How Private Schools can Recruit Better in a Digital Age

People who are administrators of independent private schools carry the weight of maintaining enrollment standards every year. From October through February of each year, most private schools are pushing to recruit the very best and brightest talent. They attract students and their families in many ways, but most schools do not take full advantage of the resources that are available to them online. If administrators were to keep in mind the fact that most people do initial searches for just about everything on the internet, they could probably be more effective in their recruiting efforts each year.

Over 90% of the parents who looked for private schools to educate their children looked online first. Not only did they use desktop computers, but also laptops, mobile devices, netbooks, and social media like Twitter/Facebook. While the final decision comes down to the quality of the school and its reputation, there are many schools that never get considered because it is difficult to find detailed information about them. Finding and reading a private school's website is one thing. It is another thing to find out school history, current/accurate testimonials of recent test scores, and honest assessments of the atmosphere as articulated by parents, students, and staff. Following are the things that are most important to parents when they are trying to decide where their children will be privately educated. These are factors that have not changed much in 50 years. The factors that have changed are clearly noted with a *.

* Quality of education as evidenced by test scores in comparison to competing schools
* Coursework offered, books read, and summer programs to which students have access
* Price, athletics and extracurricular activities
* Level of education of the teachers - Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctorate level
* Word of mouth referrals
* School physical safety
* Access to technology and technology education and online safety *
* Aesthetic beauty of school facility
* Local, regional, national, or international reputation

For a school that is recruiting students the old way, over time it will find that it is less able to compete for the best students; schools doing the best marketing and smartest recruiting will be able to attract the best talent and the most funding long-term. Independent private schools should pay close attention to the world in which we now live; organizations and businesses should work diligently at building solid relationships with offline and online.

The school that relies mostly on live interaction is not going to recruit or retain students as well over the long term as will the school that has lively Facebook and Twitter interactions every week. Do both and recruit better over the long haul!

If your school is looking to recruit better and to recruit consistently all year long, there needs to be a realistic plan that blends online marketing with offline relationship building. Both tactics should be consistent with the sense of community and excellence the school is trying to communicate. The way that we decide to do or not do something has not changed much over time; people still use information to make decisions; however, the manner in which we gain information is remarkably different than it was years ago. To reach today's parents, school recruiting must evolve.

Your school should contact a marketing consultant who is skilled in online marketing in all it's varied forms. Request a free presentation and consultation to learn what your options are. Independent private schools can easily position themselves as the place to educate tomorrow's brightest minds as long as they have access to the right kind of marketing tools.


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Christi Johnson is the owner of Total Web Marketing (TWB), a Get Found Local reseller. Companies that need to use the full power of the internet to market locally or nationally use TWB's services. Social media and blogging are not past times. They are necessary to commercial and organization survival. Go to TWB's website to read more on how online marketing has changed and how to stay ahead.