Ready to reevaluate your admissions communications? Use this document as a worksheet to audit and improve your existing admissions materials, one step at a time.
1. Do your homework.
Before you plan a complete admissions communications redo, devote some time to discovery and brainstorming. Begin by collecting sample admissions materials from competitor schools (both online and traditional communications, if possible). As you review them, ask yourself:
- Would our current communications stand out among these materials? What is strong about them? What opportunities do we have to tell a better story?
Next, get inspired by the great work of others. A few fantastic resources for sample school communications include:
- inspirED Brilliance Awards, which showcases the best school marketing work in areas such as enrollment packages, admissions web pages, viewbooks, and more.
- Blackbaud’s K–12 Resources Hub includes lots of inspiration, trends, and demos.
2. Fix what’s broken.
Once you’re feeling inspired, it’s time to turn your attention to the school’s current materials. Can you track or measure any results from your existing admissions communications?
- Look at your inquiry sources, Google Analytics, video plays, social insights—any metrics that provide insight on whether your marketing efforts are driving results.
- Based on those results, take a critical look at your communications materials. If efforts are not making an impact, consider reallocating those resources to new or currently successful initiatives.
3. Fill in the blanks.
After you know what materials you will focus on for improvement, it’s time to figure out what’s
missing from your admissions communications.
- Where in your audiences’ decision-making process can you better support them with strong communications? How can you better engage prospective families during the admissions process?
4. Get creative.
Now that you have a plan for improving existing materials and creating new assets, it’s time to think outside of the box.
- How can your materials better showcase your school’s personality? In what ways can you highlight your key differentiators?
- Can any traditional materials be replaced or enhanced with video, social, or online components?
- Would different photography or graphic design better align with your school brand?
You now have a quick-and-dirty checklist of everything you need to do to strengthen your admissions communications for the new school year.
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