"When you open a new business, you don't just sit back and hope that people will show up. You advertise. You post on social media, tell your friends and neighbors, and do all that you can to promote your product to gain and retain customers. There's no reason the public school system shouldn't be doing the same, Brian Stephens, the CEO of Caissa Public Strategy - a strategic communications firm - told Business Insider."
""Allow everyone to compete," Stephens said. "If they don't compete and they don't present their best foot forward, they're going to go out of business. And I think that's devastating for society." Some public schools facing declining enrollment hire Stephens' firm to help them recruit new students. The firm calls parents, sends out mailers, creates digital advertisements, and sends ground crews to knock on parents' doors and promote their local public school."
"He even uses a "secret shopping" strategy, where he'll send staffers who pretend to be parents to schools to better learn what parents see when they visit. "It takes as many as 21 contacts to explain to a parent all their choices and then ultimately hope that they pick the right choice for their family," Stephens said. "Maybe it's a public school, maybe it's not, but the choice is shown.""
Public schools nationwide are deploying marketing and outreach tactics to increase enrollment amid a broader decline. Schools and districts hire strategic communications firms that call parents, send mailers, run digital ads, and conduct door-to-door outreach to inform families of local options. Some firms use "secret shopping" to assess the family experience during school visits and refine outreach. Campaigns aim to present choices repeatedly, since many contacts are often needed before families decide. Local enrollment gains from marketing occur, but they often cannot fully offset national declines driven by school choice expansion, lower birth rates, and funding pressures.
Read at Business Insider
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