A boarding school’s appeal must reach beyond the immediate community. The need to generate more inquiries and to convert those inquiries to enrolled students is essential. Schools must understand the hottest media for communications, consider the most effective ways of getting the message out, and know which tools have the greatest cost benefit ratio – and they must be able to do so across a number of markets. Having the tools and resources to create a concise plan with measurable results is what every school admission office needs to reach their goals.

Take Advantage of Technology:

• Use Google Translate – to feature school’s web site in different languages
• Create iPod slide shows and PowerPoint presentations
• Use QR codes that take interested parties directly to the website (MS Office Ad – “Get TAG mobile”)
• Use iBooks to disseminate publications and PDFs
• Market the school with flash drives
• iPhone app for schools
• Facebook and Google track ads daily – specific targets pay by impressions or clicks; cheap at $30/day
• Conduct Virtual Fairs
• Offer live webcast of open house (“cool factor”)
• Produce individual DVD acceptances; notes from current students on hard copy acceptances
• Create a video of the Head; deliver individualized message
• Produce a 3-minute video targeted to the highest-priority kids
• Use Email and text messages to follow up with potential students
• Create new inquiries – use billboards, train and bus ads, movie theatre slides, etc.

Take Advantage of Social Media:

• Provide Chat Rooms for interested students
• YouTube “reality” videos – student competition
• Facebook/Twitter – engage Alumni; advertise job postings
• Establish “Ask a Student” links on the school’s web site
• Create and promote student blogs
• Create and maintain a unique YouTube Channel
• Establish a Facebook Group for enrolled students

Utilize Parents, Alumni, and Current Students:

• Create and support a Parent Ambassador Program; provide hand written notes on marketing material
• Maintain an International parent blog - in foreign languages
• Convene focus groups of students to meet with marketing director and provide authentic student voice and feedback about the school
• Develop Alumni Ambassador Program - Have Alumni write personal notes on marketing material and/or offer personal testimony on videos/DVDs, etc.
• Identify expertise among your constituents; ask for and get their help

Maximize the Admission Office:  

• Conduct events on campus which involve “kid groups”
• Tour Guides – communicate authentic student experience through media – flip cams, movie editing software
• Use more individualized and targeted outreach, including overnight stays
• Handle initial inquiries via messages on the admission office telephone
• Mail welcome kits; kids appreciate getting hard copy mail
• Push school’s calendar of events into media outlets
• Create five “brand driver” follow-up pieces
• Send letters to prospects from teachers and coaches
• Utilize applied educational research surveys (student and family perceptions)
• Follow up with SSAT Score Reporters
• Use census data to identify new markets of increasing wealth
• Accept the Standard Application Online (SAO)

RELATED RESOURCES

The first online college fair was organized by the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) and held on October 9, 2001. The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS) has brought the online fair to independent schools this year with the first-ever virtual Boarding School Expos. For admission reps, this means greater reach with no travel.

Check out Stevenson School’s student bloggers!

The Benefits of a Small Boarding School: An Essay from the Alumni/Faculty Perspective by M. Bradley Rogers, Jr., Headmaster, The Gow School (NY).

School Marketing and the Social Web: Can You Hear Me Now?  Lorrie Jackson (Winter 2009):

Special Report: Asia 2010by Aimee Gruber, Director of Outreach, SSATB. Each year, SSATB travels to Asia to glean on-the-ground information for schools about this key international student market.

Mike Connor, Lead Consultant and Principal of Connor Associates and co-author of the National Association of Independent Schools’ Marketing Independent Schools in the 21st Century, offers a comprehensive strategy to maximize marketing in order to advance your school’s mission.

The Educational Information and Resources Branch within the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs provides professional development and educational resources for advisers at the nearly 500 EducationUSAcenters around the world and strives to strengthen links between centers and U.S. higher education institutions. Following are suggestions from advisers on how U.S. institutions can make their websites more accessible to prospective international students. LINK TO PDF.

Recruiting beyond Eastern Asia: Realities, Strategies and Investment by John A. Williamson, Executive Director, Linden Boarding School Tours (Memberanda, August 30, 2010). 

A 90-day marketing plan forces you to look hard at what you are doing. 

The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 14, 2010. This article presents an interesting overview of some big-picture strategies that successful colleges use to create buzz.

Consider group travel: http://www.tenschools.org/travel/

Andy Sernovitz is an author, teacher, and word-of-mouth marketing veteran. These brief YouTube videos – Tell a Friendand Give Folks Something to Talk About– introduce you to some basic concepts and point you to more WOM videos. Also check out Andy’s blog – Damn! I Wish I’d Thought of That! – for useful nuggets. Gaspedal.com, which publishes Andy’s blog, also has a free e-newsletter you can subscribe to with more great ideas.

The Association of Strategic Marketinghas a number of live and archived webinars available for a fee. You can also sign up for their free email blasts.