The Oldest Play in the Book

If you serve on school operations, recruitment, or enrollment teams, you are realizing you have a long road ahead of you. Coronavirus has affected every aspect of your school operations, especially student recruitment. Many schools are still working to build awareness in their communities, and the typical method of canvassing is not a safe option. So what’s the best way to spread awareness? You need to lean on your current families. 

Word of mouth is the oldest and, to this day, most effective way to spread awareness. If you’re a school that’s transforming the lives of children, then your students’ parents are sharing in the success. You won’t find a better brand advocate than a parent who believes in your school. 

Here are three more reasons you should invest in word of mouth:

1. Word of mouth is the most cost-effective method of spreading awareness.

2. A referred applicant is more likely to convert to an enrolled student because of their connection to your community.

3. Because you are leaning on your families’ networks, you will attract like-minded people who share the same values.

So how do you encourage more families to spread the word about your school? Build a referral program.

Creating a Referral Program (Short Term)

If you are a quality school, your families are already talking about your program. People can’t help but share the things that make their lives better. Creating a program for referrals is a way to name, encourage, and celebrate work that is already happening in your community so that you can foster more of it. Here’s how to create the program:

Create a family survey to discover incentives.

Families will share your school because it makes their lives better, not because of an incentive. However, providing families with an incentive lets them know you appreciate their work and will encourage more of the same behavior. Ask your families how you can thank them for spreading the word. It may be a uniform piece, gift card, or a special item of school swag. Send out a Google form with multiple choice and the option to write in their own ideas.

Make a referral form accessible

Build out a referral form in Google forms. This form needs to be linked somewhere online where parents have access to it (weekly announcement, parent login on your website). After a parent encourages someone to apply, they can complete the form with the name of the person they referred.

Share the details with families

Create a one-pager outlining the program and send it home to families. The overview should share the mission of the program, details on the incentive they chose, and how they can claim the incentive.

Track monthly referrals

On a monthly basis, track your applicants’ names and cross-reference them with the parent referral form. If you get a match, the referral has been verified and you can thank the parent. I suggest building a spreadsheet that automates this job for you. Email me if you need a resource.

Deliver incentives and share success stories

Write a quick thank you note and share the incentive with parents. You can highlight parents once a month in your announcement sharing their success. When parents feel appreciated and recognized for their work, they will be more inclined to spread the word!

Sustaining a Referral Program (Long Term)

Developing a referral program is a great way to spread awareness and increase applicants. Great schools will transition this short term program into a long term culture of referrals. Creating a word of mouth culture does not happen overnight, but here are a couple of ideas to lay the foundation.

Connect referrals to a shared value. Build in the idea of spreading the good news into your school orientation. Something like, “You are most likely here today because a family shared this opportunity with you. We want all families in this community to have access to a great education. When you spread the word, we get more awesome families like you, and more students are in a high-quality school.”

Create a team of your top parent recruiters. Give them special shirts and access to marketing collateral.

Invite parents to speak at recruitment or enrollment events. Create opportunities for families to give their friends and family a tour of the school.

Conclusion

Building a referral program is foundational to building school awareness. If you have more questions or would like to brainstorm an idea, feel free to send me an email at sawyer@everydesk.org. I will be happy to give you feedback to support your efforts.

Sawyer Schafbuch is a StoryBrand Certified Guide and founder of Everydesk, helping quality schools recruit students. He recently moved to Des Moines, IA with his wife and daughter.