Word of Mouth Still Schools’ Marketing Lynchpin

In a super connected world, word gets out about the quality of a school very quickly and that means new parents’ first impressions, from initial contact to first day, need to be positive.

A raft of Millennial and soon Gen Z parents who are tech savvy, time poor and increasingly insistent on personalisation and regular communication puts pressure on traditional methods of parent engagement, that makes improved processes and a heavier reliance on technology inevitable.

But the more things change the more they stay the same, people will talk and a survey published in school software company Digistorm’s State of Admissions Report indicates that 57% of families said that they heard about a school through word of mouth with social media coming in second at 23%.

And if the academic environment is one side of a school’s reputation, its administration is the other, which means the admissions team needs to provide an efficient, seamless parent experience if a school is to consistently impress and attract students.

That is easier said than done, those involved in the survey indicated that admissions teams were under pressure, half said their admissions teams are understaffed, while 1 in 4 flagged cross-team communication as a major hurdle.

From marketing to facilities, 77% of school admissions teams handle more than just their own role; 48% work on marketing, 47% communications, 43% administration and 14% are involved in finance.

The survey results showed that fewer schools are clear about what sets them apart from competitors, making the task of marketing to prospective students and retaining current ones a challenge.

Defining a school’s points of difference will become increasingly important if the aim is to better target and attract right fit students.

Schools with waitlists say they are concerned about keeping leads engaged through lengthy wait times, especially as parents’ expectations of personalised communications increase. Top ways to keep waitlisted leads engaged are regular contact via email, invites to live events and targeted newsletter for future families.

Most schools see future families demanding personalisation and fast turnaround times so finding efficiencies in processes will be the secret weapon admissions teams can use to continue to grow their schools. Doing so without employing staff requires upskilling of admissions teams and the introduction of new tools that can assist.

One school indicated that, "We personalise first names, child names, year of entry, and entry-level. We also personalise email template body copy based on notes from conversations."

Digistorm’s Funnel admissions management platform was built to overcome many of these challenges, it helps with waitlist management, lead nurturing, automating communications and reporting, making streamlining processes and personalise connections.

Digistorm works with 750+ schools from small (under 200 students) to large, multi-campus schools (1500+ students). Regardless of a school’s size, Funnel has an immediate impact as their traditional paper and spreadsheet-based enrolments process is digitised. This helps the school convert more of their future families, as future families have a better digital experience through online forms and personalised email campaigns, and admissions teams have more time to focus on Open Days, phone calls etc with the time they save as Funnel automates many of the repetitive tasks enrolment teams have to complete every day.

One of these schools is Immanuel College which has grown into one of Adelaide’s premier private schools, a college co-educational boarding school with approximately 1800 students and a strong international program.

Steve Blight is the Director of Community Relations and Development at Immanuel College. Working within an integrated role, he looks after marketing, enrolment, engagement, alumni, and the college’s internal program.

Before Funnel, Steve says that Immanuel College was reliant on paper for managing the enrolment process. Although an internal database was available, it couldn’t deliver the needed capabilities to efficiently track and manage new enquiries from prospective families or deliver advanced reporting and analytics. As a prestigious school of its size, Steve knew there was a need to change and find a solution to enable Immanuel College to grow and thrive. Enter Funnel.

Steve says Funnel is now used every hour of every day, and across multiple teams in the school. He notes some most-loved features, such as reports, integrated forms, and automations. For example, Funnel's reporting now allows Steve and his team to deep-dive into the numbers, understand lead conversion rates, and better understand where leads might be dropping off within the college’s enrolment pipeline.

“I think it’s a real game-changer for the overall enrolments process. From as simple as being able to automate birthday wishes to a future student, right through to sending an internal email when an application fee has been paid, or for re-engaging families."

“Our schools love how Funnel transforms their entire admissions process. Not only are they creating better parent experiences with online forms, and personalised emails, but they’re also saving themselves time as they can manage and nurture leads, manage events, have instant access to important application documents, and access instant reporting to see how their enrolments are tracking, all in one easy-to-use tool,” says Chris Lang, Director of Sales & Marketing at Digistorm.

“Each school’s requirements are a little different, but many of our schools are ready to switch on their online enrolment or enquiry forms within a couple of weeks.

“To make it as easy as possible for schools we have a dedicated team of onboarding specialists who helps to get the enrolments team set up through setting up, and training everyone who will be using the system. Once a school has gone live, they also get unlimited support, access to a dedicated Customer Success Manager who does frequent training and check ins to make sure the school gets the most out of Funnel.”