Inbound marketing has changed the way we market our schools. Old school methods don't cut it anymore. School marketers are constantly trying new techniques to engage with parents and offer them value.
That doesn't mean, however, that traditional marketing strategies aren't relevant. Far from it. Some of the foundational marketing principles are still applicable, maybe even more so than in the past.
For example, establishing target audience personas is still essential to help you achieve your marketing goals.
Regardless of the stage of your marketing maturity, one of your highest priorities should be to create – and update – marketing personas for your target audiences. Marketing personas are the bedrock for building your marketing strategy. Without an updated persona, how do you know the best message to appeal to prospective or current parents?
What Is a Marketing Persona?
My favorite definition of a marketing persona comes from Ardath Albee. Her definition is:
“A marketing persona is a composite sketch of a key segment of your audience.” ~ Ardath Albee
Let's break that down a bit.
Composite sketch
A marketing persona should not be based on one individual person. Rather, it should be reflective of a majority of the people it is supposed to represent.
Segments of your audience
A marketing persona is meant to represent one segment of your target market, not everyone.
There are several types of personas I'd like you to consider as you think about your segmentation.
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Key segments
Key segments are groups of people you want to focus on.
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Influencers
Influencers are people that, although they may not have children to enroll, influence parents. Grandparents, clergy and friends are good examples.
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Anti-personas
An anti-persona is the opposite of your key personas. These are people who still could reach out with an inquiry or decide to enroll, but you aren't going to focus on them. For example, these could be parents who most likely can't afford your school, don't share your religious or educational philosophy or aren't in one of your key persona segments for another reason.
How to Use Marketing Personas
In essence, marketing personas help us craft incredibly targeted marketing strategies. The practical applications of these strategies generally include:
- Messaging
- Advertising vehicles
- Types of events
The idea here is to identify the best messaging that will be attractive to the families in your target segments, select the best advertising vehicles (Facebook Ads? Google Ads? Instagram Ads? Bus signs? Billboards? Flyers in local establishments? All of the above?) and plan the types of events where target families will feel the most comfortable.
Other uses for marketing personas might include locating current markets (retention) or new markets (expansion).
Now that you have a big picture view of different types of personas as well as how to apply persona features, here are 6 steps to take to create detailed personas for your school.
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Collect the right data
In her podcast interview “How to Use Data to Create Custom Personas“, Dana Nelson-Isaacs shares valuable insights into the use of data for independent schools. She identifies two types of quantitative data she recommends schools access.
Demographic data
Demographic data is the type of data we are all familiar with, such as Census data. Think in terms of age, race, ethnicity, gender, marital status, income, education and employment. Demographic data helps identify “who” the families are that you want to target.
Registrar data is another source of demographic data specifically about your families.
The National Association of Independent Schools Data and Analysis for School Leadership (NAIS/DASL) is a great resource for gathering demographic data related to independent schools.
An Audience Analysis can also be a helpful tool.
Psychographic data
Psychographic data helps identify why people are likely to take certain actions. There are many ways to segment a market, but popular criteria usually include attributes like stage-of-life, lifestyle preferences, personality traits, interests, beliefs and favorite activities.
Psychographic data might include information about:
- Primary concerns generally expressed by a certain market segment
- Types of goals a particular audience has
- Types of activities a segment typically enjoys
- What makes someone feel fulfilled
- The types of values a person has
Two sources of psychographic data for schools include Environics and Claritas.
Qualitative data
Qualitative data is another source of psychographic data. Generally, qualitative data is gathered by conducting surveys, focus groups, or interviews.
When you ask the right kinds of questions, you can find out more about what moves a person who fits into your audience segment to take action.
Examples of possible questions include:
- What do you know about our school?
- How do you feel about our school?
- Is our school mission in alignment with your academic goals for your child?
- What is your role in deciding which school your child will attend?
- What challenges do you anticipate you might experience in terms of enrolling your child in our school?
- Do other people in your family or group of friends strongly encourage or dissuade you from enrolling your child in our school?
- How likely are you to reach out to someone on our staff if you have a question or are interested in our school?
- Are you aware of our enrollment process? If so, do you think it will be difficult or easy to enroll?
- Is cost a factor in your decision to enroll your child in our school?
- Can you think of any past experiences you've had that might be a detriment to you enrolling your child in our school?
- Are you likely to reach out to our admissions office if you're interested in learning more about our school? Why or why not?
There are many other questions you can ask to get deeper insight into your market segment.
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Analyze the data
Once you've collected data about your market segment, it's time to analyze the data and start looking for trends. One tool you can use to do this is Tableau. Tableau is easy to use; simply upload an Excel spreadsheet and start creating various charts and graphs.
Your data analysis goal is to look for patterns and trends that will help you identify who your parent segments are. Once you've identified these segments, you can then categorize them into personas based on demographic, psychographic and qualitative data.
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Summarize your findings
While it may seem time-consuming, it can be incredibly valuable to summarize your findings. This allows you to collect all your data into one place and put into categories. You can then identify patterns and numbers which can be helpful when making decisions. It also can help you discover language patterns that might be useful for messaging.
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Draft your personas
The next step is to group your data into persona groups. You might include key information such as:
- Demographic information
- History with the school (if any)
- Where their children previously attended school
- Why they enrolled in your school (or why they would consider it)
- The main benefits they perceive about your school (this might be different for different personas)
- What might trigger them to seek more information about your school or fill out an application
- The typical process this persona might take to enroll in your school
- What choice factors they look for in an independent school
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Present your personas to your decision-makers
Put together a presentation that highlights the key persona segments for your school, your methodology, and how you envision they will be used for your marketing strategy.
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Invite parents and alumni to talk to your staff
A persona is simply a false representation of a real-life set of people, so why not invite some of those real-life people to come and tell their stories? Besides getting testimonials, encouraging parents and alumni to meet with staff and even board members will help you gain new insights into your persona group and improve your messaging, advertising, and parent events.
Given how much they inform almost everything else in your marketing strategy, your personas must be accurate, and the right conclusions are drawn from the data. Take the time to do the research and build personas based on real customer insights because it will pay off in the long run.
If you would like more information on how to use data to create personas for your school, I highly recommend you take a few minutes to listen to the podcast, as mentioned above, where I interview Dana Nelson-Isaacs, Founder and President of DNI Consulting. Dana is a wealth of information and highly experienced in using data to form personas and audience targets, as well as answer other pertinent questions your school leadership may be asking. Click here to listen to the podcast.
Do you use key personas for your school marketing strategy? What helpful information do you have to share about this topic?
