Category: Charter School Enrollment

A strong brand can bring a variety of benefits to your school, among them increased enrollment, enhanced reputation in your community, and the chance to differentiate your school from competitors. Let’s explore the essence of branding and how your school can leverage brand and voice to make an impact.

Webinar Recap Click To Enroll Redesign Your Website For Growth
Defining Brand Identity

Your school’s brand serves as its identity – it encapsulates your mission, values, and objectives, conveying to your community who you are and what you stand for. By crafting a compelling brand narrative, you can establish your school as a distinctive presence amidst a myriad of educational options. Ideally, your brand is easily identifiable and portrays your school as trustworthy and reliable — the perfect place for families to envision their children growing and thriving.

Finding Your Voice

Voice, or tone of voice, is the unique personality of your school that permeates all communications with stakeholders – from families to students to teachers and even your greater community. It’s how you articulate your brand identity through language, resonating with your audience on a personal level.

Whether it’s a friendly and playful tone for an elementary school or a formal and inspirational tone for a college prep high school, your school’s voice should align seamlessly with your brand. Consistency is key here; maintaining a strong, unified voice across all communications fosters trust and credibility.

Leveraging Brand and Voice for Impact

When it comes to making an impact, authenticity will set you apart from the rest. As you establish your brand, you’ll want to ensure that what makes your school unique is front and center. Highlighting your school’s offerings, whether that’s STEM, language immersion or performing arts, will differentiate you from your competitors. But remember, it’s not just about what you teach—it’s also how you teach it. Emphasize the powerful approaches your school takes, such as hands-on or project-based learning, to reach your target audience.

Tips For Planning Back To School Night
Practical Strategies for Brand Consistency

Consistency is the cornerstone of a strong brand. Every touchpoint—whether it’s your social media channels, website, or face-to-face interactions—should reflect the same core identity.

  1. Craft a Unified Message: Keep your messaging simple, clear, and consistent across all platforms. Decide upon the language and phrasing you will use to highlight your school’s offerings and stick with it.
  2. Empower Ambassadors: Encourage current families, students, and faculty to be ambassadors of your brand. Word-of-mouth recommendations not only carry weight but they are also free. Sharing a brief “elevator speech” with your ambassadors can help align them to your brand and voice.

Crafting your school’s brand is an ongoing journey—one that requires reflection on your school’s mission, values, and community. By honing your brand identity and establishing a consistent voice, you can build a foundation for growth and success for your school and the community you serve.

About the Author

Jesse Foss is a Content Strategist on the Grow Schools Enrollment Marketing team, bringing over 15 years of experience in education and writing to her role. She holds a B.A. in Elementary Education from Linfield University and a M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Montana. At Grow Schools, Jesse works with charter schools to create compelling content that showcases their unique qualities and appeals to prospective families. Her skills in crafting engaging blogs, social media posts, brochures, and video scripts are vital in creating effective marketing materials.

More Resources

For more on branding, website, and enrollment marketing, browse the resources below!

Featured Article

3 Ways to Create an Inclusive and Accessible School Website

As schools strive to attract more diverse students, your website is a prime opportunity to set the tone and stand apart. Building an accessible and inclusive website helps ensure all users (the people who spend time on your site) feel welcome and valued.  Here are some key considerations and best practices: 1. Follow accessible design […]

Featured Article

5 Tips for Making Online Connections with Prospective Families

According to a survey conducted by the nonprofit National School Choice Awareness Foundation (NSCAF), 53.7 percent of parents are considering new schools for their children. Most school searches start online, which means it’s important for your school to be both searchable and have online curb appeal. Here are 5 ways you can improve searchability and […]

Featured Article

3 Things Charter Schools Can Do for Website Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 

The search bar is where it all begins. SEO, or search engine optimization, is a key component to designing your charter school website. In short, good SEO means your website is easy to find. When done right, SEO leads to lots of “organic” traffic to your site—if a parent in your city is looking for a […]

Featured Article

Webinar Recap: Redesign Your Website for Growth

In Click to Enroll: Redesign Your Website for Growth, the panel of experts explored website best practices that promise not only to attract prospective families but also to enhance the online experience for your existing school community. We delved into the world of design and branding principles tailored to showcase your school’s unique identity, unearthing […]

User Experience For Charter Schools

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Create a Successful Website

This guide is your roadmap to crafting a seamless, user-centric website that sets your school apart. The insights offered by experts Shaina Rozen and Niki Blaker will help transform your website into a hub of information that’s not only functional but easy to use—and that drives enrollment.

Get the Guide

In Click to Enroll: Redesign Your Website for Growth, the panel of experts explored website best practices that promise not only to attract prospective families but also to enhance the online experience for your existing school community. We delved into the world of design and branding principles tailored to showcase your school’s unique identity, unearthing how small changes can make a big impact on your online presence, enrollment, and retention.

If you missed it, Here’s a sneak peek and a written recap.

Watch the Full Webinar

1. Understand Your Audience

Creating a meaningful digital experience starts with knowing your audience. Identify user groups through interviews, surveys, and empathy mapping. By understanding their needs, motivations, and experiences, you can tailor your website to resonate personally.

2. Set Goals for Success

Define clear goals for your website with SMART criteria (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound). Instead of broad objectives, focus on specifics like increasing form submissions within a set timeframe. Aligned goals provide benchmarks for success.

3. Monitor User Behavior

Implement analytics tools to monitor user behavior. Be cautious of misleading indicators; high traffic numbers don’t always translate to genuine engagement.

Website Article Image

4. Balance Statistics with Storytelling

Humanize data with compelling storytelling. Share success stories, testimonials, and impactful narratives through multimedia elements like videos and photos. A well-crafted narrative engages and resonates with visitors.

5. Merge Aesthetics with Functionality

Opt for a visually appealing design aligned with your school’s brand. Choose colors, fonts, and imagery that evoke desired emotions. Ensure design elements guide users seamlessly through the website, enhancing both aesthetics and functionality.

6. Seamless User Experience: Navigating with Intuition

Craft a website with a seamless and intuitive user experience. Prioritize user-friendly navigation, logical content organization, and responsive design. Conduct usability testing to identify and address obstacles, fostering a positive overall experience.

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7. Maintain a Cohesive Design

Consistency in design is crucial for a strong brand identity. Establish a design system with guidelines for colors, fonts, and logo usage. This ensures a unified and professional look across your site

8. Embrace Diversity and Accessibility

Foster diversity and inclusion in your digital presence. Implement inclusive design practices to make your website accessible to users of all abilities. Consider diverse perspectives, learning styles, and abilities when creating content and design elements.

Featured Article

5 Tips for Making Online Connections with Prospective Families

According to a survey conducted by the nonprofit National School Choice Awareness Foundation (NSCAF), 53.7 percent of parents are considering new schools for their children. Most school searches start online, which means it’s important for your school to be both searchable and have online curb appeal. Here are 5 ways you can improve searchability and […]

Featured Article

Unlocking Enrollment Success: Easy SEO Tips for School Websites

In an era where digital landscapes shape the future of education, a school’s online presence isn’t just a checkbox – it’s the gateway to a thriving school. Every school boasts a unique mission and offerings waiting to be discovered by those seeking an exceptional educational journey. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the key to unlocking […]

Digital Marketing For Charter Schools

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The Charter School Digital Marketing Guide

Download this workbook will help you achieve your enrollment goals. Refine your school’s messaging, set strategic marketing goals, and achieve them through a variety of digital marketing programs.

Get the Guide

Leadership comes with its unique set of challenges, and prioritizing mental health is a cornerstone of effective management. Explore a diverse range of resources offered to foster resilience, stress management, and thoughtful decision-making at your school.

Mental Health Resources

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Preventing Teacher Burnout and Supporting Mental Health at Your School

Burnout in education isn’t simply about feeling stressed or overwhelmed—it’s a chronic condition that occurs when educators perceive that workplace demands consistently outweigh their available resources. This distinction is crucial: burnout is primarily a systemic issue, not an individual failing. School leaders must recognize an essential truth: No one can self-care their way out of […]

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6 Steps for Creating Safe School Spaces for LGBTQIA+ Students

The Need for Safe Spaces For LGBTQIA+ Students The Critical Need for Safe Spaces The statistics tell a sobering story: LGBTQIA+ students face twice the rate of harassment compared to their peers, including verbal abuse and physical intimidation. According to Mental Health America, these students are four times more likely to attempt suicide. As bullying […]

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Tuesday Tips: Teacher Mental Health with Caroline Poland

In this session, licensed mental health professional Caroline Poland joined us to answer questions on supporting teachers. She gave tips for supporting teacher mental health and well-being, including understanding the neurological aspects of trauma, practicing active listening, and fostering a positive school culture. Join the experts as they answer all your questions live on Tuesdays […]

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How School Leaders Can Support Mental Health

Now more than ever, school leaders are acutely aware of the mental health challenges facing students and their families, teachers and administrators, and themselves. Here’s just one stat from Mental Health in Schools | NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness: “One in six U.S. youth aged 6-17 experience a mental health disorder each year, and half of all mental […]

Charter Schools are Driven by Quality Education

Your school is probably the creation of former teachers or academic leaders who want to pursue public education in a specific way. You may focus on STEM, the arts, multilingualism, or college prep. Charter schools are able to offer students innovative ways of learning. Check out the amazing programs at Catalyst Charter Academy in Pittsburgh, PA, Aurum Prep in West Oakland, CA and Dual Language Immersion North County in Vista, CA.

Charter Students Have Performed Better on Assessments

In addition to smaller class sizes, a study by the Manhattan Institute discovered that charter schools average an additional 59 learning days of math and 44 days of reading in comparison with traditional public schools. This means that students in charter schools are more likely to perform better on standardized tests. What is more, charter schools have higher graduation rates for Black and Latino students. Vanguard Collegiate of Indianapolis, SET High in San Diego, CA, and The Foundation for Hispanic Education in San Jose, CA are ensuring smaller classes, access to tutoring, and more in-class time for learning.

Higher Graduation Rates Can Lead to Being More Likely to Stay in College

With higher graduation rates, charter students also have high college persistence, meaning they return to college for multiple semesters. College persistence matters—as Academia Avance in Highland Park, CA,  Gateway College & Career Academy in Riverside, CA, and Hope for Hyndman Charter School (HHCS) in Hyndman, PA can attest.

Charter Schools Thrive in Communities

More community involvement can be correlated to steadier attendance and better outcomes both both kids and communities. Charter schools have the ability to be more available to—and flexible around—the challenges facing individual students, families, and communities. Edge High School in Tucson, AZ, Buckeye Community Schools serving multiple locations in Ohio, and Eastlake High School in Colorado Springs, CO know that high school diplomas change lives—and so does the flexibility to earn them. Year-round enrollment, morning or afternoon classes, and lots of 1:1 attention for all at these charter high schools serving grades 9-12.

Charter schools can design community-based leadership and curriculum, as seen at Almond Acres Charter Academy in Paso Robles, CA, Hasañ Preparatory & Leadership Academy in Tucson, AZ, and Green Inspiration Academy in Warrensville Heights, OH.

Charter school leaders are education’s great innovators. It’s a privilege to work alongside them to ensure that every student has access to a nourishing school environment where they can flourish.

There is no time like the present for charter school leaders to carve out space for self-care and professional, like-tasked inspiration. If it seems impossible to find this time, all the more reason to give it a dedicated go! We, your friends at Charter School Capital (CSC), make it easier to find just this charter school leader-based encouragement, by curating this hand-picked list of podcasts and other media. 

In order to help you get where you’re going, we aim to support charter revolutionaries, like you, with sourcing best practices, informative interviews, and even some laughs –  from like-minded and like-tested charter school-leading peers. Even if the podcasts are subject- or state-based, the content itself transcends those lines. Check out our list: 

Podcasts for Charter School Leaders:
Charter School Superstar

Ryan Kairalla hosts this series of interviews with teachers, administrators, policymakers, and other education revolutionaries. Topics include enrollment, school safety, mental health, community engagement, and so much more.

Charter Central Podcast

While based in Michigan, this podcast is valuable for charter school leaders because they discuss many relevant topics, regardless of location. Topics include LGTBQ+, special education, the impact of the pandemic on student growth, and social-emotional learning.

CharterNation Podcast

Produced by the California Charter School Association, this podcast focuses on all of their conversations around California charter schools. Host Ana Tintocalis covers numerous data, research, and other current events – to interviews with charter school administrators and educators.

SC Charter Chatter

This podcast focuses on best practices and hot topics in South Carolina. They go in-depth on Black History Month, marketing, audits, and finding funding. This is a great podcast for charter school leaders even if you don’t live in South Carolina. We here at CSC can help with avoiding fumbled audits and finding funding, too.

Providing Choice: A Florida Charter School Alliance Podcast

The Florida Charter School Alliance hosts this podcast and tackles dual enrollment, school safety, professional development, and digital tools. They talk with school leaders, teachers, students, and government officials about what is going on in charter schools and with state policies.

Podcasts for Everyday Inspiration:
The Creative Classroom with John Spencer

John Spencer tackles the everyday classroom. From PBL to learning loss to storytelling in education; this podcast is relatable for the teachers in your charter school.

The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast

With a focus on middle and high school classrooms, Betsy Potash focuses on teaching strategies and creative ideas for English teachers. She covers topics like building a classroom library, annotation, and novel activities. Betsy will give fresh inspiration to your English classrooms.

Black Educators Matter

With a goal of sharing 500 stories of Black Educators, each episode features different administrators, teachers, and other Black school leaders. They share stories of struggles and triumphs. This is an important and encouraging podcast.

Let’s K-12 Better!

Amber and her children sit around the kitchen table and discuss topics from a parental and student point of view. They discuss lots of things, from being a digital native to the importance of community to feelings about school librarians. This is a great podcast for teachers, administrators, and parents alike!

[CallOutBox bgcolor=”orange”]Speaking of self-care, did you know that Headspace offers free teacher subscriptions? This is a highly valuable way for both charter school administrators and teachers to get a mental health break. [/CallOutBox]

The Mindful Kind

While this podcast is not necessarily focused on education, Rachael Kable talks each week about how to deal with your emotions. This is a great way to add some self-care to your schedule.

CSC Clients who Pod

Some of our favorite charter school leaders are podcasters!

  • Robert Marshall, from Vanguard Collegiate of Indianapolis, joined an episode of The Tevin Studdard Show to talk about his middle school’s role in Indy’s public school ecosystem.
  • David Hardin from Aurum Prep joined the conversation at SoBEO Rants – a podcast for influential Black leaders in Oakland.
  • Bob Bourgault from Almond Acres chatted with Adam from Up & Adam in the Morning to talk about the Paso mask mandate changing, school board meetings, and their brand new K-8 charter school building.

As for us, your friends at Charter School Capital, we care deeply about the issues and challenges in and outside charter classrooms. We help with many challenges hitting your sphere today – avoiding fumbled audits, boosting and retaining enrollments, finding your school’s forever home, and the ongoing mental health challenges facing every charter school. With free on-demand webinars, e-books, printable resources, and an Enrollment Marketing team – we are here for YOU!

Do you have any podcasts you would add to this list? Leave us a comment or join the conversation on Twitter @GrowCharters. We’d love to hear from you!

Your Charter School: The Magic 450 - by Tricia Blum

How many students should your school have? You’d be surprised how essential this question can become to your strategic decision-making as a charter school leader.

As the Vice President of Business Advisory Services at Charter School Capital, I often meet with school leaders to advise them on operations, fiscal decisions, governance, long-term strategy, and how to bring their vision for their school into reality. A significant part of that process is understanding a school’s growth goals.  With a solid foundation in these areas, school leaders can provide sanctuary and educate their students.

Despite including a 5-year growth plan in the Charter application, I’ve found that some school leaders haven’t given much thought to their actual growth goals. In their view, they’ll start with the students they’re able to attract, then they’ll try to enroll more students, and then the school will grow organically.

While this is an understandable view, it leads to uncertainties in direction and budgeting. It can, at times, bring divisiveness and conflict to future board meetings as the growth vision remains unclear.

Some school leaders give this question a lot of thought. Even as they start their charter, they may already have a certain number in mind. Sometimes this number may be unrealistic, especially in terms of trajectory, causing worry and anxiety.

The Importance of Having A Destination

You’re probably familiar with the saying, “if you don’t know where you’re going, you might not get there.” There are entire business books on the topic of goal-setting.

I talked about this with a friend, and we landed on the metaphor of going on a hike. It feels very different whether you start walking with no clear goal of where you’re heading. Suppose you set out with a clear understanding that you’re aiming for the lake, or the mountaintop, or a waterfall. You might look at it on a map or GPS and know the destination is at 6.3 miles. This impacts your hike’s length, affecting when you take breaks and when you stop over for a bite. It influences how you ration your water, how much stuff you take with you, and how you plan the rest of your day. Moreover, it influences your state of mind. If you know that this is a four-hour hike, then you’re not likely to grow despondent at the three-hour mark – you know you’re getting close.

Knowing where you’re going tends to put a spring on your step, and it can make your pace a bit faster as you may challenge yourself to reach your destination by a specific time. It can boost morale as you find yourself crossing the halfway point and as you see the milestones along your path.

“How much do I need to grow?”

School leaders ask me whether there is a student enrollment ‘sweet spot’ for charter schools and how they can know what to aim for.

In my view, every school in each state will have a ‘sweet spot’ – at least when it comes to California charter schools. When it comes to California, I call it ‘the magic 450’. This number is specific to California charter schools because California real estate is much higher than in most other areas. Additionally, Some schools in other states make more in revenue, have lower fixed costs, etc. However, you can extrapolate the premise and apply it to your state.

The magic 450

In California, it’s really about having 450 enrolled. In my opinion, that’s the magic number that enables a school to be financially comfortable and to effectively use economies of scale without constantly looking over your shoulder and figuring out what expenses you need to cut.  Of course, fundraising can change the magic enrollment number to a lower number of students (should your charter cap prevent you from getting to 450.

Fixed Expenses

We know a school’s revenue is tied to students. Enrollment is your big variable driver, and to a large extent, it’s a variable driver under your control. When you’re talking about finances, the expenses break down into infrastructure and buildings and staff and supplies, and these fall into two large buckets: fixed costs and variable costs.

Your fixed costs mostly stay the same whether you have 200 students, 450 students, or 1200 students. As your enrollment increases, your fixed costs don’t move. Just your variable costs do, adding teachers, technology, food services, etc. There are expansion jumps, as in the case of moving into a larger building. But aside from these strategic expansion decisions, your fixed costs likely stay the same. My main point is that these are predictable and constant.

At 450 students, your ratio of fixed vs. variable expenses is healthy, with fixed costs becoming a smaller percentage of your budget overall. And your revenue provides for both fixed and variable costs to be nicely aligned.

In my experience, this magic number of 450 is where your enrollment brings in enough funding so that you can have enough leadership, enough administrative personnel, enough teachers in the classroom. You can focus on special programs. You can have offerings that might be different from other charter schools. You can also have a capital investment account so that one day you can build a gym, ball fields or find your school a forever home.

Starting Strong, Growing Steady

Depending on your area, the strength of your ties within your community, and the immediate demand for your school’s services, you can formulate a strategy that will work best for you.

One approach is to have that sweet spot as a goal at the very onset. The leaders of E.L.I.T.E Schools rallied the community behind their vision for a charter school in Vallejo Valley and opened with nearly 400 students.

Logistics and Planning

Knowing your enrollment goal can also help you plan in terms of facilities and resources. Your relationship with your school building can be a comfortable one, where your school building is an asset, or it can be an albatross around your neck.

Suppose that you hoped for a lot more expansion, but you didn’t engage sufficient enrollment marketing, and now you’re facing empty rooms in a building that is much too big for your current student body. This can deplete your reserves, cause you anxiety, and affect your school culture.  A new but unused wing can make a school feel empty and institutional.  There is a specific energy that comes with a full building.

On the flip side, suppose you did not plan for growth, and suddenly you find yourself with more students than your building can handle. Now you have to scramble to find a new building, and it can add stress to everyone involved.

Having a solid growth plan will lead to sound decisions regarding resources, facilities, and hiring.

Strategies for Growth

An excellent approach to growth is the model adopted by E.L.I.T.E. Schools. The leaders engaged the community from the start, and constantly include parents and community in their decisions. As a result, the school has a strong external team of advocates and evangelizers.

Another strong strategy is to learn, through consumer research, the specific programs that families in the area are hoping to see. It could be a specific language, or a strong STEM program, or an organic garden and education about farm-to-table, etc. Then, focusing your efforts on promoting that specific program can result in higher enrollment.

Enrollment marketing is a topic in itself. If you have the time and energy, learning about digital marketing, search engine optimization and social media engagement can prove valuable. However, many school leaders prefer to focus on education, and work with an external resource. Charter School Capital offers a pay-for-performance enrollment marketing solution that allows you to focus on your core strengths while we work to drive awareness, interest and enrollments for your school.

Every School is Unique

Of course, your school is unique. You might find that your school achieves a sustainable momentum before you get to 450 students. This will depend on your school’s specific finances and composition.

But keep pushing for that magic 450. And somewhere along that hike, you will notice that you’ve found ‘the sweet spot.’ Things will get easier. Things will feel like they’re just moving along. The feeling of climbing an incline becomes a sense of walking sure-footed down a path. And soon enough, you’ll find yourself at the mountaintop.

What do you think? What has been your own experience? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

As charter school leaders look towards the future and this coming fall, there has never been more important to time to begin thinking about their enrollment. Reduced tax revenues across the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic will potentially result in deferrals, delays, and reductions in state payments for charter schools.

Amongst that uncertainty, school leaders must start crafting their plans for and securing tools to enable next year’s enrollment right now. To help leaders do just that, here are 5 tips for securing your school’s enrollment for next year.

Your Best Students Are Your Current Students

As the saying goes, “your best customers are your current customers.” Before you even start any promotional efforts for new students, focus on your current students. By delivering the best possible educational experience to your students and parents, they need not look at other education options.

Additionally, enable parents and students to provide feedback for next year, so that you can address their concerns. We have no doubt that both students and parents are feeling just as uncertain about what next year’s school life might look like and how they can be prepared for those changes. Seek those questions and provide easy ways for parents/students to access those answers via your website, social media profiles, email, or text/SMS campaigns.

Begin Outreach to New and Prospective Students Next

Once your school leaders have a good understanding of potential enrollment gaps for next year, start crafting your marketing plan to drive awareness and interest in your school.

You can increase traffic to your website and social media channels by optimizing them for search engines and local hashtags/keywords. Raise awareness of your school through targeted ads on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Nurture prospective parents and students leveraging email and text-message campaigns, along with direct mail.

If you’re looking for help with your enrollment marketing plans, our team at Charter School Capital has done that for schools all over the country. You can find out more here.

Create Easy-to-Understand Enrollment and Lottery Guidelines

Parents and students need clear, easy-to-understand enrollment and lottery guidelines. Ensure your website provides all the information and deadlines required to enter your lottery, as well enrollment preferences for your school (i.e., preferences are given to returning students, siblings of current students, and students living the same community school district).

Using simple tools like AddEvent.com, your team can quickly help parents add dates and deadlines to their calendars.

Ensure Your Lottery System Is Best-in-Class

Take the hassle out of your lottery system by leveraging a best-in-class lottery platform like Lotterease.  It’s easy to use, manages weighted lotteries, including siblings and twins, allows parents to add all the data required, generates both selected and waiting lists based on the cutoff criteria, and waiting lists for each grade. It has built-in security and is fully auditable. Even better, it provides granular level notification controls so that parents and your staff are up-to-date and informed.

Enable Parents and Teachers with Tools and Content

Parents, teachers, and staff will often be your best advocates. Arm them with content and visuals they can use on their social media profiles, and develop one-pagers they can provide to friends, family, and their neighborhoods. Canva is our favorite free tool for helping schools make this happen.

 

Three Keys To Increasing Charter School Enrollment (1)

 

Charter school enrollment growth doesn’t happen by accident. It requires strategic planning, effective systems, and consistent execution across multiple touchpoints. Schools that consistently grow their enrollment understand that attracting families is only half the battle—converting interest into actual enrollment requires a comprehensive approach.

Drawing from the success of charter schools achieving 10% annual growth rates while maintaining waiting lists of hundreds of students, here are the three essential keys to sustainable enrollment growth that every charter school leader should implement.

Key #1: Develop a Multi-Faceted Marketing Strategy

Why Diversified Marketing Matters for Charter Schools

Successful charter school enrollment growth starts with a comprehensive marketing approach that reaches families where they are, not where you think they should be. Different communities respond to different marketing channels, and the most successful schools understand that a one-size-fits-all approach limits their potential reach.

Essential Marketing Channels for Charter Schools

Digital Marketing Strategies:

  • Social Media Marketing: Engage families on platforms they use daily, sharing student achievements, classroom highlights, and school culture moments
  • Pay-Per-Click Advertising: Target specific demographics and geographic areas with precise messaging about your school’s unique value proposition
  • Search Engine Optimization: Ensure your school appears when families search for educational options in your area

Traditional Marketing Approaches:

  • Print Advertising: Local newspapers, community magazines, and educational publications still reach important family demographics
  • Radio Advertising: Particularly effective for reaching commuting parents and building brand awareness in your community
  • Community Presence: Participation in local events, farmers markets, and community gatherings where target families spend time
The Strategy Behind Successful Marketing

The key to effective charter school marketing isn’t choosing one channel over another—it’s testing multiple approaches to determine what resonates with your specific community. What works in one geographic area may not work in another, which is why successful schools continuously experiment with different marketing strategies while carefully tracking results.

Data-Driven Marketing Approach:

  • Track which marketing channels generate the most website traffic
  • Monitor conversion rates from different advertising sources
  • Analyze demographic data to understand which messages resonate with different family groups
  • Continuously refine messaging based on actual enrollment data rather than assumptions
Key #2: Create an Effective, Mobile-Optimized Website

Your Website as Your Primary Enrollment Tool

Your school’s website serves as the digital front door for prospective families. In today’s mobile-first world, this digital first impression often determines whether a family will continue exploring your school or move on to other options.

Critical Website Design Principles for Charter Schools

Simplicity Over Complexity: Many school websites suffer from “information vomit”—overwhelming visitors with too much content because every department wants to showcase their programs. However, your website’s primary purpose is to inform potential students and families about your school in a clear, compelling way.

Mobile-First Design Requirements: With 70% of website traffic coming from mobile devices, your site must deliver an excellent experience on smartphones and tablets. This means:

  • Fast loading times on mobile networks
  • Easy-to-read text without zooming
  • Simple navigation that works with finger taps
  • Contact forms that are easy to complete on small screens
  • Click-to-call phone numbers for immediate contact
Essential Website Content for Enrollment Growth

Information Families Actually Need:

  • Clear description of your educational approach and philosophy
  • Academic programs and extracurricular offerings
  • Enrollment process and important deadlines
  • Contact information prominently displayed
  • Success stories and student achievements
  • Faculty qualifications and school leadership

Amazon-Level User Experience: Modern families expect the same level of convenience and ease they experience with major e-commerce sites. This means:

  • Intuitive navigation that gets them to information quickly
  • Search functionality to find specific details
  • Online application processes that work seamlessly
  • Immediate confirmation when they submit information requests
Conversion Optimization for Charter School Websites

Your website should guide visitors toward taking action, whether that’s requesting more information, scheduling a tour, or starting an application. Strategic placement of contact forms, clear calls-to-action, and compelling reasons to engage with your school can significantly increase conversion rates.

Key #3: Implement Responsive Systems and Dedicated Personnel

The Critical Importance of Quick Response Times

Even the most effective marketing and website design won’t drive enrollment growth if you can’t respond quickly to interested families. In today’s competitive educational landscape, families who don’t receive prompt responses will simply move on to other options.

Building an Effective Inquiry Management System

Contact Form Strategy: Implement a strategic contact form that collects essential information while providing immediate value to families. This approach allows you to:

  • Capture family contact information for follow-up
  • Understand their specific interests and needs
  • Provide relevant information packets automatically
  • Begin the relationship-building process immediately

The 24-Hour Response Rule: Successful charter schools make it a priority to respond to all inquiries within one business day. This rapid response time demonstrates professionalism and shows families that your school values their interest.

 
Staffing for Enrollment Success

Dedicated Enrollment Team: Growing charter schools invest in dedicated personnel to manage the enrollment process. Even schools serving thousands of students typically maintain enrollment teams of 6-8 people who handle:

  • Initial inquiry responses and follow-up calls
  • Application support and guidance
  • Document collection and verification
  • Enrollment appointments and paperwork completion
  • Ongoing communication throughout the process

Process Management: Effective enrollment teams manage multiple complex processes simultaneously:

  • Hundreds of weekly inquiries during peak periods
  • Document collection including immunization records
  • Application processing and verification
  • Enrollment appointments and master agreement signing
  • Ongoing family communication and support
Streamlining the Enrollment Process

Timeline Management: The enrollment timeline varies significantly based on timing and family readiness. During peak seasons (July and August), the process typically takes 2-3 weeks from initial inquiry to completed enrollment. However, prepared families during off-peak times can sometimes complete enrollment within a single week.

Removing Enrollment Barriers: The online application process can be complex, requiring numerous documents and forms. Successful schools focus on making this process as painless as possible by:

  • Providing clear instructions and checklists
  • Offering multiple ways to submit required documents
  • Having staff available to answer questions throughout the process
  • Following up proactively to prevent applications from stalling
Measuring and Optimizing Your Enrollment Success

Key Performance Indicators for Charter School Enrollment

Website and Marketing Metrics:

  • Website traffic sources and conversion rates
  • Cost per inquiry from different marketing channels
  • Mobile website performance and user engagement
  • Time from inquiry to application submission

Enrollment Process Metrics:

  • Response time to initial inquiries
  • Conversion rate from inquiry to completed application
  • Average time from application to enrollment
  • Reasons families choose other schools (exit interview data)
Continuous Improvement Strategies

Successful charter schools treat enrollment growth as an ongoing process requiring constant attention and refinement. This means:

  • Regularly surveying enrolled families about their decision-making process
  • Tracking which marketing messages resonate most effectively
  • Continuously optimizing website performance and user experience
  • Training enrollment staff on best practices and communication skills
Building Long-Term Enrollment Success

Creating Sustainable Growth Systems

The schools that achieve consistent 10% annual growth rates while maintaining waiting lists understand that enrollment success requires:

  • Consistent execution across all three key areas
  • Investment in both technology and personnel
  • Ongoing measurement and optimization
  • Commitment to providing exceptional customer service throughout the enrollment process
The Compound Effect of Excellence

When charter schools excel in marketing, website optimization, and responsive enrollment processes, the results compound over time. Satisfied families become advocates who refer other families, creating a sustainable pipeline of interested students that can support consistent growth year after year.

Getting Started: Your Next Steps

If your charter school isn’t achieving the enrollment growth you need, start by evaluating your current performance in these three key areas:

  1. Audit your marketing approach: Are you reaching families through multiple channels and tracking what works?
  2. Assess your website: Does it provide an excellent mobile experience and clear path to enrollment?
  3. Evaluate your response systems: Can you respond to inquiries within 24 hours and guide families through enrollment smoothly?

Improvement in any of these areas will positively impact your enrollment, but the schools that see dramatic growth excel in all three simultaneously.

Ready to take your charter school enrollment to the next level? Our team specializes in helping charter schools implement these proven strategies for sustainable growth. Contact us to learn how we can support your enrollment goals.

 charter school marketing
4 New Year’s Resolutions to Jumpstart Your Charter School Marketing Efforts

2019 is here, prompting us to think about resolutions and goals for this year—if we haven’t already! This is the year that I will finally get into shape, or I will lose 10 pounds. But what about setting those 2019 goals for your school? Setting new year’s resolutions for increased success with your charter school marketing efforts might be high on your list of things to do.
But, whether personal or work-related, inevitably by the end of March we all look back and wonder…what happened? Don’t feel bad, according to US News, approximately 80 percent of New Year’s resolutions fail by the second week of February.
But why do they fail? Often the reason is that we set lofty goals and then when we don’t see progress, it is easy to get disheartened and give up. I have found that breaking my resolutions into smaller, more attainable steps is the best way to make progress. Even if I don’t achieve the full resolution, I have at least taken some steps to achieve my goals.
At the outset, thinking about improving your charter school’s enrollment marketing program can seem like a huge undertaking with multiple considerations. However, simply by taking some small steps, you can start seeing the results you’re after.
Here are some resolutions that you can actually keep – so you can start getting some quick wins towards achieving your charter school marketing goals this year!

1. Resolve to get some professional development on how to market your school.

Hopefully, this article can help you achieve this goal, but there are a lot of other resources out there for you to improve your skills in marketing your school. One of the biggest challenges that I hear from my charter school clients is that they never received training on how to market their school.
You don’t need to go back to school to get your degree in marketing. There are a lot of great, free resources that you can tap into to improve your marketing acumen, and ultimately, drive more enrollment for your school.

  • HubSpot HubSpot is a CRM company that I recommend to a lot of my clients. In addition to offering a robust software application that many schools use, they offer a ton of great online marketing training classes to help you develop your marketing knowledge. And the best part about it? It is totally free! From the basics of “inbound marketing”, to developing your email strategy or how to use Facebook in your marketing, HubSpot has you covered. These courses are very well done and generally, you can finish a course in under two hours. For more school-specific marketing and recruitment training, there are several blogs and newsletters that are more specific towards driving higher school enrollment.
  • InspirEd Rob and Liza Norman send out a daily email that covers a lot of ground on effective school marketing. Though they approach this from the perspective of an independent school, and are more about graphic design and communications, a lot of the lessons and case studies that they discuss are applicable for a charter school.
  • SchneiderB Media Brendan Schneider is the director of admissions at Sewickley Academy in Sewickley, PA. His company, SchneiderB Media, has a great blog, podcast and Facebook group that covers a lot of the topics in creating an effective school marketing program.
  • Bright Minds Marketing I admit that I am biased here since this is mine, but our semi-monthly newsletters cover different topics for how schools can improve their enrollment process from the ttraction of prospective students to how to better retain your student body. I am also working on a web-based class that I hope to introduce early in 2019.
  • Image7 is a group out of Australia that has a monthly newsletter, blog and a podcast. I admit that I love listening to the Australian accent, but there is a lot of good information these guys put out. Some doesn’t really apply to US based charter schools, but you can still gather a few ideas from these guys.
  • Charter School Capital provides lots of resources free to charter schools to help them grow and sustain enrollment. Their new Digital Marketing for Charter Schools manual is a really helpful guide for those who are just starting their marketing efforts and want a step-by-step guide, and for those who just want to bolster the efforts, they’re already making.

Resolve to get your in-bound certification from HubSpot, download some helpful content, and sign up for two to three school marketing related newsletters. With a small investment of around four hours, you’ll be taking a great first step into becoming a more effective school marketer.

2. Make this the year that you launch a school satisfaction survey

Regardless if you are school with a long waiting list or one that is struggling to fill all your seats, your school will benefit from understanding how your current parents and staff view the operations of your school.
Related: The What, Why, and How-to for Designing a School Satisfaction Survey for your Charter School
If the prospect of writing a comprehensive survey fills you with dread, do a very short, five-question survey. Ask the following questions:

  1. How did you hear about our school)?
  2. On a scale of 0 – 10, how likely are you to recommend our school to a friend or family member?
  3. What would you consider the strengths of our school?
  4. What would you consider the weaknesses of our school?
  5. What is the one thing you wished we would change about our school?

These simple questions give you a lot of information: you know which channel is most effective in your marketing; you have a quantifiable number for your satisfaction levels that you can track over time; and you have identified areas that families like and areas where they feel you need improvement.
This gives you a lot of visibility and helps to form your improvement plans for the upcoming year.
There are a lot of survey platforms out there like SurveyMonkey, QuestionPro or you can even just make this survey in Google Forms.
A brief survey like this won’t cover everything, but if you aren’t doing one right now, it is a huge step forward.

3. Learn the key metric in your enrollment marketing

Sometimes gathering all your enrollment data together into an easy-to-analyze format can seem like a daunting challenge. The data might reside within multiple different spreadsheets and across different groups and people within your school.
But keeping with the theme of quick wins, there are two valuable steps you can take that will provide the valuable data needed to help inform your recruitment efforts:

  1. Gather the names of all the families who attended tours at your school
  2. Match these up with the names of families who newly enrolled at your school and divide

This small exercise is going to give you the most important metric in enrollment marketing: your “yield rate”.
Related: How to Use Data to Improve Your Charter School’s Enrollment
Knowing what percentage of students convert after a tour is one of the most actionable pieces of data that you can have. It allows you to understand if your challenge is in the attraction stage (getting families to come to the tour) or in the conversion stage (getting families to enroll). Once you have this information, you can focus on improving that particular part of your enrollment marketing program.

4. Get an outside perspective on the effectiveness of your school tour

When was the last time you evaluated the effectiveness of your school tour? If you are like most schools, this is not something that you spend a lot of time analyzing. It can be easy to fall into the trap of just doing the same thing again and again. But what if your tour is not effective? If you looked at your conversion rate, you probably know the answer, but how do you fix it?
Ask a friendly parent or a faculty member to pretend to be a prospective parent and run them through your typical school tour. Kind of like a “secret shopper”. I’m sure that they’ll point out things that you might have missed that are the best attributes of your school and perhaps some areas that need attention. Sometimes we are too close to a task to realize that there are ways that we could get better. And they might have some great ideas about a certain program or feature of your school that would resonate more with prospective parents in your community.
Achieving these four goals can make a big difference in your school recruitment efforts. Though they might seem small, if you do them this year, you will start to become a better charter school enrollment marketer and bring more students into your school. Best of luck for the New Year!

Digital Marketing for Charter SchoolsDigital Marketing for Charter Schools: An Actionable Workbook to Help You Achieve Your School’s Goals!
Scratching your head as to how to go about implementing digital marketing for your charter school? You’re not alone! This free manual will be your go-to guide for all of your school’s digital marketing needs! Download this actionable workbook to help get your marketing plans started, guide you as you define your audience and key differentiators, choose your tactics and start to build your campaigns.

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charter school enrollmentHow To Use Data To Improve Your Charter School’s Enrollment

Data is impacting all facets of education, including charter school enrollment efforts. The use of data-driven instruction is on the rise in schools across America. According to a recent survey of over 1,500 educators conducted by Kahoot! in 2018, almost 75 percent of teachers identified data-driven instruction as the top trend in how ed-tech is being used at their school.
Effectively utilizing data is important in delivering tailored and targeted educational approaches, and it is extremely important in developing a robust and effective enrollment management system. But many charter schools still struggle with using data to shape, inform and improve their enrollment.
If you are new to enrollment marketing for your charter school, or just looking to improve the effectiveness of your use of data, here are five ways that you can successfully use data to improve your charter school’s enrollment.

1.) Develop your overall data strategy

The first step in building a strong data strategy is to identify all the things that you want your data to tell you. When I was in brand marketing, we called this a list of IWIKS or (I Wish I Knew). In this planning stage write down all the things that, if you knew them, would allow you to be a stronger enrollment marketer. Some of these would be:

  • Enrollment trends over the past five years
  • Retention trends over the past five years
  • Marketing tactics that bring in the most prospective parents
  • Customer satisfaction rates
  • What school is your biggest “feeder”, or source, of students

This list will be long, and since you are in the brainstorming phase, don’t be alarmed if it takes a page or two.
Next, figure out where to get this information.

  • Is it currently in your student information database?
  • Is this additional data you need to figure out a way to gather?
  • How hard would it be to gather that data?
  • Assign a source for that data.

For all the pieces of data that you want to know, ask this question: “Is knowing the answer to this question relevant to my job and is it actionable”? If the answer is no and it is just an interesting tidbit of data, don’t waste your limited time figuring out a way to gather it.
Now that you know what you are trying to gather, it is important that your data gathering process allows for good analysis. You have heard the phrase, “Garbage in, Garbage out”? Make sure that the ways in which you gather the data (input from the office administrators, online forms, transfer information, etc.) is clean and follows a standard and consistent data structure.
For example – let’s say that you are trying to analyze what schools are your best sources for students. Knowing this allows you to focus your recruitment efforts to create deeper relationships with those schools. Having clean data makes sure that you are spending your time engaging in relationship building efforts rather than cleaning the data. If your registrar or school admin doesn’t use a standard name for each school, you may not clearly understand your “feeder patterns. Or at the very least, you will have to spend time cleaning up the data rather than engaging with prospective new families.
Hopefully, you will be spending more of your time analyzing data rather than collecting the data. Ensuring that the data you gather is clean and usable will go a long way towards making your analysis – and your job – easier.

2.) Establish your foundational metric #1: Enrollment trends

Many schools that I have worked with have a good understanding of how last year’s enrollment performed. However, enrollment should not be viewed as a snapshot, but rather as a trend. Go back and chart your enrollment over the past five years to see how your total enrollment has fluctuated over time.
charter school enrollment
Now add to this, your total new students per year and break out which grade level they enrolled in with an emphasis on your entry grade (K if you are a K-8 school and 9 if you are a high school.) You should end up with a series of graphs like these:
charter school enrollmentBy going through this exercise, you have identified where your school’s enrollment challenge is. In this example, almost 100 percent of this school’s declining enrollment can be attributed to lower kindergarten numbers. Analyzing the data allows this school to focus their enrollment marketing efforts on boosting the enrollment numbers for kindergarteners and not be as concerned about the other grades—which are consistently bringing in approximately the same number of students.

3.) Establish your foundational metric #2: Retention trends

For retention, there is a similar process. Track the five-year retention rate for your school and then repeat the process by grade. Understanding retention data can be tricky. Do you analyze if a student came back after the summer, or if they left in the middle of the year? When you are starting out, I suggest that you look at students who started on day 1 in year 1 and were they enrolled on day 1, year 2?
charter school enrollment
Now, break out each individual grade’s retention rate.
charter school enrollmentIn this example, even though the school’s overall retention grade is increasing, there are still two problem grades: Kindergarten to 1st grade and 6th to 7th grade.
This analysis tells you what, but it doesn’t tell you why. Is it a teacher issue, or maybe competition for 7th graders coming from a strong public middle school? This might be call for further analysis, but even this small exercise allows the school to identify the need to drive retention programs for those two grades since they represent the biggest opportunity.

4.) Know your school’s closure rate

The next most critical metric to track is your school’s “closure” or “yield rate”. This is the number of families who engaged with your school via a school tour or shadow day, divided by the ones that ultimately enrolled in your school.
This is one of the most critical metrics to track and one of the most critical to do right. Here is how it should look if we are only looking at open house attendance:
charter school enrollmentYou can see in the example above that this school is averaging around a 50 percent closure rate. For every 100 families that come in and tour the school, only 50 will enroll. If you know this, and are trying to increase your enrollment to 100 students a year, there are two choices:

  1. Increase the number of families that tour your school to 200. You can do this, but you will probably have to spend a fair amount of money to double your attraction. Or . . .
  2. Improve your closure rate by “closing the deal” with more of the families (parents) that come to tour.

This chart throws into sharp relief where you need to focus your attention: increasing the quality of the experience a family has when they tour your school. Cutting the data this way allows you to identify your biggest opportunity to drive your charter school enrollment.
Unfortunately, this yield-rate tracking doesn’t tell you why. This might be when you want to consider engaging a “secret shopper” to identify why your tour is not getting parents to convert by enrolling their children.

5.) Try to track the effectiveness of your outbound marketing efforts

Tracking your specific enrollment marketing efforts is the hardest metric to get right. There is an old line in consumer marketing, “I waste 50 percent of my advertising dollars, but I don’t know which 50 percent”. It is often hard to know what specific thing drove enrollment. For example, most schools use yard signs to raise awareness for their upcoming open houses. Does a yard sign make a parent engage with you? It is hard to say, but this is a good example of a cost-effective way to raise awareness.
For a small-budget item like a yard sign, it is ok if you don’t know the direct effects. But if you are planning on spending more money on radio, TV or billboards, having a way to track the effectiveness of those campaigns is critical.
Because it is so important to track your marketing program’s effectiveness, I tend to recommend to clients that they shift more of their marketing dollars to digital, or online advertising. Digital advertising allows you to track engagement and, most importantly, if the customer acted as a result of your marketing efforts. You know if somebody clicked on a Facebook Ad. If you are running a digital campaign and all your “calls-to-action” lead the parent back to a custom landing page to sign up for your open house, you are easily able to track which one worked and led to the highest engagement. You don’t get that same proof of engagement with a billboard. Digital ads can also be very targeted. You can ensure that only parents within your designated age range and zip codes see your ads. This is not really something you can do with broader consumer-based ads like magazines, radio, or billboards.
It can be hard to start the process of using data-driven practices for your charter school enrollment strategy. However, understanding your data allows you to make better decisions, and ultimately, it pays off by improving your school’s numbers.

Digital Marketing for Charter SchoolsDigital Marketing for Charter Schools: An Actionable Workbook to Help You Achieve Your School’s Goals!
Want to improve your charter school’s enrollment but are scratching your head as to how to go about implementing digital marketing for your charter school? You’re not alone! This free manual will be your go-to guide for all of your school’s digital marketing needs! Download this actionable workbook to help get your marketing plans started, guide you as you define your audience and key differentiators, choose your tactics, and start to build your campaigns.

DOWNLOAD NOW