4 Key Strategies to Make the School Marketing Budget a Necessary Aspect of a Successful School Marketing Plan

A  most controversial aspect of any School Marketing Plan is the school marketing budget - there is often a reluctance to offer the necessary capital to allow this to be effective. Below are four key strategies to make this budget work - and work well!


1. Invest During Good Times - Financial and Otherwise
2. Invest During Difficult Financial Times and Other Difficult Situations
3. A Realistic Budget is Necessary
4. If Needed - a Shared Budget Across Schools or Regions

1. Invest During Good Times - Financial and Otherwise

Good times are the best times to invest. This enables the school's reputation to be enhanced considerably. Resting on the laurels of the past can become an expensive exercise when the reputation is forgotten or when a new challenge comes from other competing interests, including other schools and distractions within society.

2. Invest During Difficult Financial Times and Other Difficult Situations

However, all schools need to market themselves at whatever stage of the success cycle at which they find themselves. Do not give up in the tough times - all schools will experience these throughout their history. It is a most important time to market, fight for the dollars so you don not get left behind in the marketplace.

3. A Realistic Budget is Necessary
Various people within each school community have differing views on the amount which should be afforded to the marketing budget. School leaders need to be aware that the implementation of a good marketing plan would inevitably drive up community engagement and enrolment numbers!
In today's dollar values spending $20 000 - $40 000  for an average sized independent school (of between 600 and 900 students) would be a good investment. This would need to be proportionately reviewed according to overall School Budget, the number of enrolments and the overall need of the school to build and maintain enrolment numbers.
When the marketing plan is being developed for a specified year, key stakeholders, particularly the School Principal, School Manager and the School Marketing Manager, need to assess the budget requirements. The budget will have a significant impact on a plan for any year. The budget includes all areas of the plan which incur expenses.

4. If Needed - a Shared Budget Across Schools or Regions
Shared marketing budgets across a number of schools may be another way of efficiently budgeting.
This could be regionalized e.g.:
• a combined regional budget to be shared amongst schools or
• a RMM (Regional Marketing Manager) implementing the whole marketing plan for the region and individual schools, which are only required to develop their own essentials such as newsletters.
Or it may be a number of localized schools working together and sharing the budget.
A shared budget may see different schools marketing specific aspects for the cluster e.g.
• one may concentrate on Arts / Sport Education within the cluster
• another may market the varying sorts of key curriculum and extra-curricular areas on offer and differing times for each
• another may emphasize the pastoral, welfare and social justice aspects within the cluster.
For some schools this may be the only way to begin marketing or to maintain a budget in any form what-so-ever.
Caution - even though this may appear to save financially, it takes away from the individual uniqueness of each school. Marketing is often more successful when emphasizing a uniqueness.
A professionally run school will always allow for an appropriate marketing budget to assist with promoting the school - both in good and difficult times.

This '4 Key Strategies to Make the School Marketing Budget a Necessary Aspect of a Successful School Marketing Plan' blog post was written by Bryan Foster, author of School Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (3rd ed) 2010, while SMAPL retains the copyright.

Marketing e-Books by Bryan Foster now on Amazon.com and Soon as Google Editions

The marketing e-books by Bryan Foster have been uploaded to Amazon.com and when Google Editions is activated this year will be uploaded there also.

There is the option to download in virtually any format for whatever device you want to read the e-books on... whether PC, Mac, ipad, ipod, Blackberry etc,. All you need is the free reading app supplied by Amazon.com applicable to your device. You also have the option to use an Amazon Kindle reading device when purchasing e-books.

"Your purchase will be sent automatically to your iPhone, PC, Mac, iPad, or BlackBerry device." (Amazon.com)

These marketing e-books may be applied across numerous marketing situations in so many fields. The key areas for marketing the Church and schools are, however, the target niche for these books.

Amazon.com Bryan Foster is where you will find Bryan's 5 marketing e-books.

The author has 20 years experience marketing within the Church. He has held senior positions in both Church and schools at the local area, including deanery and parish pastoral council chair and school principal. This experience has proved to be extremely valuable for compiling these easy to read and use e-books written in summarized point format.

Bryan's latest e-books published this year and available on Amazon are:

• Church Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (2nd ed)
• School Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (3rd ed)
• School and Church Marketing Blog Posts: My First 100+

These e-books are also available on both of Bryan Foster's websites:  CPM Church Parish Marketing and SMA School Marketing .

Both these websites also have a raft of complimentary strategies and examples. There are over 150 blog posts and numerous Hints and Tips on everything from general marketing principles to specific church and school strategies and examples, along with general 'life' themed blog posts.

The Church Manual in normal pdf format is 329 A4 pages, while the School Manual in pdf format has 369 A4 pages.

The 'Marketing e-Books by Bryan Foster now on Amazon.com and Soon as Google Editions' blog post was written by Bryan Foster, with copyright remaining with SMAPL.

School Marketing Plan

The School Marketing Plan (SMP) and associated School Marketing Strategies are the foundation for success in marketing your school. An example Overview of a SMP follows. Specific details for each step are found in the School Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (3rd ed), 2010, by Bryan Foster. An analysis of the plan follows the overview.


School Marketing Plan Overview

Define what you have to offer:

Define your target group:

Budget:

Personnel and Talents available - including School Marketing Manager:

Develop School Marketing Aims and Objectives – from previous information:

Select Marketing Strategies:

Evaluation:


Analysis of the School Marketing Plan

• The School Principal is ultimately responsible for the SMP.

• The School Marketing Plan is based on the School’s Vision and Mission Statement.

• A SMP is the plan used to market the school to the community. The community includes all people who know, or those who you want to know, about the school. These include the general public in your catchment region, parents, potential families, school staff, parish staff, other schools’ staff especially from feeder schools, present and past students, parents, etc.

• The SMP includes the strategies used within a defined budget.

• The plan is used to inform all stakeholders, and other targeted groups, of the benefits and successes of the school.

• It also informs about aspects which may be of interest.

• It also needs to plan for issues which may arise of a controversial nature.

• The plan should inform and emphasize the real nature of the school and the direction the school is planning or presently implementing.

• A realistic budget is part of the SMP.

• Marketing is relatively inexpensive when viewed in the terms of the potential gains made – reputation, new parents, supportive present parents, enrolments, etc.

• The SMP can benefit from the combination of views of staff and others
associated with the school community.

• In the initial stages of developing the school’s first real plan it is often best to include a variety of interest groups for gaining ideas and suggestions about how best to market your school. These thoughts may then be used as felt necessary.

• The School Principal needs input and has the overall responsibility to implement the plan.

The School Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (3rd ed), 2010, written by Bryan Foster details the essentials for a successful school marketing plan and associated strategies.