So, now that we are heading into the second half of the school year, it is the perfect time to review the school website and refocus on how you can better communicate with and engage your parents and students.
Here are five New Year resolutions that you can use to improve your school communications. It is worth the effort, and you’ll realize long-term results that will benefit your school all year long.
#1. Get that school website mobile friendly and ADA compliant.
More and more parents are using their phones and mobile devices to access your school’s website. Is your school’s website responsive (mobile friendly)? 97% of adults own smartphones. Not offering responsive, mobile-friendly access and helping parents get the information they need quickly and conveniently can cause frustration and create bad branding for your school. So, this year, plan to get your school web design responsive and mobile-friendly. The best school websites are responsive.
Also, don’t assume the mobile-friendly version of your school website is working as it should. Test it and have others do that as well on different devices. When designing for responsive websites the best practice is to design for mobile-first usage. If done right, the mobile version of your website will be fast loading, keep menus simple and intuitive, and optimize your content into chunks using headlines that make it easier to read from a phone. It is far more than just resizing your school website, making reading or navigating from a phone or smaller device impossible.
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While you’re at it, make sure yours is also an ADA-compliant website so that it is accessible to those with disabilities. Plus, you’ll avoid a costly mess when the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights comes knocking on your door. You will also be doing your communication efforts a tremendous service because you will be expanding your website to a much wider audience (since 20–30% of individuals have some sort of disability that can affect how they access your website).
#2. Implement marketing efforts into your school’s communication strategies.
As school choice becomes the new norm, which seems to be how things are moving based on public opinion, your school must embrace marketing as an essential aspect of its communication efforts. This applies to both its external audiences (parents, community members, taxpayers) and its internal audiences (staff, prospective staff, students, volunteers).
If you don’t make serious efforts to highlight your strengths, tell your stories, and provide easy access to information, you fail to market your school. If you fail to market, you fail to grow and create a solid and respected brand. Whether you are a small or rural school, a private or public school, a large unified district or a prestigious prep school, marketing efforts are required in 2025.
You can start small, and with consistent, strategic steps, you’ll soon see impressive results. Consider, for example, implementing the school marketing strategies available in our desktop calendar/toolkit called Marketing Your School. It’s a year-long series of marketing recommendations that anyone can implement, regardless of their school public relations or marketing background. Get started now—no excuses.
#3. Collect testimonials.
Businesses do it all the time and dedicate an entire page (or a space on every page) to customer comments. What better way to show parents what a great school you have than to let them hear it from other parents? Hearing a testimonial from someone with nothing to gain is always more credible than hearing it from a school employee with a vested interest.
Make submitting testimonials easy:
- Ask teachers to help gather positive comments (try making forms available during teacher conferences).
- Ask the office to have forms available for parents to complete. Each form should have a checkbox to check and an agreement to sign allowing you to use their comments on the website or in a brochure.
- Add a feedback form on the website to collect parent, community member, or alumni testimonials.
- When you have an event or program, get a testimonial from parents whose children were involved and include it with the article.
- Ask for testimonials from alumni. There is nothing more powerful than hearing from those who once attended your school and went on to accomplish their goals, crediting a teacher or school with their start on the right path.
- Ask the PTA or PTO to collect testimonials—and use them on your website. You can also turn brief testimonials into graphic elements and use them as part of the overall theme of your school website design, or even better, turn the testimonial into a short video!
#4. Develop social media policies for your school.
If your school or district still has no official social media policies in place, it’s time to develop them. If you want to communicate with your primary audience (parents), you need to go where they are, and that is on social media. In 2023, the CDC reported that most parents used social media (including Facebook and YouTube). What better way to engage positively with parents?
Establishing your school’s social media policies will outline how your school or district will engage on social media. Still, it should also guide faculty and staff on what social media they can use and how they can use it within the classroom—especially important for sharing good news. Tailor your posts and channels to meet your school’s needs. Then, create a school social media calendar and put it in play this year! Showing parents a positive, consistent increase in communication and transparency will do wonders for your school’s reputation. If you need help or want to learn how schools use social media effectively, we can help. We offer dedicated social media services. For more information, check out a few of our social media articles:
Social media management, Part 1
Social media management, Part 2
#5. Include online registration and contact information.
With school registration for next year right around the corner, make sure your website’s home page is a helpful resource for this vital information. Your website stories should tell visitors why they should register; now, make it easy for them to do so.
- Can they locate your school or district address, phone number, and fax number from your home and registration pages?
- Have you linked all necessary registration forms on your website so parents can print and fill out the forms before coming to the school?
- Or better yet, can you automate the process with online forms?
- Have you outlined precisely what additional information parents need to bring in for registration, like immunization records, proof of residency, or transcripts from a previous school?
Ensuring all this information is current and available for parents will save your staff time and energy and streamline the process, making them happy. Eliminating the challenge of registration or enrollment will make the decision to choose your school more likely.
In summary
Whatever 2025 brings, communication and technology options will undoubtedly continue to expand and grow, and your school must grow with it to stay relevant. Make it a goal to align your school’s communication strategies and outreach programs with parent expectations.
Need some help? Give us a call and let us know what your challenges are (888-750-4556). We can help. Get a quote today!