of the day.
Social Media Mash-Up Page
We can find online reviews about our school on a variety of sites including: ◦ Private School Review
◦ School Digger
◦ Yelp
◦ Great Schools
© 2011 Cherry+Company
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
© 2010 Cherry+Company
SEO Strategies
SEO is the process of adjusting websites and pages to gain higher placement in search engine results. ◦ Where does your school come up on a web search?
Organic versus Paid ◦ Organic – page titles and keywords in your website
◦ Google’s AdWords – pay-per-click advertising for keywords.
© 2010 Cherry+Company
A successful SEO strategy begins with research to discover the keywords that your prospective parents use to search for your school. ◦ Use Google’s Keyword Analysis Tool
Competitor Keyword Research ◦ Go to their website
◦ Right click; view source
Every page of your website should have a unique title that is reflective of the content and keywords used on the respective page.
• The CSF website does not have unique page titles or meta page descriptions for search engine optimization.
Canterbury website description in a Google search:
Google Search: Private School in St. Petersburg ◦ Results
Google AdWords shows ads for Shorecrest and Northside Christian.
Canterbury listed #6 behind Shorecrest, Admiral Farragut and Keswick Christian.
Google Search: Christian School in St. Petersburg ◦ Results
Google Ads shows ads for Shorecrest and Northside Christian.
Canterbury not listed on first page in search results (appears on the second page).
It is critical for you to focus on search engine optimization as part of your marketing strategy. ◦ Keyword research
◦ Page titles
◦ Page descriptions
◦ Keyword-rich content
◦ Dynamic content
School administrators most often focus on website design when launching a new site but fail to focus on the most important elements – SEO and content development.
It is critical to focus on developing content that is: ◦ Relevant
◦ Keyword-rich
◦ Dynamic
◦ Compelling
Join the conversation.
The conversation is taking place all around you. The most important thing for you to do is to join in the conversation.
Take part in the conversation that is taking place: ◦ Web (blogs, school reviews, Facebook, etc.)
◦ Groups
◦ Individuals
◦ Events
© 2011 Cherry+Company
Get out of your office and meet your parents in the parking lot
Take a “one-family-at-a-time” approach
Small group coffee meetings
Meetings or luncheons with the “talkers”
Actively engage your community online through Facebook and other social media sites
Write a blog and engage in conversation online
© 2011 Cherry+Company
Measure and understand.
It is important to regularly review what people are saying about you: ◦ In the parking lot
◦ On the web
◦ GreatSchools, Google and other review sites
◦ Facebook and other social media sites
◦ Surveys
◦ Focus Groups
◦ Google alert
© 2011 Cherry+Company
© 2009 Cherry+Company
Survey your parents annually by conducting an overall parent satisfaction and perception survey. ◦ Look for areas of dissatisfaction to improve the
quality of the school.
◦ Report findings from the survey back to parents.
◦ Best time to survey parents is October and February/March.
Actually, this is the beginning for you to go and implement effective word of mouth and web-based marketing strategies at your school.
For More Information:
Enrollment Catalyst
Rick Newberry, Ph.D.
9770 Indian Key Trail
Seminole, FL 33776
727.647.0378
Rick.Newberry@enrollmentcatalyst.com
www.EnrollmentCatalyst.com
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst