This past summer, I visited several Kalix Marketing clients around the country. From Berkeley to
Baltimore, Minneapolis to Nashville, and New York to Bethesda, I sat down with a wide array of
school leaders and visited very different campuses.
Lessons From a Summer on the Road
Some had vibrant summer programs underway while others were in the midst of summer
construction projects and the annual deep summer cleaning that classrooms and hallways
always needed. From fresh coats of paint to polishing scuffed floors, the work never really slows
down, especially in summer. While students, families and faculty have the summer off, school
leadership must continue its important stewardship work.
Three primary themes emerged from these conversations and campus visits:
- School leadership is hard right now.
- Smart schools use their summers for strategic planning.
- Enrollment challenges lurk at every corner, even with market leaders.
While summer is a time for leaders to slow down from the nearly non-stop academic year of
frenzied activities, and spend some time away from campus, the weeks between Memorial and
Labor Day can’t afford to be squandered.
The Complex Reality of Modern School Leadership
Running a school in today’s challenging economic and political times isn’t easy. I don’t know how many of you ever dreamed of growing up to be a head of school, school president or principal. It is both rewarding and incredibly complex to lead an institution whose primary responsibility is to educate the next generation of leaders and citizens.
In addition to being asked to design and successfully implement a world-class curriculum and
programs and steward a school’s culture and community, school leaders need a keen
understanding of how to successfully run and manage a complex nonprofit, fundraise, motivate
faculty and staff and most importantly, make hard, sometimes unpopular decisions that others
on your leadership team ask. And what about those prospective preschool families who want to
know how the school is going to get their beautiful three-year-old child into Harvard, Yale, or Stanford?
The leaders who were kind enough to welcome me and other Kalix team members to campus these past few months were anything but disengaged. They represented a passionate group of professional educators, marketing and admissions leaders who never really “slow down.” Leaders who use their summers wisely to plan ahead for strategic marketing and enrollment are always better off.
Six Ways to Maximize Your Summer Strategic Planning
Summer is time well spent to make sure that:
- Your positioning and messaging still resonate with your prospective parent market.
- Your digital engagement campaign is robust, year-round and has highly trackable ROI.
- Your admissions marketing tools (including your website) are refreshed and showcase current students and faculty.
- Your dynamic messaging content calendar for social media and other messaging is built out for the entire academic year.
- Your school magazine includes authentic storytelling that showcases outcomes of your alumni.
- Most importantly, your strategic marketing plan measures ROI and KPIs.
Navigating Economic Headwinds and Proving Value
The independent school landscape continues to face strong economic headwinds. Your tuition has likely gone up, as the cost to hire and retain world-class faculty continues to increase annually. Depending on your local market, you might be positioning against incredibly strong local public schools or your addressable market might very well be shrinking. The war with Iran has sent prices soaring across many industries, and families are already looking at ways to stretch their shrinking budgets.
Do prospective families believe they can afford your tuition? Your value proposition needs to clearly articulate your “why,” especially in today’s wonky economic environment. Even some of the strongest market leaders are not immune to periodic enrollment softness in varying grades. I heard that this summer.
Moving Beyond ‘Good Enough’ Marketing
As the memories of summer and back-to-school season fade, please do yourself a favor. If you
consider your enrollment marketing and communications to only be “fair” or “average,” then
do something about it. The school leaders I spoke with agree: “Good enough” marketing no
longer cuts it. Use the lessons of summer to make that critical investment to ensure that your
school continues to grow from good to great. Become that category of one in your local market.
Be the market leader.
Ready to elevate your independent school’s enrollment marketing strategy from “good enough” to
industry-leading? Reach out to Kalix Marketing Group today. We’re here to help you unlock your
school’s full potential.
