EFFECTIVE SCHOOL MARKETING: Sweat the Small Stuff

This article is the first in a series examining popular business concepts as they (might) apply to schools. The intent isn’t to encourage schools (and school leaders) to be more business-like, rather, to leverage business thinking for the benefit of education (and educationalists). The various thoughts and ideas are there to be taken, left, used or discarded as you see fit.

How effective is your school’s marketing?

Attributed to an early pioneer of marketing, John Wanamaker, the clichéd response to this question is traditionally that:

“half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half”.

This is no longer true. Or, it is no longer as true.

Like many things, marketing has changed substantially in recent years. Digital technology has created new ways to reach customers, new ways to sell products and new ways for consumers to buy products. Schools are not immune from these changes. While it is likely that no parent has ever enrolled their child in a school because of a tightly-written tweet, an inspirational Instagram post or the snappiest of Snapchats, that doesn’t mean these things don’t matter. They do; and increasingly so.