Independent school marketers manage a plethora of ways to attract right-fit families to their applicant pools. You have web SEO, email, social, ads, events, mailings, and more. But your strongest magnet is word-of-mouth marketing.
Simply put, word-of-mouth marketing is a personal recommendation that comes from experience.
An astonishing 88 percent of people globally trust recommendations from friends and family more than any other form of marketing, studies show. And trust is critical in a commitment as significant as selecting a school, especially for very young children for whom statistics such as test scores and other outcome data don’t yet apply.
Given its outsized weight, word-of-mouth marketing should be part of every school’s promotional budget. Yet it is too often neglected because it is seen as a free resource that just happens.
While you can’t (and don’t want to) script word-of-mouth conversations for your parents, grandparents, alumni, faculty, staff, and others to have with friends, there are ways to nudge your closest allies to use ideas, words, and phrases that align with your school’s brand. When those interactions are both genuine and on brand, they are golden.
Because these golden conversations are vital to your school’s health and well-being, you need to be intentional about guiding them.
Start with Messaging
Let’s take a step back. Intentional word-of-mouth marketing starts with strong messaging. Don’t leave your supporters (also known as brand ambassadors) adrift when a neighbor asks them about your school. Give them tools. One tool is messaging.
Strong, consistent messaging is true and spotlights your school’s strengths. To develop strong messaging, start with your verbal identity, a carefully crafted positioning statement and key messages that articulate your brand promise in words and distinguish you from your competition.
Your verbal identity differs from your mission and vision statements. Your mission explains what you do and your vision describes what you aspire to accomplish. Your verbal identity authentically and clearly states who you are.
Sometimes referred to as your elevator speech, your verbal identity provides common language about your school and what sets it apart. Use it liberally to inform all your marketing and communications, including intentional word-of-mouth marketing.
Once your brand ambassadors have your messaging in mind, they are more likely to hit on the very high notes you’ve identified, in their own words and with their own examples, and have that golden conversation you’re looking for.
Leverage Your Work
And yes, this takes intention and investment of time, money, or (most likely) both. Creating your verbal identity is a big task. It takes research, review, conversation with various constituencies, and the ability to identify and articulate those key messages. That is just one more reason to leverage this important investment. Don’t hide it in a corner. You’ve done the hard part, so use it to your advantage.
Provide your ambassadors with layperson-level information on your brand and messaging. Train them on it to ensure your school’s key messages are heard, understood, processed, and internalized. Brand training gives your ambassadors a forum to practice speaking about the school’s brand through their own personal stories.
Word-of-mouth is your most powerful marketing tool. Be intentional, and it can pay dividends in your reputation, a larger and more closely aligned applicant pool, and stronger enrollment.
