Could you tell me a little about your role at Sunnybrook School, and in particular your role in the marketing of Sunnybrook?
In my role at Sunnybrook, I wear many hats, partly because we are a relatively small school. My day-to-day work includes addressing concerns from parents and teachers, managing the curriculum, overseeing schedules and facilities, and managing our marketing, social media, and website.
It's been important to me to have a hands-on style of administration, to have the pulse of what's happening in the school. I'm often outside greeting the children, and I meet all the teachers every week. My different responsibilities are all connected under one big umbrella.
From your perspective, are there common mistakes or misunderstandings when it comes to school marketing and communication?
I wouldn’t necessarily call them mistakes, but rather trials and errors. Having been involved in the field for long enough, I feel there are ebbs and flows in how we approach school marketing. For example, during the pandemic, our social media ads had very low conversion rates, probably because parents were tired of looking at the screen. Our strategies before the pandemic differed so much from those during and after the pandemic. You have to change with the times and respond to what's happening in the world.
I’ve found that, if you want to know what is making a difference, it’s best to try one marketing tactic at a time. And it’s about continually figuring out what works for you, how you get that word out, how you communicate your brand, etc. There are so many great schools in Toronto—we're so lucky. Part of what makes your decisions right is how you distinguish yourself from other schools, because we're all great schools. It’s about understanding and communicating what makes you unique.
Has your perspective on school marketing and communication changed over time? If so, how?
School marketing itself has definitely changed. Twenty-five years ago, it was mostly about word of mouth. There were also open houses, but the open houses felt very different back then. We didn’t have the internet, so families who came to an open house were shopping around. That has really changed over time.
Now families rely on our website, our school report on OurKids.net, and our social media, and we're finding that the parents are really doing their research, which is really nice. They do their research and narrow down their choices, so that the open houses are a second or third step, rather than the first step. That is a key factor to remember for school marketers, that most families have already done their research. They already know so much about your school before they step inside your door.
Are there areas that school marketers might incorrectly invest in, either investing too much or in the wrong way?
Yes, I will give you one example. In the past, we found that open houses shouldn’t be treated as a “show.” They don’t really work if they become a show. It's better when an open house offers an authentic representation of what actually happens at the school, rather than putting on a production. When parents visit us, they want to talk to the teachers, they want to talk to the children, they’re trying to envision this particular school life for their child. That’s why we've changed our open houses to better reflect a typical day.
School marketing is unique because of the significance of the decision. Parents are choosing you for their children. It’s not just another product. You are offering a home away from home—an extension of their home—for their children. So that has to be felt through a variety of online and in-person interactions, which wouldn’t be necessary for something that’s just a product.
What does brand mean to you? What associations do you have with it, and how does it feature in your work?
Brand was something I hadn’t thought much about until Our Kids decided to place the Brand Identity questions on the school profiles. I had my own ideas but I couldn’t assume everyone else thought the same way.
So I decided to survey all of the stakeholders I work with. I surveyed the students, the teachers, the parents, and asked them about what Sunnybrook meant to them. I did it from the ground up because I wanted it to reflect everyone's perspective. Then I compiled all of their answers and what came to light was very, very interesting. Now, having articulated our brand, we use it in our marketing efforts.
Being in touch with our teachers and our students helps me market the school just that much better because I don’t see the school as some entity out there. I see how it’s all connected. In fact, we once tried to work with an external marketing company, and they just didn't get it right, and I ended up rewriting everything because they didn’t get to the heart of what Sunnybrook is about.
What advice would you give to your former self?
I’d say, listen, take more risks and trust your intuition. I could’ve done more of that at the very beginning. You have to listen, listen to the parents, listen to the children and the teachers. So much of marketing is about listening and then communicating what you find, trying to be the liaison between your community and the broader market out there.
Take a look at Sunnybrook School’s profile on OurKids.net
