In Gertrude the Governess, Canadian humourist Stephen Leacock recounts how Lord Ronald, one of the story’s characters, “flung himself upon his horse and rode madly off in all directions.” It’s the perfect metaphor for tactics without strategy.
Strategy is, or ought to be, the bridge between your school’s enrolment (and fundraising) objectives and the actions of its marketing department. Teams that operate strategically will outperform those that don’t; however, developing a strategy is challenging and time-consuming. In the frenetic day-to-day of school life, strategy often becomes a luxury.
If you’re wondering about the status of your school’s marketing efforts, here are 11 signs that strategy is a missing ingredient.
- It’s all in your head. A detailed, clearly articulated marketing plan hasn’t been prepared, shared, or approved. A written plan serves as a roadmap and ensures accountability.
- Vanity metrics dominate. Website visits, social media likes, and email open rates are superficial. Pipeline data, social media engagement and web analytics are where strategy lives.
- Messaging is inconsistent. Different channels tell different stories, and different stakeholders describe the school differently. You need defined key themes (or buckets) so that everyone is singing from the same song sheet.
- Great ideas aren’t connected. You have brilliant tactics and impressive creativity, but no throughline. Strategy converts your constant stream of great ideas into momentum.
- Silos prevail. The admissions, fundraising, enrollment management and marketing teams don’t meet to coordinate priorities. The result is missed opportunities and mixed signals.
- Inside-out thinking rules. Campaigns are built on features and edu-speak. The brand-new state-of-the-art ideas space, which allows students to “fail forward and learn resilience by sharing ideas and iterating,” is only a bonus if parents understand the benefits it delivers to students.
- Communication informs but doesn’t persuade. Without empathy, marketing doesn’t connect. Problems solved for parents, the jobs they need done, as well as their hopes and dreams for their children, are what really matter.
- Undifferentiation reigns. The messaging on our website and in your collateral could be used by any competitive schools. If it’s generic, it doesn’t tell parents what sets your school apart.
- You draw the bullseye around the arrow. There are no targets or KPIs, including both quantitative and qualitative goals. Being strategic requires defining success before unleashing tactics.
- The program is on autopilot. Results are not being monitored, and any patterns are not being recognized. You lose the opportunity to pivot before panic sets in.
- Rinse and repeat. There are no post-mortems, no evaluation of which initiatives succeeded and no ROI thinking. Without any curiosity about what worked (and why), you’re doomed to repeat what didn’t.
If a few of these sound familiar, don’t panic. Strategy can always be added to the mix. Most school marketing programs don’t need more activity—they need more clarity, focus, and decision discipline.
If you’d like a strategic partner to help you identify what matters most, sharpen differentiation, and connect your marketing efforts to enrollment outcomes, let’s schedule a call.
