Answer a few questions about your school’s marketing, then choose what to work on. You’ll get a filled-in school marketing plan template to share with your team.
About 15 minutes
Free, no account needed
Built on the School Marketing Flywheel™
Example plan
Marketing & Communications Action Plan
Kingsford Valley Grammar
Our focus areas are Story and Journey. We’ll strengthen our foundations by also working on enquiry tracking and online safety.
Why we’re making this plan
Our situation:
Our marketing feels rushed and reactive
In more detail:
“Our marketing and communications don’t reflect the quality of our school.”
Our focus areas
Story
Make more of what we already have
Gather stories from more people
To free up capacity, we’ll do less of reactive event communication.
Who leads it
Who helps
Check in by
Journey
Map our journey
Who leads it
Who helps
Check in by
Foundations to work on
Foundation
Who leads it
Who helps
Check in by
Enquiry tracking
Online safety
Everything else
We’ll keep Media and Community going as usual, and leave Campaigns for a future season.
Making it happen
What we need from leadership
When we’ll meet to check in
What goes into your school’s Marketing & Communications Action Plan
A school marketing plan is a set of decisions about how your school stays visible, present, and trustworthy to the families considering it: which stories you tell, how you capture school life, when you advertise, how you welcome enquiries, and where you show up in your community.
“Strategic marketing plans” can become pretty overwhelming. In our experience, they often get left on a shelf somewhere collecting dust in the midst of the day-to-day chaos.
That’s why we approach planning a little differently. By honing in on up to two focus areas with achievable goals, it makes it easier to stay on-track for a particular season. You might find your action plan gets ‘actioned’ after only a few months – great!
Action plans are a great way of putting ‘legs’ on strategy.
The School Marketing Flywheel™
The School Marketing Flywheel™ is Bolsta Education’s model of how established a school’s marketing and communications are. It has five areas (Story, Media, Campaigns, Journey and Community) and five foundations that every area relies on (Website, Enquiry tracking, Shared language, Shared visuals and Online safety). The more established the areas and foundations become, the less effort your school’s marketing takes.
The five areas:
Story: The stories you share about life at your school, in newsletters, on social media and on your website.
Media: The photos and videos you use to show what your school is like.
Campaigns: How you plan and distribute specific messages and invitations.
Journey: Everything a family experiences before their first day.
Community: Your relationships with current families, past families and your local area.
Foundations are the infrastructure that supports every area. The five foundations:
Website: A website where families can find what they need and learn how to take the next step.
Enquiry tracking: A way of keeping track of every family who enquires or applies.
Shared language: Staff agree on how to describe the school and how to enrol, so families hear a clear, consistent message from everyone.
Shared visuals: A consistent logo, colours, font and visual style, so families know it’s your school wherever they see it.
Online safety: The tools and policies required to safeguard families and staff in communications.
Put your plan to use
Share your plan with your leadership team.
Name who leads each area you chose to focus on, and who helps.
Check in on the date you set, and ask what worked, what didn’t happen and what got in the way.
Is the School Marketing Planner free, and why do you need my email?
The School Marketing Planner is free, and making your plan takes about 15 minutes. We ask for your email so we can send you your plan, along with a few short follow-up emails from Jacob about putting your plan to use. If you’d like more, you can also tick a box to get Fieldnotes, Jacob’s fortnightly email.
What will be on my plan?
Your plan is a one-page Marketing & Communications Action Plan. It starts with why you’re making it, then sets out up to two focus areas with their goals, and the foundations (basics like your website) you’ll work on. Each focus area and foundation has three lines to fill in: Who leads it, Who helps and Check in by. One sentence covers everything else, and the plan ends with what you need from leadership.
What is the School Marketing Flywheel™?
The School Marketing Planner is built on the School Marketing Flywheel™, Bolsta Education’s model of how established a school’s marketing and communications are. It has five areas (Story, Media, Campaigns, Journey and Community) and five foundations that every area relies on (Website, Enquiry tracking, Shared language, Shared visuals and Online safety). The more established the areas and foundations become, the less effort your school’s marketing takes.
Do I need our enrolment numbers or a budget to use the planner?
You can use the School Marketing Planner with what you already know about your school. The planner works from your answers: which statement sounds most like your school, what you want to do with each of the five areas of your marketing, and which of the five foundations, such as your website, are in place. It’s made for schools that want to start with the basics, whatever their numbers.
Who should help with our plan, and when should we check in?
Your plan is made to share with your team. Your plan names who leads and who helps with each area you chose to focus on, and you set your own date to check in. Results can take months to show, so choose a date that gives your plan time to work.
What happens to my answers and my email?
The School Marketing Planner keeps your answers in your own browser, so you can come back to them. A shared link opens the same plan for whoever you send it to. Your email and your plan go to our email provider so we can send you the plan and Jacob’s follow-up emails. Every email has an unsubscribe link, and our privacy policy explains how we look after your email.
