Prince the Peacock was beautiful, with blue and green feathers that were a sight to behold. 

We met him over the weekend at the Warm Springs Inn (which we highly recommend, by the way) in Wenatchee, WA.

Despite all of his investments in marketing himself, Prince remained frustrated and unable to accomplish his goals. (perhaps a little like your school)

While some experts have advocated for a three-pronged approach to school competitive strategy around Price, Product, and Process, even greater market advantage is gained through the development of Proximity.
Families are far more attracted by your school's ability to form deep, emotional relationships with them than any other factor.

News that Matters to Educators:

1. Heads Conference reveals confidence in getting back to normal

2. Leaders of a small business in KY just paid $150,000 as a ransom to regain access to their computers and data

3. The U.S. is officially in a recession, and it's expected to be worse than the last one

The marketing meeting with reps from the agency began with a presentation of promotional activities over the last six months. Slide after slide had fancy graphs illustrating the increased number of clicks, followers, and friends who were "exposed" to the ads of the schools.

But the biggest problem wan't being addressed: Enrollment inquiries were unchanged! All the jargon was a smoke screen to cover up the failure of their mad marketing "genius."

Schools are notorious for promoting vanity metrics such as a list of "prestigious" universities to which graduates have been accepted, the total dollar amount of college scholarships (a most dubious number), and standardized test scores.

Vanity metrics aren’t totally useless, but they do pose a danger to school leadership and to families who are trying to make the best education decision.

Your school website is the second most important factor (faculty quality and engagement is at the top of that list) in building your brand and enrollment. To be most effective, though, It needs to tell your story in a compelling way, have a clear and consistent call to action, and provide convenient ways to start the relationship. 

The new SchoolGrowth.com was launched last month. Using an intentional storytelling and branding approach, we designed these pages to reflect who we are as a company and why we do what we do.  Our core values aren't just published on the site--they serve as the framework for every page. 

Our team used specific guidelines to shape the design, and you may find these helpful as you consider the next iteration of your website and/or marketing strategy.