It's sometimes worth reflecting on how new social media is. Facebook didn't exist before February 2004, Twitter was launched in 2006 and Instagram in October 2010. So has the past couple of years, with most schools focusing on these three platforms, lulled us...
This year I've spent a lot of time working with schools that serve more than one age group on their 'retention' problems - ensuring children stay from Nursery to Reception, remain in the school from Y6 to Y7, or choose it for Sixth Form. In the case of prep schools, a...
1) The need for alignment on key issues and messages. With the growth of social media (perhaps especially 'dark social' media such as WhatsApp) people have more connections than ever with school staff - and they're likely to use them for research before choosing to...
I'm singing it now, things can only get betterOnly get betterIf we see it throughThat means me and I mean you too('Things can only get better; D-Ream - the Labour Party election song 1997)Schools are getting much better at saying what makes them a good school at the...
On 28th March the UK Government produced the first Education White Paper for six years - setting out its proposals for future laws. Due to devolution of powers, it only covers schools in England but other countries may be influenced by these changes. You...
Newsletters are one of the most common communication and marketing tools used by schools. Perhaps because of their importance they've tended to change only slowly over time, with a number of schools still using printed ones, while many use common digital formats such...
My focus for the year is listening. While I'd run a lot of face-to-face focus groups before the COVID pandemic, it threw a great way of listening to the forefront of market research - the online focus group. With parents, students and teachers all used to Zoom, Teams...
One of my most interesting school marketing tasks in recent years has been judging the InspirED Brilliance Awards. While they started in the USA, it's been great to see them expand to take in entries from private schools around the world. The latest (2021) awards were...
Thanks to Alicia Coad of Independent Schools Portal for this guest blog - if you'd like to hire her as a mystery shopper you can email her by clicking here, or download an information sheet here. 1. Why mystery shop? There are usually two key reasons why schools...