In the world of independent schools, clear communication isn’t just beneficial — it’s pivotal. The pitfalls of misinterpretations, ambiguous roles and inconsistent messages can profoundly inhibit a school’s growth on all fronts. Schools, like all organisations, face challenges in achieving effective communication. And it’s holding them back. This episode we discuss the significance of communication in school marketing and provide tips on paving a way forward for your school communications.

In this special interview episode, we are joined by Dan Oshinsky, owner of Inbox Collective, an email consultancy that helps brands grow audiences, build relationships and gets results through email. We discuss the future of email marketing and the differences and similarities between brand email marketing and school email marketing. Dan shares how to make your marketing emails feel more personal to establish a connection with your target. Finally, we discuss which metrics are the best for you and how to interpret those metrics.

“You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” That’s only partially true. Brad and Scully discuss this further in this episode, delving into how – within the school marketing context – your second chance is to iterate and improve before your next opportunity for another first impression. In today’s interconnected world, the battle for enrolment begins online. As prospective parents commence their intricate journey of selecting the best school, their first stop is usually your school’s website. 

In this episode, we are joined by psychologist Dr Matt Pfeiffer to discuss his model TXcel Education, which aims to enhance the educational effectiveness of teachers. TXcel is a professional development model which uses surveys to allow teachers to receive a range of feedback and help them enhance their teaching effectiveness. Matt talks us through the development of the model, as well as how TXcel is used in practice in schools. Finally, we discuss the connection between marketing and communications and quality of teaching and what this means for school Heads.

After presenting at the 2024 International Boys’ School (IBSC) Annual Conference held in London, United Kingdom, Andrew Sculthorpe (Scully) shares his learnings from picking the minds of school Heads from 145 countries around the world. Focusing on the Conference’s theme ‘Tradition, leadership and innovation’, he shares some of the knowledge he picked up, such as the challenges facing boys’ schools, the similarities and differences in marketing efforts between single-sex and co-ed schools and the prospective parent journey.

In this episode, we are joined by Brendan Schneider, an expert in digital marketing for schools and the Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution. We discuss the growth in AI and break down some of its accompanying terms and jargon. Brendan tells us how he believes AI is going to (and has already) change the world of school marketing

In this episode, we pick up where we left off from SMJ175, continuing with our list of marketing jargon that school Heads might encounter in order to help you interpret what you are hearing from your school’s marketing team. We discuss all the terms you might often hear, from ‘social media marketing’ to ‘CTAs’ and we try our best to explain them in simple terms and give you practical examples in a school-based context.

There comes a time in the life of every school when the time is right to make a permanent record of the school’s history. This episode, we are joined by Associate Professor David Hastie to understand the pitfalls and the benefits of writing your school history. David takes us through the steps of approaching such a project, and shares his advice and his takeaways from his vast experience of writing histories for independent schools.

This episode, we discuss some of the jargon in the marketing industry to help school Heads interpret what they are hearing from marketers and understand the process behind what is going on in their schools marketing programs. We discuss all the terms you might often hear, from ‘brand awareness’ to ‘CX’ and try our best to explain in simple terms for your understanding and then give you practical examples in schools.

In this episode, we are joined by Tom Olverson, a veteran school Head of 27 years who is now a specialist search consultant with RG175 and a mentor to current school leaders. We discuss his book, Leading Through Strategy, How Business Principles Can Help Independent Schools Thrive, which explores his personal journey leading schools across the USA, the lessons he learnt and how to use strategy to find your school identity.

In the education sector the various functions of communication often get blurred, especially when it comes to branding and marketing. While related and interdependent, these are entirely different stages of communication that require different approaches. This episode, we discuss an article by Deroy Peraza that we came across, and we approached him to investigate how his article, Branding is expecting. Marketing is parenting applied to school marketing.

There is a lot happening in the modern school marketing landscape. It seems that every time you open a new browser tab there is a new tool or app that is going to ‘make your life easier’ and solve your enrolment problems. Of course, it’s not real. School communications and marketing are getting more complex, not easier. This episode, Brad and Scully provide a four-pillar framework on how to unlock your school’s value to prospective parents.