Did you know you potentially have a sales force for your school that’s nearly the size of your student body?
They may not be trained sales professionals. Most of them don’t even work for your school. But they have a territory that extends all around the area you serve, and they have the potential to reach hundreds, if not thousands, of families with your school’s message.
Parents aren’t just sitting on the side-lines anymore. They’re actively involved in their children’s school success, and it’s paying off in surprising ways. Schools across the nation are discovering a powerful force for school improvement – parents.
Word of mouth is the number one way that prospective parents discover your school. It is the power of a referral that will drive your enrollment success more than any advertising campaign you can develop. The key to word of mouth marketing is to harness the power of your parents—your brand advocates.
Here are some tips on making parents your brand advocates:
1. Identify your advocates: parents are trusted champions for your brand (school) and influence the purchasing behaviors of other parents. You need to identify and utilize your most vocal and active parents among all your students’ parent, they will serve as your more positive word of mouth your school will have in the community.
2. Build a community: Create and build an avenue for your advocates to do your marketing for you, which is significantly more effective, credible, sustainable, less expensive. This is the exponential power of word of mouth marketing. Focusing on your parents should be your number one marketing strategy. Avenue such as WhatsApp groups, and other social media groups.
3. Empower your advocates: Your parents will be your brand advocates when they believe in their experience and want to share it with a friend by helping them in their school choice. When you take pictures and videos of children’s activities in the classroom, doing science practicals, STEM activities and a lot more, share in with parents they will be eager to share with their friends and family.
4. Connect with advocates: When parents advocate for your brand, there’s a higher likelihood you’ll find more customers and even more excited brand advocates in a short amount of time. Keep in touch with both new parents and previous ones every time.
5. Maintain existing relationships: Relationships are the backbone of advocacy. You have to continually support your advocate relationships to keep the spark alive. Everybody wants to feel special, give your advocates the insider access they crave, provide outstanding content, acknowledge milestones, use loyalty programs and lots more. It takes a great school with outstanding service, positive revenue, integrity, trust and an effective mission of making a difference in the lives of students to create a great brand advocate.
Word of mouth marketing works because of personal connections and is generally the largest source of new students at your school. The best marketing for a school is having happy parents actively telling their friends, families, and colleagues about your wonderful learning environment.
What are you doing to develop and motivate your brand advocates?
Are you spending more time focused on traditional advertising strategies or on word of mouth marketing?
Are you harnessing the power of your brand advocates to market your school?
Do not hesitate to send us your reviews lola@9ijakids.com and what has worked for your school.
