Pre-Schools: They are everywhere… How do you rise above the clutter?

The growth of pre-schools in India has been unprecedented. With the market size expected to touch $3.0b in 2020 and an annual growth rate estimated at 28%, no wonder we see pre-schools mushrooming in our neighborhoods these days. 

So if they are everywhere, what is the strategy you plan to adopt, to ensure that your school stands out in the “clutter”? It is therefore imperative for schools to invest time, effort and resources to construct a well thought out plan that is creative, sustainable and continuously adaptable to a quick changing environment, in order to remain visible to their target audiences. 

So here are some thoughts, you may want to consider, that may help in your planning endeavors. 

Begin by creating a template that will facilitate and support the planning process. Key components should address: 

• How would you like to be perceived : Visual Identity

• Promotional Plan to address your target market: Reach

• What is it that sets you apart : Differentiators

Visual Identity- Brand: 

The first contact a parent has about you is typically your logo, colors, website design - the visual identities of your brand. Unless you are a well-known brand, it isn’t likely that most people who see your school logo or school colors will have a strong emotion associated with those visuals. So generating emotion and a feeling of belonging that parents can associate with your school is the goal of creating a strong visual identity. The design, colors, tagline should reflect your vision, motto and core values. Once this unique creative is identified, it becomes the thread that should run consistently throughout all your school’s marketing and other communications, enabling a parent to have a clear association between your school’s crest and what you stand for.

Accomplishing that, is step one in your journey to create strong visibility. Remember, admitting a kid to a school is an emotional decision for most parents. They are anxious to know if they are making the right decision for their child’s future. Creating an emotional connect is vital as a pathway to their minds and hearts.

Reach- Promo plan: Having created brand identity, how do you roll it out to your target audience? We need to have two approaches running in parallel to achieve this - In print availability and digital presence.

Print Availability:

For pre-schools, having printed copies of materials such as a prospectus is crucial. Parents collect printed information from each school they visit. Conducting open house visits is becoming popular nowadays. So when they are reading through a ton of material and considering their options, if your school’s prospectus is not in their possession, then most likely you won’t be under serious consideration. Your prospectus should be contentiously designed to reflect your school’s core values and be printed in a way that differentiates it from the rest. Having something tangible from your school to hold in their hands and keep referring to as and when needed, helps to reinforce the school’s physical presence and also keeps the school in their mind when options are discussed with family and friends. 

In addition, you may want to brand products – giveaways, that can be distributed when visits happen to your facility or you are sponsoring a community event etc., this is another way to remain visible.

Digital Presence:

Your school’s digital presence is absolutely imperative in today’s times. A website that is dated, poorly designed, difficult to navigate or non-functional on mobile devices, will most definitely create a negative image about your school’s and its ability to provide education that leverages modern technology for delivering educational content. Having up to date, relevant and useful information in the form of blogs, articles or other informative writing will also help parents view your school positively. Articles written for parents who are evaluating school options are also a great idea - for example, “factors to consider when evaluating a pre-school” is a typical query, likely to be entered into a parent’s search engine. If you have a well written article on the subject that has been search engine optimized, your school could be one of the top results to appear. Using Google Ads and such tools, for example, to target parents living locally in your school’s geographic vicinity, is an effective way to attract them to your website.

An active social media plan with investment of time and resources is a must and needs to be budgeted for. Parents may conduct a “social media search”, to understand your involvement and activities beyond the educational area. Having little or no activity on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc., could be construed as your school not being in step with the times. You can also utilize Social Media advert options to really target very similar to the parent profile in your neighborhood. Parents are becoming increasingly active on social media and utilize it not just for business or pleasure, but as an active tool to understand more about a school’s online behavior and brand.

Differentiators: 

In addition to creating a strong visual identity and brand reach, sustaining your niche really boils down to the quality of what your deliver. The course curriculum you create, the way it is imparted, teacher profiles, technology leverage etc. are key components of
plan to innovate and deliver consistently. 

A good part of that was discussed in our previous blog “Incubating the NextGen Wizards- What’s your Blueprint?” 

With the current scenario we are in, here are some guidelines I happen to read from a TechEd article, that you may want to strongly consider putting in place to not only meet such exigencies but possibly prepare for the “new norm”..; 

• All schools should upgrade their technology infrastructure

• Plan edtech training sessions for teachers each academic year to upgrade skills

• Practice teaching, should happen using the edtech tools, throughout the year

• Collaborative online projects to be designed in a manner that students work on the same project from their homes under teacher's online supervision

• Assessments to be moved from pen and paper to online. The short assessments are ideal for this.

• Weekend virtual lessons should be made mandatory by all schools. This can be utilized for a recap or clarifying doubts one to one.

• Exams should not be the only yardstick for learning

• Documentation should be online

• Online platforms that have come to the forefront now, should be leveraged irrespective of any crisis

• Adapting from the ones who have successfully steered the lockdown

 Successful schools plan their strategy to not only stay ahead of the rest but continue to deliver quality education to young minds in their crucial formative years.