Luckily we have all the details…

It’s that time of the year again - admissions season!

Many schools over complicate their admissions process. Landing pages are a huge part of this. Parents see multiple open day admissions pages, so how will yours stand out from the crowd?

The virtual open event is certainly having its fifteen minutes of fame. After social distancing guidelines were introduced, education marketing teams worked tirelessly to develop creative digital solutions that ensure classrooms aren’t empty in the new academic year and beyond. But as we transition into the post-COVID era, does the virtual open day have a future?

One of the biggest challenges that #SchoolMarketers face is successfully getting buy-in from the senior leadership team. This is especially true when encouraging Heads to engage in thought leadership activity. It’s easy for communications managers to sell the benefits of public-facing comms activity, but have you ever thought about what your Head is thinking and why they might have reservations? 

Whether your Head is a seasoned writer and media personality or is still finding their feet, we hope this article helps to alleviate some of the challenges you face and creates a more open, honest dialogue between the marketing office and the executive. Why not show it to your Head? Every little helps...

Audience: Independent School Headteachers 

Brand is the most misunderstood element of modern marketing. While many organisations can boast a fancy logo and harmonious colour palette, few are able to effectively define and communicate their core values in a way that ensures a meaningful connection with their audiences.

Take a moment to think about all the schools you’ve ever worked in. They’re all unique, right? But it’s incredibly likely those schools marketed themselves using the same messages: educating the whole child, stimulating intellectual curiosity and developing a global perspective. 

Sadly, many education marketers excuse themselves from developing a unique and emotive brand identity because of a similarity in product offer. Independent schools usually offer variations on a theme of three main objectives: fantastic academic outcomes, great pastoral care and an exciting extra-curricular offer. However it’s this very fact that requires schools to craft a brand narrative that transcends aims and goals, and instead focuses on unique, intangible qualities. 

Some Headteachers would refute the fact that their school’s brand isn’t strongly established with the argument “but everybody knows about us and we’re over-subscribed every year”. While this may be true, complacency always leads to stagnation and disregarding the need for an identity that looks beyond enrolment numbers creates a huge opportunity for your competitors to develop a superior brand proposition.  

Understand your market

When thinking about your brand, an understanding of audiences is critical - only then can you craft a narrative that resonates with their values. Are your parents aspirational, eager for their child to reach the top? Are they sending their children to you because generations of their family have been educated at the school? Do you focus on building resilience and instilling a sense of adventure that appeals to them. Or is it simpler than that; because you’re located on the daily commute or have a great arts programme and their child loves drama?

You might not know the answer to these questions but getting hold of the data will be helpful as you start to determine what you stand for. This will provide structure for your school’s strategic vision and ensures your brand identity withstands the test of time.

Get Real

Independent Schools are exclusive… there, we said it! Whilst many of your schools will have life-changing bursary programmes and inspiring cross-sector partnerships, which should be applauded and celebrated, the reality is that independent schools offer a superior product that is desired by many and available to only a few. This is the hallmark of luxury, and this should be reflected in the brand experience you offer. From the moment prospective families enquire, independent schools must deliver an exceptional, coherent brand experience. 

While academic results and university destinations might have some influence on a prospective family’s decision, history tells us that people buy brands because of the emotional connection they feel to them. Why else would parents pay for something that they can get for free if the end product – an education - is the same? We all know it’s not quite that simple, but when you strip it down to the bare bones, parents are paying for a premium product and service, like shopping at Waitrose or flying business class. 

While some families might’ve been educated privately for generations and see it as ‘just the done thing’, many parents will be scrimping and saving all the spare cash they have in order to give their children the very best start in life and both, rightly, expect to be treated as a valued customer.

Live and breathe it

Now that we’ve determined that brand is really about values and purpose, start to think about how to bring it to life. This is the stuff that should be driven by you, as the Head, and your teaching staff. Your marketing team can help to shape messaging and implementation, but it’s teachers who are best placed to champion exciting initiatives for your school community. Once those initiatives start to chime with your audiences’ values, then you can be confident of brand affinity increasing, reputation rising and the admissions email pinging - and that’s exactly where you want to be!

Ends

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“Once you’ve established your brand identity, the really fun bit is bringing it to life. After establishing a tagline of ‘Monkton Thinks Differently’, I asked my staff what could be done to further develop this story. We now celebrate failure in assembly (something not many school’s do!), started a ‘choir who can’t sing’ and asked pupils to write their own reports. It’s very important to live and breathe what you are, be authentic and allow your identity to develop over time. It’s an exciting journey, especially when marketing and educational evolution come together as one.” - Chris Wheeler, Headmaster - Monkton Combe School

YOU'VE FOUND YOUR MESSAGE, NOW IT'S TIME TO FIND YOUR VOICE!

In my last blog, we ascended Mount Brand to explore what truly makes your school unique. Now it’s time for Part 3, to work out the big picture of how you communicate this brand vision before you update your website or create a nifty flier. To do that, we’re leaving behind Mount Brand to instead explore a galaxy far, far away (more on that in a minute).

Developing a brand voice that is clear and easy for all staff members to use is essential for consistent messaging across all your touch-points.

It can be defined into a few key elements…

• uniformity in your word selection 

• the attitude presented through those words

• values suggested whilst talking to your parents 

In short, it's how you speak to your parents, and how this then, in turn, humanises your brand - building confidence and trust in your school and cementing your individual place in the market.