Stop Guessing: The 5 Answers You Need to Set the Right Marketing Budget
If I had to create a FAQs page for school marketing, one of the questions on the page would definitely be: How much should our school be spending on marketing?
In fact, I received this exact question from a school leader just a couple weeks ago:
“Is there a recommended formula for determining what percentage of a budget should go into marketing? We spend 3%, which includes a part-time salary for our marketing coordinator.”
School teams and boards want a number they can trust. They want to know: What’s the number that means we’re “doing it right?” What’s enough? What’s too much?
My heart goes out to teams, and I hate seeing schools struggle with this. While it’s tempting to give a quick, definitive answer, the truth is this: it depends.
I know. The answer everyone just LOVES to hear from a consultant (read sarcastically). But I assure you, my answer doesn’t end there. There IS a way to confidently set your marketing budget. We just need the answers to five key questions in order to do it.
Are you looking to maintain enrollment…or grow it?
The amount your school needs to spend on marketing should directly align with your enrollment goals. If you are aiming to maintain enrollment, your marketing budget will be lower than if you are looking to grow enrollment. If you need to considerably grow enrollment, prepare to steward even more resources towards those efforts.
Bottom line: Growth requires greater investment.
What are your current awareness levels in the community?
How well is your school known beyond your current families?
When you meet new people, do they exclaim, “Oh yes! The Christian school on the corner of Main and 5th, the one that’s always at community events!”
Or do they sound surprised? “I’ve been here in this neighborhood for 7 years and never knew there was a school here!”
If your school is well known, marketing has a head start and usually costs less. If you have little-to-no awareness or are a brand new school, it will require a larger and more consistent investment.
Bottom line: Lower awareness = higher investment required.
How efficient and effective are your current marketing efforts?
Marketing can feel like a black hole, like there’s always something more to do, try, or pay for. If you feel this way, consider the question: are our current marketing efforts actually working?
I have seen a lot of schools spend a lot of money on a lot of marketing activities that brought them NOT a lot of return.
Efficient marketing leverages the highest impact activities that translate into your desired outcomes. The problem is, TOO MANY school marketing teams don’t clearly define their audience or their desired goals…and they don’t really measure their outcomes either. Usually this translates into either giving up on marketing or spending way too much money on it.
The big takeaway here? I’ve seen $10K of efficient marketing get the same results as $25K of inefficient marketing.
Bottom line: Efficiency and effectiveness matter more than total spend.
Is your marketing team well-trained and armed with a marketing strategy and plan?
If you feel like your school’s marketing is aimless, fruitless, frustrating, or inefficient, it probably means that your school has been marketing like a poorly played game of darts–just throwing dart after dart after dart at a target, hoping to get some bullseyes. If you are a well-trained dart player with a strategy, you’re going to get more bullseyes. If you’re not, well, then you play darts like me, hoping you don’t poke someone’s eye out.
With a marketing strategy, an annual plan, and training, your team can get more bullseyes. Yes, it costs money to put together a strategy, plan, and training, but in the long run you’ll reach more prospective families, more efficiently.
Bottom Line: A clear strategy turns random activity into measurable results…and gives you a clearer budget, too.
Are you starting from scratch…or do you have a foundation on which to build?
When you think of everything your school needs to spend on marketing, think of two categories: foundation items and execution items.
Foundation Items (build once, refresh periodically)
Marketing strategy
Brand messaging
Visual brand/identity
Website
School signage
Execution Items (ongoing, year-to-year)
Annual marketing plan
Advertising costs
Print materials
Events and outreach
Giveaways
If you have foundation items already built, your year-to-year marketing line item will be steady and predictable. If you are starting from scratch, you will need an upfront investment to build your foundation first before moving into a consistent advertising budget.
Bottom line: Strong foundations lower long-term marketing costs.
Going from “It Depends” to a Real Number
Give me the answers to these five questions, and I’ll be able to give you a reliable, realistic, and helpful answer to your school marketing budget question.
Until then, the honest answer is still “it depends,” but at least now you know how to figure it out. :)
Ready to find your number?
If you’d like to go from “it depends” to a real number, Blueprint Schools is here to help!
Book a consultation, and we’ll walk through these five questions with your team and help you land on a marketing budget you can take into your next board meeting.
