Have you ever told a family, “Our school is a caring community with small classes and a wide range of arts and athletic programs?” Does this message, or something like it, live on your website? If so, it’s time for a rewrite, says Dr. Stephen Holmes of The Five R’s Partnership in a recent member-exclusive Tuesday Talks. 

But how should you go about turning a vanilla marketing message into something that not only stands out but that is also true and authentic to your school? For some help, check out  Dr. Holmes’s five-part communication model.

So far, we have two of the five elements covered, but we’re missing three critical components. How do small classes connect to the school’s mission? What are the benefits of small classes? What evidence or outcomes do we have to make the case? Let’s try again and see what we come up with.

How does this exercise help your school stand out? Consider the message before we applied Dr. Holmes’s method to the one we have now:

Our school is a caring community with small classes and a wide range of arts and athletic programs.

Because of our belief that every child should meet their full potential, our small classes help ensure students don’t fall behind. The result? 90% of our graduates report they are “ahead or far ahead” of their peers.

How will you help your school stand out? Let us know. We’d love to hear from you!