6 Marketing Strategies for Preschool and Schools

One of my favorite role models, el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, aka Malcolm X, once quoted

"Without education you aren’t going anywhere"

For any nation to progress, the government of that country has to focus on two E’s – Economy and Education. In this post, I will talk about education and the strategies that preschools and higher schools can implement to reach their goals.

After spending a good amount of time in the education sector, I came up with some crazy ideas for preschools and schools (a few are really crazy ones). If you are planning to start your own preschool or looking for a franchise, you need to keep in mind the below points before starting your own venture.

1. Pricing
2. Quality of teaching
3. Brand recognition
4. Activity Calendar
5. Communication skills of teachers
6. Location & Transportation
7. Facilities
8. Hygiene standards
9. School Policies
10. Support Staff

Note: These are the factors that I have learned by interacting with parents over a period of time.

In my previous role, I did a study with a sample size of 50, and these were the results.

These results show that parents consider the quality of teaching, school brand, pricing, and activities as the key parameters before selecting a preschool or high school.

Now that we know the key parameters while selecting a school let's learn about the factors that influence conversions, i.e., admissions.

Per my study, I witnessed that relatives are the most influential factor when selecting a preschool and school. Most parents discuss their child’s performance with their relatives and friends, which results in selecting an XYZ school.

Now that we have learned the parameters and influencing factors that help parents to make their decision let’s discuss the strategy that you, as the preschooler or high school, can consider in your marketing plan. Before we get into the strategy, we need to understand the difference between tactics and strategy. Tactics are the sum of ideas that are clubbed together for a long-term strategy.

5 tactics for preschool & school (short-term)

• Below the Line (BTL) activation: Your school can run BTL activities in the selected geography through events or activities. An event in a mall on a festive day could be a good example. Remember that your goal is to generate leads through brand awareness.

Pro Tip: Any event or activation implemented in a mall should be on a festive day or on a weekend.

• Above the Line (ATL) activation: As ATL caters to the masses, it will consume most of your marketing budget. If you are a chain, then you should try for Radio or newspaper ads, but if you are a startup, then you should consider newspaper ads in a local newspaper and hoardings in areas of your TG.

Pro Tip: In your communication, make sure you have a “call to action.” For example, Give us a missed call to be part of. This will help you measure your ROI.

• Society Tie-Ups (Gated Community): This is one of the most successful ideas in marketing your school. Make a list of all the societies (aka gated communities) in which you feel your TG resides. The next step is to get permission (which is the hardest) from these societies (communities) to conduct an activity that will benefit children and parents. Remember, your objective is to generate leads and brand awareness.

Pro Tip: Plan an activity that will connect parents. For example, “Breast Cancer Awareness”, “Seminar for Expecting Mothers” or “Best out of waste for kids”.

• A mascot for school: If you haven’t got a mascot for your preschool or school, get it right away. Your mascot will be a crowd puller in places like gardens, societies (communities), parks, etc.

Pro Tip: Get a sky dancer Mascot and use it frequently in the evenings.

• Flash promotion: This is the cheapest form of promotional activity that you can consider for your school. Promotional activities like newspaper inserts, pamphlet distribution, Do Not Disturb cards on doors with your school branding, Bookmarks, etc.

Pro Tip: If you are an established brand, do not use this frequently, as it will dilute your brand. Conversely, if you are a startup, increase the frequency.

Now that we have covered tactics that can be used to reach your short-term goals let’s look at strategies that can be part of your long-term goals.

 6 Strategies for a Preschool & higher School

Don’t SELL, Educate Parents

Selling to parents is no longer straightforward. The era when schools held all the power has passed; now, parents are the decision-makers. Today’s parents are informed and educated, so attempting to sell admissions without proper engagement can backfire. Schools must prioritize the child’s education above all else to earn parents' trust and influence their decisions positively.

Example of a counseling call:

Counselor (C): Hello Ma’am, am I talking to Pooja’s mother?

Parent (P): Yes, you are speaking to Pooja’s mother. May I know who is calling?

C: Ma’am, my name is Reema, and I am calling from XYZ Kids Preschool. I wanted to talk about Pooja’s education. Is it a good time to talk? (The counselor has shown concern about the child’s future rather than talking about admission)

P: Sure, what is it?

C: Ma’am I believe Pooja is 3 years old, is that right?

P: Yes, that’s correct. But how did you know that, and from where did you get my number?

C: Ma’am, we do a lot of education awareness programs in places like malls and parks, as well as online. I assume that you must have come across one of our promoters and provided your contact details as you, too, are a concerned mother.

(Here, the counselor is making an emotional connection)

P: Yes I remember, please go on.

C: Ma’am, we are organizing a children's activity in our preschool or higher school. Why don’t you come for this? We have arranged it for a Saturday (make sure you have planned the activity on a weekend) so parents can spend some quality time with their kids.

(Here, the counselor is subtly talking about the child’s future and how quality time with children is important)

P: OK, I will try to come.

Thank you, I will mail or message you the details. Looking forward to seeing you and Pooja having a great time in our school. And before I hang up, let me tell you that there will be a surprise gift for both of you. Have a good day.

(The surprise gift can be anything like a greeting card or a photo shoot for mother and daughter)

 During the conversation, did you feel that the counselor was selling? The crux is to Educate the Parents.

 Don’t fall into PRICING traps

One of the most common mistakes preschools and high schools make is falling into pricing traps. If you provide a high-quality education, you can demand higher fees. In India, most schools do the opposite. We provide average quality and ask for higher fees. To support my point, a report issued by the Times Of India in 2012 mentioned: “India ranks 72 in global education survey out of 88 countries that participated in the survey”.

Focus on providing quality, streamlining your process, improving your delivery, hiring highly qualified teachers, and interacting with your parents very often. If you do all of these and your customers (parents) are part of this, your school will never struggle in its profitability.

 Awareness Program Initiatives

As part of your marketing strategy, your school should always be in the limelight to support some cause. For example, start a breast cancer awareness initiative and run campaigns around it. This initiative should be a part of all your communications (online & offline).

 “If you don’t Stand up for something then you will fall for anything” – Malcolm X

The above saying perfectly goes in marketing as well. As a brand, you must stand with a cause and concentrate your marketing activities around it.

Position your school as One Stop Solution in Education

If you are an established player in education, you should definitely use this strategy. In my study, I realized that once parents enroll their child into a preschool,l are concerned about admission to the high school for grade 1.

If you are a chain of schools, make sure you are positioning your school as a one-stop for parents. Parents are concerned about donations, admissions procedures, interviews, etc. As a preschool, you can have a strategy wherein if the child takes admission to playgroup or nursery and continues with the preschool for Lower Kindergarten (LKG) and Upper Kindergarten (UKG) the child will get direct admission into the high school i.e the parent school.

If you own a startup preschool, it is essential to partner with external schools. This collaboration will increase your conversion rates, as parents will feel reassured about admissions for higher grades.

Introduce an AFFILIATE program

Affiliate marketing is slightly different from Referral marketing. The key difference between them is the monetary benefit.

In affiliate marketing, there is always an exchange of money, and in referral marketing, it’s not mandatory to have a monetary exchange. For example, Dropbox started a referral scheme with 200MB of free space for referring one new user

Both concepts will be clear with an example.

I discovered that the primary decision-makers regarding a child's education are often the mothers. With this insight in mind, I partnered my preschool with a few local salons. Why salons? They are likely one of the few places where women have ample time to relax and socialize (pun intended!). As a marketer, I recognized an opportunity to utilize this downtime by introducing my preschool to mothers through the salon owners, who act as my affiliates.

Every qualified lead that the parlor owner passes will be entitled to X money. And if this lead gets converted into admission, then the payout will be Y.

[Pro Tip: Define what a qualified lead is to your affiliate]

This is how I was introduced to Affiliate Marketing

In referral marketing, you can ask for references from your existing customers (parents). Your referral program needs to have a strong name to connect with parents. For example, “XXXXXXX School Ambassadors". Every time you get through reference, make sure you get a picture clicked off that family and pin it on your board. This will also help the counselor in her counseling.

Engage with Parents

If Digital Marketing is not part of your current strategy, you might lose your customers (parents) over a period of time. As per Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, the third level of the pyramid is the need for Love and Belonging

Your customers' i.e., parents, have the need to be social and connect with one another. In today’s scenario, where social media has become a part of our daily lives, as a school, we cannot ignore the opportunity to connect with parents through these mediums.

Have a social media marketing strategy where your school is engaging with your customers on a daily basis, answering their queries and communicating with them. You can make your weekly post calendar and update it on all your channels, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and blogs. For example, every Monday, your social media will talk about Do’s and Don'ts

As Seth Godin says, “Make your product/service REMARKABLE”. In education, your customer is the parent, and your consumer is the child, so plan your strategy accordingly.

These are some of the strategies that you can include with your current strategy. If you have some more creative ideas, please comment below.

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