In this session, Megan Ullmann joined Michael Barber and Ashley MacQuarrie to discuss specific enrollment marketing tactics for schools in that growth phase—years 2-7. They spoke about hosting events, analyzing academic data, using social media and Google search ads, and establishing a stronger “ground game” presence in the community.

Join the experts as they answer all your questions live on Thursdays on YouTube at 10am PT / 12pm CT / 1pm ET. Charter School Capital – YouTube

Read the Full Transcript:

Michael B. (00:16):

Hi, everyone, and welcome to our weekly Thursday series on all things enrollment marketing. My name is Michael Barber and I am joined by my ever-present co-host, Ashley MacQuarrie. Ashley, how are you today?

Ashley M. (00:31):

Doing well. How are you, Michael?

Michael B. (00:31):

I’m well, thanks for always coming in to duties on a weekly basis with us. We’re also joined by a new face, Megan Ullmann. Megan, welcome to the program.

Megan U. (00:41):

Hi, Michael. Thank you. Happy to be here.

Michael B. (00:44):

Thank you for being here. Do you want to take a quick second and just introduce yourself to all of our viewers this morning?

Megan U. (00:51):

Sure. My name’s Megan Ullmann. I’m a project manager, Charter School Capital, and work on the enrollment marketing team. This is my third season.

Michael B. (01:00):

Awesome. Well, thanks for joining us. We asked Megan to come chat with us specifically today because you’ll recall over the last couple of weeks, we’ve talked about different tips and tactics for schools depending upon the stage of growth that we are in. We often refer to schools in three stages of growth. Our startup schools, those could be year zeros or you’re just in the concepting phase of your school through about year two. Your growth phases. That year two, three period through about year six, seven, eight, and then our mature schools at about year seven or eight and beyond. Last week, we focused on our startup schools. This week, we’ll focus on our growth schools and Megan has some incredible experience there so we’ve asked her to come in to have a chat about specific tactics that school leaders could use as their schools are in that growth phase.

(01:53):

Megan, I’m going to allow you to just tee it up for us and answer that question. What are some key tactics or tips that school leaders can be using to drive enrollment as they enter that sort of two to seven year period of growth for their school?

Megan U. (02:11):

Well, as you know, a lot of the foundation is kind of late in that first year with helping a school get to know their voice and doing some kind of foundational things like building out a website or creating print collateral for them, working on logo, branding, maybe helping with the tagline. While there’s a lot of successful programs that we can do in that first year, it really gets interesting in that second and third year, even fourth year for a school I’m working with because I’ll take work and take that foundation and just enhance their presence in each market.

Michael B. (02:59):

Yeah, it’s such a good idea there in terms of getting them started. As they mature into that year two and beyond phase, obviously things are going to become more important. Things like events, things like your ground game. What are some things specifically related to events and ground game that school leaders can think about as they’re growing?

Megan U. (03:21):

Yeah, events is a good one because while they might have touched on that a little bit in their market, we can help them figure out where to be because we have a better sense of their market, who’s responding to them. Depending on where they are, we could help them set up tabling events at farmers’ markets or sporting events or malls, movie theaters, and we can also help expand what that event presence looks like. Sometimes, schools will just start with a six-foot banquet table with some flyers on top, but we can elevate that for them with some branding. If it’s a pop-up tent, depending on where they go, we could brand that. We could set them up with a branded tablecloth linen. We could help with some talking points to help some school staff put on a marketing hat and help steer their messaging a little bit.

Michael B. (04:25):

Yeah, it sounds like the opportunity, especially when you’re in those growth phases is to get more sophisticated, is to start thinking about how you bring that brand to life, maybe some events that you might have not thought about before and just showing up in a more sophisticated way. Is that sort of the case that you’re recommending to school leaders is as they’ve got that brand under control, they’ve built it up to a level where they can start doing more sophisticated events, more sophisticated opportunities?

Megan U. (04:56):

Absolutely, and we’re working with a couple schools right now who are repeat schools, where we’re actually exploring the opportunity of doing a brand ambassador internship where we might hire somebody who’s an alum from the school and they can hit the streets and go out and distribute collateral or stickers, where they know that their potential prospective students and families will be. It works really well with high schools in particular because high school students and recent graduates know where high school kids hang out so that’s something fun we’re exploring with.

Michael B. (05:40):

That’s such a good idea to think about your students and your kids and activating them in interesting ways potentially when it comes to events and your ground game. Because obviously if they’ve had a successful experience with you, and I’m making an assumption here that school leaders are going to find those kids that have had big, impactful, positive experiences at their schools, they become incredible brand ambassadors for their schools, correct?

Megan U. (06:08):

Absolutely. Really, somebody who’s been at the school or works at the school is probably the best person to talk about that school, but we can still help curate that experience and give some talking points and encourage and educate people on how to engage with the public.

Michael B. (06:31):

For sure.

Megan U. (06:31):

A lot of we do is digital marketing, which has been really successful, but I think we never underestimate the power of parents’ word of mouth, high school students’ word of mouth.

Michael B. (06:47):

I mean, word of mouth across the board is going to be incredible for schools, nevermind any other type of it or organization and how you activate that, whether it’s in the ground game or digitally on review sites and whatnot. It’s certainly an area that schools need to pay attention to.

(07:04):

Thinking about activating in a digital way, Ashley, Megan did such a good job of bringing ideas to life for school leaders as they’re going through this growth phase. But obviously school leaders have got to get more sophisticated when it comes to their digital efforts as they’re growing. What should school leaders be thinking about as they start to get into that two, three, four, five year period when it comes to digital efforts that they’re doing to drive kids into their schools?

Ashley M. (07:36):

Well, by a couple of years in, you should have some data. I think we touched on this the first week that we started talking about this. You have some data, and if you don’t have data, then that’s something that you need to start paying attention to is like how are people finding your website? What areas are they coming from? If somebody submits an application, are you starting to see trends of specific zip codes that they’re coming from? Are you starting to see that maybe you’re reaching a new population that maybe you didn’t even know about? Maybe people are coming to you from a new area that you weren’t specifically targeting. Maybe there’s an opportunity there, maybe word of mouth is getting out in that area. Looking at that data, tracking it, and then making decisions about how you’re going to grow your visibility in these areas, what’s working? What’s not working? Maybe there are things that you’ve been spending on that you don’t need to focus on because they’re not really having an impact for you, but maybe you’ll learn that maybe other things are working.

(08:38):

There are definitely other more sophisticated digital advertising tactics that we can do. We might start out with very basic social media ads and very basic Google Search ads, but we will learn what kind of ads people resonate with will. We also will maybe have opportunities for things like display ads that re-target people who have maybe engaged with you somewhere, maybe have visited your website and then we can show them an ad on another website somewhere else while they’re browsing. There are things that we can do as you start to drive more traffic to your website, as people engage with your ads more, as people enroll in your school, you can use that and use what’s working and what you’ve learned to expand your efforts.

Michael B. (09:27):

It feels like you’re both hitting on a common theme here, which is the level of sophistication that you can start to do when you get to year two, three and four and beyond, right? Hopefully, as a school, you’re less concerned about making sure that you’ve got at least the minimum amount of kids in the door and in that growth phase trying to grow your enrollment and it’s starting to get more sophisticated both on any of the ground game efforts, your community building, your digital marketing. It’s all about starting to refine those things, given you know where those kids are getting interested in your school and what’s ultimately converting for the school as well.

Ashley M. (10:02):

Yeah, and you should have, to Megan’s point about leveraging your students and your alums at events. I mean, you can do the same with your content, so publishing consistent content, updating your website frequently, highlighting, publishing on social media. Often, some of the best content that you can share is about the people who make your school special, so your teachers, your staff members and your students and alumni, and so looking for opportunities to highlight them now that you should have, hopefully, some people who’ve had great experiences with your school, maybe opportunities for PR to highlight an alum who’s doing something great or a counselor who’s won an award or things like that. There might be more opportunities for that kind of thing a few years in.

Michael B. (10:50):

Yeah, just hitting on the PR thing, I think we just worked with a school who was launching a new program. Micanopy. Am I saying that correctly?

Ashley M. (10:58):

Yeah, that’s right. Micanopy.

Michael B. (11:00):

Micanopy. Sorry, I have never been there and I at least didn’t totally butcher the name. Micanopy had launched a new program and turned to us for some help with some PR efforts, and we got some placement in local media, which can be, as your school’s growing, either one of you talk to just how school leaders can start to build relationships with the reporters or local publications? What do you see school leaders doing there? Either one of you, either Megan or Ashley, any thoughts there?

Megan U. (11:35):

What do you think, Ashley?

Ashley M. (11:37):

Well, one thing I can say is that your agency, if you’re working with us, if you’re working with another marketing agency or a PR agency, they can help you find those opportunities. They can figure out okay, what reporters cover education in your area? Where should we pitch our story to? But it’s really the school leader that should have that relationship with those reporters because that’s going to be something that you can maintain over time and you’re going to have somebody that you can reach out to and say, “Hey, we’re having an event. Why don’t you come on out to your local radio station or a TV station?” I know that especially in smaller communities, smaller community publications, you have a pretty good shot of getting somebody to come out if you’re having an ice cream social or a big game or something like that. They’re looking for stories, and so if you have that relationship with local reporters, they can get you some attention.

Michael B. (12:32):

Yeah, certainly a very good play, for sure. Anything to add there, Megan? I saw you starting to talk.

Megan U. (12:38):

Yeah, I was just going to add, depending on how active the school is in their community with partnerships and programs, I think that could also turn into a story, depending on what that relationship looks like and how much a school is doing for giving back.

Ashley M. (12:56):

Yeah.

Michael B. (12:58):

Yeah, and also thinking about maybe your school has the executive director or the school leaders, maybe a teacher that’s a thought leader in a specific space relates to school challenges like teacher attention and whatnot. Those could be areas where you could potentially offer some perspectives as well for reporters as they’re looking for sources.

Ashley M. (13:20):

Yeah.

Michael B. (13:20):

Well, I want to be respectful of time. We always go over on our usual commitment of 10 minutes, and we are plenty over at this moment and feel like we’ve done some good work this morning on providing some tips and tactics for schools that are in that growth mode. I’m going to say thank you to Megan for joining us. I hope you’ll come back again in the near future and have a conversation about other tips we could provide for school leaders. And as always, a big thanks to Ashley for joining us every week. Thanks, y’all.

Megan U. (13:48):

Thank you.

With week seven under our belt, we are close to the finish line of the 2023 Legislative Session. Below is a brief summary of activities that took place at the Capitol last week — including education and charter school-related bills that moved forward. If you have any questions, contact Ralph Arza who leads the FCSA advocacy team.

State Budget

The only requirement of the Florida Legislature is to pass a balanced budget. Formal negotiations/Budget Conference between the Florida Senate and House begins Tuesday, April 25. The budget will need to be agreed upon and published by Tuesday, May 2 for the session to officially close on May 5, 2023.

LocalTax Revenue Share

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved SB 1328, a bill that would require school districts to share revenues from local tax collections with charter schools. The bill is now headed to the Senate floor for a vote.

School Board Elections

A proposed constitutional amendment that seeks to shift to holding partisan school board elections passed the Senate last week and now heads to voters. The proposal would need support from 60% of voters next year to pass.

School Board Term Limits

HB 477 would impose eight-year term limits on school board members. The bill passed the House and is headed to the Senate floor.

Social Media Bans

The Senate approved HB 379 which would ban TikTok, Snapchat, Twitter and other social media platforms on public school devices and require schools to teach students about the dangers of the Internet. Next stop: Governor’s desk for signature.

State Board of Education meeting on April 19, 2023:

Middle/High Schools and Gender identity

The State Board of Education voted to bar middle and high school teachers from “intentionally” teaching students about sexual orientation or gender identity unless the lessons are part of a reproductive health course or are “expressly required” by the state’s academic standards. The Florida Department of Education is revising the state’s civics academic standards and textbooks. The standards would need to be followed by teachers in order to comply with requirements regarding discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity. More here.

CTE program update

Thirteen new career and technical education (CTE) curriculum programs for the 2023-24 school year were adopted. The courses will expand access to high-wage, in-demand jobs for Florida’s high school and Florida College System students.

Click here to see approved amendments and all action items from the recent State Board of Education meeting.

In this session, Karen Shih joined Michael Barber and Ashley MacQuarrie to discuss enrollment marketing tips for start-up schools. They discussed how, at the start-up stage, focusing on building awareness is essential—things like deciding on brand elements and beginning to build an online presence.

Join the experts as they answer all your questions live on Thursdays on YouTube at 10am PT / 12pm CT / 1pm ET. Charter School Capital – YouTube

Read the Full Transcript:

Michael:

Hi everyone. Welcome to all things enrollment marketing for charter leaders. My name is Michael Barber and I’m joined by my weekly co-host Ashley MacQuarrie. Ashley, how’s it going?

Ashley:

It’s going well. How are you, Michael?

Michael:

I’m good. Thanks so much for asking. We’re also joined by someone who I believe, Karen, this is your second time on our Thursday chats, correct?

Karen:

It’s my first time, actually.

Michael:

It’s your first time?

Karen:

Yes.

Michael:

I feel like you’re an alum. Why do I feel like you’re an alum? Oh, well, my mistake. First time joining us, Karen, can you just take two seconds and introduce yourself to our YouTube subscribers?

Karen:

Hi, nice to see you. I’m Karen Shih. I’m a project manager here at CSC on the enrollment marketing team. Nice to be here.

Michael:

Awesome. Well, we appreciate you being here even if it is your first, or maybe in my head, second or third time, whatever it may be, but thank you for taking the time to join us. We are going to talk all things startup schools today, and we look at schools in three different phases of growth, startup and then growing and sustainable maturity as the three phases of growth. And if you think of different years in terms of how long schools have been around, we’re talking our year zero through about year two ish when we consider startup schools. So all our questions today are going to be on startup schools, what they can do to help drive enrollment. I’ll start the conversation there. What are the tactics or the things that school leaders that are either starting their school or about a year or two into their journey as school leaders need to do? I’ll turn it over to Karen first for some thoughts.

Karen:

Thank you. So I feel like these startup schools have some really unique challenges. They don’t have name recognition yet. They’re moving into a new building, all new staff. So I think getting your name out there, getting some credibility is really important. And I think I would start with having a website and some social media presence and updating them on a regular basis to get your name out there.

Michael:

And Karen, before we started, you mentioned one creative idea from a school that we worked with in the past. Can you talk about some of the community engagement that’s required and maybe some creative ideas for how you can connect with people that are in… If your school is a physical location, how you can connect with your community to try and increase the number of kids you’re serving?

Karen:

Sure. Yeah. So this idea I was sharing with Michael is something one of my schools did. It was really successful. They went to apartment complexes that were near the location where the school was going to be and had pizza parties. So they would ahead of time post flyers at the apartment complex, of course with the support of the management at the apartments. And then they would have an information session where people could come meet the school leaders, maybe the principal, some of the teachers who were already engaged with the school, hear about what programs they were going to have at the school and what was going to be special about this school. And then they made it really easy for people to sign up on the spot. So having the paperwork you need, having an iPad there, just making it really simple for people to show that they’re interested or if they’re ready to sign up, do it right then.

Michael:

Yeah, such great ideas to think about. You’ve got to engage, especially when you’ve got a physical location, engaging that community that’s surrounded by your school. Ashley, I’ll turn these two questions over to you. We’ll start first with tips and tricks for startup schools that they can use for their enrollment efforts. Anything to add beyond what Karen said?

Ashley:

Yeah, and I think just what you kind of added, it’s just so important to get out in the community around your school. A lot of times more mature schools, they might find that maybe as the years go on, they’re attracting students from other areas, their community is changing. But as a brand new school, you probably want to just start with a radius around your location once you’ve identified that and just get out in the community and make people aware that there’s a school here now. I mean, that could be as simple as signage and yard signs, giving yard signs to families when they enroll, if they have a place to put them and we’re putting them around the neighborhood. Flyering or door hangers or a direct mail postcard to a really targeted area around your neighborhood could also be a good idea to just get that visibility.

Michael:

Beyond the social media profiles and making sure that you’ve got obviously, your website and those social profiles secured, even if you’re not using it right, probably a good tip I should say, for a startup school to at least go secure those profiles so nobody takes advantage of them in the future. But in thinking about what else a school leader might be thinking about when they’re starting a school beyond… The school flyers are always going to require logos and things like that as a startup school. So what are you thinking in terms of graphic design and brand? How much focus needs to be on those elements for a startup school?

Karen:

I think it’s really important to have something really solid. I would hire a professional to create that logo, I would say, and then have colors and fonts and use them consistently on your website, on your flyers, all your signage, everything that you’re doing. I think it helps build credibility for your school if you’re staying consistent and look really professional with those things.

Michael:

For sure. Anything to add there, Ashley?

Ashley:

No, I was just reflecting. I think for every new school that we’ve started with, they had someplace to start, maybe even just a logo that the executive director found or made in Canva, but I think we’ve done some of that brand work for all of them to help them really hone in on those colors. Or maybe they just had a really basic website and we kind of helped to build it out. So if you can get some help to do that, because I mean, I know a lot of times starting these schools, it’s just one passionate person at first. But to Karen’s point, it really can make a big difference. So even just defining your brand colors and building your brand guide in a tool like Canva could help you stay on track.

Michael:

For sure. So step one, as I’m hearing it, is make sure you at least start with just the brand basics. So logo, pick your colors, make sure that they’re working well. We’ve actually got a couple episodes ago had one of our graphic designers, Nikki, talk all about best practices. I’d encourage you to go take a look at that video. Next step, as Karen alluded to, make sure you secure that url, build a website, and then secure those social profiles as well, even if you’re not going to use them just so that you have access to them in the future. What about engaging your advocates? Even as a startup school, you’re going to have a board. Especially as you get into year one and year two, you’re going to have parents that could be vocal advocates for you or even community members that may be contributing to the school. I’m going to turn this question initially over to Ashley. How can you leverage those relationships to help drive enrollment for the first couple years of your school?

Ashley:

Yeah, I think those people are so important, especially in the first year because you probably don’t have students. We love student highlights. We love photos of students having fun and living out the school’s mission on site, but you probably don’t have those at least in that first year. So it’s really important to create content or create videos of the founder, maybe founding families about why they’re excited about this school, maybe board members, and really leverage why they’re passionate, why this school is being founded, and perhaps if the people who founded the school have a background with other successful schools, you can leverage some of that name recognition. I mean, that’s huge because that’s probably the best advocates that you have at that point.

Michael:

And question, I know obviously one of the big tools that parents use is search engines. And naturally when a school starts, or as it’s going through that startup phase, it’s going to get listed on places like Great Schools, on review sites. It’s going to have hopefully a listing on Google Maps. So Karen, asking you, how important is it for school leaders to pay attention to places like Great Schools or review sites like Google that are on Google Maps or Google Reviews? Do startup schools need to be paying attention to those? What’s some thoughts there?

Karen:

I’m glad you brought that up. I think it’s really important for schools to be checking them on a regular basis. Some of them, you can claim your profile and then you have the ability to curate what’s showing up there. For instance, on Google Maps, it’s called Google My Business, and you can add your own photos. You can add information about your school. You can have little announcements that pop up and that’s free, and it’s all things that you as a school leader can have control over. Sometimes people are going to make reviews of your school, and so you want to be up on those and maybe comment on them. If people are really positive ones, sometimes it might be a negative one, but you need to be aware of what’s out there and respond.

Michael:

Yeah, I think that’s such an important thing, is that response, right? Knowing what people are saying about you taking the time to respond. There’s plenty of research out there that I know all of us have seen that say no response is often worse in the eyes of someone who is looking at reviews than a bad response from a customer or parent or student in this case and then you actually taking the time as a school leader to respond in a thoughtful and hopefully approachable manner to potentially those negative reviews. And also positive reviews. All of these reviews should be acknowledged by the school, both negative and positive, just to build that goodwill so that when you are asking for reviews, people see that you’re taking the time to respond to them.

I want to ask a question that’s slightly out of left field and get some thoughts here. And it may be a quick answer. But when it comes to social media, obviously you have an enormous amount of kids that these schools are serving are on social media. They’re on the likes of TikTok, they’re on potentially Snapchat, and a fewer of them are probably are on Instagram depending upon what their passions are. Have you seen a school potentially leverage students to help drive word of mouth for their school, particularly for a startup school? Like any high school programs that are out there where they’re engaging potentially some of their students to help create content or act on behalf of the school and their social media profiles?

Karen:

I think that that’s something that happens definitely in high school settings. I think that there’ll be clubs and maybe classes at the school that are going to have social media accounts. And that’s a great way for kids leverage social media. Yeah. A lot of these high school students are really good at creating content and sharing it. So I think that’s a fabulous idea.

Michael:

Yeah, I wonder how high schools could take advantage of that content if it is positive or at least shows off the school in an impactful way to leverage that content for just helping get the message out about that school. So just an idea I would love to see more schools take advantage of because certainly all that content’s being created out there.

Karen:

Yeah, it’s so easy. I would recommend that the school follow all these other tangent accounts related to their school. And when they see something that’s really positive, they can share it in their Instagram stories, and then they can even create highlights in their Instagram if they have things that they want people to be able to see ongoing.

Michael:

For sure. Yeah. Such a good tip to leverage all of those little features that these social media networks have. All right. Well, we’re 13 minutes into our usual 10 minute chat. So I’m going to wrap it up and just say thank you to Ashley and Karen for joining me on, this is I believe our 15th episode. Every Thursday we’re here for 10 minutes at 10:00 AM Pacific, 1:00 PM Eastern.

Next week, we’re coming to you two days early because there are two members on this YouTube live that will not be available on Thursday. So you will see Ashley and myself on Tuesday next week. I believe that’s the 25th or the 26th. Let’s make sure I get my dates right. It is the 25th at 10:00 AM Pacific, 1:00 PM Eastern. We’ll be back here for another conversation on all things enrollment, marketing, and next week we’re going to talk about schools as they grow. So what do you do after startup? What are the more sophisticated marketing tactics or new channels or things that school leaders have to be thinking about as they transition from that startup phase into more of a growth phase?

And with that, I’ll say thank you one last time to Karen for joining us for the first time. And Ashley, as always, for joining us every single week. We’ll see you next Tuesday. Thanks everyone.

Ashley:

Thanks.

Karen:

Thank you.

Texas Legislative Updates

Texas public charter schools serve 375,000 students, with 66,000 more on waiting lists. Texas’ 88th Legislative Session convened on Tuesday, January 10, 2023, providing charter advocates the opportunity to make legislative changes that improve the charter footprint in the state. Lawmakers filed several charter bills this session, which will Sine Die on Monday, May 29, 2023, and below is a list of bills that have become a priority as the regular session winds down.

Senate Bill 472: Relating to the applicability of certain laws to open-enrollment charter schools.

Background—Over the last few years, cities have denied and delayed building permits for public charter schools even after the Texas Education Agency approves new charters or expansions. In fact, the Dallas City Council voted for a charter moratorium in 2016, and no new charters have been built in Dallas since. SB 472, which is making progress in both chambers, would require cities to treat charter facilities like Independent School Districts, meaning the same permitting and building codes that apply to ISDs would apply to public charter schools. There is opposition to SB 472, which will lead to a fight to get it passed before the deadline. The House companion bill is HB 1707.

House Bill 1572: Relating to instructional facilities funding for certain open-enrollment charter schools.

Background—Qualifying public charter schools share a fixed $60M charter facility appropriation. One goal for this session is to change the facility appropriation to a per-student allotment, which would help charter operators budget for facilities by knowing the exact amount they will receive from the state. Even if it passes, it is unclear how much of an increase charters will receive because, historically, a fight ensues when they request additional funding. The Senate companion bill is SB 1722.

House Bill 2102: Relating to the establishment of a new open-enrollment charter school.

Background—This bill would expand the timeline for expansion amendments from 18 months to 36 months, allowing charter facilities more time to build. With the legislative session nearing the finish line, getting it passed in the Senate will be tight.

House Bill 2890: Relating to the approval of open-enrollment charter schools.

Background—Texas has one of the nation’s most rigorous charter application processes, and one hurdle for new applicants is getting past the State Board of Education (SBOE) veto. HB 2890 would raise the SBOE veto requirement from a simple majority to a supermajority.

Check out more and Subscribe to Amanda List TX Legislative Updates here.

Congratulations—you’ve started your charter school! The start-up stage is exciting and full of potential. It’s common to feel overwhelmed during this phase, but learning from others can make all the difference.

Charter schools fall within three main growth stages: start-up, growth, and sustainable maturity. These stages are defined by years in operation and the number of students served. Each phase presents unique challenges and best practices. In this post, we’ll be exploring tips for the start-up phase.

The Start-Up Phase

The start-up phase includes the very first tasks required to form a charter school: hiring, launching, and running until 10–25% of your target enrollment has been achieved. Without a doubt, this is the most challenging and stressful stage for charter school leaders.

If you’re in this stage now and you’re feeling overwhelmed, you’re not alone. The good news is there are opportunities for growth in this stage, and you’ll want to identify them early. The following tips come from charter leaders who have grown beyond the start-up stage.

1. Study and meet with schools that are doing things well.

How are other schools helping their students achieve academic success? Are there ways to adapt those tactics to your curriculum? You can learn a lot, and it’s always a good idea to maintain positive relationships with other educators.

2. Master a few things and do them really well.

Don’t try to be a master of everything—it’s impossible! Have a strong outline of the implementation plan proposed in the charter petition. What are your goals in the first few years? It’s better to have a plan and be straightforward about incremental goals than to promise a lot of things you can’t follow through on.

3. Build genuine and robust relationships.

With parents, teachers, leaders, vendors, and external constituents—have the intention to never, ever create an enemy. Always be honest and genuine, even with your detractors. Foster strong relationships with your vendors and with businesses that could become your vendors later on. You’ll have emergencies and you’ll need things you hadn’t planned on in a hurry. Vendors will be more likely to come through in a pinch if they already feel personally connected with your school.

4. Pay close attention to student progress data.

Everyone will want to see the data, and you may not have much of it at the beginning. Think about the data you do have and how you can report it in the most compelling, meaningful way possible.

In addition to the metrics you track to maintain your charter and to report to regulators, find out what’s meaningful to parents and report that out: attendance, time-to-completion, classroom hours, pages read, math problems solved, miles run.

Make sure to share the data with students, too.

5. Pay close attention to the budget.

As needs change and shift, review the budget and make sure it aligns with your goals. Always plan for the worst-case scenario and have a plan for dealing with cash flow issues. Build a solid relationship with your financial partners; treat your budget as a living document; and know how you’ll pay for everything. Above all: never miss payroll.

6. Don’t waiver in your belief or mission!

It’s likely that you will encounter many people who will try to convince you to change your mission and vision to suit their specific needs. You can’t please everyone! Your mission and vision should serve as your guideposts when you’re faced with tough decisions; they shouldn’t be the thing you modify every time you’re faced with a tough decision.

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Building a Budget for Your Start-up Charter School

Starting and running a school is a challenging task, and ensuring financial stability requires careful planning and management. According to The Center for Education Reform, 42% of charter school failures within the first three years were due to finances, making it imperative to establish a solid budget from the outset. Read on to discover best […]

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How to Thrive in the Sustainable Maturity Stage: Advice from Charter School Leaders

Charter schools tend to fall within three main growth stages: start-up, growth, and sustainable maturity. These stages are defined by years in operation and the number of students served, and each phase presents unique challenges and best practices. Schools that have reached sustainable maturity are at 90 – 100% of target enrollment. They are focused […]

Free Download

Charter School Budget Guide

To help you achieve your goals, we’ve put together this informative and thorough guide to share best practices and call out common pitfalls to avoid. Over the past decade, we’ve reviewed thousands of charter school budgets and helped guide countless schools through their charter school financing processes.

Get the Guide

In this session, Michael Barber and Ashley MacQuarrie discussed how to market your school at all stages of growth: the start-up stage, the growth stage, and the sustainable maturity stage. They discuss how, at the start-up stage, awareness is key. In the growth stage, it’s time to prioritize building out your website and utilizing the data you have to inform your marketing strategies. The maturity stage can be dedicated to highlighting your achievements, such as adding new grades or expanding our facilities.

Join the experts as they answer all your questions live on Thursdays on YouTube at 10am PT / 12pm CT / 1pm ET. Charter School Capital – YouTube

Read Full Transcript:

Michael B (00:19):
Hi everyone, and welcome to our all things enrollment marketing, YouTube Live Weekly. I am Michael Barber and I’m joined by my fearless co-host, Ashley Macquarie. Ashley, how are you doing this week?

Ashley M. (00:29):
Doing well. How are you, Michael?

Michael B (00:31):
I’m doing well. It’s been a long week, I think for everyone. It feels like the post spring break, post Easter push towards the summer, and I’m feeling a little pace around the company, so it’s been a long but a good week. But I’m doing all right. It’s good to have you here again. We are going to hop right in. As a reminder, we meet every week here on YouTube and our YouTube channel to talk all things enrollment marketing. If you’re joining us, please feel free to drop your questions into the chat. It should be located if you’re on the app right below the fold, and if you’re on youtube.com on your browser, then it’ll be on the right hand side of the window over here. So feel free to ask any questions. We do this every single week. This is episode 13 or 14, which I mean, this year is flying by, but we want to get into it. We’ve got 10 minutes to talk all things enrollment marketing, and today we’re going to talk about, I think, a really fun topic.
(01:33):
What marketing tactics do you need to worry about at different phases of growth for your school? At Charter School Capital, we think of schools in three different phases of growth; startup, your growing stage, and then your sustainable stage. So your startup stage is that year zero school through year one. That growing or growth stage is two through about year five, and then your sustainable stage is five to 10 years plus. I’m going to ask Ashley some tactics that we should be thinking about as school leaders. We will start right at our year zero schools. Ashley, what are the tactics that schools need to be thinking about in their startup phase?

Ashley M. (02:12):
For a startup school, I mean if we think about our marketing funnel, it starts with awareness and then engagement, conversion, retention. And for a startup, you’re really thinking about awareness. Nobody knows who you are. You do need to be able to engage with leads as they start coming in and convert them to enrolled students so that you have students when you open. But the first step, you have to get your name out there. You need those elements in place so that you can get out into the market. You might need your logo, some basic branding, a website, but maybe you don’t have a ton of content on it, but it just kind of tells a little bit of your story and a way for people to get in touch with you. Then you’re really getting out in the community, finding your audience.
(03:02):
You’re probably getting crisp on your positioning, your differentiators, starting to develop your voice, and you probably did some of that when you applied for a charter or found your board members and maybe you would be leveraging those board members and really just getting out there. So big awareness tactics. We’ve done things like radio. If you have a building, then just making the neighborhood aware that, “Hey, there’s a school here now,” with some signage. And then just maybe getting out in the neighborhood if you think that your families are going to come from that area, then flyers and door hangers, maybe postcards, and then just getting out maybe at neighborhood events like farmer’s markets or block parties, things like that. You just have to get out there and make people aware that you’re an option now.

Michael B (03:50):
Should schools be worried about a big splash on social media? I mean, I know as a startup school you’re going to want to make sure that you go secure your handles right, but how much investment, whether it’s money or time, should schools be making in that zero to one phase within social media?

Ashley M. (04:09):
Yeah, I mean, it’s definitely important. You got to secure your handles for sure. So you are activating your social media and probably starting to post, but you may not have a lot of content to be posting. Certainly we’ve seen schools do some Facebook advertising to try to get some awareness and leads, but they’re usually a little bit less targeted. It is more just about showing ads to the people in your neighborhood who maybe fit the general demographics. Absolutely Google ads. We always do Google ads and social ads for any school, whether they’re what we call a year zero or a more mature school, but you may not be as active on social media as you might be later on when you have a school full of kids and you want to talk all about everything that’s going on in your school.

Michael B (05:00):
And also, probably good to think about if you’ve got a board member or a parent that’s thinking about joining your school, maybe helping allow them to activate on your social channel so it doesn’t feel like such a burden on your school as you’re thinking about all the other things of getting your mission and vision in place, creating the curriculum, hiring teachers, finding the facility, all the things you have to do in that startup mode.
(05:23):
Let’s move on to that growth phase. So year two to year five, more sophisticated team, likely you’re starting to grow your school. Enrollment is increasing. Where should our investment dollars start to go from a marketing tactics perspective? Are we reinvesting in the website to make it more sophisticated? Are we potentially investing in new things? Where do we go as we’re growing our school?

Ashley M. (05:49):
Yeah, definitely. Certainly building out the website more, spending a little bit more time on SEO. Hopefully when you built your website, you put in some kind of basic keywords, but now you’ve got some data. You’ve got people who are visiting your website. You have hopefully an audience on social media. You can learn a little bit about what people are engaging with online as well as now you kind of have families in your school, and so you know how they heard about you, you know how new families are finding you, and you can use that data to try new things in marketing or keep doing what’s working. So doing those kinds of things.
(06:31):
People may already kind of know about you, so it’s more about getting them to come meet you where you are. So it might be about doing a lot of in-person events and things like that at your school to get people in the building so that they can meet your staff, meet other families, leveraging your existing families for referrals, profiling your staff, and you can maybe do more sophisticated online advertising, like some remarketing. So reaching people who have maybe engaged with you online before and then showing the ads later elsewhere on the web. Or even doing re-enrollment type campaigns with maybe families who have left your school or families who applied but didn’t end up enrolling. You can start doing things like that that maybe weren’t an option when you didn’t have students yet.

Michael B (07:22):
Yeah, I think there’s so many good points there. I want to emphasize one you made and that’s continuing to invest in your website. I think one of the things you and I always see and our team sees regularly is just I think school leaders think you sort of put it on the shelf, you put it up, it’s good to go, stays there, and it’s going to continue to pay dividends, and that just is not the case by any stretch of the imagination. You also have to keep in mind that the parents and students that we’re serving these days, this is a sophisticated digital audience in some cases, right? Every time they go to a website that they perceive as better, easier, insert whatever adjective, they don’t just change their expectations of what your school’s website’s going to be for them, do they?

Ashley M. (08:09):
Yeah. No, absolutely. We’ve been asked that too. How often do I need to be completely overhauling my website? And if you’re in those years two to four, it might be about time. Certainly you want more content and you’ll want to be continually investing and improving in it, but by year four, it might be time for a brand new theme or moving to a more sophisticated platform that allows you to do more. The other piece of it is getting your processes in place. So early on when you’re just trying to get as many leads as possible and you’re just maybe a small team following up on them, that’s okay, that probably got some kids in the door. But in order to really grow, do you have a way to manage leads? Maybe you need to look at a CRM to help you manage leads as they’re coming in and make sure that you’re not losing kids along the way because of poor communication or poor processes.

Michael B (09:03):
Such good insights there. Okay. That’s the growth stage. We talked about startup to begin with. We went to growth. Let’s talk maturity. So your year five and above, you have likely leveled off at an enrollment number that is steady for your program. You might be thinking about adding a grade to grow enrollment, right? There could be a lot of things that are happening. As you get into that maturity phase, what do we have to be thinking about from a marketing perspective? What are some of the more sophisticated tactics that you’re seeing? Are we starting to talk about retention activities, those sorts of things?

Ashley M. (09:37):
Yeah, definitely. Definitely retention. That’s huge. You may have had had some classes graduate, and so you need to be replacing those classes. Retention too. Staff might be leaving at this point, and that can mean that that families leave with them. So that communication and continuing to provide that great school experience is really important. How’s your reputation? You might be needing to do a little bit more active reputation management, whether that’s online reviews and trying to get more positive reviews and referrals, or maybe doing some proactive PR about what you’ve been doing. A lot of times at this stage, maybe there are exciting changes, like adding a grade, moving to a new building or expanding your building. Those can be great things to market around because that’s exciting.
(10:27):
But the key here is if you’ve been around this long, people probably know about you, and so it’s less about, “Hey, we are an option,” and more about, “Here’s why you should choose us.” Because they’ve already heard about you, but maybe they haven’t engaged with you or maybe they’ve kind of written your school off or haven’t really considered you, so how can you get in front of them and convince them to enroll in your school?

Michael B (10:52):
Yeah, such good insights there. So we talked about today, let’s do a little recap. We are going to wrap it up at our 10 minute mark, which would be the first time, I think in 17 episodes or 14 episodes that we’ve wrapped in 10 minutes. I want to try and stand on this promise of being only 10 minutes. But we talked about different growth stages and what school leaders should be thinking about when it comes to marketing tactics, that startup phase, that growth stage, and that maturity phase. As always, Ashley, appreciate the insights from you.
(11:21):
I want to mention to everyone, please go ahead and hit that subscribe button. You’ll get a notification when we go live. We’re here every Thursday at 10:00 AM Pacific, 1:00 PM Eastern for about 10 minutes on all things enrollment marketing. If you’ve got questions on digital marketing, if you’ve got questions on enrollment marketing, if you’ve got questions on growth stages of your charter schools and what you should be thinking about as a leader, we have some great guides at charterschoolcapital.com that can help you get you where you’re going. So feel free to stop by our website and hop in there to find those guides right in our resources section. With that, we’ll see you next week and thanks again for joining us, Ashley.

Ashley M. (11:59):
Thanks.

The idea of the audit can invite stress, and it’s understandable to feel daunted by the need to address compliance and other issues while you’re focused on the day-to-day aspects of growing a school. The Charter School Audits Guide Preparing Your School for the Annual Audit offers month-by-month breakdown schools can use to stave off overwhelm. The key is preparing a little bit at a time.

Here’s what the plan looks like:

As seen in the chart above, month one is dedicated to the fiscal audit overall. That’s because month one is when schools have just completed the previous year’s audit, so first steps are about how to move forward from there.

For a detailed look at previous months, click the links below:

Month 1

Month 2

Month 3

✔️ Comply with Insurance Policy and Laws

Know the limits and sub-limits of your policy
Understand insurance laws and regulations that apply to your school

✔️ Review Your Policy and Shop Around

Check with other brokers and carriers to see if there’s a better option for your school
Look into carrier ratings, policy details, and costs for your school and employees
Tip: Make sure you check your current insurance company’s cancellation policy if you’re switching insurance companies

✔️Check Premiums and Deductibles

Review whether your premiums are broken into smaller payments or just one annual fee
Consider scheduling your premium payment differently to save money
Tip: Check your deductible to see how close you are to meeting it

✔️Examine Employee Benefits

Shop employee benefits to make sure you have the policy that’s the best fit for your school
Tip: Consider paying a flat amount rather than a percentage to keep expenses down

✔️Review Retirement Benefits

Understand what you’re offering in addition to mandatory state retirement benefits

By performing a focused audit of your insurance, you can ensure that your school is adequately protected and prepared for the future, and can help you identify potential coverage gaps and save you money. If you’re looking to learn more about insurance options for your school, your insurance broker or carrier is a great resource.

To take a deeper dive into this plan, download The Charter School Audits Guide Preparing Your School for the Annual Audit, a free guide for school leaders.

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The idea of the audit can invite stress, and it’s understandable to feel daunted by the need to address compliance and other issues while you’re focused on the day-to-day aspects of growing a school. The Charter School Audits Guide Preparing Your School for the Annual Audit offers month-by-month breakdowns schools can use to stave off overwhelm. […]

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The idea of the audit can invite stress, and it’s understandable to feel daunted by the need to address compliance and other issues while you’re focused on the day-to-day aspects of growing a school. The Charter School Audits Guide Preparing Your School for the Annual Audit offers a month-by-month breakdown you can use to prepare, […]

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The idea of the audit can invite stress, and it’s understandable to feel daunted by the need to address compliance and other issues while you’re focused on the day-to-day aspects of growing a school. The Charter School Audits Guide Preparing Your School for the Annual Audit offers month-by-month breakdowns schools can use to stave off […]

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The idea of the audit can invite stress, and it’s understandable to feel daunted by the need to address compliance and other issues while you’re focused on the day-to-day aspects of growing a school. The Charter School Audits Guide Preparing Your School for the Annual Audit offers month-by-month breakdowns schools can use to stave off […]

In this session, video expert Cheril Clarke joined Ashley MacQuarrie and Michael Barber for a discussion about how charter schools can use video to raise awareness and document what makes their school special. They spoke about how schools can get started by using what they have and not worrying about producing overly complicated content. Watch the video or read the transcript below to hear how to be consistent, have good lighting, and a clear plan. You’ll come away with a better understanding of how different types of videos can be used to showcase a school’s culture and environment.

Join the experts as they answer all your questions live on Thursdays on YouTube at 10am PT / 12pm CT / 1pm ET. Charter School Capital – YouTube

Read Full Transcript

Michael B:

Well, hi everyone. Welcome back to our weekly Thursday, YouTube Live on all things enrollment marketing. My name is Michael Barber and I am joined by my fearless co-host, Ashley McQuarrie. Ashley, how you doing?

Ashley M:

I’m good. How are you, Michael?

Michael B:

I’m well, thank you. We’re also joined today by another member of our Enrollment Marketing team, Cheril Clarke. Cheril, thanks for joining us today.

Cheril C:

Absolutely. No problem. I’m happy to be here.

Michael B:

Thanks. We appreciate you being here. We’re going to hop right in and talk all things video today. So if you’ve got questions related to video, please feel free to pop them in the chat. If you’re on a desktop browser, it should be on the right-hand side of this video. I don’t know which one’s right or left on your screen, but hopefully it’s over here wherever I’m pointing. And if you’re on mobile, on the YouTube app, it’s just below the fold. So drop in your questions if you’ve got them. Otherwise, let’s just get started.

Let’s talk about basic video best practices for schools. I’m going to turn this over to Cheril. First, tell us, Cheril, what do you got for tips for school leaders, for basic video best practices?

Cheril C:

One of the first things that I think I would suggest is to try to be really approachable and not overly complex because I know that as academics and educators, it can be easy to slip into being more technical and academic and you need to be for general audiences. So really being super approachable, not using overly complex language and just everyday speak, but still getting your message across, using everyday speak. That would be one of the top ones.

Another best practice would be keep in mind how long your actual video content is. So maybe two or three minutes, maybe enough, depending on what you need to talk about before people start tapping out. That’s not to say that you can’t do longer videos. You can do longer videos, but if you do publish longer videos, you maybe find ways to change what’s on screen frequently. And that doesn’t mean you have to have a whole bunch of cameras in a big setup, but just maybe zoom in, zoom out, find another way, pick up a prop, do something. Depending on what you’re talking about, you have one available. Change what’s on screen somewhat frequently for longer videos so that you can keep people’s attention.

Michael B:

Yeah, such good basic tips there. And for those of you just joining us two minutes into our chat, we’re talking all things video today for our weekly enrollment marketing Q&A here on YouTube live. Feel free to pop into your questions. We just talked a few seconds ago. Cheril had some basic video best practices and mentioned approachability.

I think that’s such a good tip for school leaders not to overthink the quality of their videos. You look at what’s resonating on TikTok and Instagram, it is the approachable, real world unrehearsed content that people find interesting. And I don’t mean to take away from the overly produced videos, those have a time and a place. But when we’re talking about what’s resonating with people right now, it certainly is being more approachable. Ashley, anything to add there on basic, best practices? Say that five times fast.

Cheril C:

I know.

Ashley M:

No, I think you both, you covered it perfectly. Yeah, just being authentic, that’s really what’s resonating, those kind of short videos. And thinking, I guess about maybe the goal and the audience of who you’re talking to. You can have different types of videos, so you might have a more unscripted kind of live like this, or you might maybe put together a little outline of what you want to talk about, not necessarily script it. But have something in mind about what the goal of your video is and what you want people to walk away with at the end of it, while still being yourself.

Cheril C:

Yeah, absolutely, the audience, I can’t believe that one didn’t pop up first. I concur with that, the audience, keeping them in mind is probably the most important thing. That will determine what you say and how you say it because you’re going to talk to a certain group, a certain demographic, maybe a little differently than you would talk to another demographic. So it’s all about keeping in mind who are they, what’s top of mind for them, what are they most concerned about? And then you can address those things as quickly as possible. Because if your audience members have specific concerns that they’re nervous or worried about, they’re not really going to hear much of what you’re saying until you get to that. So if you can anticipate what people are curious about or have questions about and address those first, that would be amazing.

Michael B:

Yeah, I think you’re touching on different strokes for different folks. The words you’re going to use maybe the platform that you’re on, right? You’ve got to make sure that when you’re thinking about that audience, it may be being on a different platform, it may be doing something that’s live or unscripted versus scripted. So some things to consider there for sure.

What about some simple how-tos, any best. Any simple how-tos for how schools can get started with video? Whether it’s on social, whether it’s building video for their website or a blog post. Just some simple how-tos, and we’ll start with Cheril.

Cheril C:

Yeah, sure. We can kind of circle back to something you said earlier, just it doesn’t always have to be overly produced. I forget who originally said this, but someone said, start where you are with what you have, because what you have is plenty. So you can just start with whatever phone or camera you’ve got. Try your best to make it well lit, because of course, the quality of how you look, it matters. No one wants to watch a 1980s looking grainy video if they don’t have to. And minimize the background noise. But it’s just really being in a clean environment as much as possible. If you’re in school, of course, it’s probably going to be colorful, that’s fine. But the less busy your background and audible stuff around you is, the better. So having a set space would be great, like if you can have one corner or one area where you always film, so you just go and turn the light on and sit down or stand up.

That’s always easy. Then you don’t have to worry about resetting everything all the time. So that could be helpful. Having some sort of outline, because if you’re on a time constraint, you know you really only want to do a one or two minute video. At least have some bullets off so you don’t go all around the world before you get to the point. So having some sort of an outline. It doesn’t have to be a whole speech written out, but a couple of bullet points that you want to get to. Having that ahead of time. And let’s see, what else? I know there’s some more things. Ashley, you want to jump in and then I’ll come back in with some more.

Ashley M:

Sure. Yeah, I love that. There’s different kinds of videos. So there’s the kind of video where you might be speaking to students or families live or talking about your school as a little introduction to your school from the principal kind of thing, or interviewing a teacher. There’s also definitely just value in showing your day-to-day and video and sharing short clips on Instagram or YouTube or whatever.

And with those, again, it’s the authenticity and it’s thinking about the words that you would use to describe your school. And then trying to capture scenes, clips that show that. I’m reading one that we just did for a school where we said, this is one of your clients, Cheril, we said the school is artistic, fun, family, challenging, in the community, outside the box. And so we wanted to capture video of students painting, playing in the outdoor classroom, building a robot, playing chess, reading books, listening intently to the teacher, engaging with each other. That’s kind of what we wanted to look for when we send a videographer in to capture video. And teachers and administrators, you can capture those things too, because it’s just happening.

Cheril C:

That’s great. And that you just reminded me of that school. So also think that if you’re doing something a bit more polished for the school where you have a professional team coming in to record that, the visuals should really accentuate what you’re saying. So if you’re talking about the beginning of school or start of school and shots of walking into the doors of the school. And as Ashley mentioned, all of it doesn’t have to be super professional. You can capture what’s called B roll, which is just kind of, no one’s actually talking, but maybe it’s footage of the kids playing in the outdoor garden or footage of the teacher writing on the board. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in elementary, but whatever they write on. I know everything has changed, it’s much better than when I was in school. But just capturing those moments.

And going back to being approachable. If there are moments where the students are being greeted by handshakes or hugs in the morning, someone can just grab footage of that with their cell phone, because those are the visuals that’s going to convey this is a fun school, this is a school that doesn’t just focus on academics, but emotional intelligence and total wellbeing for the students. So capturing heartfelt moments are always great because they can be dropped into different videos over time. And it’s okay if the style doesn’t match. It’s okay if some of it’s shot with a professional camera or drone and then you have some cell phone footage. It doesn’t matter because the editor is going to bring it all together in a nice way anyway.

But most importantly, it’s capturing those moments that make parents feel like this is a place that I want to send my child. This is a school that I trust to make sure my child is safe when they’re there. Safety, that’s another one too. Can you get just a quick shot of the school safety officer? It doesn’t have to be a long thing, just half a second to inject in a video. All of these things will help tell the school story in a better, more engaging way.

Michael B:

So I think I heard a couple good things I want to recap, consistency. You’ve got to be consistent with video, find the space, find the timing, sort of like what we do here every single week on a Thursday, and it’s the same space. Ashley’s in her office, I’m in my office, Cheril’s in her office. It’s that consistency of finding that space where you’re comfortable.

Good lighting, obviously really beneficial. If you look at Ashley and I, when we started this journey in December, neither one of us had great lighting. We’ve improved that over the last few weeks, and schools can do that as well. If you’re going to do something that’s face front, you talking and having a conversation via video, lighting is important. Otherwise, someone’s just not going to feel engaged. One thing you both touched on is if you are going to work with a professional videographer, a fancy way of calling it is make sure they’ve got a brief to work on.

What are the brand attributes that you want to come across from the school, in the video. You spoke to that school specifically about being art forward, personable, approachable, those sorts of things. Your videographer wants to understand that that’ll change how they shoot that video. What’s the pacing of that video? What’s the background music? Make sure you’ve got a shot list for that videographer. You want to make sure, “Hey, are we doing drone footage? What do we want from the drone?” If we want this open door shot, let’s make sure that we capture that.

And one last thing I think you both touch on is that this does not have to be an expensive investment for a school. Everyone has these lovely things. Well, mostly everyone has these lovely things in their pockets, these cell phones. And an iPhone 10, 11 or above at this point, which has been around for several years, or your Android devices, we’re a Mac, Apple company, so that’s why I have an iPhone.

But regardless of the device these days, whoever you’re buying it from, some of these devices have full 4K capturing ability, which is essentially what you’re getting at a Hollywood level production. And many of them have cinematic mode in how they capture. And you can do that sort of very professional in focus front with blurred out background. So it doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive for schools to start to capture this video. And they can use the phones that their school leaders and their teachers and their advocates and their parents have at their disposal.

Ashley M:

Yeah, absolutely. Oh, go ahead, Cheril.

Cheril C:

No, I was going to say, no, you’re absolutely right. There are so many settings in the camera that some people probably don’t even notice that are there, slow motion. And you can just get a really, really low cost handle for your phone so it’s not shaking when you’re filming it. But those are like 10, 15 bucks. So it doesn’t have to be a really, really expensive production. You can capture a lot with the phone.

The only thing to keep in mind is the audio with the phone, because if you’re shooting something outside, that’s going to be problematic. So maybe you only shoot B-roll outside and then you drop a voiceover that was filmed or recorded elsewhere where it was quiet. Then you drop that over that. So the only thing that you would need to keep in mind for outside would be the noise, but you could definitely get some really good footage of staff student interaction and the facility that the campus and so on.

Ashley M:

Yeah, that’s a great point. It’s always a bummer. We’ve gotten really great video of kids talking about their school just filmed on a phone. And then it’s sometimes a little hard to work with when there’s wind or cars or kids playing in the background. You want some of that kids playing maybe for some ambiance, but when it’s really windy or something like that, it can-

Cheril C:

There are some low cost lights. I’m not using one today, but I do have one. They’re like 20 bucks. And I can email it to you guys to fan out to everybody else, that you can just plug into the phone and then you just go in the microphone settings of your phone and click external mic. And then just clip it to the kid or the student, whoever. So that way you can get some stuff outside, but you can get a low cost microphone for your phone, for about 20 bucks on Amazon.

Michael B:

Yeah, for sure. And they even are little clip on Bluetooth enabled as well, so you can find a lot of different options that can work for you.

Cheril C:

[inaudible 00:14:01] outside.

Michael B:

Yeah, exactly. One thing I wanted to touch on that I forgot in that recap was something you both mentioned or touched on is just be forewarned, not every video works for every platform. So this gets in length and framing and whatnot. If you’re doing something for an Instagram reel or you’re doing something for a TikTok or a YouTube story or short, excuse me, that’s portrait mode, right? The preferred format is that it’s full screen on a smartphone, on a device. So doing that in portrait mode, that’s preferred.

But let’s say you want, Ashley and your team, you work with a lot of schools that do like motion behind the major headers in their websites, you’re going to want a landscape version of that because obviously you need to be able to get off to the edges of the screen. So depending upon the needs of the video, just make sure you’re capturing the framing of that video correctly for either the usage of that video or the platform that it’s going to as well.

Ashley M:

Yeah, that’s such a great point. And it’s changed so fast. Two years ago when we worked with a school and we said, “Hey, go take some video.” We said, “Turn your phone. You have to turn your phone horizontally.” We need this.

Michael B:

It’s landscape, landscape, landscape, right? Yeah.

Ashley M:

Exactly. And now, yeah, it is all square or portrait for sure.

Cheril C:

You’re right, changes very quickly.

Michael B:

Yes it does. And staying on top of that can be tough, but that’s why school leaders have got us as resources. Hopefully we can keep them up to date on what those changes are.

But hey, we are 15 minutes in and I want to be mindful of both of your time and also our audience’s time. So we are going to wrap it up. So I will just let everyone know we’ll be back next week on Thursday. We may change the time ever so slightly next week. We’re working on figuring out just some schedules. But we appreciate you all being here. I’m going to make a call to action to if you’ve got questions on all things enrollment or digital marketing, although this is backwards as I always refer to it, we have our digital marketing guide available on our website. You can head over to charterschoolcapital.com to grab that.

And just want to say thank you, Cheril, for joining Ashley and I. We really appreciate you being here. And thank you for bringing such a… You’ve got perfect lighting, perfect framing. So if there was a good example for our audience, it’s the individual who came to talk all things video. So we appreciate you being here. And I will say a big thanks to my co-host, Ashley McQuarrie, and we will see you next week. Thanks for joining us, y’all take care.

Ashley M:

Thanks.

Cheril C:

Thanks.

In this session, marketing expert Lynn Ellis joined Ashley MacQuarrie and Michael Barber for a discussion about improving online search for schools. Watch the video or read the transcript below to hear about why search is important for school leaders, best practices for updating a website, and using keywords.

Join the experts as they answer all your questions live on Thursdays on YouTube at 10am PT / 12pm CT / 1pm ET. Charter School Capital – YouTube

Read Full Transcript

Michael B (00:12):
Hi everyone, and welcome to our All Things Enrollment Marketing weekly YouTube live. I am joined by my always present co-host and fearless enrollment marketing leader, Ashley MacQuarrie. Ashley, it’s lovely to see your face.

Ashley M (00:28):
Good to see you, Michael.

Michael B (00:29):
And we are joined by a new member, well, I shouldn’t say new member of our enrollment marketing team, but a new face on our YouTube lives from our enrollment marketing team and that is Lynn Ellis. Lynn, welcome to our Thursday chats on All Things Enrollment Marketing.

Lynn E (00:44):
Hi, nice to be here.

Michael B (00:46):
Thanks for making the time. Also, I want to just apologize to all our subscribers, we tried to go live last week, couldn’t get it to work, so this is your replacement. So we are doing an All Things Enrollment Marketing conversation on a Tuesday rather than a Thursday, but we will be back pending any challenges with the livestream on Thursday.(01:08):
But let’s go ahead and kick off today’s conversation. We’re going to talk about all things search and why search engine optimization is important for school leaders. So I want to start there with this chat and start us off with why search is important. I’m going to turn it over to answer this question first to Lynn. Lynn, why is search important for our school leaders?

Lynn E (01:34):
I want to hit on three big things why search is so important for schools, visibility, credibility, and low cost marketing. Visibility, you want to be seen, you want people around you to know that your school exists, to know what you’re about and know what you’re really good at. And coming up high in search, when somebody is coming in looking for a school for their children, whether you’re a K through five school and they’re looking for their first school, they’ve moved to the area or they’re looking for a better fit for their child, if they’re looking in search for schools around them, you want to come up really high. And when I say high, I mean bare minimum first page, but as high as humanly possible. If you’re first or second or third, you get credibility, this is my second point. When you are found high in a Google search, you automatically are seen as more credible. People have this idea that Google is in some way ranking the sites that are coming up and if they’re ranking you high, then you must be credible, you must be something that they should look into.
(02:52):
And the third one is, low cost marketing. So that right there, if you’ve searched for a school and found this school high in the search, that is marketing that you didn’t have to pay for. So schools usually have word of mouth marketing, that’s really good. You have really happy families that are telling their friends and acquaintances about your school. You also have paid advertising that you may or may not do, you may do digital ads, you may do radio ads, billboards, and those cost money. But in between those, you want to be able to reach the people that may not be acquainted with the families that are so happy with your school, you’re reaching them through coming up high in the search. And that is marketing that is ongoing that you are not paying for. So you get visibility, you get credibility, and you get some marketing that you’re not paying for.

Michael B (03:48):
Such good insights, for sure, visibility, credibility, and essentially some low cost marketing opportunity, although there’s a lot that goes into search, which we’ll unpack over the next few minutes. Ashley, anything to add beyond visibility, credibility, and obviously the marketing impact of Search?

Ashley M (04:08):
Lynn really covered a lot of it. I think that everything really starts with the Google search, there are other search engines out there, Bing, but anything that you can do to make Google happy, to make Google’s robots scan your site more frequently, more frequent updates, gives you more keywords that Google can pick up. It tells Google that you’re a relevant and valuable authority on a topic, and it’ll show your site more frequently. And if you’re making frequent updates, then Google sees like, this is a site that gets updated often and is maybe more valuable to people.

Michael B (04:51):
I think on that point on making sure that you’re showing up and just helping school leaders understand where we’re referring to, we’re obviously referring to those listings that they’re not paying for. So alternatively, to pay per click where you’re paying for a listing and search results, when we say search or search engine optimization and making sure your content’s fresh, that’s trying to get your website ranked in those non-paid listings or organic listings as some practitioners might refer to them. On that topic of publishing content to your site frequently, is there a rule of thumb, like a golden rule that Google tells us, or what is the cadence we should be thinking about as a school leader?

Ashley M (05:40):
Well, for our schools, we are usually publishing a longer piece of blog content, usually around once a week, but for a school, it’s easier to make more frequent updates. And I have seen that a couple of times a week is ideal for updating a website. But the good news news is that doesn’t mean you have to publish a blog post every week, it just means maybe you add a photo, maybe you update your calendar, Google has event features and is always scanning for what’s going on in your local communities.
(06:10):
And so for a school, updating your calendar, adding relevant information like your bus schedule or your menu, those are updates that still show Google that this site is active and is frequently being updated and is providing content that people are looking for. So a couple of times a week making those changes, it can actually make a difference for your search presence.

Michael B (06:32):
And when you see making those changes, it’s obviously probably helpful to do that not only on your.com, but your local business, or in this case your local school listing that’s feeding everything, the maps. That Google Business listing is just as important as the work that you’re doing on your website as well, so you can show up for those local results too.

Ashley M (06:51):
That’s huge, absolutely. And a lot of people don’t know that the Google business listing, that shows up for a site-based school even higher often than the Google searches like the Google listings that we see with all of the links there. And so that can help you actually push down some of your competitors if you are updating that Google business listing frequently. And those listings, they have a place to post events, they have a place to post photos and updates and all things like that. But a lot of schools we see, maybe they haven’t even claimed and verified it, but they’re definitely not using it to the full potential.

Michael B (07:34):
Let’s turn to beyond obviously how you go about indexing on Google, how do you get ranked? Well, I think at last check, Google looks at 500 plus different signals, but there are some basics to indexing or Google returning your website as a result, when I say that word index, fancy word for returning your website as a result on their listing, that starts with what we call metadata. Lynn, could you take a crack at just defining metadata in its simplest form for our school leaders and what it means to them?

Lynn E (08:10):
Metadata is really about telling Google what your site is about. So you have a meta-description for your site overall, if somebody is looking for your school and the school pops up, there’s a short paragraph underneath that search result that says something about the school. If you don’t write that, Google writes it and they may or may not get it right. It’s your opportunity in 250 characters or fewer to say something about your school that’s immediately going to catch people’s eyes, and it also catches Google’s keyword eye. So you want to make sure that the relevant keyword, say you’re a classical education academy, you want that front and center in that meta description.
(09:00):
Then you also have titles. So page titles are places where you want to put keywords so that when people are looking for something specific on your site, say, they want to know something about the faculty or the staff at your school, if you hide that in the title of, Our Amazing Innovators, for instance, and I’ve seen some pretty crazy titles for that staff page, and I know that people are trying to be creative and say something about what their staff and their school is about, but Google doesn’t know what that means. So you need to use titles that really explain to Google what that page is about and help it know that that’s something that they should return for that search.

Michael B (09:51):
It’s such good insights. Ashley, anything to add there on metadata?
Ashley M (09:56):
I think another metadata is your alt text on images, and that’s super important, it’s an opportunity for … most schools are taking a lot of photos, they have photo galleries or they have header images on their website. And a photo is an opportunity, it’s a piece of content that can get indexed by Google, but you have to tell Google what’s in that image. And the alt text is where you describe what your image is, you can use keywords if you want to be descriptive. But it’s also really important for compliance for your website because accessibility tools that make it easier for people maybe with site impairment, they use the alt text to describe what’s in an image. So super important for both things.

Michael B (10:45):
You both mentioned, obviously page titles as one component of metadata, we’ve mentioned the page description or meta description on page, the last thing is the meta keywords themselves or the keywords you’re trying to optimize for. What are some basic keywords that every site-based school should be thinking about or even online school should be thinking about that they should be optimizing for that you’ve seen that work? I’ll turn this over to … we’ll go Lynn first, sorry, normally have to give direction because I feel like I’m sitting in a room with you two, but we’re not, we’re virtual. So I’ll say, Lynn, can you tackle that question first?

Lynn E (11:23):
Yeah. Think of it in terms of two strings, branded keywords and non-branded keywords. So branded keywords have to do with the name of your school, say, I decided to go start my own school and call it Ellis Academy. I want to make sure that Ellis Academy is something that I’m ranking for, so I’m putting that name in as many places as I can that fit. I’m not just randomly throwing in Ellis Academy everywhere, but I’m putting it in places that sound natural and making sure that in the alt text, say, I have a picture of two students at Ellis Academy, I say two Ellis Academy students playing on the playground, one is swinging on the swing, the other is sliding down the slide. I’ve now describe the picture, but I’ve also put that keyword in there. So those are branded keywords, you want to make sure you’re ranking for things that are directly tied to your brand.
(12:23):
I’m a former math teacher, so say it’s also a math focused high school, so I want to make sure that I’m a ranking for those terms that have to do with what my school is about. It’s a STEM school, it’s math focused, it’s a high school, so I want to make sure that those are keywords that are showing up everywhere that I can. If I’m writing content, I’m making sure that I’m writing about those things that are so vital to what my school’s about.

Michael B (12:56):
Such good insights there of how you optimize those keywords. And probably also for schools that are really focused on a certain geographic locale, probably also important to bring in keywords that bring in your location or maybe zip code. What are some thoughts there given from a school that’s got a physical location, should they be thinking about local keywords?

Ashley M (13:21):
Absolutely. One of the easiest first things that we do just right off the bat is changing, for example, the site title that displays at the top in the tab in your Chrome browser. We would say, for example, tuition-free public high school in Portland, so just those keywords right off the bat. A lot of people, their site title, for example, on their website might just be home, that’s a real missed opportunity because you can get those keywords in and, yes, absolutely you want to get your city in, ideally you’re charter school, you want to get tuition-free in and then if you’re a STEM school, you might include that or maybe if you’re an online school, you would certainly include that.

Michael B (14:10):
Any last thoughts before we wrap it up? Any tools that school leaders could use or free places you’d recommend they go to get either more education on SEO or potentially tools out there that could help them?

Lynn E (14:24):
One of the tools I like to use is something called Answer the Public, and it’s a keyword research tool, but if you are a school leader thinking about putting some blog content on your site that’s relevant, that’s getting those keywords in there, that’s getting the message out, but you don’t know what to write about, you can go to Answer the public. And what it does, is it gives you a list of questions that people are asking and it tells you what the search volume is on those questions.
(14:53):
For instance, I looked up dual language education, I just put those words in to Answer the Public. And the top two things that came back were, what is dual language education, and dual language schools near me. So that tells me if I’m a dual language school, writing a blog post titled, What is Dual Language Education is a really good title to use and a really good topic to write about because people are searching for it.
(15:25):
Dual language schools near me, I live in Washington State, so say I’m in Tacoma, Dual Language Schools in Tacoma, putting that into the title in some way that’s interesting, but also uses those keywords. If people are looking for a dual language school in Tacoma, they’re going to find that blog post a place where I can really let my school shine and let the personality of my school show through, but I’m answering the questions that people are asking. If you think about the way Google comes up in search, you have your first sites that come up and then you have this list of questions with answers to them. That’s a lot of what’s happening now, is people are asking Google questions.
(16:10):
Way back when Google started, I remember seeing the first iterations of Google, people were looking for a word, maybe two words, now they’re asking questions. And so using a tool like Answer the Public to see what questions they’re asking can really drive your content creation and really drive what keywords you’re putting out there on your site for people to see.

Michael B (16:34):
And I would say my tip that I’ll wrap up with, and then Ashley we’d love any other tips from you, is if you ever wonder what those questions are that your potential parents or kids might be looking for is, whomever is answering the phone for your school, find out what questions they hear every single day, and that can become your top 10, top 15, top 20 blog posts, it becomes an FAQ page on your website.
(17:02):
And I think we’re starting to trickle into interesting territory to potentially talk about AI and like Chat GPT and that impact on charter schools in the future of architecting some of the content on your website for that Q and A interaction, but a whole nother topic that we’re not going to tackle today. But any last tips for school leaders as it relates to search, Ashley, before we wrap up?

Ashley M (17:24):
Just one other thing, if signing up for a new tool or exploring something like that is intimidating, just Google your school and see what comes up and see what comes up in … Google your school name and also Google Charter schools in your city and look on Google, there’s a section called related searches, and people also ask usually, and those can give you some nice clues about what people are searching for and what they’re finding, both when they Google your branded term and also maybe an unbranded term that relates to you.

Michael B (17:57):
Such good tips there as well. Well, we are of course, as usual overtime, I think eventually we’re going to have to extend these to our weekly 20-minute chat on All Things Enrollment Marketing, but we’ll wrap it up there. Thanks again for all of you that joined us today live on our YouTube channel, if you’ve got any questions for this team, feel free to pop them into the comments, we’re always looking out for those comments. So if you’re watching it live now or in the future, feel free to drop your question there and we’ll get you an answer.
(18:23):
As always, I will wrap up with just a small call to action. If you have questions on All Things Enrollment Marketing, we have this handy guide, I’m realizing it probably reads backwards, so I’ll read it to you. It is Digital Marketing for Charter Schools, it is a meaty 55 pages, including planning worksheets. It’s available on our website charterschoolcapital.com, and I’ve also popped in answer to public.com into our live chat today, which was a tool that Lynn mentioned a few minutes ago.
(18:51):
If you want any directions to those tools, please feel free to reach out. As always, we’ll be back on Thursday, we’ll try and keep it to 10 minutes, maybe we will, maybe we won’t. I will say thank you to our guest today, Lynn, we appreciate you being here, and a big appreciation to my co-host, Ashley, for joining us as always, we will see you in like 48 hours or something like that. Take care of you all, bye.

Ashley M (19:14):
Thanks, bye.

The Dewey Awards are all about honoring the teachers who make a difference in our lives. Every year, charter leaders, students, and parents across the country enter their written and video submissions celebrating exceptional teachers. Named for Mr. Richard Dewey, a teacher who made a difference in the life of CSC’s founder, three entries are awarded a grant of $1000 to a charter school of their choice. Although we only select three winners, each of the entries is inspiring and worth sharing; this week we bring you a moving written entry submitted by Dottie Abshire celebrating her teacher, Ms. R.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Submission:

Charter School Capital
Dewey Awards 2022
Ms. R

School: World Compass Academy
Nominated by Dottie Abshire

I had the great privilege of volunteering in the library for the Scholastic Book Fair in September, and got to know Mrs. R during my volunteering time. The Scholastic Book Fair, with fresh, new books, brought much joy, and some sadness, to students at World Compass Academy. Children with funds provided by parents purchased books galore (and a few knickknacks) and hurried to find a spot to examine their treasures more closely.

However, on occasion, there would be a student who lacked enough funding to get the books he or she wanted.

I am painfully familiar with the crushing disappointment of attending a book fair without enough money. My parents encouraged us to check books out of the library, but owning a book of my own was not really a priority. As a volunteer at WCA’s Book Fair, I encountered a few students in a similar situation, and I prepared to make their experience different from my own.

The first student in this situation was quite young, only 6 years old or so, and desperately wanted a graphic novel that was a few pennies over his budget. I was sorting out his change when Mrs. R appeared at my shoulder. Already tuned into her students’ needs, Mrs. R immediately stepped in behind the counter and took over the exchange. Without hesitation or announcing her actions, Mrs. R discretely opened her wallet and supplied whatever amount the child needed. She rung him up with a smile, bagged his book and handed him the receipt.

Repeatedly, I watched Mrs. R open her wallet, and add all her change and plenty of cash, or create discounts to ensure every student who wanted a book was able to purchase one. She contributed well over $100 of her own money to the registers during the week-long event.

Afterwards, I discovered that these acts of generosity are commonplace for Mrs. R, whose husband always asks her how much they’ve “spent” at each annual Book Fair. I believe this type of character, one who values the opportunities that reading provide for children, who stays connected to her students to know their needs, and who sacrifices so much of themselves for the sake of others, should be amply rewarded.