Creating a School Communication Plan

There’s a lot of marketing and other noise out there. How do you cut through it to get the word out about your school?

You probably talk about your school a lot. You talk about your school on tours, at open houses, and at enrollment fairs. You probably even talk about your school when you’re home with your family, even though they’ve heard it all before.

Don’t get the wrong idea. Talking about your school is great! After all, who knows better than you what makes your school special and what surprises your school might be planning?

However, when it comes to reaching out to families, talk won’t get you very far. In a world full of distractions and other things competing for a prospective family’s attention, it’s harder than ever to break through.

According to IBM, internet users watch 4.15 million YouTube videos, receive 103 million spam emails, and send 456,000 tweets every minute.

So how do you break through the noise to get the word out about your school and get your message in front of the right people at the right time.

You Need a School Communication Plan

Whenever I sit down with a client to come up with or evaluate their communications plan, I usually ask the same questions. Some of these questions include:

• What’s your current communications plan?
• How are you using your digital presence, especially your website, as part of this communications plan?
• How are you planning to reach out to new families interested in your school?
• What’s your communications plan for families after they enroll?
• Do you have a school crisis communication plan?
• What’s your communications plan for the offline world?
• How does your communication plan encourage families to take action?
• And finally, how do all your school communications work together to build an informed and happy school community?

Let’s look at these issues one at a time.

Evaluating the Strengths and Challenges of Your Current School Communication Plan

Before we can jump into this detailed school communication planning guide, let’s stipulate that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to every problem in school communications.

It’s important to recognize that a charter school communication plan will look different from a school district communication plan, which will look different from a Catholic school communication plan — and so on.

However, regardless of what kind of school you are, the first step is always to evaluate what’s working and what isn’t with your current school communications.

And the place it makes the most sense to start is where most families will start when they’re planning to learn about your school: your website.

Your School Website as a Communication Tool

Some schools make the mistake of thinking of their website as just the hub of their school’s online presence. But these days, there’s very little separating the digital and physical worlds. Your website is the hub not just of your online communications plan but also of your offline communications plan as well.

Whatever someone is searching for — from your address to the photos from your spring musical — your website is the first, and sometimes only, place they’ll look.

Go to your school website. What messages are you sending? Who are you talking to — enrolled families or prospective families?

Remember, enrolled families have access to multiple channels for information, while prospective families often just have your website.

Therefore, while it’s important to keep enrolled families informed, the best use of your website real estate is to target prospective families.

How are you communicating? Are you starting a conversation Or are you just speaking in one direction?

The answers to these questions will be central to your new communications plan.

Evaluate Your Existing Plan

Next, it’s important to get an objective sense of how well your current communications plan is working by digging into the data and evaluating key metrics, such as your enrollment trends and retention rates.

• If you’re having trouble attracting new students, perhaps you need a communications plan aimed at connecting you with prospective families.
• If you’re having trouble keeping students, perhaps you need an internal communications plan for your school that helps to ensure that parents and guardians know all of the great things your school offers and is doing.

Finally, you need to understand that no school communication plan will get across all messages to all people.

Effective school communications are about understanding your audience, what they look like, and what their needs are, then clearly delivering your message to them.

That’s why every communication plan can benefit from creating customer personas to help clarify who you are talking to and what you are trying to say.

Remember, the more targeted you can make your school communications, the more effective it will be. Tailoring your communications plan to attract families who will be the most successful in your educational environment will save you time and money in the long run.

When Something Goes Wrong: School Communications in a Crisis

No school communication planning guide could be complete without discussing what to do when things go wrong.

While we always work hard to make sure everything runs smoothly, unfortunate incidents do occur. That’s why any communications plan must establish best practices for operating during a crisis.

• Planning in advance is key. Once the crisis starts, you won’t have time to figure out how to react.
• As you evaluate all your school communications, remember that crisis communication doesn’t happen in a vacuum.

Your school crisis communication plan will only be effective if you’ve already established yourself as a credible and reliable source of information over the months or years of your relationship with the families at your school.

Establish credibility

Credibility doesn’t come from the job title of principal or from the letterhead on top of your stationery.

Credibility comes from the totality of your interactions with parents and guardians — from the moment they first visit your website, through the onboarding process when they enroll, to their experience with the day-to-day school communications with all teachers and staff.

If you weren’t able to explain your school’s pick-up and drop-off procedures, how do you think families will view your explanations during a crisis?

Speak with one voice

Finally, when planning to deal with a charged or uncomfortable issue, make sure that your school speaks with one voice.

Even if multiple administrators and counselors are involved in developing the message you want to communicate, there should be one clear source for information that everyone should turn to.

Nothing ruins a communication plan faster than mixed messages in a crisis.

These programs can be a lot of work up-front, but if you’re planning to use your community as part of your communications plan, this preparation can make all the difference.

Plus, by their nature as a “customer” of your school, the voice of the parent/guardian and of the student will often have more credibility than one that comes from the school administration.

More Than a Story: Communicating for Action

Keep in mind the purpose of school communications isn’t just to inform, entertain, or “get the word out.”

Your school communication plan must be part of an overall strategy focused on encouraging specific actions. This is what will elevate your school communication plan into an effective school marketing plan.

For example:

• Are you describing your beautiful campus, or are you trying to get families to sign up for a tour?
• Are you describing your admissions process, or are you encouraging families to apply and enroll?
• How are you planning to inspire parents and guardians not just to listen but also to take action?

All of your communications must be accompanied by a specific ask or call to action. Otherwise, your communication will be little more than talking to yourself and will not get you the enrollment increase that you are looking for.

The Endgame: A Connected, Informed, and Happy School Family

Whether communicating with prospective families online or enrolled families during a time of crisis, always remember that school communications are not proclamations. They’re the start of conversations.

Just as you wouldn’t want your teachers to only lecture and never take questions, you must accept that even the best communications plan must allow for a give-and-take with the families at your school. Make yourself available to answer parents’ questions, and listen to their concerns.

They are trusting your school with their children’s future, after all.

How to Improve School Communications at All Levels

Need help with your school communication plan?

Whether you’re looking for a school internal communication plan, a school district communication plan, or a private school communication plan, SchoolMint’s strategic marketing solutions can help.