As public schools are pushed into true competition with each other for the first time, savvy school administrators are growing to recognize the value of branding and marketing initiatives.

Public schools districts across America are starting to face the same pressure to attract potential enrollees that private and religious schools have long felt. The growing prevalence of school choice and open enrollment policies has led parents to consider more options when it comes to their children’s education, meaning public schools will soon have to compete against one another for students — and funding.

District administrators are scrambling to find a way to adapt to this rapidly-shifting educational landscape. American consumers are more savvy, discerning shoppers as a result of the near-infinite research capabilities of the internet, a trend that only makes it more important for public schools to find ways to distinguish themselves. Doing that will take resources that many schools simply don’t have, which is why those schools should convert their existing communications departments into marketing departments that are capable of creating and disseminating a coherent brand message.

Help Your School Tell Its Story

Before you sit down to develop marketing materials or the basics of an outreach plan, it’s extremely important to iron out the finer points of your school’s brand. Outside of education, a brand is something like a promise that businesses make to their customers — an image they project that informs consumers what they can expect from experiences with that company. In the case of your school, this means finding a way to effectively communicate a clear vision of the positive and lasting impact that an education with your school will have on students.

When deciding how to brand your school, you should also make an effort to conduct research into the needs and wants of people in your community. If you want to attract students from a neighboring town with a low average household income, and you know that they value post-graduate employment opportunities, consider establishing after-school networking or apprenticeship programs for high school students. It will be considerably easier to reach your intended audience if you put the effort into discovering the specific things they want rather than general values you assume everyone will share.

Create a Comprehensive Marketing Plan

In order to most effectively promote your newly-crafted school brand, you’ll need to develop a marketing roadmap of sorts, or a dedicated resource to which your communications team can refer during the crucial transition period.

It may seem like your budget won’t allow for the kind of staff and resources you need to maintain daily, active engagement with your community, but today’s digital platforms empower you to do exactly that at very little additional cost. Social media automation programs disseminate your campaign messaging throughout the day, leaving your team of creatives to focus on new ideas and tweak their outreach strategy.

These platforms also have their own analytics dashboards, which you should use to generate a feedback loop — that affects not only the messaging you employ, but the channels you’re using to disseminate it. A large part of what your marketing department will be dedicated to is the analysis of data flowing back from ongoing campaigns and identifying better strategies for reaching your school’s target audiences. Digital marketing is at least as much about crunching numbers as it is about creativity, so make sure to bring on plenty of quantitatively skilled people to your reformed communications department.

If you can combine a striking brand with an impactful marketing plan, you’ll have all the pieces in place to ensure a steady flow of new students and taxpayer funds for years to come.