Más contenido relacionado La actualidad más candente (20) Similar a From WOM to the WEB, Effective Marketing Strategies for your School, classical school conference (20) From WOM to the WEB, Effective Marketing Strategies for your School, classical school conference2. 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
11. 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
14. 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
15. 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
17. Leadership
Enrollment & Quality
Marketing School
Plan Experience
Competition Vision
School Growth
Faculty and
Price
Staff
Parent
Location
Satisfaction
Reputation
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
20. “Traditional outbound marketing is where
businesses push their messages at consumers.”
• HubSpot, The 2012 State of Inbound Marketing
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
22. “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
23. “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
24. 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
25. New media Old media
Web-based Traditional
Pull Push
Listen Interrupt
Engage Broadcast
Hub Megaphone
Authentic Slick
Content Ads
Stories Slogans
Inbound Marketing Outbound Marketing
26. 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
27. 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?
28. Think about the top two
ways that parents find out
about your school…
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
29. 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
31. 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.”
33. We rely upon word of mouth in our own
buying decisions.
34. Trust is Key to WOM
“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
35. 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
36. We will apply a WOM
framework to develop your
school’s marketing strategy to
ensure enrollment success.
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
37. Parking
Lot
Face to
Phone
Face
Parent
Church/ Talk
Starbucks
Club
Email Web
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
38. Blogs
Social
Facebook Media
Sites
Web
Talk
Great
Google
Schools
Online
Reviews
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
39. What is Word-of-Mouth Marketing?
“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
42. 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
43. 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
44. Are you giving your parents a
reason to talk about
your school?
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
45. “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
46. Are you giving your parents
any stuff that they can talk
about?
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
47. “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
48. How can you make it easier for
the conversation to take
place?
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
49. “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
50. Is word of mouth marketing
part of your strategy?
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
51. “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
53. We need a framework for our
Word of Mouth marketing plan
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
54. 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
56. Employees
Parents (Current and Former)
Students (Current and Former)
Alumni
Grandparents
Vendors
School administrators
Pastors
Anyone
57. 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
58. Talkers Talk Face-to-Face
“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
59. Passion for your school
Credibility among their peers
Connections at your school and in the
community
Opportunity to be involved
60. New parents can be the best resources for
your school to reach out to their previous
school, church, neighborhood or other group.
61. 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
62. 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
63. 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
67. A Great School Will Create WOM
“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
69. 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
70. 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
71. Produce Great Content
“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
72. “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
74. “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
76. We live in a story.
We relate to stories.
We listen to stories.
We can see ourselves in a story.
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
77. “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
78. 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
82. Leadership Website
Faculty and Staff SEO
Parents Blog
Alumni Email newsletter
Ambassadors Social media
Referral generation Photos
Customer service Video
Personal conversations Online reviews
Group meetings
People Tools Web-Based Tools
84. The most effective way to spread word of
mouth is through face-to-face conversations.
© 2011 Cherry+Company
86. Talkers Talk Face-to-Face
“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
87. 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
88. 1. New love is powerful
2. Love and money don’t mix
3. Nobody talks more than a lover’s scorn
90. Retention is the responsibility of every faculty
and staff member at your school:
◦ Performance
◦ Relationships
◦ Quality
◦ Communication
◦ Service
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
91. #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
92. “The brand on the outside is only
as strong as the brand on the inside.”
– Karl Speak, President, Beyond Marketing Thought
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
93. #2 – You have the opportunity and
responsibility to turn negative conversations
and gossip into positive brand moments.
Faculty & Staff
Parents &
Administrators
Students
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
94. #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
95. #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
96. #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
97. #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
98. #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
99. #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
100. #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
102. Since your parents are the best marketers for
your school, it is important to give them tools
to share.
104. Card sent to parents
at Wheaton Christian
Grammar School
106. Give away items that have your school’s
brand on them:
◦ T-shirts
◦ Coffee mugs
◦ Car magnets
◦ Grocery bags
◦ Gym towels
© 2012 Enrollment Catalyst
111. 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
113. 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.
114. “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
116. 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.
117. 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
118. 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)
120. 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!
124. 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
126. Programs
◦ Academics, Athletics, Arts, Service, Technology,
Faith, Character
People
◦ Students, Parents, Leadership, Faculty, Staff,
Coaches, Alumni
Results
145. “I am CDS” allows you to click on a child’s
face to read their story
178. 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!
180. 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.
199. 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
200. Pictures with captions and stories
Blog posts
Video vignettes
Ask for likes
Ask questions
Summer vacation pictures
201. 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.
217. 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
218. 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?”
219. 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
220. 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
226. Video tells the story from a student’s perspective
of the 10 things they love about Deerfield
230. • Homepage provides dropdown
menus and special features
• The Current Online Magazine
is in the format of a mini
website.
237. 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.
249. We can find online reviews about our school
on a variety of sites including:
◦ Private School Review
◦ School Digger
◦ Google
◦ Yelp
◦ Great Schools
© 2011 Cherry+Company
253. 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
254. 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
255. Competitor Keyword Research
◦ Go to their website
◦ Right click; view source
256. Every page of your website should have a
unique title that is reflective of the content
and keywords used on the respective page.
259. • The CSF website does not have unique
page titles or meta page descriptions for
search engine optimization.
260. Canterbury website description in a Google search:
261. 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.
263. 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).
265. 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
267. 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
269. 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
270. 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
272. 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
273. 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.
© 2009 Cherry+Company
274. Actually, this is the beginning for
you to go and implement
effective word of mouth and
web-based marketing strategies
at your school.
275. 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