How Does My Marketing Budget Stack Up Against Competitor Schools?
A few months ago, NAIS released a report developed in partnership with our team at Metric Marketing, designed to provide current insights into what’s working in the world of independent school marketing – and where schools need support. This comprehensive report, based on in-depth surveys of independent school marketing professionals, covers everything from effective digital strategies and essential software to how schools are staffing their marketing teams and allocating budgets.
Get your free copy of the 2024-2025 State of Independent School Marketing report.
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Here’s another sneak peek at one of the questions we asked, what we learned – and how you can use it to improve the marketing efforts at your school.
What is the marketing budget at your school (excluding salaries, media, and advertising)?
Our report includes a detailed breakdown of these results by school size, as well as information on what their marketing teams are responsible for — from social media to maintaining the school’s website, producing publications, overseeing photography, supporting fundraising, engaging alumni, and even sometimes managing volunteers.
Your marketing efforts should align with your school’s goals. By scheduling regular reviews of your goals and objectives, you can ensure that your strategies remain relevant and effective. For example, if increasing admissions is a school priority, your marketing initiatives should emphasize growth in that area. But if the focus shifts to fundraising or reducing attrition, targeting marketing strategies should be updated to support those objectives.
When planning recruitment campaigns to attract the right families to your admissions funnel, make sure these efforts are coordinated. A common mistake schools make is using individual, disconnected tactics — such as running Facebook ads or Google Adwords — without planning how these channels can work together. One-touch tactics rarely convert a family. A coordinated effort is essential, engaging prospects multiple times across their customer journey at the various stages of awareness, familiarity, consideration, conversion, and loyalty. Focus on integrating all recruitment channels into a cohesive campaign to achieve better results with less effort. Learn more about growing your school through data and advertising on this podcast with Metric’s Kevin MacNeil.
Want to learn more about independent school marketing — and how the 2024-2025 recruitment season went for your colleagues at other schools? Download our free report, available now from NAIS and Metric Marketing.
Get your free copy of the 2024-2025 State of Independent School Marketing report.
At Metric Marketing, we develop measurable and practical strategies to help private and independent schools like yours to make the most of your marketing efforts. We’d love to discuss your private school’s marketing requirements with you. Contact us today to speak with our marketing professionals or sign up to receive more marketing tips in your inbox.
