Clearly, it’s that time of year for Open House. How can I tell? Well,
it’s not the crisp fall air, or the the changing colors of the trees,
or even the increase in traffic in the mornings as I drive my daughter
to school.
No. It’s a much simpler answer.
It is the 435
radio advertisements I hear on my morning drive, touting the various
qualities of the area private schools, enticing you to “take a look at
our school”. That’s all the tip-off I need to know that it is, in fact,
open house season.
Let’s look at those ads for a moment, because
there is a cautionary tale in here. I have listened to ads all week, and
without naming names, I can report that even to my untrained ear, most
of the ads sounded the same. Nearly every advertisement contained the
following phrases:
- “Our faculty truly cares about our students”
- “Cutting edge technology makes our education special”
- “College prep classes”
- “A caring environment”
- “A rich tradition of excellence”
Wow.
For the record, there are over 70 private high schools in the Baltimore
Metropolitan area! If the best a radio ad can do is educate about
the five bullet points above, I would suggest that perhaps a major
opportunity has been missed. With the amount of money that it takes to
do an effective multi-channel, multi-media advertising campaign, these
institutions are fighting for any bit of attention they can get. With
vanilla, cookie cutter verbiage, these schools have retreated into the
malaise of “private schools” instead of standing out as “School X”!
Case
in point: there was one school that ran a great advertisement. It was
an impassioned story told by a father about the amazing transformation
he has seen in his daughter due to the private school she attended this
year. I was riveted to hear about how she has blossomed in learning
Latin, does regular community service, is the first in her family to
speak Mandarin, and has successfully coded her first robot. Those three
examples, which were beautifully described, told me that the school has
faculty that cares about students, cutting edge technology, college prep
classes, and a caring environment. That kind of student success
couldn’t be attained without those factors built in. I DEFINITELY paid
attention to the name of the school and when their open house was,
because the idea of what my daughter COULD become engaged me in the ad.
So,
as you are thinking about how to position your school in the
marketplace, you should be taking a second look at the language you use
to describe the wonderful things that happen every day on campus. Get
away from “buzzword bingo”, and really dive in to the heart of what
makes your school special.
Sometimes you really only have 15 seconds to make an impression. Make them all count.
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About Jesse Roberts
Vice President of Marketing
SchoolAdmin
jesse@schooladmin.com