Finding the right families for your school is a bit like building a strong foundation for a house. You need the right materials to create something lasting, stable, and welcoming. Enrolling families who aren't a good fit for your school's culture and goals can be a costly mistake, especially if you’re using flimsy materials—the structure might look fine at first, but it won't stand the test of time. You’ve seen The Money Pit, right?

When families and their schools don't align, it can ultimately lead to attrition, but it can also disrupt your school community and turn into a difficult, expensive, and highly emotional experience for your school and the families involved.

No one wants to see a student leave a school because it wasn't the right match...

You want to attract families who genuinely connect with your school's mission, appreciate your approach to education, and share your vision for student success. These are the families who will stay for years and, hopefully, become your biggest advocates in helping your school thrive.

But how do you identify and market to these families? And once you know who they are, how do you reach them effectively? Let's explore the steps to finding and attracting mission-fit families for your school.

What Makes a “Mission-Fit” Family?

Attracting and enrolling the “right” families for your school is essential for a thriving, financially secure community, but what is and isn’t the “right” fit will look different for every school. Ideally, you want to engage and enroll families who connect with your mission for long-term retention. It all starts, however, with knowing what kind of school YOU are.

Know Yourself

Before you can find the right families, you need to understand your school's identity. Answer these questions to clarify what makes your school special.

• What are your school's core values?
• What type of learning environment do you offer?
• What drives your faculty and leadership?
• What are the strengths of your academic program?
• What extracurricular opportunities are available?

Identify Your Ideal Family

Once you have a strong sense of your school's identity, you can create a picture of your ideal family.

• What are their educational values?
• What are their expectations for their child's learning experience?
• What activities and programs are important to them?
• What are their priorities for their child's social and emotional development?

To answer these questions, gather information from various sources, starting with your current families. Talk to them, conduct surveys, and learn why they chose your school and what they value most.

Use Surveys and Data: Send questionnaires to current families and prospective families, too. Tap into the data that should live in your admissions and enrollment management system, which can reveal patterns in their demographics, interests, and priorities.

Mary Louis Academy asks prospects directly about their goals, interests, and hobbies on its inquiry form—it’s a great way to gauge a candidate’s interest in your programs and opportunities for engagement.

Hold Interviews: Conduct interviews with parents, students, faculty, and staff to tap into their experiences, goals, and thoughts on your school.

Online Research: Gather data on your target audience's demographics, interests, and habits, which might include looking at census data for housing prices, district enrollment numbers, and more.

Summit Country Day School shared the results of its survey with its community—a great way to gauge whether or not your families are feeling and connecting with your mission.

Check Analytics: Data from your website and social media channels can help you better understand your audience’s preferences, behaviors, and engagement patterns. Pay attention to which pages are visited most often, which posts get the most interaction, and what kinds of content people respond to.

Annapolis Area Christian School surveyed its families to understand their expectations better, revealing why families choose their school:

• Caring, Christ-centered faculty: Teachers who engage students and model Christian values.
• Biblical worldview: Integration of biblical principles into academics, sports, and activities.
• Excellent academics: A strong educational program.
• Focus on character: A school environment that fosters responsibility and personal growth.
• Individualized attention: Nurturing each child's unique gifts and talents.
• Strong community: Opportunities to build lasting and meaningful relationships.

Use Your Website to Tell Your Story

Use your site to tell your story and showcase what makes your school unique. Not just on the homepage but throughout your site and its key entry points.

• Highlight your mission and values prominently on your homepage and "About Us" section.
• Feature photos and videos that capture your school's culture and learning environment.
• Share quotes from current students and families.
• Create content that speaks to the interests and concerns of your ideal families.

For example, if your school has a strong arts program, create blog posts, videos, or social media content about student art shows, performances, or guest artists.

Moses Brown’s “Why” page goes deep into its mission, supported by vibrant imagery, student testimonials, and more information about its signature programs.

Similarly, Woodlynde School can speak directly to the kinds of families they hope to attract, with messaging about the parent experience and the community they hope to create.

Engage Your Community

Using your newfound information as a foundation, use social media, email newsletters, and events to connect with prospective families and share your school's story.

• Create social media posts that highlight your school's values and programs.
• Use email newsletters to share news and updates with prospective families.
• Host events, like open houses or student-led tours, that give families a chance to experience your school firsthand.

How to Increase Enrollment: Reach Your Mission-fit Students & Families with Digital Ads

Now that you have a clearer understanding of your ideal family's demographics and interests, you can use that information to target your digital marketing efforts more effectively. Paid digital channels, especially social media, allow you to reach specific audiences based on their location, interests, online behavior, and more.

• Targeted Ads: Use the data you've gathered to create highly targeted ads that speak directly to the interests and needs of your ideal families. For instance, if your data shows that many of your current families are interested in STEM education, you can create ads highlighting your school's STEM program and target them to users who have shown an interest in STEM-related topics online. Similarly, if you see families in your area with young children, you can target users likely to have younger students.
   
• Retargeting: Retargeting ads can help you reconnect with prospective families who have already visited your website or interacted with your social media content. These ads can remind them of your school and encourage them to take the next step, like scheduling a tour or requesting more information.

Thanks to the surveys Annapolis Area Christian School conducted earlier, they’re now able to design ads that speak directly to the type of families that their programs can serve.

Be Consistent: Brand Your Mission

To help families get a clear and accurate picture of your school, make sure your messaging is consistent across all of your communication channels.

Think of your school's mission as its core promise—your brand is how you communicate and deliver on that promise to families. Over time, that consistency will build trust and recognition, which will make it easier for mission-fit families to identify with your school.

Here's how to bring that consistency and effectively brand your mission:

• Define Your Brand Voice: Define the tone and style of your communication, and make sure it's reflected in everything you do, from website copy to social media posts to parent newsletters. 
  • What kind of personality does your school have? 
  • Is it warm and nurturing? 
  • Formal, creative, or innovative? 

For example, a school with a strong focus on character development might use language that emphasizes values like respect, responsibility, and kindness.

• Develop Visual Consistency: Your school's logo, colors, fonts, and imagery should be consistent across all your platforms so families can recognize and identify your school.
• Align Your Messaging: Every communication, whether it's a website page, a social media post, or even a conversation with a prospective parent, should reinforce your school's mission and values.
• Maintain Consistency Over Time: Your brand isn't something you create once and then forget about. It requires ongoing effort to maintain consistency over time. As your school evolves, so should your brand. The core values and mission should remain consistent, though.

Be consistent in your branding and messaging, so you create a clear and compelling picture of your school for prospective families. This helps them understand what you stand for and why your school is the right choice for them.

Key Takeaway

Finding mission-fit families is an ongoing process. Regularly review your marketing and communication efforts and make adjustments as needed. By focusing on your school's strengths and values, you can attract families who will thrive, stay, and be advocates for your community.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Connor has spent the last decade within the field of marketing and communications, working with independent schools and colleges throughout New England. At Finalsite, Connor plans and executes marketing strategies and digital content across the web. A former photojournalist, he has a passion for digital media, storytelling, coffee, and creating content that connects.