How to market your school.

Parents for Public Schools (PPS) 415 468 7077 www.ppssf.org

Marketing your school to your local community results in increased support for your school that will affect: student enrollment, community attendance at school events, volunteers, fundraising and more! Most importantly when you market your school, the community feels a stronger connection as we build a constituency of support for our local schools and public education.

Know what you are up against so your work is on target. Find out what the perceptions are about your school, talk to neighbors, merchants and community groups, find out what the “playground chat” is on your school. Hold a few focus groups with potential families.

Reach out beyond your immediate sphere of influence. Get a whole team involved so that outreach is not limited to who you know, build alliances with potential families to help you with this. Make sure your school has an “enhanced school profile” on www.greatschools.net

Use your information to determine your outreach strategies. Based on what the perceptions are, confront these directly and base your outreach plan around these key messages you need to deliver.

Design an involvement tool that fits the objections. For example, if people are concerned about literacy, make your event focused to educate them on literacy. Make sure your event is tailored so that it will draw people to learn about the “big picture” but will also pitch your school.

Become THE place parents go for information. Make sure the staff and parents who interact with prospective families have the correct information and know where to send people to get more questions answered. If possible, have some families at your school be available by phone or email to answer questions that may pop up after a tour.

Get folks into the schools to meet the students, staff and other parents. Even if the event your school decides to hold is only geared around the application process, make sure the families have an opportunity to meet the Principal, a staff member and parents, make sure there is time for parent and student testimonials.

Network parent to parent. Make sure your current parents are doing positive “word of mouth advertising” about your school. Have parents target their former schools.

Do house meetings. Have a parent invite their friends who are looking at schools to an in home meeting where they can meet other parents at the school on an informal basis.

Use the power of personal testimony. Have current families and students write about why they like your school, use this in flyers, brochures, letters and on your school web site. Always have a few testimonials at your tours and any events.

Make sure your local community groups know about your school.

Reach out to your local merchants association, homeowners association and or neighborhood association. Attend their meetings once in a while so they put a face to your school write them quarterly updates, invite them to events etc..

Market all events. Any event at your school is an event you can market, either to your local press, to the local community or to prospective parents. Invite your local preschools to your assemblies, invite your local 5 th graders to a science fair, and invite your local 8th graders to a school play.

Do your media advocacy. Make sure some parents at your school are part of the PPS media watch team, think of news worthy angles to get your school positive news coverage. Make you’re your school is featured on a regular basis in your local neighborhood paper. Contact Sandra@ppssf.org

Join PPS and be a Parent Ambassador for your school. PPS connects parents looking at schools with parents who have children already in the schools.

Make sure your school Brochure is simple yet professional looking. Does it speak to families or is it filled with “eduspeak”? Include parent testimonials.

Have a consistent format for your school tours and train the parents that give the tours, provide a “cheat sheet”. Make sure your school gives great tours! Click here for helpful advice for making your school tour the best!

Cross promote your school - Get your school brochures and information on events to a school nearby that is in high demand – have the tour leaders of that school help to promote your school.

Click here to download the above in a word document.