Improved Recruiting Efforts for Private Schools - Best Practice Recruiting in a Digital World

If you are the Head of an independent private school, one of the biggest concerns every year is enrollment. Many schools have to do a lot of recruiting in order to make sure that they have enough students to the expenses that are part of running a school. Those responsible for recruiting tend to use fallback methods that all recruiters use: referrals, newspaper/radio ads, and venues where parents and educators come together. These are good; however, what is being left out is the fact that most people look online when they are searching for just about anything - schools for their children included.

Over 90% of the parents who looked for private schools to educate their children looked online first. Not only did they use desktop computers, but also laptops, mobile devices, netbooks, and social media like Twitter/Facebook. The final determination of whether or not to apply to and attend a specific private school usually comes down to school quality and pedigree, but there are a large number of schools that don't even get on parents' radar because it is so difficult to find in-depth information on them. Finding and reading a private school's website is one thing. It is another thing to find out school history, current/accurate testimonials of recent test scores, and honest assessments of the atmosphere as articulated by parents, students, and staff. Below are the areas of importance to parents in choosing a private school for their child(ren). These are factors that have not changed much in 50 years. The factors that have changed are clearly noted with a *.

* Quality of education as evidenced by test scores in comparison to competing schools
* Coursework offered, books read, and summer programs to which students have access
* Price, athletics and extracurricular activities
* Level of education of the teachers - Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctorate level
* Word of mouth referrals
* School physical safety
* Access to technology and technology education and online safety *
* Aesthetic beauty of school facility
* Local, regional, national, or international reputation

For a school that is recruiting students the old way, over time it will find that it is less able to compete for the best students; schools doing the best marketing and smartest recruiting will be able to attract the best talent and the most funding long-term. In this digital age, independent private schools should seek to build strong relationships with both online and offline.

The school that relies mostly on live interaction is not going to recruit or retain students as well over the long term as will the school that has lively Facebook and Twitter interactions every week. Do both and recruit better over the long haul!

If your school is looking to recruit better and to recruit consistently all year long, there needs to be a realistic plan that blends online marketing with offline relationship building. Both tactics should be consistent with the sense of community and excellence the school is trying to communicate. The way that we decide to do or not do something has not changed much over time; people still use information to make decisions; however, the manner in which we gain information is remarkably different than it was years ago. To reach today's parents, school recruiting must evolve.

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