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This marketing page is an effort to help schools organize and execute efficient plans to market their schools. Here, you will find templates and resources that can be downloaded and utilized by your own school community. Share them with your school board and marketing committees so that they can make a difference in the life of your school.
What is marketing?
Marketing is based on the idea that you have something worthwhile to offer, and that when people find out about it, they will want it. It is the process or technique of promoting, selling and distributing a product or service. It usually involves the 4 P’s: price, product, place and promotion. It involves finding your UMP = Unique Marketing Position.
How does this apply to your school?
In terms of the 4 Ps of marketing, price is your tuition; the product is both your academic & co-curricular program; the place is your building, as well as your demographic location/community; and promotion consists of all programs, events, publications, advertising, media that enhance the quality, understanding, awareness, appreciation and image of the institution in the minds of the students it seeks to serve, the constituents with whom it seeks to relate and the general public.
In marketing, the focus is on the needs of the buyer. That means you have to pay attention to what your students and their parents/guardians need from you. You have to be responsive to those needs. Your response will be guided by your school’s mission and by available resources.
Why should you market?
Here are just a few reasons why your school should set up a marketing committee and get to work engaging the school community in marketing your school.
- School becomes better known
- Helps communicate progress
- Increases the school’s life cycle
- Helps to realize new publics
- Establishes a favorable image
- Increases alumni/alumnae participation
- Creates a climate of giving
- Shows accountability
- Advances the mission of your school
Marketing, then, becomes a mindset that permeates the school. So when we ask, “whose job is it to market the school?” The answer is, “It is everyone’s job—the principal, teachers, students, staff school board, pastor.”
Marketing Resources
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NEW!
Press Release Template: This document outlines the elements that should be included in a press release that can be sent to your local media.
Press Release Template: microsoft document | pdf document
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NEW!
What Makes A Good Information Packet?: Whether your school is planning an Open House, a booth at the local festival or some other event that brings prospective families to your school, you want to develop the right message in an attractive way. This document outlines the message, content and connection to your web site that should distinguish your school's information packet.
What Makes a Good Information Packet?: microsoft document | pdf document
- Best Marketing Practices Document: a compilation of ideas from Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Chicago about what has worked from them in trying to increase enrollment. Additionally, the document contains some universal best marketing practices.
Best Marketing Practices Document: microsoft document | pdf document
- Marketing Planning Template: outlines seven steps in formulating a marketing plan and provides workspace for completing that plan. Also includes two checklists: “Building Blocks to Achieve Marketing Goals” and “The Importance of ‘You’ in Marketing.”
Marketing Planning Template:
- English: microsoft document | pdf document
- Spanish: microsoft document | pdf document
- Organizing and Conducting Discussion Groups: Taken from the marketing workbook: “Building a Catholic School Marketing Program” developed in 1997, these materials offer suggestions about how to gather a focus group of people to find out how well you are meeting the needs of your constituents.
pdf document
- Parent/Guardian Satisfaction Survey and Instructions: The Parent/Guardian Satisfaction Survey can be a useful tool for identifying service issues as well as another measure of educational quality in your school. This downloadable survey can be customized by you for your particular needs.
Satisfaction Survey: microsoft document | pdf document
School Parent/Guardian Service Satisfaction Survey: microsoft document | pdf document
- Exit Survey and Instructions: No matter how hard we try, some people will choose to have their children attend school elsewhere for a variety of reasons. The Exit Survey is one way to determine those reasons and take appropriate action. This downloadable survey can be customized to meet your needs.
Exit Survey Instructions: microsoft document | pdf document
School Parent/Guardian Exit Survey: microsoft document | pdf document
- Fact Sheets: Having an event and need a simple fact sheet to handout about your school? These two samples, including a current fact sheet about the Archdiocesan school system, will give you an idea of what to include and how to format. These can be downloaded and adapted for use by your school.
Fact Sheets: microsoft document | pdf document
Resource List: a compilation of books, articles, etc., that can help you learn more about marketing.
Resource List: pdf document
For more information about School Marketing please contact:
Ryan Blackburn
Director of School Marketing
Department of Communications
Phone: 312-534-5334
E-mail: rblackburn@archchicago.org
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