This term is a key time for schools to sow the seeds for future success. Making sure your actions are spot-on now can have a positive effect on the benefits you reap later.

With the final cut of the season done, last October I vowed to sort out our lawn. It really wasn’t looking good and I feared what it would be like by the following summer. My wife bought me a book* but I was dismayed to discover that I had missed the boat – September was supposed to have been the busiest time of the year for lawncare, the time when most of the preparation for the following season is undertaken.

Gavin's been working on his lawn. It's a good time for schools to work on key marketing and strategies, and our research can inform this.

September is also a good time to be cultivating your school’s catchment area. For many school marketing specialists, now is a great time to have an impact on enquiries for next year’s intake. This might be through advertising, direct mail, local roadshows and impressing feeder school staff.

September’s also the right time for some longer-term strategic planning in schools, to be considering some of the fundamentals of your business. What kind of parents make up your catchment and are you nurturing them with the right kind of marketing message? Why are there bare patches in parts of your catchment and what can you do to encourage growth in them? What are the prospects for growth over the next 5-10 years?

Mandarin is mtm’s school catchment analysis service and can help with your tactics and thinking. We have introduced a number of new features to quantify your prospects, identify the streets on which they live and hone your pitch to them. To discuss how Mandarin can help your school’s growth and development, please contact mtm.

* The Lawn Expert by Dr D G Hessayon – “the world’s best-selling book on lawns”.

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1. Blog post – The power of friendship networks, and implications for schools
2. Blog post – Does teacher know best when it comes to free schools?
3. Blog post – Market segmentation and its value

Many new headteachers in schools throughout the country will, as I write,  be mid-way through their first ‘proper’ week in situ, likely with an degree of raucousness emanating from the playground. This is a key time for new heads to establish their aims, plan their strategies, and make their mark. To inform this, school research is essential.

With the impact of recession and falling affordability causing some difficulties, a core issue for many independent schools is pupil recruitment. Any head taking up a new post in a school should seek to develop a clear and accurate understanding of the school’s positioning, market and parental satisfaction to inform strategies for maintaining pupil numbers. Here are our top 5 research tips for helping new heads to acheive  this: 

• Know your marketplace

In independent schools particularly, it is crucial that the head knows his or her school’s potential market and its capacity to continue to recruit pupils from this market. Our Mandarin catchment area research can tell you how many families in your area are able to afford the fees and have school age children, as well as where they live.

In addition, we can help you to understand how numbers of potential pupils in the area will change in the future, what areas you currently recruit well from, and how competitor schools might influence parental choice of school.  

• Listen to your parents

Every new head needs a strong understanding of why parents chose their school for their child, what they expect from it, how they would describe it, whether they would recommend it and what the priorities for improvement are. mtm’s parental survey work can answer all these questions through a secure and efficient online questionnaire.

Parents like to be asked for their feedback, and from a new head it shows a responsive and open outlook, making parents and pupils feel valued. We also carry out focus groups for client schools to explore any key issues in more depth and allow parents to speak openly and candidly about their experiences and concerns.

• See what visitors see

Mystery shopping is a fantastic way to fully understand how your school appears to visiting parents, and the impressions that you are likely to make on them. mtm has many years experience  carrying out mystery shopper exercises for schools and colleges.

In our mystery shops, we pose as an interested parent and assess every stage of your school’s communication with them, from how you respond to the intial phone call through to the visit and tour. We provide a full and honest report on our findings, with feedback and recommendations for you to improve the way you respond to visiting parents.

• Assess your school marketing

All schools need to understand whether their capacity, budget and strategy for attracting parents is appropriate: are you targeting the right areas? Are you spending too much? Are you aware of how many enquiries you generate for every parent that enrols? Every head should be able to answer these questions, and mtm allows schools to do this with our marketing audits.

Our audits take the form of a one- or two- day visit incorporating a tour of the school and meetings with the head and all staff responsible for marketing or admissions. We assess every aspect of your school’s marketing function, including communications with parents and tracking methods, and provide an in-depth assessment and recommendations for the future.

• See where you miss out

Of course, there will be no feedback more valuable than understanding the reasons that parents who visit your school do not go on to register and ultimate enrol. mtm can help with this too. Our ‘decliner’ (also called ‘non-buyer’ or ‘non-joiner’) interviews are carried out by our professional and in-house research team with such parents.

During these interviews, we speak to declining parents to understand which other schools they visited – and ultimately chose – and their experiences of visiting your school and ways in which these experiences could have been improved.

mtm has helped hundreds of schools to improve their positioning and enhance their school marketing and admissions. To speak to us about our work and how we might help your school please contact mtmconsulting.

Related posts:

1. 5 quick tips for maximising school marketing in the first phone call
2. Why now is the best time for parental research amongst non-buyers, says mtm
3. Our parental research is better than ever

With discussion this week focused on the implications of the new A* grade at A level, and the position of independent schools in university admissions, we wanted to change the focus and provide an insight into the factors affecting parental choice of school, and their level of satisfaction once in schools.

For several years now, mtm has offered parental surveys to schools. These surveys, typically carried out online, are an excellent means to understand reasons parents chose a school, and their satisfaction levels with various aspects of a school. We are able to benchmark all findings against a continually growing set of data for other schools.

Assessing importance of factors in comparison with satisfaction levels can help schools to understand priorities.

The chart on the left (click it to enlarge) shows our benchmarked scores from the last dozen parental surveys we carried out – with a total of 2000 parental responses (this is a small sample of our overall benchmark data and taken only from independent school results).   

The findings are self-explanatory, suggesting that on balance parents find small class sizes, ethos and high quality teaching to be amongst the most important factors in choosing an independent school. Pupil behaviour, academic outcomes and facilities are also highly ranked.

What is also notable is that parents are largely satisfied with their school’s provision in these areas, indicating that experience and expectations are closely linked and suggesting a high overall level of satisfaction amongst these respondents.

Of course, the real value in a benchmark is the ability to compare individual results against this wider data set. For schools carrying out a parental surveys with mtm, we can provide clear and measurable results for schools to truly understand their strengths, areas for improvement and levels of parental contentment.

We can also go beyond this to suggest priority areas and recommendations for responding to findings.

To discuss this, and our other research services for schools, please contact mtm.   

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1. mtm launches Priority Benchmarking: a new guide to parental surveys
2. Understanding the ins… …and the outs… of your parents’ perceptions
3. Blog post – Independent schools offer refuge from the storm in state education

Obesity can spread like a virus through social networks. How can this finding be applied for school marketers?

Framingham is a town in Massachusetts where medical researchers have tracked a large segment of the adult population since 1948 – and in doing so revealed many of the risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease, such as smoking. More recently two researchers have crunched the data and made another remarkable discovery: obesity spreads like a virus.

It's been shown that social networks can cause shared traits - like obesity. Schools should look to utilise the same networking trends to enhance their positioning.

The Framingham data allowed the researchers to construct a map of friendships, and therefore the social network of the town. What they discovered was that if one person became obese, the likelihood that a friend would follow suit increased by 171%. “Your friends who live far away have just as big an impact on your behaviour as friends who live next door… Even if you see a friend only once a year, that friend will still change your sense of what’s appropriate. And that new norm will influence what you do” (said James Fowler, one of the researchers, quoted in Wired Magazine).

I suspect that choice of schools – and particularly whether to use independent schools - also follows this pattern. That is, if somebody knows someone who educates a child privately, then that makes them more likely to at least consider it too. We know from research for schools carried out at mtm that word-of-mouth is the single biggest influencer on choice of school, but this new insight goes back much further in the decision-making process. It influences awareness and consideration of independent education in general and describes the process of people opening themselves to the idea of fee-paying schools.

Here are a couple of thoughts for schools…

1)     If you identify those parts of your catchment where you don’t have pupils and build up recruitment there, over time you should see a snowball effect as more local people consider you.

2)     If your current parent body is socially homogeneous, you might well be missing out on a whole market of people with money but different lifestyles.

mtm’s Mandarin catchment area analysis product can help schools understand their marketplace and parent body, while our strategic and marketing services for schools allow clients to enhance their positioning. For more details please contact mtm.

Related posts:

1. Blog post – Does teacher know best when it comes to free schools?
2. Blog post – Cultivating your school’s catchment area
3. Blog post – Independent schools offer refuge from the storm in state education

With a BBC report earlier this summer stating that about half the 700 or so initial enquiries from groups interested in establishing “free schools” came from groups of teachers, we ask if they are really the best people to run a school…

At first sight, of course, there is nobody better. They are the pedagogical professionals, they know how children learn best and, if they are interested in setting up a school under their own control, they probably know only too well how bureaucracy and poor management get in the way of good teaching and learning. “Just let good teachers get on with the job,” has so often been the response to the seemingly endless procession of Government initiatives and regulation.

But good teaching is not all that is necessary for a healthy school. It is perhaps no coincidence that the free school legislation will require the new institutions to be set up under the same regulations as independent schools and that amongst the first things the Secretary of State will want to see before approving a new free school is a business plan.

Teachers may not always be the best figures to establish and run free schools

Most people in the independent sector understand that, to guarantee the basis for good teaching and learning to take place, a school has first of all to be a sound business, with a clear school strategy. The numbers – particularly in terms of pupil roll – drive everything, and if those numbers aren’t there, there will, sooner or later, be no school. Even though parents won’t pay fees, the same disciplines will apply to the new free schools.

Our experience at mtmconsulting is that teachers, no matter how well intentioned and motivated, do not always understand these business fundamentals and are often not well equipped to ensure their delivery.

What mtm does is provide the strategic, research and marketing services which have underpinned the success of hundreds of successful independent school businesses over more than 20 years.

• Location: We can profile the entire locality and help you find the best site.
• Demand for the new school: We can provide a range of research services from the simplest to the most sophisticated which will provide a detailed profile of your catchment area.
• Marshalling local support: Our PR and media expertise is second to none, gained in both independent and maintained sectors.
• Financial projections: We have long experience in helping schools establish secure business models and financial forecasting .

To discuss our work, please contact mtm.

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1. Blog post – The power of friendship networks, and implications for schools
2. Blog post – Independent schools offer refuge from the storm in state education
3. Blog post – Learning to fly – and persuading parents to take the leap

The coalition government’s recent – and significant – reduction in the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) scheme is likely to have knock-on effects through the education sector, including in independent schools…

The cancellation of over 700 state school rebuilding and refurbishment projects by the Department for Education will have a deep impact across the education sector including, we feel, the independent sector. The former Labour government had pledged to commit over £45 billion nationally to rebuild secondary schools and £1.9 billion to refurbish or rebuild primary schools, although this was expected to increase.

With dark clouds and thundery rumbles looming for the state sector, independent schools are able to offer welcome stability to parents

The scrapping of the BSF programme, combined with the possibility of further cost cutting, will surely introduce a strong sense of uncertainty amongst parents and encourage those on the periphery to be more inclined towards considering independent schools and their often superior facilities and buildings, independent revenue streams and inherent stability.

On a local level, many independent schools with neighbouring newly built state schools are likely to have suffered by comparison with them in recent years, especially amongst the undecideds. Moving forward, those independents who find themselves neighbouring schools with cancelled projects seem in a much healthier position to benefit from disgruntled parents seeking refuge in the independent sector.

In a significant proportion of independent school parental satisfaction surveys carried out by mtm, facilities are rated as one of the most important factors when choosing a school - often as important as academic outcomes. Indeed, the facilities ‘war’ between competing independent schools for at least the last 10 years has been well-documented.

The last government’s huge investment in maintained schools’ buildings and facilities has effectively increased competition in the marketplace, with independents altering their school marketing strategies accordingly to define alternative USPs (including small class sizes, individual attention and ethos). However, in areas where BSF projects have been cancelled, and with the cloud of further reforms looming for the state sector, independent schools appear to be in a good position to offer much needed shelter.

mtm is the UK’s leading provider of research, marketing and strategic advice for schools. To discuss our services please contact mtm.

Related posts:

1. Blog post – Does teacher know best when it comes to free schools?
2. Blog post – The power of friendship networks, and implications for schools
3. Blog post – As parents get smarter, school research becomes more crucial

A large number of parents research independent schools but are not sufficiently convinced of the benefits. And the implications for school marketers?…

Joe Faulkner, our brilliant Head of Marketing and Business Development sent all the mtm division directors a cunning little email a month ago asking us to write a regular blog (you can see the others at our blog bank). I asked what I should write about – something to do with marketing, he proffered.  

Last week I was woken at 5.30a.m. in the middle of the City of London by the screeching of a peregrine falcon teaching its youngster to fly.

I watched as the parent tried to give the right messages to the fledgling huddled beside the nest on the top of a huge tower block.

Making the leap: Schools need to persuade parents of the real benefits.

“It’s easy really,” said the parent, “you just jump, open your wings, soar a bit without too much panicky flapping and you’ll be fine”.

“You have got to be joking” the youngster screeched. “This  just isn’t for me.  I’m much too comfortable where I am. I have a comfy bed, food, full waitress service and a lovely view.”

It was only after a huge amount of parental pressure that take-off was achieved, with the youngster just managing it to the next tower block and so on. But now there was no turning back, this was fun, it’s so much more dangerous and fulfilling when you can fly.

But what does this have to do with schools marketing, you are probably asking?

mtm has been working with a number of independent schools recently who are trying to ensure that they attract a broad range of families into their schools. The Missing Million schools research report published by mtmconsulting last year identified that there are a good number of families who can afford to pay fees. However, like the young peregrine, they are equipped to take the leap but don’t initially see the obvious advantage.

The evidence shows that large numbers of families research schools via the web but that this research does not culminate in a decision for change. So when designing a school website be sure that you are communicating effectively with visitors in the way that they want – be they prospective or current parents.  

• Individually – because people want to feel that they matter
• Interactively – because people want to be able to select options and control their choices
• With immediacy – because parents are busy. They need to feel that your school has time for them and that they have easy access to information
• With intimacy – because if you make it easy for customers to communicate it enables you to get much closer to their requirements
• With imagination – because customers want you to  empathise with them

If your school’s website is constructed with the above pointers in mind it will give you an advantage in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Some feel its only a matter of time before ‘free schools’ (or the new term – ‘choice schools’) recruit from the traditional independent schools market, so it pays to focus on improving communication. Now.  

We live in interesting times.

The five ’ i’ points above are from  Nigel May Barlow’s  excellent book on customer care ‘Batteries Included’

mtm helps schools with marketing, strategy and research. Our services range from mergers consulting to website design and perception surveys. For details of how we can help your school please contact mtm.

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3. Blog post – Independent schools offer refuge from the storm in state education

In this  excerpt from the mtmconsulting Missing Million Report, 2008 (follow the link for details) we explore where potential buyers drop out of the decision making process…

The Missing Million Report (based on a parental survey carried out of some 836 households with school-age children and a target income of £50,000+) suggests the following:

• 66% have, at some point, considered sending at least one child to an independent school
• Of those that have considered it, 92% have gone on to conduct research on at least one specific independent school (talking to people about the school, reading up on it or visiting it)
• Of those that have conducted research, 83% visited a school
• Of those visitors, 53% went on to send at least one child to an independent school.

The chart illustrates the high number of potential buyers dropping out at the research / visiting stages

This is reflected in the chart to the left, which shows the crucial stages of decision-making amongst parents. It should reiterated that our research found that little over half of all parents who visited independent schools went on to enrol a place at such a school.

We believe this to be a significant indicator that there is great potential for independent schools’ marketing and communications to be greatly enhanced, particularly around the messages conveyed to prospective parents; the quality of marketing, school websites and promotional material; and the effectiveness of school tours.

In addition:

• Parents in London are much more likely to consider an independent school for their children (79% versus the national average of 66%) and are also more likely to ultimately send them.
• Parents in the South/East of England are less likely to consider it (62% versus 66%) although the proportions subsequently researching, considering and sending are in line with the national average.
• Parents in the Midlands/Wales are slightly less likely to consider and research independent schools and are then moderately less likely to visit and use independent schools.
• Parents in the North/Scotland are only slightly less likely than the national average to undertake most stages in the process.

The chart above also shows the points at which parents drop out of the buying process. Based on an estimated 1.2 million target households with school-age children, an estimated 933,000 of these households are non-buyers of independent education.

These non-buyers can be segmented as follows: 415,000 that have never considered independent schools; 63,000 that have considered but never researched; 123,000 that have researched but never visited; 284,000 that have visited but never bought; and 47,000 that are former buyers.

The implications for independent school marketing teams here are huge, indicating over 300,000 potential (and former) buyers of independent education that have considered it, but decided against it.

mtm helps schools with their brand positioning, marketing, research and strategic thinking. To discuss our services please contact mtm.

Click here for more details about mtm’s Missing Million report.

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The date of the September Proprietorial Schools’ Forum event – the latest in our series of half day seminar and discussion events for owners and heads of proprietorial schools, is confirmed as 13th September.

The draft programme for this event is as follows:

0930 – Coffee and Registration

0945 – The Landscape After the General Election – Opportunities and Threats

1025 – Succession Planning

1105 – Coffee Break

1120 – Marketing – the next ten years

1200 – Proprietors’ Discussion Forum

1245 – Drinks, buffet lunch, networking

1430 – Close

The Proprietorial Schools’ Forum has proved highly popular since its inception in September 2008. The Forum was established in response to demand for an event at which private owners of schools could meet to discuss exclusively the issues which concern them.   

The fee for the forum is £55. This includes drinks and buffet lunch. For more details about the event, and to book a place, please contact mtm.

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A close look at the 2010 ISC census figures may prompt a bead of sweat to form on the brow of senior school leaders…

The  Independent Schools Council’s (ISC) annual census of school numbers and fees remains the essential benchmark of the health of the independent education sector. Its near 30 year historical sequence permits confident and secure decision-making, both at the sector level and for sub-sectors within it: boarding schools, girls’ schools, and so on.

And, as my colleague Gavin Humphries noted in The mtmconsulting Independent Education Sector Report 2010, its figures demonstrate convincingly that, after a 25 year period in which prolonged steady growth was only briefly interrupted by the recession of the early 1990s, pupil numbers have stagnated for some five years now.

The 2010 ISC Census confirmed this, showing too the early effects of the latest recession with an overall drop in numbers of 0.6%. The ISC, when it published the census, very sensibly put an optimistic spin on the figures, pointing out that the total school population in the United Kingdom is continuing to fall, as it has been since the early years of the century and that, therefore, the sector’s market share is actually still rising.

But it did not attempt to disguise the fact that overall rolls for prep and junior schools have been falling more rapidly (down 2.1% from Reception to Year 6 overall) and even pre-school numbers – the engine of independent school growth in the past – are also falling.

This appeared to confirm a perception general throughout the sector that independent junior schools  have been finding life tougher for some time now – since long before we found ourselves in the current financial tundra.

But look closer. As always in the ISC Census, Table 3 – the age cohort breakdown – is the most revealing. Certainly, numbers of seven, eight and nine- year-olds are well down, by between 3- 4%. But encouragingly, and perhaps in belated response to the rising birthrate, numbers of five- and six-year-olds are actually increasing, suggesting a return to more robust recruitment at these ages.

Do senior schools face a reduction in pupil numbers?

And a look at the 11-year-old cohort, the crucial recruitment year for most independent senior schools, should chill the bones of senior school marketers and registrars: down by nearly two and a half per cent. So are senior schools about to be hit by a recruitment double whammy – lower numbers coming through from prep schools and a tougher recruitment environment from outside?

mtmconsulting has worked with hundreds of schools to help them understand their potential market, their parents and how to position themselves successfully. To discuss how we might be able to help your school please contact mtm.

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2. Blog post – Does teacher know best when it comes to free schools?
3. Blog post – Cultivating your school’s catchment area