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INDIANA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONCHARTER SCHOOL MARKETING

How can communication and surveys enhance your Word of Mouth Marketing?

May 14th , 2019

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ABOUT BRIGHT MINDS MARKETING AND NICK LEROY

• Bright Minds Marketingo Boutique marketing firm specializing in helping

schools improve their student enrollment.o Over 60 private, charter and public school

clients in 9 states

• Nick LeRoy, founder and principal consultanto 2 years as ED of the Indiana Charter School

Boardo 15 years as a global marketing executive with Eli

Lilly & Co.o MBA (with honors) from Emory University

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OUR SERIES

Date Topic10/16/18 @ 12:00 Introduction: Understanding the foundations of enrollment marketing11/13/18 @12:00 Operations: Utilizing Data to Shape and Inform your Enrollment

Marketing12/11/18 @ 12:00 Operations: Your environment and your customer1/8/19 @ 12:00 Marketing: Inbound marketing and building your culture of marketing2/12/19 @ 12:00 Marketing: Lead nurturing and social media3/12/19 @ 12:00 Recruitment: The school tour4/9/19 @ 12:00 Retention: From first to last day5/14/19 @ 12:00 Retention: Surveys and communication at your school

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YOUR RESOURCEShttps://www.doe.in.gov/grants/school-marketing-and-webinars

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OUR REALITY TODAY

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COMMUNICATION SHAPES YOUR BRAND

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YOUR BRAND IS THE CORNERSTONE OF WORD OF MOUTH MARKETING

• Happy and knowledgeable families = higher retention

• Happy and knowledgeable families will tell their friends the right things about your school

Your goal: Parents who know the school, love the school and actively encourage their friends to attend the school

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WHO ARE THE TARGETS FOR YOUR COMMUNICATION

• Parento Generally the decision maker in the younger grades / Shifts to an influencer in the

later gradeso Operates with incomplete information but with a long term focus

• Studento Level of influence increases by age / Can be the decision maker in the later gradeso Short term focus, can have more complete information (but biased)

• Community stakeholderso Serve as influencers, long term investmento Incomplete knowledge about your school

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MISALIGNMENT ON COMMUNICATION

We will put this information on page 78 of our handbook.

Everyone reads it!

We will post this on Twitter,

Facebook and put it on our

website as well as a take home for

the student

I wish the school would communicate

better

I wish you would just read the

#*&!communication

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COMMUNICATION IS ONE PART OF THE PARENT’S PERCEPTION OF YOUR SCHOOL

What their student

tells them

What the school tells

them

What their friends or the internet says

Their interaction

with the teachers

Their interaction with other

school personnel

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AVERAGE SCORES ON COMMUNICATION FROM 28 SCHOOLS

10 Charter School surveys 14 Private School Surveys 4 Traditional Public schoolsurveys

Parents 36% 41% 35%Administration 52% 68% 58%Staff 42% 54% 58%

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%

Q: How would you rate School X’s communication

Parents Administration Staff

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WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES IN EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

• Customers are bombarded with information – difficult to cut through the clutter

• The “Curse of Knowledge”

• Cultural hesitancy by schools to be seen as “bragging”

• School’s don’t effectively manage the communication functiono No communication strategyo Lower prioritizationo Nobody “owns” ito Don’t utilize the channels that parents useo Don’t analyze communication for its effectiveness

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IDENTIFYING OUR PERCEPTION OR COMMUNICATION GAPS

How do you know what your parents think of your school and if you are changing their perceptions?

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THE POWER OF SURVEYS

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WHY CONDUCT A SCHOOL SURVEY

- Surveys tell you how (un)happy your constituents are with the school / workplace

- Offer insight into gaps between your intent and what stakeholders believe

- Test hypothesis of what you consider to be your strengths and what your parents perceive as strengths. Are these moving?

- Shows your constituents that you care about their opinions and their feelings

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DO IT YOURSELF OR PAY TO HAVE IT DONE?

• Free software to do surveys: Survey Monkey, Google Forms, Survey Hero

• School survey questions: NAIS ($500/non member), Survey Monkey (Free), QuestionPro (Free)

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CONSIDERATIONS IF YOU DO IT YOURSELF

• Respondents may not feel it is truly anonymous

• Question writing can be both an art and a science

• What does good look like?

• Analysis and synthesis of data takes time and some expertise

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YOUR TERMS IN SURVEYING

• Sample sizeo Try to get at least 50 respondents for each group

• Response rateo The higher the response – the more indicative of the true feelings /

perceptions. o 40 – 60% of parents / 80 – 90% of staff

• Quantitative vs. qualitative questionso Both have their uses

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DIFFERENT TYPES OF SURVEYS YOU CAN RUN

• School climate survey

• New parent survey

• Graduating parent survey

• Student satisfaction survey

• Non-enroller survey

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STEPS IN CREATING A SURVEY

1. Write out your objectives2. Write your questions

1. Make sure that your questions align with your objectives2. Use the proper type of question (qualitative vs. quantitative)

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RECOMMENDED KEY TOPICS

Parents• Academics

o Top of mind, subjects, considered response

• Differentiated learning• Student development• Non Academic areas

(Counseling, Extracurriculars, student/teacher ratio, communication)

• Overall quality of education

Staff• All questions asked of the

parents• Staff resources• Work life balance• Support from administration

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THE ONE QUESTION THAT YOU SHOULD ALWAYS ASK: NET PROMOTER SCORE

• “On a scale of 0 – 10, how likely are you to recommend X School to a friend or colleague?”

• “On a scale of 0 – 10, how likely are you to recommend X School as a place to work to a friend or colleague?”

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ADDITIONAL TOPICS TO INCLUDE

• Marketing channel used to research the school• Preferred method of communication• Priorities over the next few years• Demographics

o Grade of the child at the schoolo Tenure at the schoolo Tenure as a teacher

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HOW MANY QUESTIONS SHOULD YOU WRITE?

• Try to limit your survey to under 30 questions

• Surveys that were longer than 7 – 8 minutes saw their completion rates drop by 5 – 20%.

• Be very wary of scope creep

Source: Survey Monkey

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STEPS IN CREATING A SURVEY

1. Write out your objectives2. Write your questions (qualitative vs. quantitative)3. Select your platform4. Program your questions (set up any skip logic)5. Design your survey communication plan

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COMMUNICATION PLAN

• 1 month prior – communicate that a survey is coming out, estimated length of time to complete and the importance of the survey.o Consider setting up incentives for participation

• 1 week prior – repeat communications regarding the importance of the survey

• Field day (Monday) – send out the survey using multiple channels

• Reminder #1 – Wednesday, Reminder #2 – Friday, Reminder #3, Tuesday, Reminder #4, Friday. o Close survey on Sunday night

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STEPS IN CREATING A SURVEY

1. Write out your objectives2. Write your questions (qualitative vs. quantitative)3. Select your platform4. Program your questions (set up any skip logic)5. Design your communication plan6. Field your survey7. Review and analyze your results8. Compare against appropriate benchmarks

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DEVELOPING YOUR BRAND COMMUNICATION STRATEGY

1. Develop your list of key beliefs or perceptions you want to create as a result of your survey responses

2. Identify which of those beliefs you want to: Create, Change, Reinforce

3. Identify what data points can impact those beliefs

4. Identify the tactics that you will use to share that data

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CCR BELIEF MAP

Belief Audience Change, Create, Reinforce

Data points Tactics

“Charter school X has excellent academics”

ParentsCommunity

Change, Create, Reinforce

• State letter grade, • NWEA (school)

scores, • Rankings in online

sites,• I-Learn growth scores

1. Post banner with latest state A rating2. Create an understanding NWEA scores to

send out to parents (highlight our school scores above average)

3. Monitor US News and Niche rankings – send out email and social media posts about our ranking

4. Solicit parent testimonials on academics to post on website

“Charter school X is a safe environment”

Parents Reinforce • # of cameras, • Front door and visitor

protocols• Interview with school

resource officer

1. In September and March, our principal blog will talk about security features of the school

2. We will post pictures from our school safety audit onto our Instagram and Facebook page

Charter school x has strong extracurriculars

Parents and students

Create, Reinforce • Success of our sports teams

• Number of kids playing sports (%/#)

• Number of afterschool programs

1. Long blog post that talks about the benefits of clubs or extracurriculars on student development

2. Interviews of our extracurricular (special) teachers on Facebook

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CASE STUDY LAKEWOOD CATHOLIC ACADEMY

• Lakewood Catholic Academy is a non-parish Catholic school that competes with many other Catholic schools in northern Ohio

• Their academics were on par but they were trying to differentiate their school with their approach to social justice and community service

• Their survey scores showed that parents didn’t understand everything that they did as it related to service

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CASE STUDY LAKEWOOD CATHOLIC ACADEMY

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CASE STUDY: BISHOP CHATARD HIGH SCHOOL

• Bishop Chatard High School competes with Cathedral, Brebeuf and North Central High School to be the premier high school in northern Indianapolis

• Chatard identified that families believed that the academic performance of Chatard was inferior to its’ competitors

• Chatard embarked on a multi-channel effort to reinforce the academic excellence of its’ schoolo Focus on academic programs during back to school nighto Heavy promotion of academic programs during recruitment activitieso Modified website testimonials to prioritize academics in front of faith

• What they didn’t do? Change a single thing in their curriculum or academics

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THE RESULTS FROM CURRENT PARENT SURVEYS

49%

53%

58%

44%

46%

48%

50%

52%

54%

56%

58%

60%

2016 2017 2018

Question: Do you believe that Bishop Chatard High School provides a superior academic experience to other high schools in your area?

Question: Do you believe that Bishop Chatard High School provides a superior academic experience to other high schools in your area?

3% growth (+25 students) over the past 3 years

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SURVEY BEST PRACTICES

1. Set clear expectations for your research

2. Do it every year with the same questions

3. Tell them it is anonymous and make it anonymous

4. Communication is key to driving response rates

5. Keep the questions limited and actionable

6. Release the results (with an action plan)

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YOUR RESOURCEShttps://www.doe.in.gov/grants/school-marketing-and-webinars

CONTACT US FOLLOW US

THANK YOU!!!

Facebook.com/brightmindsmarketing

@brightmindsmktg

531 W. 83rd Place, Indy, IN 46260317-361-5255nick@brightmindsmarketing.com www.brightmindsmarketing.com