Many of my blog posts and presentations focus on this concept as it relates to word of mouth marketing in independent and faith-based schools. Word of mouth is always the number one way that a prospective parent discovers a private school.

As I have thought about word of mouth marketing in light of the current discussion on Inbound Marketing and its differences from Outbound Marketing, it is time to refer to word of mouth marketing in a new way.

WOMbound.

I first introduced this new term for word of mouth marketing in a webinar I facilitated for the Association of Independent Schools Admission Professionals (AISAP) on Tuesday.

Let me explain.

WOMbound is your Word Of Mouth (WOM) marketing strategy. It is how you get your customers talking. It is how you harness the power of word of mouth and turn your satisfied customers into active promoters.

This is my working, draft definition:

“WOMbound is the intentional and proactive strategy to generate, facilitate and inspire word of mouth through your customers, advocates and ambassadors. It is how brand advocacy works by harnessing the power of word of mouth to reach your potential customers most effectively in today’s market.”

It is simply another way to say “word of mouth marketing” which has been popularized, and rightly so, by Andy Sernovitz in his bestselling book, Word of Mouth Marketing.

WOMbound is different from Inbound and Outbound marketing strategies but it can involve both. Let me explain.

Outbound marketing describes the traditional marketing strategies that we push out to the market we are trying to reach. Print, radio, TV and direct mail fall into this category of interruptive marketing strategies.

Inbound marketing, as developed by Brian Hallagan and Dharmesh Shah in their break-through book, Inbound Marketing, describe this as a strategy that “pulls the prospect or customer toward the business and its products.” Inbound marketing utilizes web-based marketing strategies that dominate our focus today from websites to social media sites to video and remarkable content.

WOMbound marketing can utilize both Inbound and Outbound marketing strategies to help inspire word of mouth. A print or television ad may evoke emotion and brand awareness and help to start a conversation. A Facebook page or website may tell the story of the business, school or organization, which will, in turn, inspire word of mouth.

I believe that WOMbound should be the driver in your marketing strategy. It should be the starting point for your marketing strategy. Your goal is to get word of mouth moving in the right direction.

Since word of mouth is the number one way that parents first learn about a school or a customer first learns about a business, it is critical that you look through the lens of WOMbound marketing when you are utilizing Inbound and Outbound strategies. WOMbound is the concept by which you can develop your word of mouth marketing plan which should should include the tools of inbound and outbound strategies to reach your target audience.

Every school, business, and non-profit organization needs to go WOMbound.

What do you think about WOMbound as a way to describe word of mouth marketing? 

Do you have a WOMbound marketing strategy?

In every focus group or parent survey that I conduct for a school, the power of word of mouth is evident. Your prospective parents first learn about your school from someone else.

In the parent surveys that I administer, I typically ask the question: “How can the administration increase the school’s awareness and improve its marketing effort in the community?”

Recently, in a survey at one of my school clients, the following two responses from parents stood out to me:

“The best marketing is the kind you don’t buy.”

“If parents are satisfied, you won’t have to spend a dime to advertise. We talk continually about the education of our children.”

These quotes sum up the power of word of mouth marketing and it is an important reminder that this should be the focus of your strategy.

Isn’t it ironic that many school leaders spend a lot of time and budget resources on traditional outbound (advertising) strategies? Yet, the best form of advertising is the kind you can’t buy.

Word of mouth through your parents is the best way to market your school.

Word of mouth is always linked to parent satisfaction as it flows directly out of their experience at your school. If your parents are very satisfied, then word of mouth will be strong. If not, then you must work on improving your school to turn around satisfaction. Then, this improved satisfaction will ultimately drive positive word of mouth.

A satisfied parent will be an advocate, ambassador and word of mouth marketer for your school.

This is why I begin my process at a school with a site visit and parent survey to understand the overall parent satisfaction level. I want to understand how parents feel about their experience at a school.

Parents should be the foundation and focus of your marketing strategy. They are the key to your success.

Next week I will be facilitating a webinar for the Association of Independent School Admission Professionals (AISAP) on this topic with Shannon Drosky, Director of Marketing and Communications, and Laura Murphy, Director of Admissions, at The Out-of-Door Academy (ODA) in Sarasota, FL.

We will discuss “Parents as Advocates, Ambassadors and Word of Mouth Marketers” by taking an inside look at ODA. The webinar will be offered on Tuesday, May 14, at 4pm EDT.

I have known Shannon and Laura for many years and they are outstanding leaders and professionals in the independent school enrollment and marketing world. They have a model program at ODA and you won’t want to miss this webinar.

You can register for this webinar on the AISAP website. For AISAP members, the benefit is that there is no cost (For non-AISAP non-members, this is one reason why you should join!).

I hope you will register for this webinar as you consider how you can best use your parents as advocates, ambassadors and word of mouth marketers.

Think about it.

What do people see, read, view or listen to on the web? Content.

Because of this, you really need a content marketing strategy. And, I am afraid that most school marketing leaders don’t have one. In fact, most can’t keep up with key updates to their own website let alone think about the type of content they should produce.

In their book, Content Rules, Handley and Chapman suggest, “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!”

Most often when we think about content, we first think about the static copy on our website about our programs and processes. When was the last time you read through your academic pages on your website? Pretty boring and uninteresting isn’t it?

You might also think about the content that is focused on informing parents about your events and activities instead of the content that will tell stories about your school and content that will actually be helpful to people.

I believe that telling stories should be a key part of your marketing effort. This will help to drive word of mouth. While I have written about this in other blog posts, I wanted to discuss some other content considerations that take a different approach.

Michael Stelzner, in his book Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition, says that “Content may rule, but your online content must be the right sort of content: Customer-focused. Authentic. Compelling. Entertaining. Surprising. Valuable. Interesting. In other words, you must earn the attention of people.”

This is a great list.

The key is that you must produce content that your parents and prospective parents will be interested in reading, viewed or hearing. If it isn’t, then it isn’t really content at all that is worth anything. It is just words filling a page.

He goes on to say that “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.”

While all of us are interested in growing our schools, we miss the point of how to produce and deliver content for today’s online world. Therefore, there are two key questions that must be answered:

1.  What content can you generate that will be interesting and appealing to your current and prospective parents as well as the community at large?

If there is any organization that can deliver content, it should be an educational institution. We pride ourselves on knowledge and learning. We are surrounded by educators, people who can produce content. The key is that this content is not self-promotional or self-serving but actually helpful to those consuming it.

Think about these content examples:

• How do we teach and learn in the 21^st Century? What does this mean for today’s children?
• What is the future of education?
• How can technology be utilized to enhance learning?
• What does the latest brain-based research suggest about learning and how does this relate to school?
• How do the life experiences of your faculty enhance learning in the classroom?
• For a faith based school: How is faith and learning connected in every subject area?
• How can a private school education be affordable?
• What is the value of enrolling a child in a private school?
• The difference between public, charter and private schools
• What are the steps that a high school student should take to prepare for the college application process?

Do you begin to see a trend? The content that you develop should provide helpful and interesting information for your current and prospective parents, and anyone else that might read it, listen to it, or view it. You can be an educational thought-leader and content publisher in your community which will, in turn, help your school grow.

2.  How can you deliver this content at your school?

The most difficult part of this process is producing the actual content. Once the content has been developed, there are many ways to deliver this content online that should be part of your strategy:

• Website – Your school’s website should be the main “go-to” place for educational content. It should be your content hub providing a dynamic array of material.
• Blog – A blog can be used to communicate key topics that are relevant for current parents and prospective parents. For example, in a recent blog post at Hanalani Schools, the business manager wrote a post on “How to Afford a Private School Education.”  This type of content is valuable for anyone that might be searching on this topic and then, as a result of this helpful article, be exposed to Hanalani Schools.
• eBooks and White Papers – Select eBooks and White Papers can be published and made available on your school’s website and social media channels. In order to download the content, the person will need to give you their name and contact information. This becomes a great lead generator in your marketing effort.
• Video seminars and Podcasts – Provide videos and podcasts of key seminars that can be made available on your school’s website, social media channels, YouTube channel or iTunes account.
• Webinars – Produce content in an online, interactive format that can be live and then recorded. I had not seen another school taking this approach until the other day. In Sewickley Academy’s Twitter feed, I noticed the promotion for an online webinar on the topic of “Raising Kids in a Digital Age” for current parents, prospective parents and anyone else that wants to listen. Once again, Brendan Schneider and Sewickley Academy are on the cutting edge of applying inbound marketing strategies!

If you want to take a look at an organization that is a leader in publishing content online, check out Hubspot. They are the inbound marketing leader and their content strategy sets an example for what your school can do.

We are living in the digital age and content does rule. Therefore, it is critical for you to develop a content marketing strategy at your school.

Have you developed a content strategy for your school’s marketing effort?

Do you have any best practice examples of interesting content and the ways in which it was delivered online?

The most important indicator of your school’s overall health is its retention rate. While it’s true that this statistic reflects your school’s performance as a whole, the admission department is typically tasked with ensuring the retention of current families. While there are many strategies that influence retention, the most important are to offer a high-quality school experience, coupled with strong parent satisfaction. However, just because a family is enrolled this year doesn’t mean that they will enroll for next year!

Implement these 12 tactics as part of your re-recruitment plan to keep current families enrolled.

1. Enlist a Retention Champion

While everyone has a responsibility for recruiting families back for another year, it is important to have a retention champion. The champion should lead the effort, as well as challenge and encourage everyone’s involvement in the plan.

2. Grade Your Families

It helps to know which parents to target in your re-recruitment effort. By grading them on their likelihood to return, you can focus on those that are in question. The retention champion should lead this effort with your principal and faculty. Families that are graded as “on the fence” should be the main emphasis of your re-recruitment effort.

3. Reach out “One Family at a Time”

Through the exercise of grading your families, you now have a target list of those that are on the fence. You can now reach out “one family at a time” to this target list of families to discuss their situation and to deal with any issues that might impact their future enrollment.

4. Roll out the Red Carpet

From the secretary to the faculty member to the administrator, everyone is responsible for serving your parents with excellence. One of the best resources on the topic of customer service is Donna Cutting’s book, The Celebrity Experience, where she discusses how to roll out the red carpet for your customers—in our case, the parents.

5. Focus on the Transition Grades

The grade levels where you will most likely lose families are your transition grades. You should make every effort to reach out to the transitioning families and “sell” them on the next level. For example, parents could be invited to a “Next Year and Beyond” meeting to be informed about the transition from the lower school to the middle school.

6. Tell Stories

Our first internal marketing priority is to tell our story to our current families. As you tell compelling stories about your students, parents, faculty, coaches, and alumni, you reinforce for parents the reasons why they should continue their investment in your school.

7. Market Internally During Re-Enrollment

Re-enrollment is more than a process; it is also a time to market the school internally. From the letter that is sent to introduce re-enrollment to key video messages, testimonials, and banners, consideration should be placed on using this process to market your school to current families and to focus on their return on investment (known as “ROI” in business terms). It costs much less to retain a current family than to recruit a new one.

8. Send Personal Notes

Everyone likes to receive a personal note, especially one acknowledging something positive about their child. Consider what would happen if your faculty and staff wrote five personal notes every week to parents and students to celebrate their successes at your school. This personal approach would go a long way in helping to retain families.

9. Serve Coffee and Conversation

By providing regular coffee-and-conversation meetings with parents, you will have the opportunity to update them on the school and open a dialogue with them, creating a feeling of inclusion. This will also create positive internal word-of-mouth as they communicate with other parents in the school.

10. Make a State-of-the-School Address

Some schools will present a state-of-the-school address to parents as a way to update them on the school and to present a vision for the future. This event can be a powerful venue for keeping families enrolled.

11. Say Thank You

While it should seem obvious to say thank you after a parent re-enrolls their child, the power of a “thank you” can go a long way. In addition, giving a gift to the student can also be meaningful. For example, my two boys just received school t-shirts with their class year on the front and the privilege to wear this shirt for a week instead of their uniform.

12. Conduct an Annual Satisfaction Survey

Measuring your parent satisfaction level on an annual basis should be an important component in your re-recruitment plan. This will help you to identify areas of satisfaction and dissatisfaction, so that you can improve the quality of their experience and ultimately impact retention.

For additional strategies on retention, I have written several blog posts on this topic that have been compiled on the Enrollment Catalyst website.

Do you have any additional strategies to stop attrition that you have implemented at your school?

Rebecca Curran, Director of Admissions at FBA

In our never-ending quest to implement the best school marketing strategies to reach prospective parents, it is important that we don’t forget the power of the student-to-student referral.

Students themselves not only have influence with their parents in the choice of schools, they can also influence their friends.

Current students can reach out to their friends in the community to recruit them to their school.

A couple of years ago I began working with First Baptist Academy in Naples, FL (www.fbalions.org). One of the marketing strategies they had already implemented stood out to me – Friend Day.

Because of the success of this program, I reached out to Rebecca Curran, Director of Admissions at FBA, to conduct a virtual interview with her and to share this with you in a blog post.

1. What is Friend Day?

“Friend day is a day we established to invite friends of our current students as a means to introduce them to FBA. When we talk about Friend Day with our families and studentsand, we describe inviting friends that might be interested in FBA, and FBA would also be interested in.”

2. How did you first develop this idea?

“The idea sprang from the Administration brainstorming over our Shadow Days and Open Houses. Just like we had set aside days for Open House, we thought it would be effective to create a day strictly for friends to visit FBA. We decided to schedule the day when public school students were out of school so they would not have to miss school and would be more inclined to come to our Friend Day.”

3. How do you involve your current students in inviting their friends?

“We created a special invitation for current students to give to their friends. Friend Day is focused on grades from K-11. The invitation does include a RSVP section that needs to be turned into the school office that includes parent, pick up and medical information. Initially, in order to encourage participation, we challenged our grade levels to see who could invite the most friends. However, in later years we opted not to stress quantity but inviting the ‘right friend.’ Previous challenge rewards included a dress down coupon or coupon for an ice cream from our school cafeteria.”

4. How do you help your current students understand the purpose of the day?

“We talk about the day, the schedule of events and who to invite at parent meetings, chapel, on morning announcements, in teacher’s newsletters, in parent communications specific for the day, RenWeb announcements, Facebook postings, the School Administrator’s Blog and on our website.”

5. What is the schedule like for Friend Day?

“Our friends typically arrive sometime between 7:30am – 8:00am.  We have staff stationed in the school’s drop off areas to check the friends in and assign them to designated teachers and to give instructions for the day. For elementary students they were given a pre-made nametag with an assigned teacher’s name on it as well. All teachers were given a list of friends visiting for the day broken out by grade, the FBA student who invited them and FBA teacher assignment.

The day ended at 11:30 am.  We designated a pick up area at each school level where we greeted the friend’s parents and provided upcoming event and contact information for their future interest in the school.

From 8:00am – 11:30am, the friend would shadow with their FBA student. They would go to related arts classes, library and all other classes on the student’s schedule. To give the friend an authentic experience, we choose not to alter our school schedule for the day.”

6. How is this planned for elementary, middle and high school students?

“In elementary, special activities were planned in classrooms as welcome and get-to-know-you type activities for the friend. Teachers purposely plan to have activities designed as take home items for the student to share with parents. Some include a picture with FBA students or a craft/art project that went home in a special envelope or folder.

Middle and high school would try to keep a normal routine as much as possible.”

7. What have been the results from Friend Day? Does it help to generate interest in FBA?

“Our students enjoy this day and are enthusiastic about inviting their friends to their school. Our teachers have tried to be creative with the day’s lesson plans to include fun educational experiences for the friends to also enjoy.

Over the years we have had between 62-96 students visit on Friend Day. We also have had a range of 8%-16% of those students become FBA students the following school year.”

8. Do you have any advice for other schools interested in launching a Friend Day at their school?

“Plan, Plan, Plan! Planning ahead truly does help the day go smoothly.

Plan your marketing of the day well in advance. Our Friend Day coordinates with our open enrollment time in the early spring. We talk about Friend Day even at our first Parent Meeting in the fall and continue to increase exposure for the event as the day draws closer.

Teachers should understand the importance of this day and be prepared with an activity and take home items to demonstrate what they did during their time at the school. Our teachers also include a note to the friend and their parents from the class and themselves thanking them for coming to our Friend Day. In addition, I give each friend a giveaway item that includes key school materials and contact information. This can be low budget item or something more as your budget allows.

Plan for extra chairs in the classrooms and hallways, as friends will show up that did not RSVP.

Be prepared that some friends will come with no intention or interest in enrolling at your school.

Be prepared that some students will invite friends who are not in the some grade level so have a way of handling this.

Think about having a whole school welcome or ‘thank you for coming assembly’ that could include the friend’s parents. This is a good way to talk about your school and share some key information with them.

Think about having the event on a scheduled half-day of school. This day is a lot of work for staff and teachers. By having a half-day, this format would be a relief to them plus the friend and student could then possibly share the rest of the day together off campus.

Plan how you will follow up with the friends and their families.  Be as creative as you want with this!

Encourage feedback from staff, teachers, students and families so your Friend Day can improve each time.”

Thanks Rebecca for sharing how the Friend Day strategy works at First Baptist Academy. This is a great way to get your current students involved in the marketing effort by reaching out to their friends and exposing them to your school.

If you have any questions for Rebecca, please provide them here in the comment section.

Have you implemented a strategy like Friend Day at your school? How does it work for you?

Have you successfully implemented other strategies to involve your current students in the marketing effort at your school?

What I appreciate about Brendan is that he writes about his own personal inbound marketing experiences at Sewickley Academy in his blog. Brendan is a thought-leader, inbound marketing guru and practitioner in the field of independent school enrollment and marketing leadership.

Last Spring I had the opportunity to speak at a one-day conference in Florida as well as participate on the faculty at the AISAP Summer Institute in La Jolla along with Brendan (We will both be participating at this year’s summer institute in Nashville). Not only does he communicate timely advice in his blog, he is also a gifted communicator who speaks from his own experiences.

Recently, I became aware that Brendan will lead a two-day AISAP Leadership Summit on “Internet Marketing for Schools: How to Create, Craft, Implement and Sustain your School’s Internet Marketing Campaign in order to increase traffic, yield and revenue.” (Whew! That’s a long title!) This summit will be held on Wednesday, June 12, to Thursday, June 13, at the Pittsburgh Marriott City Center (too bad it’s not football season!).

This is one conference that you should add to your professional development schedule for this summer. Knowing Brendan, these two days will be packed full of helpful and practical strategies that you can implement immediately at your school.

Recently I conducted a virtual interview with Brendan through email about this event and I wanted to share his responses with you. Read what Brendan has to say about this AISAP Leadership Summit:

1. What is your vision for the AISAP inbound marketing Leadership Summit?

“My vision with this first cohort is to share the what, why, and how to utilize inbound marketing effectively to help participants reach their enrollment goals. Although being strategic about enrollment has always been important I believe that the economic meltdown of 2008-2009 has made it a necessity. Couple these economic woes with an ever discerning consumer, i.e. prospective parents, and the rise of social media and inbound marketing becomes a requirement and those schools who understand and implement this strategy will succeed and those that don’t will continue to suffer.”

2. What are the main inbound marketing issues that will be addressed?

“Over the course of two days in Pittsburgh participants will:

• develop an understanding of inbound marketing vs. traditional (or outbound) marketing principles.
• learn the inbound marketing system which will help them get found by prospective families and convert those families into inquiries.
• gain an understanding of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and ways to improve your search engine ranking through on-page and off-page techniques.
• understand the proper use of social media and it’s place within an inbound marketing system.
• learn how to create a blog as well as other social media channels for your school.
• begin to appreciate the role of analytics and tracking in making marketing decisions for your school using data.”

3. What motivated you to lead this course?

“After three hundred blog posts, over 35,000 tweets, and many speaking opportunities on covering the topics of inbound marketing and social media I realized that I had never shared my entire inbound marketing system from beginning to end. I also realized that through emails, phone calls, and conversations that there was a desire from school people to learn and apply the inbound marketing principles at their school. I just felt like the timing was right for a class like this.”

4. Give me an overview of the conference.

“The Summit will happen over the course of two days and will be broken down into small modules with each module including a discussion of theory, a review of what I do at Sewickley Academy, and finally a time for participants to actually create and put into practice the tools and ideas we discuss. I anticipate that each participant will leave the Summit with the tools and knowledge in place to begin using inbound marketing at their school.

I’m also very excited because I don’t want the learning and support to end after the conference. Through the AISAP website I will create a private forum where only participants in this course will have access. The forum will be used to stay in touch during the year as well as serve as a place where we all can ask questions and support each other.”

5. Who should plan to attend this conference? What level of inbound marketing experience is needed?

“Great question! Honestly, no experience is needed and as part of the Summit there will be a common book that we will all read prior to the course to get us on the same page with regard to inbound marketing. As far as who should attend I would recommend anyone working on the external side of school, i.e. admissions, advancement, communications, marketing, and development – really, anyone who wants to understand inbound marketing and what it ‘looks like’ at a school.”

6. What can school leaders expect to take away from this conference?

“School leaders can expect to leave Pittsburgh with an understanding of inbound marketing and how to use it at their school. They will leave with the framework of an inbound marketing system in place and can hit the ground running when they return to their school.”

7. What is the connection between this conference and AISAP?

“I am on the Board of Directors at the Association of Independent School Admission Professionals (AISAP) and admission work and this organization are important to me. In my opinion, AISAP has become the organization for professional development in the independent school world and partnering with AISAP to create this Summit seemed like a great fit.”

8. What are the details for registration? Is there a capacity limit?

“The Summit will be held in my hometown of Pittsburgh and will last for 2 days. Details are available on the AISAP website and there is an early bird rate if you register before June 1st. Space is limited so if you are interested I wouldn’t wait to register.

Make sure you take advantge of this professional development opportunity for your summer learning. I know you will benefit from Brendan’s teaching and practical experience on internet/inbound marketing. And, if you are not an AISAP member school, this is a perfect time to join so that you can take advantage of the membership pricing for this event.

Are you planning to attend this Leadership Summit?

Are there other summer professional development opportunities that you are considering?

I have seen many school videos in my educational consulting experience. While we live in the YouTube world where homemade, in-the-moment videos are appealing, there is still a place for a professionally produced video for your school.

If you are going to go this route, it is important that you develop a video that is creative and will capture the short, online attention span of your prospective parents.

There are three videos I have seen in the last year that stand out to me. The common thread is that each video tells the story of the school through the perspective of students sharing why they love their school. The approach for each video is also very creative which captures the attention of the viewer.

The Out of Door Academy: Pass It On

My favorite school video is the “Pass It On” video by The Out of Door Academy. The video begins with a student writing, “What do I love about ODA?” on a white board. Then, the video quickly moves to a variety of clips from all facets of student life at ODA. The video seeks to answer this question without narration by creating a compelling impression of the school. It leaves you with a feeling that ODA is a great school that every parent would love to send their child.

The video concludes with the student writing the answer to the question asked in the beginning:  “What do I love about ODA? Everything.” This video very works well and has recently won several well deserved local and national awards.

Bentley School On: What’s it like to go to school here

The video for the Bentley School is front and center on the homepage of their website. I really like how the focus of the video is on the students to answer the question: What is it really like to be a student here? The video creatively captures the student’s perspectives through the power of posted words. Each small group of students has a stack of words to use to paste in a sentence or phrase on the lens of the camera. For the viewer, it’s like we are peering in on the students putting sentences together to describe what it is like to attend Bentley.

It’s a brilliant concept that works and concludes with quick clips of student life. The video is also short and keeps the viewer’s attention waiting in anticipation for the posting of the next set of descriptive words.

Deerfield Academy: 10 Things I Love About Deerfield

Even though this video is very long, I really like the concept that was used. The video focuses on students talking about the 10 things they love about Deerfield. It is a simple concept that has stood the test of time (I still like to watch David Letterman’s top 10 list). While this isn’t an attempt at humor, the beginning of the video uses funny out-takes to lighten the mood and create realism in the video.

The video gives a comprehensive overview of the school told from the student perspective. Any school marketing director could use this same concept to produce a marketing video. You could even create 10 short video vignettes that could be selected on a page featuring each of these top areas at the school. By doing this, the parent or student could select the individual areas that are of most interest instead of watching the entire video.

Do you have a promotional video for your school that you think is really creative and compelling? If you do, please post a link to your video in the comment section.

Have you seen any other videos that you think are really creative and compelling?

Based on this relationship and his need to grow the enrollment at RLCA, Steve reached out to me in the fall of 2011. Even though the overall enrollment had grown at RLCA, the new student interest had declined for several years. Steve’s goal was to develop a marketing and enrollment plan that would fuel growth through increased retention of current families and increased recruitment of new families.

Through this partnership in the Enrollment Catalyst Program, a two-day site visit and a parent survey was conducted. As a result, a detailed report was presented that included a comprehensive assessment and recommendations for the school’s marketing and enrollment plan. Then, weekly coaching conference calls were held using Skype to discuss the implementation of the plan. This weekly coaching provided the accountability and guidance necessary for Real Life Christian to exceed its enrollment goal this year.

Read what Dr. Steve Long said about his work with Enrollment Catalyst and Rick Newberry:

“I have known Rick for several years, and he is simply a great guy. He is easy to work with, keeps abreast of the latest practices and brings an informed, critical eye to your school. Our process with him helped us to drill down to areas of strength and weakness that were based upon constituent surveys and hard data. It removed some of the guesswork. From that he was able to make clear practical recommendations of action steps. As a result we revamped our entire marketing and communications plan, made social media a key component of our strategy, developed a retention plan (for the first time), and moved from a part-time enrollment person to full time.

As a school we have continued to grow the past few years, but new student enrollments had declined every year.  After working with Rick, we have been able to reverse that trend. Our total student enrollment this year is up about 15% over last year and new student enrollment increased for the first time in four years.

Perhaps the most significant impact has been in the area of re-enrollment. We now see this as an everyday effort throughout the year, connected with customer service, communication, telling our story again and again, and turning unhappy parents into fans. Our early reenrollment for next year is at 88%, which is huge for us. In the past it hovered around 78%. I can honestly credit Rick for this drastic improvement. Many of the recommendations we are still working at implementing, so long after our contract with Enrollment Catalyst ended we are gleaning benefits.

I would highly recommend Rick and Enrollment Catalyst. If you aren’t willing to make changes, then don’t waste the money – simply listening to advice won’t change your school. But if you are serious about the future of the school, an investment with Enrollment Catalyst will produce results for you. We likely will repeat the process in a few years, just to keep us on track.”

About Enrollment Catalyst and Rick Newberry

Enrollment Catalyst partners with schools across the United States and Canada to provide coaching and consulting in enrollment management and marketing systems, strategies and solutions. The program is designed to provide school leaders with effective marketing and enrollment growth strategies as well as staff accountability, direction and results needed to grow enrollment.

Enrollment Catalyst President and Consultant Dr. Rick Newberry has 25 years of educational leadership, marketing and enrollment management experience in both higher education and K-12 levels, and has served as the executive director of development and enrollment management at a private university, as well as head of a large independent school. Rick regularly writes in his blog at www.enrollmentcatalyst.com/blog and presents at many educational conferences around the country.

To find out how Enrollment Catalyst can help your school grow and increase enrollment, contact Rick at Rick.Newberry@EnrollmentCatalyst.com.

The key to word of mouth marketing is to harness the power of your parents—your brand advocates.

Because of this, I was excited to discover and read Rob Fuggetta’s book, Brand Advocates. If you read no further, make sure you order this book for your continued professional development in word of mouth marketing. This book is an excellent resource for all school leaders seeking to turn parents into a powerful marketing force.

Rather than provide you with a book review, I wanted to share seven quotes that stood out to me as a sampling from the book and my reflections on how Fugetta’s advice applies to private school marketing.

1.  “Advocacy—not ads—is what drives purchase decisions and perceptions in nearly every product category.” Isn’t it interesting that we typically spend more time trying to develop ad campaigns and purchase media buys than we spend time developing our brand advocates? If we truly believe that our brand advocates—our parents—are our best marketers, then this is where we should focus our energy and resources.

2.  “Brand Advocates—those customers who serve as trusted champions for your brand and influence purchasing behaviors of other consumers—are truly your most valuable customers. Advocates are worth at least five times more than other customers because they act as champions for your company and products and they spend more than average customers. And Advocates are even more valuable than loyal customers because—unlike many frequent buyers—Advocates recommend your brand and products.” This is the key to your word of mouth marketing effort. We need to discover who our brand advocates are and utilize them in your marketing effort. We also need to develop others into brand advocates because the more advocates we have, the more positive word of mouth your school will have in the community.

3. “But how do companies create more Brand Advocates? Here’s what it takes: 1. Provide an insanely great product. 2. Deliver memorable service. 3. Focus on good profits. 4. Do the right thing, even when it costs you money. 4. Have a social conscience, or get one fast.” These five ways are applicable to schools. It takes a great school with outstanding service, positive revenue, integrity, trust and an effective mission of making a difference in the lives of students to create brand advocates.

4. “Compared to traditional marketing, getting your Advocates to do your marketing for you is significantly more effective, credible, sustainable, less expensive, and has a higher ROI.” This is the exponential power of word of mouth marketing. Focusing on your parents should be your number one marketing strategy.

5. “Advocate Marketing is a disruptive marketing idea. It shakes up the marketing apple cart by leveraging trusted Advocates rather than paid media and salespeople to deliver brand and product messages to prospects.” Just last week I talked to an admissions director at a school that was being influenced by her supervisor to purchase an ad in the Yellow Pages—you know that big book that typically ends up in the garbage upon delivery! Traditional, outbound marketing strategies don’t work like word of mouth marketing. And yet, the focus in many schools is on these strategies because this is what is known and many are afraid to let go of these ineffective tactics.

6. “The only reward these genuine Advocates want is the validation of knowing that they’ve helped a peer.” I’ve seen school leaders try to buy word of mouth advocates through tuition discounts. However, this approach never works. It may also border on being unethical. You shouldn’t have to buy advocacy. This cheapens word of mouth. Your parents will be your brand advocates when they believe in their experience and want to share it with a friend by helping them in their school choice.

7. In the last paragraph of his book, Fuggetta shares a story from Nancy Terry, a SVP of a fitness club. She says, “‘I am one hundred percent convinced that getting our enthusiastic members to help market our club is an approach that will work,’ said Nancy, as she launched an advocacy program in early 2012. ‘After all, word of mouth is the number one way we get leads today. Why not invest in what’s working?’ she asks. Good question.” This is a very good question for you to consider. Do you have a word of mouth marketing plan? Are you investing in brand advocates? If not, then you should make this your priority.

There is so much more in this book than I have been able to discuss in this blog. Brand Advocacy should be part of your word of mouth marketing plan and the book should be part of your key resources. This book will show you how to encourage your parents to share your school to their friends.

What are you doing to develop and motivate your brand advocates?

Are you spending more time focused on traditional advertising strategies or on word of mouth marketing?

Are you harnessing the power of your brand advocates to market your school?

Photo taken by Jessica Warren in my AISAP session on Re-Recruitment

Dr. Rick Newberry, President of Enrollment Catalyst, will be speaking at several conferences in 2013. He will be speaking on marketing and enrollment strategies that work for independent and faith-based schools. Plan now to attend one of these upcoming conferences:

AISAP Summer Institute – For the second year, Rick will one of the faculty members at the AISAP Summer Institute in Nashville, TN. This conference is designed for the newly appointed to the experienced enrollment professional in independent and faith-based schools. The AISAP Summer Institute will be held at Harpeth Hall School in Nashville, TN, on July 7-10, 2013. For more information on this conference, please visit the AISAP website.

RenWeb Power User’s Conference – In its fourth year, the RenWeb Power User’s Conference serves as a valuable time of professional development for school leaders that use the RenWeb administrative management database system. Rick will be speaking on marketing and enrollment topics for independent and faith-based school leaders. The RenWeb Power User’s Conference will be held in Dallas, TX, at the Hyatt Regency on July 9-13, 2013.  For more information, visit the Ren Web website.

Strengthening Christian School’s Conference – In its inaugural year, a conference for Christian school leaders will be held at Faith Church in Dyer, IN (just outside of Chicago) on November 7-8, 2013. The goal of this conference is to provide sessions on a variety of topics related to leading a Christian school. Rick will be presenting two workshops including “Marketing Your Christian School in the 21st Century” and “Recruitment and Retention: Developing Your Enrollment Management Strategy.” For more information, you can check out the Strengthening Christian School’s website.

Please now to attend one of these conferences in 2013.

Please feel free to contact Dr. Rick Newberry at Rick.Newberry@EnrollmentCatalyst.com if you are interested in having him present at your conference.

About Dr. Rick Newberry and Enrollment Catalyst:

Rick Newberry, Ph.D., is the President of Enrollment Catalyst. Rick partners with school administrators to provide coaching and consulting in enrollment management and marketing systems, strategies, and solutions needed to reach their goals. The goal is to provide school leaders with effective marketing and enrollment strategies as well as staff accountability, direction and results needed to grow their enrollment.

His expertise in enrollment management strategies, marketing planning and institutional brand development provides in-depth educational consultation to independent, private and faith-based schools across the nation.  With 25 years of educational leadership experience in both higher education and K-12 levels, Rick has served as the executive director of development and enrollment management at a private university and as well as head of a large private school.

Through his successes and expertise, Rick has helped many schools throughout the nation achieve their strategic marketing and enrollment goals.

Rick holds a Ph.D. from Michigan State University in educational leadership and is a regular speaker at many educational conferences on the topics of marketing, branding, enrollment management and leadership.