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.
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.
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.
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.
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 […]
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 […]
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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.
In this session, Ashley MacQuarrie joined us to answer questions on using newsletters to foster stronger communication with families and the broader school community. They talked about tailoring newsletters for different groups, prioritizing content, and using newsletter sections to highlight important information.
Join the experts as they answer all your questions live on Tuesdays on YouTube at 10am PT / 12pm CT / 1pm ET. Charter School Capital – YouTube
Read Full Transcript :
Michael Barber:
Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Tuesday Tips. I’m Michael Barber. I’m joined by a familiar face this week, Ashley MacQuarrie. Ashley, welcome back.
Ashley MacQuarrie:
Hi. Thanks, Michael. Good to be back.
Michael Barber:
It’s good to have you here again. As always, we’re here every Tuesday around one o’clock Eastern, 10:00 AM Pacific, talking challenges for school leaders. And this week we have what I think would probably be a top of mind topic right now, given, top of mind topic, that’s an interesting turn of phrase, but a top of mind topic I’m sure as we are in back to school season, and that is enrollment marketing.
And I wanted to ask Ashley to come in and talk about all things newsletters this week because it feels like we have been getting a lot of questions lately about crafting newsletters and email in general. And so I thought Ashley would be a good voice to bring back to the conversation and talk about how to create an engaging school newsletter for your students and your community and your constituents and advocates. So we’re bringing Ashley back to have that conversation. But I thought I’d start us off with just a warmup question, Ashley. You’re around 30 plus school leaders talking about how enrollment is going for the back to school season. Would just love a sense of, hey, how’s it going out there? What are you seeing? What’s working for school leaders, what maybe isn’t, any lessons learned thus far?
Ashley MacQuarrie:
Yeah. It’s going well. I would say about half of our schools have started school, with the exception of a lot of our California schools, which had to push the first day of school back because of the hurriquake.
Michael Barber:
Yes, the hurriquake. I love that. I haven’t heard that yet.
Ashley MacQuarrie:
And then the rest of our schools, they start back around the end of August. But I think it’s been going well. It seems like the students who are back at school have been engaged. I mean, it depends, of course. There are always schools that have more of a challenge with getting those kids back, making sure that parents even know that it’s the first day of school. One thing that we have seen is staffing just continues to be a challenge. And even we’ve seen a lot of leadership turnover. So in a normal season, we might have one or two school leaders who change roles, and we’ve had about 10 schools where school leaders have felt that it was time for a change. And so that with it brings some uncertainty, but it also brings a lot of excitement because there is a lot of excitement around these new leaders. But it can also be kind of a double-edged sword where sometimes families leave. So it’s been an interesting time.
Michael Barber:
Got it. So not for the faint of heart as usual, working in education, continues that trend. And it feels like it is probably that time if a school leader is going to step away after what is a few challenging years of pandemic-related management that this might be the time as things have certainly not calmed down, but feel like we’re in a endemic period. So I can totally get that. But one way to turn this conversation back to topic of hand, newsletters, one way that school leaders can build a relationship and a two-way communication with their parents and constituents and community advocates is certainly in the inbox. So would love to understand how are you seeing school leaders that you’re working with or schools that you’ve seen in the past, how are they leveraging newsletters? What’s the purpose that they’re leveraging that newsletter for in their schools?
Ashley MacQuarrie:
So mostly we see schools use it for communication with enrolled families. And hopefully starting as soon as a family enrolls, you get added to that list so that you can include information throughout the summer that’s relevant to a brand new family. And we also see schools that use newsletters for people who have just started the enrollment process or expressed interest. I can tell you that the rates at which families engage with those newsletters is very different. So for an enrolled family, we’ll see open rates, so that’s just the percentage of people that open those newsletters, of anywhere from 50 to 80% is typical for those newsletters. And when we have our audience segment, that’s just folks who have expressed interest, we see that a much lower, maybe sometimes more typical five to 10% open rate. So your families who are enrolled though, they really want to hear from you and they’re looking in their inboxes and they’re engaging with that content. So it’s a really great tactic to stay top of mind.
Michael Barber:
Yeah, I think you bring up a good point about making sure, at least explicitly making sure who are the parents in your subscription lists or who are the individuals in your subscription lists that are connected to the school and who is maybe you’re trying to attract to the school. And probably a good case to be made for segmenting those lists so that the content that’s going out for current students, current parents, current advocates is targeted for them. And then the content for trying to attract school talent and school enrollments and kids to fill your school, you’re getting content that’s specific for them. Is that a good way to approach at least a baseline segmentation of how to write content and think about your audiences?
Ashley MacQuarrie:
Definitely. And then as schools get further along in this journey, we see schools start to segment even further with fundraising folks who might be interested in supporting the school and then people in the community. We’ve seen credit recovery schools have newsletters for district and councilors where they get referrals for students. So there’s opportunities as well to reach outside. But again, your biggest advocates, people who are going to hang on every word of your newsletter, are definitely your enrolled families.
Michael Barber:
Yeah. So let’s talk about those enrolled families segment. What are the types of things beyond, I think of the types of content that those families want to read about, I would assume it’s teacher stories about some of your school leaders. It’s events, it’s stories about the students. What are you seeing school leaders leverage well for newsletter content for your enrolled families?
Ashley MacQuarrie:
Yeah, I mean, a message from the principal’s always nice, especially if you have new leadership. Staffing spotlights are always great. We usually see schools start… I mean, you have to remember that especially on mobile, you want to put the most important stuff that you really want people to know about at the very top because people may not read all the way through. So any highlights, events, activities that you want people to know about, you would put those at the top. That’s where you’d start.
So we’ll usually see things like In The News or a science night or photos are great. We want to include photos and that can keep people reading and scrolling. So, “Here’s some photos from the recent field trip.” Student or staff spotlights are great. Any deadlines or important dates that people need to know about. And then one thing that I loved that some of our schools started doing, they would have a resources or a parents’ corner area of their newsletter which had tips for staying organized or how to prep for the first day back to school. And then we actually saw open rates start to increase a little bit when they added a students’ corner. So they would include a little printable PDF or coloring page or something, kids’ corner. And the families really enjoyed that as well. So different sections. Don’t try to cram too much and you can rotate out those different featured areas each time you send.
Michael Barber:
Yeah, such a good tip to make the thing that’s most important for those enrolled families upfront. Make it large, make it impactful so that you get across the thing that you really want to get across in that inbox. When you consider different platforms that are out there, because obviously there’s a ton of what we in the business called email service providers… As a school leader you may hear this referred to as an email marketing platform or something along those lines. What types of platforms, specific names that you’re hearing school leaders utilize and what’s working well for them? And across the board, maybe there’s ones that we want to let school leaders know that might be a little bit more complicated that they should maybe stay away from.
Ashley MacQuarrie:
So a lot of schools use ParentSquare or Smore for those enrolled families communications. You can create a newsletter in those kinds of platforms. Really, the limitation with those is if you do want to do that external communication, it’s more limited. You can’t necessarily import a list of interested families as easily. So when schools want to do that, we’ll usually see them use Mailchimp. We find Mailchimp to be pretty easy to use and very affordable for schools. But then ultimately it’s whatever you’re comfortable with. So whatever the person who’s running your newsletter feels like they can use is okay. So we’ve had schools who like, “I know Constant Contact and I’m just comfortable in that and it works,” and that’s great. We say the same thing with websites. If it works for you and it does what you need it to do, then it’s the right platform for you.
Michael Barber:
Yeah, good rule of thumb that, I guess, I’ve become well-known for inside Charter School Capital, is you don’t want to kill a bumblebee with a bazooka. So is the tool right sized for you? And I think you’re hitting on that very point there, is whether it’s Mailchimp or Constant Contact or any one of the, I’ll say hundreds, I don’t think that there’s thousands out there, but hundreds of different email service providers that you can use as a school leader, is pick the right one that works for the business. And if that’s the one that’s been working, then really no reason to rock the boat unless you’re thinking of potentially integrations that you need or something along those lines.
Yes, just some really incredible tips there. You mentioned open rate. I’m just going to do a bonus question as we cross over the 10-minute mark. And just a reminder, we’re here every Tuesday, 10:00 AM Pacific, 1:00 PM Eastern, talking all things challenges for school leaders. We’re talking to Ashley MacQuarrie today. Ashley leads our enrollment marketing services at Charter School Capital. Her and her team work across about 30 plus schools this year on their enrollment efforts. And we’re talking all things newsletters. Our bonus question for the day, you mentioned open rates. Specifically for engaged families, they can be 50 to 80%, and for those families you’re trying to attract to the school, they’re probably more along industry averages below 10%, depending upon how good you’re keeping that list up to date and relevant for those subscribers. But are there other metrics that you have conversations with with school leaders, and if so, what are those metrics and why are they important?
Ashley MacQuarrie:
Yeah, I mean, we definitely look at click rates, especially if there is a link that we want folks to follow to take action. And if you do have something like that, again, you want to put it higher up. So we would look at that. We also look at your bounce rate. So if your list isn’t up-to-date and your emails are bouncing, then you need to look at your newsletter list and make sure that you remove those bad emails because that can impact your email deliverability to different mail clients, which can be a problem that affects not just your email newsletters, but important emails that your staff might be sending. So that’s really important. And then your unsubscribe rates, I think. If people are routinely hitting unsubscribe, that’s a problem as well. If they’re just folks who no longer go to your school who are opting out, that’s okay. But if you have very high numbers of people marking your email spam or unsubscribing, that indicates a problem. So we would look at all of those kinds of things.
Michael Barber:
Yeah, super good tips there to keep in mind beyond just that simple open rate, that click-through rate, that bounce rate. You’re looking for those hard bounces, right, those email addresses that don’t exist, which, good news, most of the platforms do a pretty good job of filtering out for you, so you shouldn’t have to suffer from that from the beginning. But really great tips for newsletters, Ashley. I really appreciate you coming back and just want to say thanks for all the good work you’re doing with the schools. And I think we’re going to have multiple members of your team on over the next few weeks. We had Cheryl last week on all things video, so if you want to pop back to last week’s episode and you’re listening to this week, just head back a week and you’ll find that all things on video.
But really appreciate the time, Ashley. We’re going to wrap it up. We actually did a blog post that debuted, I believe, yesterday or today on how to create an engaging school newsletter. I will pop that into the chat right now so that anyone that is listening can hop over to that blog post and take a read of some really great tips that have come from the team looking at different school newsletters and what’s working and what’s not. But we’ll wrap it up and say thanks to Ashley MacQuarrie for joining us today on all things newsletters and enrollment marketing. We’ll have her back soon enough as well as multiple members of her team. And we’ll see you next week for our next Tuesday Tips. Until next time, bye, y’all. Take care.
Ashley MacQuarrie:
Bye. Thank you.
Newsletters are a great communication tool—one that, when used effectively, can help you build a strong school community and foster family engagement. Newsletters are more than just a simple email—when carefully crafted, they can deliver value to your community. Here’s how.
Planning Your Newsletter Strategy
1. Know Your Audience
Everything that goes into your newsletter comes down to one thing: knowing your audience. Understand your audience’s interests, concerns, and preferences. Keep the tone friendly and approachable as you feature a mix of valuable information, upcoming events, student highlights, and resources.
2. Find Your Purpose
Think about what your newsletter is trying to achieve. Include clear calls to action (CTAs) that guide readers on what to do next—whether it’s attending an event, volunteering, or reading an informative article. Also decide who will be writing them—a principle, school leader, or other administrator.
3. Decide on a Regular Schedule
Set a regular schedule for your newsletters, whether it’s weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. Stick to it so your readers know when to expect updates—and remember that consistency builds trust.
Templates: You don’t have to create your newsletter from scratch every time!
Cost: Find a platform that fits your budget.
User-friendly: Building your monthly missive should feel like a simple process.
Analytics and reporting: Understand how your newsletter is performing.
5. Work with your IT Team
Create and securely manage opt-in lists of families.
Crafting Your Content
1. Capture Attention
The subject line and main headlines are your audience’s first impression. Rather than sticking to the basics, try out intriguing headlines that hint at the content’s value. Use action words, pose questions, or share snippets to ignite curiosity.
2. Use Images
Include photos of students, teachers, and school events to add authenticity to your newsletter. Avoid stock photos if you can—they come across as generic. You can also experiment with infographics, charts, and visuals.
3. Make It Accessible
You’ll want to be sure your newsletter is accessible. Use accessible fonts, and consistent colors that contrast appropriately, and don’t rely on images alone to convey information. You’ll also want to be sure your newsletter is optimized for various screen sizes—smartphones, tablets, and desktops.
4. Be Concise
Break your newsletter into smaller sections with clear headings. Use bullet points and write short paragraphs. Lead with, highlight, or bold key takeaways and important dates to ensure your audience doesn’t miss it.
5. Share Success Stories
Highlighting student achievements, teacher spotlights, and event recaps can humanize your newsletter. Showcase the impact of your school’s efforts and the contributions of your staff and students.
6. Ask for Feedback and Continually Improve
Invite readers to share their thoughts, feedback, and suggestions—that way your newsletter is always evolving toward the needs of your community.
You’ll also want to regularly analyze open rates, click-through rates, and reader engagement. Experiment with different content types, layouts, and subject lines to understand what resonates best with your audience. Use these insights to refine your newsletter strategy.
In this session, Cheril Clarke and Isabella Marenco joined us to answer questions on using video to promote your school. They discussed how videos can feature glimpses into daily life at your school, how to use trending background audio, and embracing short, engaging content.
Join the experts as they answer all your questions live on Tuesdays on YouTube at 10am PT / 12pm CT / 1pm ET. Charter School Capital – YouTube
Want to dive deeper? Download the Digital Marketing Guide. This workbook will empower you to build and follow through on a simple digital marketing strategy for your school. You can use these pages to set goals for your school, refine your messaging, set strategic marketing goals, and achieve them through various digital marketing programs.
Read Full Transcript :
Michael Barber (00:24):
Hi everyone, and welcome to Tuesday Tips, our weekly conversation on all things challenges for school leaders. My name is Michael Barber. We are here every Tuesday on our YouTube channel, charter School Capital, at 10:00 AM Pacific, 1:00 PM Eastern. Talking about challenges that school leaders face Today, we are tackling a timely topic as we head into the enrollment marketing season of many school leaders, and that is social media, specifically video in your usage of driving enrollment and your marketing efforts at your school. So I have gathered two incredible names to have a chat today. Mm-hmm. It’s on my right, but it may be on your left, depending on how we’re looking at this. That’s my colleague Isabella Renco. She leads our social media practice at Charter School Capital. And on my left, maybe your right is Cheril Clark. Cheril is on our enrollment marketing team, and I asked them to come in today to have a chat about video. So we’re gonna get right into the questions. As just a reminder, we spend about 10 minutes here every Tuesday talking challenges for school leaders. So let’s get into some of these questions. We’ll start with this, and I’ll tee this up first for Cheril, if you will, would love to know how you’re seeing school leaders that you’re working with or the team is working with, what they’re using video for right now.
Cheril Clarke (01:40):
Um, the first thing that comes to mind would be campus tours or virtual campus tours. So that has been, um, so that’s something that’s been really good and gotten some traction to kind of, you know, bring people into the school, through, through their phones or their, their, their tablets or what have you touring, you know, getting a sense of what does it look like outside, what does, what do the playgrounds look like, um, inside, you know, the classrooms, the hallways, everything from, you know, just the music room versus wherever the kids do science, or if there are some, some schools have really outdoor spaces. So, um, that’s a great way to highlight the uniqueness of a school. So the first thing definitely would be virtual campus tours. Um, I would also say another thing could be, um, a particular program highlight. So if you’re, if there’s a school that has, um, a really, really good, um, artistic program or music, art, dance or something like that, so highlighting a particular program, which could kind of go high hand in hand with, um, highlighting, specific faculty and staff too. So, virtual tours, highlighting programs, highlighting staff teachers, because yeah, really, the principal doesn’t always have to be the spokesperson for the school. It could be someone else, it could be a different teacher. It could even be the other parts of the staff. It could be the janitor or someone that the kids see every day anyway. And, you know, show some love to someone who’s working in another capacity in the school. All these people matter because all these people help make the school a great place for the kids to come to every day.
Michael Barber (03:13):
Yeah. I think what I heard you say there is to make sure you’re using video for telling those unique stories about your school. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, bring some different voices because people want to hear all the types of individuals they’re gonna interact with at the school. Um, bring those voices that, you know, may not have to do with only just education, but making the school what it is, like, the janitor team, like admin individuals, maybe as teacher assistants and whatnot. Tell that full story. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, that’s, that’s a great answer and some great insights there. Um, I’m gonna ask the next question to Isabella Isa. I know you spend a ton of time watching some of our school’s social media channels. Do you have some examples? I’ve got one top of mind that I want to tell in just a second, but I wanna offer you the opportunity first, but what are you seeing, like key examples of schools name the schools, what they’re doing interesting right now when it comes to video in their, social media channels?
Isabella Marenco (04:07):
I think the KIPP charter school team they’re amazing. I love that they do. I like to Cheril’s point they do classroom tours and teacher tours or teacher takeovers on their stories. And even if I’m not in school, but I, I feel like I know them, and I feel like even as a partner, I’m like, I love her. I’m rooting for that teacher. I can’t wait till she’s live again. I think you do grow a connection with them when they take, do story takeovers, um, or classroom, I think right now is back-to-school season, so it makes you excited to go to school.
Michael Barber (04:38):
Yeah. Seeing those kids come back and, you know, as they run in from the buses or the drop off spaces and, um, and the back to school excitement is always fun. I’ve, I’ve been loving the last few days of seeing my friends and family post, you know, the, the token, kid photo with what grade they’re entering in, and suddenly you realize how old you are as well when you’re seeing kids that were babies now, you know, entering middle and high school, you’re suddenly like, where did the time go? My last question, I should say next to last question. I’ll pose that same one to Cheril, are you seeing any specific schools do something interesting? Have you seen a school that’s just like, oh, that’s an example of something I think is really interesting?
Cheril Clarke (05:20):
I would say Creative City has put some great stuff out. Um, they are in Baltimore. Um, they, they, they just got it. It’s just an inherently cool school that there’s so much, um, there for visual stimulation for parents and prospective parents watching their social media to say, oh my gosh, this is really, um, a, looks like a, not just, you know, a school, but a, a community, a school that’s rooted in a community that really anchors and, and uses it shows, these students, really enjoying themselves while they’re learning.
Michael Barber (05:54):
Yeah. So we’ve got the KIPP team, of course, just doing a stellar job; a really good example there from Cheril on Creative Circle in Baltimore. I’ll add one more. There is an elementary school, excuse me, a preschool in the San Diego area of California where I grew up, Carmel Mountain, I think it’s called Carmel Mountain Preschool. If I recall correctly, they had a, TikTok video go viral that, at the end of June and maybe the end of May, the beginning of June, um, of their pre-K and K graduation ceremony. And they ti they, they paired the video with a trending music background, a trending track, if you will. And it was just one of the cutest videos I’ve ever seen, and it’s had something ridiculous, like two and a half million views, you know, and generated like 30,000 followers for them on TikTok. Speaking of these great examples and, and bringing up TikTok and reels and, you know, YouTube shorts, a question I’ll start with Sharon, I’ll come back to Isabella, is sort of what’s working when it comes to video in social media, the different formats. What should school leaders be considering, um, or potentially what should they discontinue behaviors from a video that you’re seeing? What’s working, what’s not working? I mean,
Cheril Clarke (07:13):
One thing you just nailed was if and when it’s possible to take advantage of a trending song, um, if they’re using TikTok, because that can help a lot. Now obviously, you got some of the songs that you just can’t use for schools, but if there happens to be a happy-go-lucky kind of song that’s appropriate and it’s trending, definitely try to use that with your video because people may be searching for the school or they just may see stuff randomly in the algorithm, but songs can really push and drive the views on a video. I would say, of course, shorter is, is definitely where it is right now. Um, people are kind of just, people are fatigued and they’re exhausted with long-form videos. So I would do, you know, try to find that sweet spot where it’s not so short that it’s not substantive, but it’s not so long that, like, they’re like, okay, I’ve had enough of this. So, um, that, and sometimes the, the cut, the ones that don’t look super, super polished actually do very well. Um, so you don’t feel like you can’t do a video because you don’t have this big great setup. Cell phones are fine. I mean, we’re on them all day long, so, um, I would keep that in mind too.
Michael Barber (08:17):
Such good tips there, Isabella, anything to add?
Isabella Marenco (08:21):
Yeah, I agree. I say utilize the app, and edit in the app. The tools are there, it’s available, it’s doable. The audio will show you what’s trending. Um, especially if you’re just starting. And I feel like the best tips that I see or really lean into your niche. And I think, especially for schools, show that uniqueness. What makes your school different? What are you not trying to sell, but what would make somebody wanna go to your school and just lean into it? And I love how Cheril said, like, the rougher cuts are the best because I think that too, I think the more candid, the better. What’s real, you know, I wanna see that.
Cheril Clarke (08:58):
And for, for your audience, one more thing just made me think of really quick, because also with the music, there’s a big difference for what might be, you know, really what might hit an audience that’s in Miami Gardens Florida versus an audience. That’s audience that’s in Philly. Those are two distinct sounds and, and cultures that are different. So keep that in mind too. And Atlanta, that is
Michael Barber (09:17):
<laugh>. Yeah, that is, that is such a good insight because you know, especially on TikTok, um, the rise of these musicians that are very locally, you know, sort of geographically local in certain areas, right? Leveraging their audio background could be really interesting to generate views inside a very specific demographic, a very specific geo geographic area, because people will have interacted with likely that local musician’s content because they like them. So that’s like, that is such stage advice. That’s why we do these YouTube lives. I mean that’s like, that’ll encapsulate, that’ll have to be our headline for our email next week that highlights this conversation. Um, so what I heard was this is focus on those rough cuts don’t necessarily make, it does not necessarily need to be that polished video, especially in social, you’ve got all the editing tools at your disposal, the cameras in your phones, in, in the actual application themselves.
(10:15):
You can use third parties, but you can also just edit right in, the apps themselves. Leverage those trending background audios. You might probably wanna stay away from like, you know, some questional, you know, lyrics for certain artists, right? I think of like Lizzo, I like big butts. Like those sorts of lyrics are probably not gonna work for schools, but maybe they work for other brands, right? Just be careful of that background audio. Um, and I think the, the takeaway, the headline from our conversation today is think about the geographic area that you are in and the music and the background that works well for that area because a trending audio from a certain area may not work well in another area. I think that’s our headline takeaway for the day. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Um, we are right at 11 minutes and I wanna be respectful of our audience and just say thank you to you both for hopping on today and talking all things video for school leaders.
(11:09):
We will bring you both back as this is a topic that we continue to hear from our school leaders is a challenge of, you know, what do I do with social, how do I generate enrollment from social? And video is just such an important component for us. So we’ll have to bring Isabella Marenco on my rate, maybe your left, and Cheril Clark back again from our team. Greatly appreciate both of you and thanks for everyone for tuning in. Again, we’re here every single Tuesday for our Tuesday tip series, challenging or excuse me, having conversations on all things Challenges for school leaders Tuesday 10:00 AM Pacific, and, 1:00 PM Eastern. We’ll be back next week. Look forward to seeing you then. Take care. Bye
Cheril Clarke (11:47):
Bye.
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 school like yours, your school will appear high up in their search results.
What are best practices for SEO? The more often you refresh content on your site with new blog articles and web pages, the more search engine algorithms will look at your site and index the content that’s there. This is why a blog component to your website is essential.
If, for example, you want to be known as the STEM charter high school in your town, plan on publishing at least 10 distinct blog articles in six weeks all about your STEM curriculum, your STEM students (with their permission), your STEM teachers, and the STEM “extras” your school provides. All of this content will teach Google, Bing, and other search engines that your website is for high schoolers in your area and focuses on STEM.
So the upside here is: optimizing your website to provide good search results doesn’t cost money. The downside: it can cost time, energy, and effort to get the search rankings you’d like. The goal is to get on the first page of search engine results, but it takes some time.
Here’s what to consider as you improve your school’s SEO.
1. Think about what families and kids might be searching for when they are looking for a school like yours.
Put yourself in your prospective families’ shoes and think about the questions they are Googling, then write blog articles that answer those questions.
Ask new families how they found your school and what they searched for online.
2. A blog is an important SEO tool, but every page of your site should be optimized for search.
For example, if you are a STEM charter in Sacramento, make sure you put the phrase “Sacramento STEM charter high school” on your homepage, and have a page dedicated to your STEM program on your site.
3. SEO can feel complicated, but even a simple strategy, like using keywords, can provide big results.
There are a few steps you can take for every page and blog post to make sure they’re SEO friendly, and there are tools out there that take a lot of the guesswork out of it. One such tool is keywords.
How to choose a Keyword
Let’s use our example from above—you are a STEM charter school in Sacramento. First, we’ll need to pick the keywords to optimize for. There are several ways to research which keywords are optimal, including Google’s own Keyword Planner and Moz’s Keyword Explorer. These tools provide information regarding the frequency of search for a particular keyword as well as options for different variations of a keyword.
Short-tail and Long-Tail Keywords
There are two basic types of keywords: short-tail and long-tail. Short-tail keywords are search phrases with only one or words—their length makes them less specific than searches with more words. Long-tail keywords are longer and more specific keyword phrases—they are more specific and are used when users are further along in the Marketing Funnel. When choosing your keywords, you’ll want to sift through both short-tail and long-tail keywords along with many variations.
Using our example, you might brainstorm the following keywords:
Charter schools (“short-tail” keyword, broad appeal)
Charter schools Sacramento
Sacramento charter schools
STEM schools Sacramento
STEM charter schools
STEM charter high school Sacramento (“long-tail” keyword, more specific appeal)
The goal for keyword optimization is to enable people to easily find exactly what it is they’re looking for. If you choose to optimize your website around the short-tail keyword “charter school,” it’s possible that anybody looking for a charter school anywhere could click on your search result. If a parent from Arizona or Los Angeles lands on your site, the odds are that they’ll bounce right off to go find what they are really looking for.
The practices above highlight the fact that you don’t just want anybody to find your site—you want people in your area who are looking for your type of charter school, and you want it to be easy for them to find you. Google likes to see that you have quality, engaged visitors who don’t immediately bounce from your site. They want to see you live up to your content promise, and when you do, the algorithm will reward you with a higher page rank.
There’s so much more to learn about SEO for your site. It’s a part of your digital marketing strategy, which is important for raising general awareness, fundraising, meeting enrollment targets, and creating a diverse network of champions that will nurture your school over the long term.
How We Can Help with Your Charter School Enrollment Marketing
It’s never too late to start thinking about upping your charter school enrollment marketing game! Start prepping now for open houses in the spring, and get your summer enrollment marketing efforts planned for summer! Not sure where or how to get going?
Our best-in-class enrollment marketing team can help you:
Increase Traffic: Increase organic traffic by optimizing your website and social media channels
Raise Awareness: Targeted marketing efforts will help raise community awareness of your school, attracting new families and potential future students
Increase Enrollment: Attract more families, engage with them, nurture them, and convert them to boost student enrollment
Retain Students: Retaining your current students is vital to your school’s longevity and more cost effective than attracting and acquiring new ones
Charter School Capital’s Enrollment Marketing Program is designed to positively impact your charter school’s viability by boosting enrollment numbers through targeted marketing efforts. You can choose a program that focuses on generating awareness primarily through digital marketing, or one that also includes “ground game” marketing to convert applicants to enrollment. All efforts will be customized for each school’s unique needs, and may include the following:
DIGITAL MARKETING
Updated Website (if deemed needed) with Spanish language support where appropriate
Organic Search (optimizing website for search results)
Paid Search (Google, Niche)
Landing Pages to Capture Interest
Facebook and Twitter Social Media Engagement
Surveys / School Ratings
Postcards / Brochures
Email Campaigns to Your Parent / Former Parent Lists
Remarketing / Retargeting Online Advertising
Influencer Campaigns
Display and Print Advertising
Yard Signs and other Signage
Radio / Other Advertising – where applicable
THE GROUND GAME
Organizing Open Houses / School Tours
Ensure they’re regularly scheduled and staffed for parents and students to tour school and meet teachers (at least 2x/month)
Organizing Community Meet & Greets
Arrange community meetings in libraries, coffee shops, pizza parlors, etc. for parents to casually meet other families and parents and staff from school to drive interest
Putting up lawn signs, passing out brochures in the community
Going to doctor’s offices, supermarkets, etc. and ensuring community boards have brochures on them
Making sure parents can put up lawn signs for the school in the summer
Providing photos and updates to the Charter School Capital team for social media
Attend events or reaching out to other staff/parents/volunteers to gather photos and stories to share on Facebook and Twitter
Updating Charter School Capital team on school events, community reactions, etc.
Weekly meetings with the Charter School Capital team in first month, bi-weekly thereafter
HOW IT WORKS
PAY-FOR-PERFORMANCE OPTIONS
Download our one-page charter school Enrollment Marketing datasheet here
Would you like to see how two schools saw sharp increases in overall web traffic and social media traffic as a result of our enrollment marketing efforts? Download our Enrollment Marketing Results datasheet below.
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 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.
Charter school growth requires solid student enrollment and retention programs that position their school for future replication or program growth. Having at least some digital marketing prowess can help you reach and exceed your school’s growth and/or expansion goals.
If you’ve been interested in upping your digital marketing game for your charter school, watch our Digital Marketing for Charter Schools webinar! You can begin to fill your toolbox with some actionable tips and basic strategies that can help you get noticed, attract more families and increase your school’s enrollment.
In this webinar, we cover:
Strategy: Developing a digital marketing plan;
Tactics: The best tools for charter schools; and
Resources: Where can you learn more?
You’ll learn: How digital marketing efforts can help your charter schools build a solid digital footprint, different approaches to help develop and maintain your charter school’s reputation, as well as how to leverage marketing to grow student enrollment.
We also provide an overview of the digital landscape, discuss what digital tools are relevant, how best to implement programs, and we cover the various platforms and how to effectively use them to maintain your charter’s reputation and increase awareness.
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 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.
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.
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.
Your Ultimate Digital Marketing for Charter Schools Guide is here!
Scratching your head as to how to go about implementing digital marketing for your charter school? You’re not alone!
You probably already know that having a digital marketing strategy is important for raising awareness, fundraising, meeting your enrollment targets, and creating a network of champions that will nurture your school over the long term. The goal of digital marketing is to get the right message in front of the right person at the right time—and in a meaningful way. It sounds simple, but it takes a surprising amount of strategy.
Because we understand that it can feel like a daunting task in your already-busy schedule, we wanted to help take the guesswork out of digital marketing and support you with the tools you need for success! In this power-packed, 57-page workbook, you’ll get the ins and outs of refining your school’s message, setting strategic marketing goals, and achieving them through a variety of digital marketing programs.
We truly set out to make it as straightforward as possible for you build and follow through on a simple digital marketing strategy that will help your school achieve its goals.
In it we cover:
Setting your marketing goals
Determining your audience
Understanding your differentiators
Messaging and positioning
Marketing tactics
Managing and optimizing your school’s website
Paid media
Social media
Email marketing
Handy worksheets
… and much, much, more!
Digital Marketing for Charter Schools: An Actionable Workbook to Help You Achieve Your School’s Goals!
This, our most recent guide will be your go-to guide for all of your school’s digital marketing needs! This manual will help you get your marketing plans started, guide you as you define your audience, differentiators, pick your tactics, and start to build your campaigns.
