Charter School Marketing: Powerful Tips for Success

Editor’s Note: In the ever-changing world of marketing – and more particularly digital marketing – we understand the importance of keeping up-to-date on the best ways to reach prospective students, their families, and communities. That’s why we wanted to sit down with Imagine Schools‘ Chief Communications Officer, Rhonda Cagle, to get her insights and tips on charter school marketing. Rhonda generously shares her perspective on quick wins and strategies for marketing success!
We think it’s vital to keep tabs on the pulse of all things related to charter schools, including informational resources, and how to support charter school growth. We hope you find this—and any other blog post we write—both interesting and valuable. Below you will find the video and the transcript. Please read on to learn more.

Janet Johnson (JJ): Hi there, welcome to Charter Ed Talks. I’m honored to be here with Rhonda Cagle who is the chief communications officer for Imagine Schools, which is a network of non-profit public schools and welcome.
Rhonda Cagle (RC): Thank you so much for having me.
JJ: And we’re going to be talking about marketing today. I’m pretty excited about this subject because we’re both marketers and we’ve both been relatively new to the charter space. How long have you been in the charter space now?
RC: Full time, I’ve been in the charter space five years.
JJ: Oh well, you’re a lot more senior than I then. Rhonda, we’re doing kind of a fun campaign called “We Love Charter Schools” and so can you tell our listeners whatever you’d like to say about what you like about charter schools. Why do you love charter schools?
RC: I love charter schools because charter schools change the lives of children. We see that when children have the opportunity to learn in an environment that best meets their unique individual needs, their lives change, their ability to learn and to become successful changes. We also see that the communities become successful. The schools become literally beacons of hope in the neighborhoods in which we serve. I love charters because they change lives.
JJ: That’s fabulous. Not much better than that. From a marketing perspective and a lot of our audience I hope will be charter school marketers on these videos, are there any surefire wins that we should be employing today for enrollment or other charter school marketing?
RC: I think there are several surefire wins. The first is to recognize that marketing is really about relationships and it’s really about maintaining those relationships. We don’t do that in our personal lives once or twice a year, we don’t have a relationship push, we have ongoing relationships and that’s really what marketing needs to be about for charter schools. We need to be in our communities and sharing our news and what we’re doing in the lives that we’re changing, we need to share that all year long, day in and day out. The other surefire wins is the little things. We talk a lot about how do we attract families but I also like to ask the question how do we retain our families? Because I think retention is a lot like dating our spouses. We have to remind our spouse why they fell in love with us in the first place and we have to make sure that we are continually reminding them of why we are their best choice.
JJ: Those are very important points. Can you tell us a little bit about the role digital marketing plays in the charter school landscape from your perspective?
RC: Absolutely. Digital marketing has become something that we as a network are relying more and more on. It used to be that if you built it they would come and the truth is that was true for a while and then the charter’s base grew and we did build and they did come. And so now we have to find a way to differentiate ourselves in the market. And digital marketing helps cut through the noise that’s out there and it helps reach parents and families where they’re at.
We started our digital marketing campaigns back in late 2015, 16. We had our first full year of results in the 16-17 school year. What we found is that we generated roughly 6200 qualified leads. And that was through either online inquiries, somebody saying yes I would like to know more or a phone call that we could track. And out of that, we were able to convert 751 new enrolled students.
JJ: That’s a nice conversion rate, actually, in my experience.
RC: Thank you. We believe it can be better but that was our pilot and so now what we’re working on is how do we get those numbers tighter and better and those returns greater. Not just because it’s obviously good for running charter schools effectively and efficiently but more importantly because it maximizes resources coming into the schools that best support students. When a school is fully enrolled that school has the maximum resources that students need in order to learn and be successful. So we’re really working on closing those gaps to make sure that we’re being as effective as possible.
JJ: The fact that you’re maximizing the resources for the students through marketing I think is a really interesting point. Most of us feel as if we just need to get the students in the door, right? So that we can grow but I like the positioning of maximizing the resources for the children, the scholars, the students themselves and the families and the communities you serve. I love that. Are there any, especially in the digital world there are a lot of memes that come and go, right? Have you experienced any kind of, oh don’t go there because or are there myths that you would like to kind of bust right now for our viewers?
RC: Sure, so I think there’s a lot of myths that are out there. A lot of people are slow to think about digital, a lot of people want to hold on to what worked well in the past and the truth is what worked well in the past did work well but now it’s incomplete. And just like we keep learning how students best learn we also keep learning how our audience, our potential audience best engages with the message that we have to deliver. And so we have to be willing to learn and grow and change.
JJ: I think that’s important. And so, isn’t it exciting to be in a field where not only are you serving a wonderful mission but you are learning every single day about what works and what doesn’t work?
RC: Absolutely. I think the other piece of that is often we want to tout what we know as educators is important for a student. We want to talk about a curricular approach, we want to talk about those kinds of quote-unquote “selling points” and in many cases, we need to put ourselves in the shoes of our audience and what’s important to a parent may not be what we as educators consider to be important. For instance, we have many parents who come into our schools because they know their children are safe.
JJ: Really?
RC: They know their children are well known as an individual and they know that they’re going to be valued as an individual, and for the parent that’s their selling point.
JJ: Those are the messages that they want to hear.
RC: That’s right, and so we have to continually think about how are we adapting our messaging? How are we putting ourselves in the shoes of our audience so that we’re connecting with them in ways that are meaningful?
JJ: Are there any kind of surprises that have come up in your recent research or studies as you’ve learned more about the marketing to parents and students? Are they any different? Are there other things, other little pearls of wisdom you might share?
RC: Well I think it’s interesting to know that there is still so much misinformation about what charter schools are. So for instance, I just became aware of some polling that was recently done and when you put the word “public” in front of charter schools it increases favorability and understanding by two to three points. So there’s still fundamental misunderstandings about what charter schools are. The fact that they are public schools, the fact that they cannot discriminate in terms of how we enroll. We have to continue to be vigilant in delivering that message because there’s a lot of the public that still does not understand what a charter school is and the value that charter schools bring to the community.
JJ: Well, I must thank you again for the pearls of charter school marketing wisdom you’ve shared with us today. And, in terms of continuing education, I think this is going to be a little gem that others will be able to appreciate as a result of your willingness to share with us.
RC: Thank you so much for having me.
JJ: Thanks, Rhonda.

Digital 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 programs 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

Charter School Enrollment: Unified Enrollment and Enroll Indy

Thirty years ago, the process for selecting and enrolling in a school was very easy. Parents would send their child to the neighborhood public school, or if they had the means and/or desire would choose to apply to a private and/or parochial school. With the introduction and growth of charter schools, choosing a school is now a more involved and often a complex decision. Though some would say that the free market approach to school choice – and the option for charter school enrollment – is good, others have suggested that it has created a challenging system that disproportionately skews towards parents who have the time and ability to ensure that their child gets into the best school.
In an attempt to address these concerns and simplify what had become a very complex process, cities are turning to unified enrollment systems which provide parents a single place to research schools, a common application and single process to “match” to the school of their choice.
Denver and New Orleans were the first to roll these out in 2011. Both systems were able to pull together both traditional public school enrollment and public charter school enrollment into a single, common system. New Orleans also included their private schools. Since then, other cities like Washington DC, Camden and Newark have instituted this unified enrollment system across both traditional public schools and public charter schools while others like Detroit, St. Louis and Kansas City have created these systems without traditional public school participation and only include the public charter schools.
Early research of the Denver system has shown that this program has brought more equity to the group of schools who participate with higher enrollment of minorities, lower-income students and English language learners to the charter sector.
However, the move to common enrollment has not been without controversy. In Boston and Oakland, the implementation of unified enrollment has been stifled by concerns about charter school expansion, believing that the implementation of a unified system will drive more students away from the local traditional public schools.
Recognizing some of the challenges that other cities had faced in rolling out unified enrollment, Indianapolis was very deliberate about garnering community support of a unified enrollment program. In the fall of 2017, Enroll Indy was launched with substantial support from the two key local players in education: The Mind Trust and the Mayor’s Office of Charter Schools. Caitlin Hanlon, the founder of Enroll Indy, was a Mind Trust fellow and had structured the system during her fellowship.
The organization conducted a well-designed community outreach program prior to launch. This outreach garnered support from many well-known neighborhood organizations, civic groups, and schools. In its first year, a total of 57 schools participated in Enroll Indy. This included all the Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) and most of the larger charter schools in the city. — few notable exceptions included the Christel House schools and the charter (non-innovation schools) of Phalen Leadership Academy.
Under the Enroll Indy system, any kindergarten or above student who is changing schools to a school that participates in the system is required to register with the Enroll Indy website and indicate their priority choice for a school. They are then matched to a school based upon their priority choices and the space available at the school.
Enroll Indy has changed the enrollment and recruitment dynamics within the city of Indianapolis. As a school enrollment consultant, I had the opportunity to work with several clients in Indianapolis during the roll-out. I wanted to share some of our experiences and ways that schools can maximize their recruitment efforts in a unified enrollment environment.

1. It is going to be harder to enroll students if you choose to operate outside of Enroll Indy.

As a charter school leader in Indianapolis, or really in any unified enrollment system, you need to ask the fundamental question: Should we participate in this system for our charter school’s enrollment? This is a judgment call based upon the success and quality of the existing enrollment strategy for your charter school. If you have a well-designed enrollment system, consistently have a waiting list, and can communicate to all prospects that they don’t need to use Enroll Indy to enroll in your school, you might be able to run independently. As I stated above, a couple of schools are going this route. However, generally, there are more positives (for the expansion of charter schools) than negatives to be gained from Enroll Indy, so I recommend to my clients that they participate. If you choose to operate independently, you are going to have to overcome the perception that all schools are part of this system. This can be done, but it will require more work. Enroll Indy participated in over 60 community events and did phone banking /canvasing of over 25,000 households in Center Township. That is tough to compete against.
If you choose to participate:

2. You need to be thoughtful and strategic about the information that you include on your school description

For a lot of parents, your page under the Enroll Indy school finder site may be the first time that they have heard about your school or have seen detailed information about what your school offers.

The “Who We Are” section is your opportunity to make a great first impression. This section needs to be exciting and resonate with your potential parents. DO NOT take the description in your charter application and copy and paste! You need to think about who your audience is and what they want in a school. Many of the descriptions that I read from schools were chock full of academic jargon like “…leading literacy socio-emotional and neuroscientific research..” or were not very exciting like “We incorporate the environment into our instruction, and our students have opportunities for outdoor education.” Give your prospective parents an easy to understand but also a compelling description of your school. You are describing your school, but also selling it. Global Preparatory Academy, a dual language immersion program on the Near Westside, provides a good example of a parent-friendly description:

Example description from Global Preparatory Academy

Next, in the school highlights section, you can select six pictures and categories that highlight the uniqueness of your school. There were a few schools who struggled with this part. I saw a few that displayed their school mascot, or just the exterior of the facility. Those are important, but in this key selling stage, you want to continue to describe your school, but use the visuals to create excitement and allow the parent to envision their child at your school.
Don’t use stock photography or leave this section blank. Take this part seriously because parents are taking this seriously.
Finally, make sure that you are filling out all the different programs, clubs, sports and community partnerships that your school provides. Though the filtering program allows parents to search on a specific type of activity that your school offers, right now that filter does not “knock” a school off the consideration list, so it doesn’t remove you from consideration. However, if you don’t fill this section out, you give a very incomplete picture of your school.

Example of a school that is not very enticing

3. Utilize the event feature and participate in all the events that Enroll Indy hosts

Enroll Indy hosted four of events in the six months of the matching period. Attending these events gives you an excellent opportunity to get in front of parents who are currently looking for a school.
In addition to hosting their own events, Enroll Indy also allowed schools to use their platform to advertise upcoming open houses or other recruitment events. Surprisingly, only about a quarter of the schools used Enroll Indy to publicize their events.

Enroll Indy’s website averages about 2,000 users a month. This is a great (and free) platform for you to advertise your events. Additionally, in the monthly newsletters that Enroll Indy sends out to their entire parental database, they highlight and promote these events. Because my clients had events listed on the site, they were profiled in the newsletter. If you don’t list your events, you don’t get that opportunity.

4. Utilize the “like” or favorite feature to understand who is interested in your school

One of the complaints that I heard from schools using Enroll Indy was not being able to see who is interested in their school until they were matched. However, on your school page in the upper right corner, there is a heart, or a favorite, button.

Note the “like” button (heart) on the top right-hand corner

When a parent “likes” your school, they go into a separate list that you can access prior to match day to follow up with that parent. This is the only time you are going to see contact information for a parent prior to the official matching time. Encourage all your parents that you are recruiting to “like you”. This can be done in the description of your school or through your promotional efforts outside of Enroll Indy. Once you have a parent’s contact information, you need to follow up with the parents who have signaled a preference towards your school. Email them, call them, send them more information, personally invite them to an event, etc. They are giving you a buying signal, go out and court them. A personal outreach at this stage is going to make a huge impact on how they view your school.

5. Enroll Indy will not be a silver bullet if you constantly struggle with enrollment. You must still do the work!

Enroll Indy’s goals are not to ensure full enrollment at every school, but rather to try to spread enrollment more equally and equitably across all the schools in Indianapolis. Enroll Indy can help communicate to new parents who might not have heard about your school, but it should not in any way encourage you to stop doing all the recruitment activities that you have done in the past to attract students. It is a great addition to your marketing toolkit, but it shouldn’t be your sole tactic.
It is too soon to confidently talk about the impact that Enroll Indy will have upon education and enrollment within Indianapolis. However, if you are a charter school in Indianapolis, maximizing Enroll Indy should be a factor in the planning of your enrollment strategy. Hopefully, these five tips can help you to maximize it for your school.

Nick LeRoy, MBA, is the president of Bright Minds Marketing and former Executive Director of the Indiana Charter School Board. Bright Minds Marketing provides enrollment and recruitment consulting to private, Catholic and charter schools. For information about how Bright Minds Marketing can help your school improve its’ student enrollment, send an email to nick@brightmindsmarketing.com or call them at 317-361-5255.

Digital Marketing for Charter Schools: An Actionable Workbook to Help You Achieve Your School’s Goals!
Scratching your head as to how to go about building messaging 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 outlined and started, guide you as you define your audience, key differentiators and messaging, choose your tactics, and start to build your campaigns.

DOWNLOAD NOW

Charter School Enrollment: Are you making it easy to attend your school?

Editor’s Note: This article was originally posted here by Bright Minds Marketing and written by Nick LeRoy, MBA, the president of Bright Minds Marketing and former Executive Director of the Indiana Charter School Board.

Increasing charter school enrollment is vital to the health of your school—your business. But if you aren’t able to effectively connect and communicate with your prospective and current parents, boosting those all-important enrollment numbers for your school and retaining your existing students will be a challenge. In this article, you’ll learn the best way to leverage digital channels and how to boost communication between parents and teachers.
We think it’s vital to keep tabs on the pulse of all things related to charter schools, including informational resources, and how to support charter school growth. We hope you find this—and any other article we curate—both interesting and valuable. Please read on to learn more.

Are you making it easy to attend your school?

I don’t mean “are your academics not challenging or difficult?”, but have you made it easy for parents to be up to date on all the things that are happening at your school? I have conducted dozens of focus groups of parents across the country, and the number one complaint I hear from them is about the lack of communication from the school. Of course, when I say this to administrators, they sometimes have a hard time believing the data because they think they are over-communicating. “If parents would just read the communication, everything would be fine.”
We have a perception gap. As a marketer, the onus is always on you to make sure that your message is being heard, not on the customer to hear it. I hate to say this to school leaders because I know how challenging their job already is, but the parent is right. With today’s shorter attention spans and media coming at us from every direction, we have to adapt, and do more to communicate to our parents effectively.
Here is a list of things that I would challenge you to ask yourself if you are doing and if not, think about implementing some changes to try to make your school “an easy one to go to.”

Are you truly leveraging digital channels?

Is your website mobile-optimized?
The majority of internet traffic is from mobile devices. A mobile-optimized site is customized for the screen size of a tablet or phone. If a parent is trying to read a site on a phone that is not mobile- optimized, it is going to be a frustrating experience – negating any work that you have done to make your website useful.
Is your website up to date?
I know it takes time to do this, but your website needs to be scrubbed at least yearly to ensure that it is up to date. Next time you do it, create a written site map so you know what to update each year.
Does your website contain answers to the most frequent parent’s questions?
Millennials, your primary target customer, don’t want to call you. They would rather go to your website. Compile the list of all the questions that your admin team fields day in and day out and make sure that those questions are answered on your website in an easy-to-find fashion.
Can a parent fill out forms electronically on your website? Paper forms are a pain. They get lost, and someone in the office must input the information into the computer anyway. Brush up on your Google Forms and try to make things as electronic as possible. If I can sign bank forms or contracts electronically, is there a reason why I can’t do it for school forms?
Can a parent pay for his/her children’s fees electronically and at a low cost?
Are there additional fees involved in paying electronically? My boys’ school just went to a new lunch program billing system. It is fine, but each time you put money into the account, there is a $2.95 service fee. That is fine for me, but for some people on a budget who may need to pay weekly, that may be an additional financial burden.
Are you using a custom school App for smartphones?
This is a great new technology that a lot of schools are using. It is not very expensive ~$250 / month and it is a huge benefit for parents. This allows you to push content, set appointments and reminders and constantly make sure that updated information is in the hands of the parent.
Does your school calendar easily allow parents to import important events into their own calendar?
This requires a little bit more technical tweaking, but most parents live or die by our electronic calendars. Having a single consolidated calendar that can be integrated into a smartphone, tablet or existing online family calendar program is a worthwhile investment.
Are you communicating about important events in multiple channels?
Some of your parents will go to your website daily, others use Twitter and still others only check their Facebook page. It is critical that you are providing information in every channel that your parents use. I covered the benefits of multi-platform tools in this blog posting. But, if you don’t want to use those tools and just want one social media platform, you need to use the one that most Millennials and Generation X parents use: Facebook.

How is the communication between parents and teachers?

Do you guarantee a response time to your parents?
Most teachers that I have met are good about this, but you need to make sure that all teachers know that parents generally will be expecting a turn-around time of within 24 hours. Make sure all of your teachers adhere to this and tell your parents that they will get a reply within a day.
Are all of your teachers using the same in classroom communication system for parents?
Imagine this scenario: You are a parent of three kids. One teacher uses Class Dojo, one uses a Weebly website and another uses the app Remind. You are asking that parent to check three different places to know current homework assignments for the family. I know that each teacher probably has a preference, but if you are serious about making this easy for your parents, your school needs use just one platform.
Do you customize your communication based upon the individual students?
This is a little bit trickier, but some schools overload their parents with a lot of communication that doesn’t apply to their student. While it is important for all of the 8th graders to know about the upcoming DC trip, can you figure out a way to just send that to the parents of the 8th graders? The use of “all school” parent communication can lead to parents tuning stuff out because they don’t think it applies to their own specific child. Being able to create segments in your email communication will increase your open rates and make sure that the right people are reading your communications.
When I call the school, do I get a confusing phone tree or a real person that answers?
As I mentioned before, most millennials don’t want to call the school, but when they do, they want to talk to a real person immediately. Does your phone tree make them go through eight different options first before they get the selection to talk to a real person? This is a balancing act between having too many phone calls and not enough.
Your parents will love you if you undertake any initiative that improves communication and makes it easy for parents. You should always have a goal of making it as easy as possible to attend your school and ensure that your parents are apprised of updates, information and school news. If you make it easy to attend, you will be surprised at how many more people DO attend!

Digital Marketing for Charter Schools: An Actionable Workbook to Help You Achieve Your School’s Goals!
Need useful tips on enrollment for your charter school? Scratching your head as to how to go about implementing digital marketing strategies? 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

Understanding Charter School Enrollment Marketing Tools

Editor’s Note: In this, the proverbial age of technology, we wanted to dive deeper into how technology tools could specifically help with charter school enrollment marketing. For this CHARTER EDtalk, we were honored to be joined by Taryn Moore in Business Development and Partnerships at SchoolMint. SchoolMint has years of experience working with charter schools — from single-site schools to large charter management organizations (CMOs). They understand your environment and can help optimize your system for your requirements and your recruitment, application, lottery, and registration processes.
We think it’s vital to keep tabs on the pulse of all things related to charter schools, including informational resources, and how to support charter school growth. We hope you find this—and any other blog post we write—both interesting and valuable. Below you will find the video and the transcript. Please read on to learn more.

Janet Johnson (JJ): Good morning. I’m Janet Johnson with Charter School Capital. We’re here with Taryn Moore from SchoolMint and Kirt Nilsson from Charter School Capital, talking about enrollment today. Thanks for joining us.
Taryn Moore (TM): Thank you for having me.
Kirt Nilsson (KN): School enrollment—when it comes to schools thinking of that, it can be a little daunting. They have to run their schools and also try and get their word out. When it comes to things like leads and lotteries, can you think of ways they can manage that kind of information and that kind of process?
TM: Sure. There are so many great tools out there. I think the key is really finding the tool that’s right for you. I would say look to your current challenges. If you have a lottery that families are saying is not transparent, find an automated lottery tool. Something that really directly addresses that challenge. First and foremost, I would say with whatever tool you choose, find one that’s suitable for your families. If your families don’t have home computers, necessarily, find a tool that’s accessible on mobile, or find a tool that’s available in multiple languages. The goal is to make it easier and more accessible for families.
KN: You talked about some of the tools that are right for the school. Does it matter if they’re a school that’s just getting started, or they’re one that’s been around for several years and have been renewed … is there a right time for a school to start accessing technology like that?
TM: I would say as early as possible is really the best time to start. I think, when you start early, you can tackle some of those change-management hurdles early on and start reaping the benefits sooner. And you can start out light-weight. Start out with a online application. Then, when it makes sense, move into a lottery or a lead tracking system.
KN: I can definitely hear some of the reasons why a school would want to access technology like that. Are there also benefits to the families and the students from schools that access technology? If so, what comes to mind?
TM: I think, for families, bringing technology into the mix really makes things more simple, more accessible to them. It can make really confusing policies feel simpler. It can bring a lot of transparency to various processes as well. Like I was saying before, if you have a tool that’s accessible on mobile, a tool that’s available in a language that’s comfortable for you, that’s going to do wonders for families.
KN: Fantastic. Broadly, if you were to take your experience and say, “Hey, over the last couple of years things are changing in the enrollment technology space,” what kind of things are you seeing? What kind of things should schools be aware of as they think about this?
TM: I think we’re seeing a lot of different trends. One is a move toward common applications. We’re seeing more and more cities unified – bringing all of their charter schools, or a subset of those schools, together onto a common timeline and into a single application – so parents only go to one place to put that application in. We’re also seeing a lot more sophistication in interest tracking and events tracking so that schools can manage, track, and engage prospective families.
The last thing I would say, we’re seeing a lot more sophistication in the way of data analysis. Schools want to know where their student applicants are coming from. And schools want to see what their acceptance rates are like year over year.
Also, on the front of data analysis, when you think about something simple, like a student address. We’re all collecting student addresses on a paper form. You can’t do much with it; it’s just on paper. If you have an online tool that takes that student address and drops a pin at that student’s home location, then you have this beautiful visualization of a map. You can see there’s this cluster of students in this area, and there’s kind of this bare spot over here. Then, you can make really data-driven decisions about outreach, to help achieve your enrollment goals.
JJ: That’s great.
KN: When I listen, I’m like, “She’s really offering great information.” But if I’m the school, and I hear all that, I’m like, “Wow, that sounds a little daunting.” Why shouldn’t I be worried about taking the first step to move in this direction, if I’m a school?
TM: Everybody’s got to start somewhere, and there’s definitely some change management involved in the move to technology, but there are some benefits right off the top. I think, particularly for school staff. If you think about admins, who are today, spending lots of time entering data from paper systems. The move to online makes them really have a simpler day to day experience in the office. If they’re not entering that data from paper systems, if they’re not spending time manually tracking and managing a wait list, for example; they have more time to spend directly with families, which is really a better use of their time anyway. Of course, they have so much more powerful data to deal with as well.
KN: As we listen to you and start to get comfortable with the idea of using that technology to really move forward enrollment in schools, what kind of things do you see that come from it? What’s the success story that comes from using this kind of technology?
TM: I think some of the points that we’ve hit on already. An easier, more transparent experience for families, for sure. More powerful access to data for schools, so that they can really make data-driven decisions, and really move into the 21st Century. Parents are already using so many online tools as it is, to check student’s grades, to get e-newsletters from schools. To bring more and more of those processes online. I think it’s a lot less daunting today than it was even just five years ago.
KN: As you mentioned the different systems, and how schools are coming up to speed, do enrollment technology systems integrate with other systems of the school? Do they even need to?
TM: Yes, absolutely. We see it both ways. We see a lot of schools where they have a bunch of ad hoc systems that are working independently, and they’re navigating through those. We use those every day on our phones. If you open up your phone, you’ve got a whole slew of different apps that don’t have anything to do with each other. We somehow find a use for all of them and a way to navigate through them. Then there are also systems that are really end-to-end, so there’s not a need to integrate with other systems because they really cover a whole range of processes. Then, of course, there are systems that have great partnerships, or maybe there’s a platform of systems that really integrate seamlessly.
KN: It sounds like a lot of choices out there. If I’m a school, and I’m thinking through the choices, how do I take the first step? What’s the first thing that I should do?
TM: I think, in terms of making the choice, a simple Google search, of course, will render a lot of great results. I think also just talking to school admins and school leaders in your area can be a really helpful starting point. So many tools exist, and many of them are already in use by schools today. Finding out what others’ experiences have been like, I think, can be really helpful. Even thinking beyond just the horizons of your immediate geographic area, reaching out to school leaders in other areas of the country that maybe have similar challenges as you or similar demographics, can be really, really helpful. Kind of finding out what it’s like to work with a particular technology provider or a particular system.
KN: Now is the time of year, when schools have finished, and they’re all giddy that the school year is over; but the fall is not that far away. Are they too late to start thinking about these technologies, or using them? Are they too late, if they get started now, for the fall?
TM: I think it depends on the system that you’re looking for, the issue that you’re looking to address. I think if you’re looking to an online application system, for example, a lot of those systems can get you up and running in a matter of a couple of weeks, or maybe a month. I think it’s definitely not too late. It’s certainly never too late to at least begin exploring what your options are.
KN: It sounds like that’s the message. It’s not too late. There are a lot of benefits of enrollment marketing tools to charter schools. A lot of benefits to parents. So get it going.
TM: Yes, absolutely.
JJ: All right. Thank you, Taryn, so much.

Feel free to email Taryn (taryn@schoolmint.net) with any questions you may have about your charter school enrollment needs.

Digital Marketing for Charter Schools: An Actionable Workbook to Help You Achieve Your School’s Goals!
Need strategic tips on enrollment marketing for your charter school? Scratching your head as to how to go about implementing digital marketing? 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

Editor’s Note: Much like in the business world, where it costs more to attain customers than to retain existing customers, the equation is much the same for schools and student enrollment. A key factor in retaining and growing revenue and operating success is not in admitting students, but rather in keeping them. Having a “customer” mindset can help you do just that. Here’s are a few reasons we thought this article might be of benefit to you:

As just mentioned, it’s a lot less expensive to keep a family happy and enrolled than to attract new families to your school (marketing costs money, great customer service does not).
In a world where choice (and advertising/marketing messages) abound, you have to be very clever and to cut through the clutter to be noticed.
As we approach lottery and enrollment seasons for the 2018/19 school year, we need to get into the minds (and hearts) of our prospective families – those moms, dads, and grandparents choosing where their children will go – in order to attract them to your school – through values/school performance/your promise.

We think it’s vital to keep tabs on the pulse of all things related to charter schools, including informational resources, and how to support charter school growth. We hope you find this—and any other article we curate—both interesting and valuable.
This article was originally published in TrustED on February 27th, 2018 by Todd Kominiak

5 Reasons Schools Should Adopt a Customer Mindset

K-12 schools are changing.
But, then, you knew that.
The rise of education technology, along with the expansion of school choice and other competing brands of schooling, are redefining how K-12 administrators approach their work.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that great academics–while critical to student success–aren’t enough to keep students and parents engaged and enrolled. Across the country, efforts are underway to improve every facet of the school experience, from the classroom to the front office.
Increasingly, how your schools make students, parents, and teachers feel is as important as what they teach. If you’re hesitant about adopting a customer-first approach, here’s five reasons why it might be time to take a second look.

1. Competition is here–and it’s growing.

While many K-12 school districts have yet to report a mass exodus of students to school choice, there’s little doubt that the competition is heating up.
Nearly 18 states are projected to report enrollment declines over the next 10 years. For more, check out the video below.
Between 2010 and 2015, U.S. charter school enrollment grew by more than 60 percent, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. In Detroit, more than 50 percent of students now reportedly attend charter schools.
And the trend isn’t limited to urban districts. In Wisconsin, 73 percent of rural districts lost students in the 2013-2014 school year, according to Wisconsin Public Radio. For more on shifting K-12 enrollment trends, check out this infographic from K12 Insight.

2. Quality service can boost school funding.

Because most school district budgets are tied to student enrollment, the thinking goes that when students leave, the money often leaves with them.
The average cost per full-time K-12 student at a public U.S. school district is $11,392. The average teacher salary is $45,483. That means that for every four students a public school district loses, it also stands to lose a teacher’s salary in funding.

3. Private and charter schools are better at community engagement, parents say.

A recent national survey out of Rice University found that only 43 percent of public school parents are overall “very satisfied” with their child’s school. That’s compared to 56 percent of charter parents and 61 percent of private school parents who said the same.
A closer look illustrates a clear connection between parents’ overall school satisfaction and how they view their school’s level of community engagement.
While 50 percent of private school parents and 47 percent of charter school parents said they were overall “very satisfied” with their schools’ level of engagement, a mere 34 percent of public school parents felt the same way about their districts.

4. Marketing helps. But it’s not the answer.

In the face of rising competition from charters and other alternatives, many public districts are investing in traditional marketing–think TV ads, billboards, and radio spots–to retain current students and attract new ones.
In the 2016-2017 school year, Austin ISD spent close to $1 million on marketing to stem declining enrollments. Within six weeks of launching its strategy, the district had enrolled 548 students over initial projections for the year.
Advertising is a great way to build buzz around your school district. But keeping students, and their parents, enrolled year over year is another story. That’s where great customer service can win people over.

5. Your schools already do customer service.

Your school or district might not have a formal approach to customer service, but every staff member who interacts with parents or students–either in person, on the phone, or via email–performs some type of customer service.
The question isn’t are they doing it; it’s are they doing it well?
Former school district superintendent Dr. Gerald Dawkins recommends what he calls the “100:1 rule.”
It goes like this:
For every 100 students your school district serves, consider that at least one staff person is responsible for customer service. It’s up to the district to provide the standards and training these staff members need to succeed–and to offer a consistent experience.

Has your school or district adopted a mindset of customer service? What strategies are available to help your district stay competitive? Tell us in the comments.