The future of schools marketing...

Presentation to the 450 Proprietors, Principals and Senior Leaders at the 10th Annual APEN Conference in Nigeria by Mark Brooks on 30th October 2019. I expanded on six keys to the future of schools marketing – having a strong dynamic leadership with a sense of strategic direction who are prepared to make organisational change to improve sales and avoid 'vanilla marketing' while giving all students a 'compass for life'.

“Is the glass half empty or half full?” This is the question with which I challenged the board at my job interview as a young and aspiring marketing director for one of the UK’s leading colleges. 

That was 20 years ago and as a result of implementing an effective turnaround strategy, we doubled the student numbers and quadrupled the gift income within three years. I also completed an MBA at the same time and used the college in numerous case studies.

Change is here to stay goes the saying. In these turbulent and competitive times, it is important that schools understand how to be profitable, sustainable and adaptable to meet the needs of their core market.

I have worked for 100+ UK and international schools and regularly read new books about business. But the one which had the most profound and influential effect on my thinking was actually published in 1999. It transformed the commercial world, and shaped my career.

Corporate Recovery by Stuart Slatter is the definitive ‘how to’ manual which explains in detail the processes required to restore the fortunes of challenging businesses.

As education is a business too (where profits are normally re-invested into the service), this article draws upon the some key themes from the book and illustrates them with examples from my own consultancy work.

Whether you are a small prep school, a sprawling boarding school, or an extensive sixth form campus – the same principles apply. 

The goal is to build a stable and sustainable business which generates confidence from stakeholders, exceeds the demands of your current customers, and inspires your potential pupils and parents in the market.

1. Strong, dynamic leadership.

For five years I jointly ran a headship recruitment agency and during that time we made 80 appointments.

Frequently the Chair of Governors approached us wanting a fresh start with a fresh Principal. We would search for a confident and committed leader with a commercial focus who would bring solutions and a positive mission. 

The Principal is literally the ‘figurehead’ of the school and embodies its vision and ethos of both internally and externally. In marketing terms, it often the Head that they are ‘buying into.’

Our organisation is still involved in recruitment, today we are advertising for a Principal for a leading full boarding school in Lagos. The key requirement is that they should be a strong, decisive, and inspirational leader.

One candidate who shone through our rigorous selection process for an excellent day and boarding school last year has really ‘hit the ground running’. 

Based on his background in the UK, he got to grips with student tracking, delivered record breaking results, united teachers with a shared vision, instilled discipline among the girls and boys and modernised communication with parents using social media and WhatsApp video with 2,500 views each week!

It is no surprise that this transformation, in just three terms, has generated a renewed sense of purpose across the school and driven student enquiries to new heights.

2. Sense of strategic direction. 

A charming countryside prep school with blissfully happy children approached me for marketing help. 

They had a falling roll, the buildings were leaking, the head was firefighting and the registrar was exhausted. 

To make matters worse they were losing money and had only two years of cash left before serious questions would be asked about its future.

We had to move fast. First, we put together an educational and recruitment plan which I drove through with the full support of a new governors’ task force. It focussed on the core messages and markets.

I conducted an audit to see how effective their marketing was and whether they were getting value for money. In fact we managed to reduce it by ￡20,000 overnight. We controlled costs on all local advertising and empowered the registrar to do what she was best at – building relationships with current enquiries. It was no use spending money on generating new enquiries if we weren’t looking after the old ones.

Secondly, we needed a reality check. What were our numbers really going to be next academic year, what conversion rates did we need to achieve in order to improve our prospects? That meant creating lots of spreadsheets.

Finally, we got the staff team involved and enthused. Numbers might be low now, but things were going to get better. An infectious buzz in the common room was restored. Lessons were modernised, strategic alliances with a local school were renewed.

The net result…100! Yes, in two years we managed to recruit more than 100 extra girls and boys - taking the roll from 145 to more than 250. It wasn’t as simple as it sounds and was a complex process with lots of action steps. But a sense of direction was restored and a great school was saved. And the roof was repaired too.

3. Organisational change

As my background is in marketing, I am keen to ensure that the admissions and communications team are joined up in each school for which I work.

Too often the marketer and registrar are in separate areas of the school, work on different priorities and sometimes don’t even have the same line managers.

In school turnaround – this team is the engine that delivers students and drives income. But they are frequently under-resourced and under-valued.

The marketing manager must understand their market, the registrar should build relationships with it.

Another tool for admissions staff is a good database. More than 100 in the UK now use a sophisticated tool called RS Admissions which was designed by an admissions registrar for admissions registrars. 

We even use it ourselves as the first educational consultancy to purchase the programme as it helps keep one step ahead of our boarding enquiries. The most important feature is the effective monitoring of progress and follow up of enquiries so that they don’t go cold.

At one leading girls’ boarding school at which I worked we ensured that marketing and admissions were capable and motivated. They were moved to the same room, had regular and detailed meetings about campaigns and responses and worked together towards a common goal. There was rigorous project management.

As a result, we increased numbers by 30 for September, which was ￡1 million extra income. All school staff received a bonus!

4. Improved sales and marketing. 

A few years ago the CEO of Scandinavian Airlines, Jan Carlzon, shared his view of customer service in a book Moments of Truth. His theory is that each person’s experience of a service isn’t based on advertising, but a series of 30-second encounters between each staff member and customer.

He tells the story of how he turned the business from heavy losses to healthy profits within a year by ensuring that each ‘critical incidence’ with customers was an exceptionally positive one. 

The book starts with an illustration about a businessman who arrived at a check in and remembered he left his ticket at the hotel, so the airline receptionist sent a taxi to collect it for him, and he caught his flight.

How does this relate to schools? Consider the receptionist who answers the phone enquiry or welcomes prospective parents for a visit. When we chose the school for our children we selected the one we felt would look after them the best. We didn’t read inspection reports or check their accreditations, we were instantly made to feel at home and we knew our two boys would too.

We place dozens of students from Nigeria into British boarding schools each year.

A delighted mother I met yesterday explained that she has chosen a school at a coastal location through us because the registrar went to collect her by car from the station on her visit. And then took her and her daughter for a short, breath taking walk to view the school from above the cliffs and sea. 

She captured this and her school visit on video on her phone and was enthusing to her friend about the school, so she is signing up too!

5. Avoiding ‘vanilla marketing’

A couple of years ago I attended a leading fair for boarding schools in the UK to meet educational consultants from across the world – it comprised a series of 20 minute meetings over two days! 

To start off each school told me about themselves – but they all sounded the same, an ‘all round education’, ‘focus on the individual’, ‘excellent value-added’, ‘amazing facilities’, ‘easy to reach’ etc.

They were telling me what they thought I wanted to hear – but none were memorable and they all played safe and the messages merged into one.

I started to ask ‘tell me something different’, ‘what is your school really about’.

An article I read on what is termed ‘vanilla marketing’ explained: “Either they have bad marketing advice or they want to conform to be the nice guy or gal. Or maybe they are just plain lazy to be creative.”

“But more often than not, the root of the problem is their business does not have a USP. There is no unique selling proposition.”

Landrover claims to be the ‘best 4 by 4 by far’. BMW’s has the USP as the ‘ultimate driving machine’ which prompts young status-conscious professionals to choose BMW over other cars, as it promises ‘better engineering’ for its cars.

I had a conversation with a Head who I brought to Nigeria and I described it as asking for his ‘elevator pitch’.

In three minutes he had to tell me about the benefits of his school, not the features. After a couple of hours of working on it we came up with some themes, it was adjacent to a leading university ‘which means that’ students benefited from links and lecturers. 

It is the only school in its region to offer the International Baccalaureate, which means that students receive a global all round education and are prepared for the 21st century etc. 

In the end they transformed their marketing approach and have won the Sunday Times regional Independent School of the Year. The Head’s welcome is short and succinct:

6. A compass for life.

My own education was at a Catholic boarding school in Ipswich called St Joseph’s College. 

What do I remember from my education – the results, the matches, the facilities, the logo?? No, I remember three things. Firstly the most amazing inter-house snowball fight which lasted a whole weekend! 

Then the experience of singing, playing and performing in the incredible school Chapel which was based on the Liverpool Catholic cathedral and shared its acoustics and atmosphere.

The memory that sticks with me for life – and drives me still every day – is the school’s motto: ‘Work and keep to it’ (subsequently amended to: Through God, work and keep to it.)

Sometimes as schools we focus so much on the ‘process’ that we forget the ‘outcome’ – how are we preparing our young people for life. What adults will they become, will they be resilient to the challenges and opportunities to life. How can we define their character?

So to recap, I believe there are six keys to the future of marketing – having a strong dynamic leadership with a sense of strategic direction who are prepared to make organisational change to improve sales and avoid vanilla marketing while giving all students a compass for life.

For more information or an informal conversation please email me: [email protected]