128. Marketing Schools for Students Who Learn Differently with Alli Williams and Samantha Fleming

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Tara: Welcome to Mindful School Marketing. I’m Tara Clays. 

Aubrey: And I’m Aubrey Burch. Today we’re joined by Allie Williams and Samantha Fleming. 

Tara: Allie Williams is the head of school at the Pilot School, a K to eight independent school for students with language-based learning differences. She has spent her career in independent and learning differences, education with a focus on a research-based practice.

Aubrey: Samantha Fl Fleming is Director of Marketing Communications and Strategic Initiatives at Oakwood School, a first through eighth grade school for students with learning differences with 20 years in private schools. She brings deep experience in storytelling strategy, and the realities of small school [00:01:00] leadership.

Welcome Allie and Sam. We’re so excited you’re here to discuss marketing schools for students with learning differences. This has been on our, you know, wishlist of episodes. So we’re grateful you’re bringing your experience with, you know, working in these fields to others. Um, so thanks for being here and welcome to the show.

Alli: Thank you. I am delighted to be here. I love this topic. I’m excited to dive into it. 

Samantha: Well, thank you so much for, you know, starting this conversation and supporting small schools, trying to serve families and students like ours. 

Tara: Yeah. Thanks for sharing. I’m sure this is gonna be really helpful for a lot of schools.

Uh, so, let’s start out, Allie. When people hear marketing a school for students with learning differences, what do they usually misunderstand about that term? 

Alli: Yeah. Well, I think the, the first kind of struggle is that the term learning differences is so incredibly broad and that specialized schools that serve [00:02:00] various students with learning differences tend to serve a small slice of that otherwise larger population.

So a school might focus on students with dyslexia or language-based learning differences. Another school might. Be better equipped to teach students with a DHD, another school for students with autism or sensory processing needs. Some schools offer integrated therapies, others do not. Some schools use specific interventions.

Others, you know, go in a different direction. And so. As you’re marketing you, you have to keep in mind that we’re doing what every school is doing, which is trying to expand the pipeline, right? And, and the top of the funnel. But we also run into perhaps more so than other schools, kind of families showing up at our doorsteps that are not right fits.

And and that’s not fun because when you are a parent searching for a school for a child [00:03:00] who’s an atypical learner, to be told no right out of the gate is a terrible experience. And so. As we’re marketing we have to both make ourselves attractive, but be really, really clear about that narrow slice of the pie.

So there’s a little bit of. Come on in and learn about our school, but but somehow convey in a sensitive way, not you, and not you. And not you. Yes. To you. You know, and, and navigate, kind of thread that needle. I think that’s that is a challenge that all schools with learning differences face and particularly they tend to be small and managing admissions pipelines so that you’re not inundated with, with families that are not right fits.

You know, when they kind of, arrive for the admissions process is really important. 

Aubrey: Yeah, I can imagine that is a difficult process for both the school and the parents navigating through this. Certainly a lot to consider there. Sam, I’m curious, uh, you [00:04:00] know, what parts of the marketing funnel look completely different for perhaps a school like yours with, uh, that serves students with learning differences?

Samantha: Well, a lot like Allie talked about, you know, we’re all working to like widen the top of the funnel and make sure that everyone is aware of schools like ours the most parents don’t enter the school search expecting to look for a school like ours. Right? That’s a big piece of it. Our search motivation, our family search motivation is problem based.

They’re not necessarily looking for a school, they’re looking for a solution. So it’s a very emotional process for a lot of families. And like Ally was talking about, there’s such a vast explanation of like learning differences or learning disabilities, even dyslexia. Can be, you can be impacted at like, from a mild to like significant impact.

And that looks very different in testing and in, you know, interventions and classroom accommodations. And not all schools are equipped to handle all levels of, you know, a learning disability like dyslexia. The timeline can take a lot longer. So [00:05:00] if you think about. You know, a school like ours in kindergarten or first grade as a parent, like you might be searching for like, my child is struggling with reading.

Or like, why is my child reading behind grade level? Because you don’t necessarily know that they have a, you know, a processing challenge yet, or, um, you don’t know if it’s visual or auditory. You don’t know if it’s dyslexia. You don’t know if it’s, uh, dysgraphia. Like, none of those things have kind of appeared yet in a.

Tangible or written way, you know, where you can easily digest that and use that term to search all the way through. You know, I talk a lot our, our parents are expert researchers by the time they get to fourth or fifth grade, like they are strong advocates for their, their children and their families, and they’ve done their research and so.

In the same way, we are very transparent in our public platforms about, you know, these are the diagnoses we can support. This is how our instruction can support a child who’s maybe reading behind grade level and working with a neuropsychologist to, to create a or you know, a neuropsych or to provide an [00:06:00] evaluation so you have a, a clear understanding of your child’s learning profile.

The decision is higher stakes. You know, a lot of times for like a fourth or fifth grade student coming in, they’re, they’ve already, families have already tried a lot of different interventions, so they might have already tried a smaller school. They might have received an IEP from their, um. From their base, you know, elementary, public school, and done pullout services.

So to ask their child and their family to try another thing, to try another strategy. There’s a lot of, I don’t wanna say resistance, but maybe trepidation, you know, like they’re, they’re tired, they’re trying, they’re ready to try one more thing. And so. All of that comes into account when you’re working through like a marketing funnel.

Like you’re not selling like, you’re not like going out there and putting out a sign and being like, we’re the best and we can do all these things. Like you’re being really thoughtful about the people and humans you’re working with and how much they’re carrying to the table when they pick up the phone to call you.

Alli: Can I add one more thing to, to that? Yeah. Everything, I agree with everything Sam said, and I will just add that there’s a [00:07:00] financial nuance to the marketing funnel in that. Most private schools when parents go to, to research private schools in their area you know, they’ve already committed to the idea of paying for school because they’re, they’re researching independent schools and, and otherwise, you know, they, they would enroll their child in in the local public school.

As Sam mentioned, like our families are trying to solve a problem, so we have a, a pretty critical mass of our students, our families who never planned on engaging in tuition based schooling. And so there’s like, you know, in marketing you talk about friction points. Like there’s all of the things that we have to market to that Sam mentioned around like the emotional journey and.

And matching kind of their new knowledge to our proposed solution. But then there’s also the sticker shock of like, I was planning on free education through my local school district and [00:08:00] now I have this enormous expense that I had not financially planned for. And we have to get over that hurdle as well with all of those families.

Samantha: That’s so important. Ally, thank you for pointing that out. Like that’s a huge part of the, like decision being higher stakes is like suddenly you’re looking at paying college tuition in third or fourth grade, which is, was not necessarily on the list of things you planned for. Right. So 

Tara: that’s so helpful.

That’s, that’s a really interesting point. Um. And I wanna talk now about websites and, and messaging because you know, that’s what I focus on and I know Sam and I have had conversations about websites and so, you know, typically a website is more of like a sales, you know, why our school is great. And, and as you mentioned, I mean, it’s a really good point to transition into this for parents who are maybe already.

Planning on, on paying a tuition, but the parents you’re talking to are, you know, they are not in a, maybe necessarily the same kind of place that another type of independent school [00:09:00] parent is in. So does the website have to do different work for these families? It seems like it might be kind of sensitive versus how a traditional, uh, independent school would approach their website and their messaging.

Samantha: We actually just went through just, it was two years ago, but it still feels fresh. Um, a website design. And, you know, one thing that I’m sure Ellie knows, there’s a strong genetic component between, you know, children who have diagnosed learning disabilities. It could be genetically related, you know, so a lot of the parents searching may also have reading and writing a language processing.

Disorders or challenges, right? So when we went to design the website, a lot of the cool trendy stuff that’s out there, I was like, no, like this isn’t easy for our families to read. This is not scannable. This is not, you know, this looks cool to have a big video with text over it, but it’s hard for, you know, a student or an adult with dyslexia to read, um, text over images.

So we’re not going to do that. [00:10:00] So we did a lot of research in intentionally. Designing and organizing and structuring the website including things like always using left Align San Serif text you know, not, not doing huge chunks of text using bullet points and. I’m sure Ally, you think about this all the time, but like our families love the information on the website.

So my job as a marketer is not to edit out the content, it’s to package the content. So I’m not going to take away information that our parents want to find when they’re starting the research process. So they wanna know all the details of like our teacher professional development. They wanna know the details of like, how does your math class.

You know, how is your math class structured to support my child with dyscalculia? Those things are still on there. It’s my job to package it in a very, um, easily readable and scannable way. So that’s a big piece of it.

Aubrey: That’s so interesting. Yeah, go ahead. No, go ahead. I was gonna say, ally, do you have anything to add to that? No, I mean, I think that’s really interesting and [00:11:00] I, and, and that is another just ongoing I’m glad Sam brought up the genetic nature of learning differences is that it is the accessibility of parents towards, both in kind of internal marketing that schools take on to their existing parents, but also being kind of predictive about that and prospective families and how you, you build your marketing material and your website around that. I mean, it’s, it is so incredibly important and the, both the, the volume and the modality and kind of the style of communication.

Alli: There is just an a kind of confounding variable in schools that serve families with learning differences that that has to be considered all the time. For sure. 

Aubrey: I’m so in awe of the many different layers that this type of marketing has to, to, you know, you really have to think about so many things with such care and consideration.

Right. Um, and I think one of those things, as you were talking about website, I was thinking, you know, the. The journey for these parents is certainly different, you know, [00:12:00] because you know the things that we’ve mentioned so far and, but as they’re looking at your website and stuff, perhaps they’re thinking, oh, but I want this, but I also want all these different things for my child.

Like I want them to have, you know, all the things right? As they’re, if they’re, you know, going to be, I want them to have like. This, this ideal educational experience and social experience that I, I am thinking. Right. So I’m, I’m curious, like if, if families are coming with these two different things, this need, but also this desire to be a part of a a, a school community, can you talk Allie a little bit about the that tension and how it shows up in real marketing decisions?

Alli: Yes. And this is something, you know, when our school, um, recently changed our, our external marketing team. And it was really important as we were interviewing firms that, um, they understood that we had to do two things at [00:13:00] once, that we needed to look like every other school that’s out there and at the exact same moment, look like no other school in any family has ever seen.

Because they arrive having gone through or, or, or in the, in the middle, enmeshed in an emotional journey where they are coming to terms with the fact that their child needs something different and they’re mourning the loss of a more typical. Journey that they had thought that they would be going on.

And so what they want for their child is a school with homecoming and sports and musical theater and, and like a lot of the trappings of a kind of larger unspecialized typical school experience. And they’re looking for the indicators that their child is going to have a. Typical childhood, that they’ll make friends, that they’ll develop passions, that they’ll have all [00:14:00] of the expected ups and downs and and features of a typical childhood and school experience.

But they also. Are beleaguered and often like, kind of exhausted by the fight that they’ve had to engage in and the researching that Sam mentioned earlier. And just they just want a solution. They want a school that is doing it differently and is going to offer their child something they haven’t experienced before.

They want to finally, um, have homework hour go well or have a pick up their child and not have them in tears. You know, I just not get the phone call. Every night about how their child’s doing X while everyone else is doing y. You know, so they’re looking for something dramatically different. Also they want a school that, that looks like what they’re leaving or what they imagine for their child.

And so it certainly you know, puts, puts real [00:15:00] pressure and there’s a real responsibility of specialized schools to think deeply, not only about their kind of, niche expertise or the, the specific interventions they offer, but also that they’re tending to the, the trappings of school in general and then, and then marketing that, you know, like that, the, the both the, the ad placement, but also social media and, and some of the more so softer forms of marketing are displaying joyful childhood or just like hard academic work.

And also activities like occupational therapy or niche programming, that, that does stand out as markedly different. It is a and you can’t ever veer too much in one direction. You really have to keep your eye on both of those things simultaneously. And it’s a, it’s a tall order and it’s like constant gardening.

You [00:16:00] can’t leave your eye off of either one of those things. It’s 

Samantha: true, it’s true. Like that integrated balance. So you wanna show joy. Right. You wanna show joy, but also when we’re thinking about parents who are starting a search, because you know, they’re, they’re. Searching problem based, right? And they’re looking for a solution.

Like you can’t show too much joy. You have to show academic integration. Like all of those things have to be integrated into their day. So it has to be a balance. So I mean, I think about that when I go to social media. I’m like, okay, did I show too much student life stuff? Like let’s go back into the classroom and like pull up that awesome like multisensory science experiment they were doing last week and talk about it.

And when we talk about, you know, some of the multisensory. Academic pieces, I have to be explicit in the skills they’re learning and how it connects to like the overall curriculum and the diagnostic teaching. I can’t just put up a picture of some kids doing a science experiment with, you know, pouring liquids into a jar and talking about like, viscous fluids.

I have to say [00:17:00] specifically how that ties into our, you know, overall marketing plan and the tenets of our academic program. You know, like Allie was saying, I think. As parents, we all want our kids to like experience joy and learning and confidence and you know, become independent in their school settings.

At in their homes. You know, parents of students with learning differences know that their child is bright and curious and creative, and they want the people who are spending six hours a day with them to know that too. So that’s a big piece of it. They want that connection with their teachers and the administrators, and so that’s a big piece of.

Comes into the marketing is ensuring that like your child will be known and understood here, and there’s a, a whole support team of adults who are ready and willing to take that on and be a part of your team as a parent maybe for the first time. Right. So that’s important. 

Tara: Yeah. What you’re describing sounds so [00:18:00] tricky.

It sounds like walking on a, you know, looking in a tightrope a bit, I mean. And I’m curious about the language and the terminology when we’re talking about messaging, because I think that can be very sensitive, using the wrong terms, an outdated term, how people refer to learning differences, disability, all of those different terms and how they’re used or not used anymore.

Um, how do you keep up with that and, and do you. Struggle with that in, in how you’re talking about the different types of, uh, learning challenges that your families may be looking to, to find help for. 

Samantha: Well, to go back to like our website, redesign, our website before 2024, use the term learning differences exclusively and in conversations with, you know, our academic team and our admissions director.

You know, I, I kept saying like, our parents are a little bit. More educated, like what I’m seeing in the market right now. I think we need to shift the term to the way it’s used in, in IEP, which is specific learning disability, [00:19:00] right? Serving dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia. And there was a lot of great conversation about that because you know, our team was like, well, learning differences is.

It’s like a little bit of a softer term. It’s like more welcoming and more warm. And I was like, I, I totally agree with you. And for some families, the term learning differences is how they wanna talk about their child, right? Like, my child has a learning difference. But for some families who are looking at this, you know, psychoeducational report or looking at their IEP, they’re gonna take the term.

And, and put it in the Google search bar and use that as a starting point. And I said, and we need to be able to show up when both types of families are on the internet looking for a solution to how to like find a place for their child to learn and grow in school. Um, I, yeah, that’s like one, but there are so many terms out there.

Allie, I know you were talking about the term like neurodiverse or like neurodivergent, right? Like that’s a, that’s a hot topic. It’s coming up so. 

Alli: Yeah, I think that there’s definitely so much there about like, when you’re thinking [00:20:00] about search engine optimization and trying to like capture what parents are saying when they go to search.

Like that’s one side. You just have to, you have to. Give in to that as like the kind of intro language, and then there’s the language you want to use in your internal community, but there’s like, there is a, there’s some educating that needs to happen there. I also think we, we used to be learning differences only, like, we only use the word, I remember in my interview it like, you know, they were like, do you say disability or difference?

It was really important that I was in the like learning differences camp and now. I actually think there is a place for the term disability, and it is whether or not students are receiving interventions. So, you know, I wear contacts. I I could, I have a, a vision difference right now, right? It’s like I am receiving the intervention for my you know, nearsightedness and but if I, if I left my contacts off, I, I would be [00:21:00] a disabling feature.

I wouldn’t be able to see well, and I, and so. You know, a child who has dyslexia and has never received a reading intervention and is growing up you know, unable to read and engage in in, in reading material and, and literacy. Is living with a disabling feature is like living with something that feels much more like a disability than a difference.

And so there’s, there’s almost like an opportunity to market through that exploration of language that you can get to a place where it feels more like a difference than a disability, but it does involve and engaging in really purposeful intervention, which is what we provided our school, et cetera, et cetera.

And then yes, Sam. I think that neurodivergent is a really interesting term for all of us ’cause it’s really hot on like Instagram and TikTok and, and there is a kind of emergent adult community that has self diagnosed themselves as, as kind of categorically [00:22:00] neurodivergent that’s not necessarily based in a specific diagnosis that, um.

The, you know, perhaps runs on vibes a little bit more sure than anything. But it is also a, a term that tends to run closer to autism than it does than it does language-based learning differences. Sometimes a little bit with A DHD, but that’s like, it is one of those. In group kind of nuances.

I think for people outside of our community, it’s, it you know, it’s, it neurodivergent learning differences like what, what does it matter? But once you kind of get enmeshed in this space and parents are. Much more informed con consumers. You know, I, I do think the nuances between these terms start to matter a little bit more.

Particularly if you’re in a market where there’s multiple specialized schools in a single city and they’re looking at the difference, like what kind of learning differences, what [00:23:00] kind of students, what level of severity, again, like. Different, but how different. Mm-hmm. Um, those are, those are perhaps they feel you know, a little, tasteless or you know, like people don’t want to imagine parents making those kind of judgment calls, but the fact of the matter is they are as they’re, as they’re like engaging in this journey about their own child. And so I, I do think there’s just, um, there are kind of connotations to some of these terms, um, that we just have to be sensitive to and, and also like constantly reflective of as they evolve in.

In conversation, public conversation. 

Samantha: Yeah, no, I think you’re right. There’s so much I say I joke here, like I’m writing a research paper every day, right? Like, I did not come up in the world of, you know, education and learning disabilities and I don’t have a master’s degree and you know, as a reading specialist, like a lot of the members of my team.

So I’m like, okay, this is what I’m [00:24:00] seeing in the parent. Of kids, you know, who are looking for school to serve their dyslexic, you know, 8-year-old, they’re using these terms, like how does that translate to what we’re doing internally? Does this match, like what sort of parent education should we be looking for?

Where should I be shifting? Like, you know, very tangible things like are. Keywords embedded in different places, but also how does that influence conversations happening in the admissions office or when we call the front desk or when we’re working on pulling in like parent education webinars for current families.

Like it kind of trickles all the way through. I, I find it kind of fascinating and my academic team and I like, we get into these philosophical conversations and think through you know, families are using the language that’s accessible to them. So if they’re seeing neurodiverse or neurodivergent as like a really positive way of claiming a learning disability, whether it’s an autism diagnosis or whether it’s like dyscalculia or dysgraphia, that’s the term they’re gonna use.

Whether or not it matches exactly what they [00:25:00] need to search for or what they need to look for in a school that can serve their child. Right. So there’s kind of that element too which I guess makes what we do a additionally complicated, like one more time to bring it back into how complicated it can get sometimes.

Yes. Um, but. It’ll shift. And then there are things that like if you were in this long enough, there are things that drop off the trend and then like circle back up. And I’m like, I know I had this conversation in 2006. Like I know I had this conversation about this terminology appearing and testing in 2006 and like here we are 2026 and it’s coming back around.

So, it’s all the pieces. 

Aubrey: Great. That’s fascinating. I mean, it, it does bring your marketing to the next level. It’s like there’s school marketing and then like, this is school marketing 2.0. I feel like, ’cause there’s so many different layers, terminology included. And I, and I, I I, I totally resonate with the, the parents becoming the, the experts along the way of their parent journey, right?

Like, they’re, like, they’re diving deep because they’re, they’re on that learning journey in the [00:26:00] process of. You know, understanding what their child, their child’s journey right through all this. So, wow, so many things to consider. I’d like to shift a little bit. So I, I was fortunate enough to have a conversation with Ally not too long ago.

And Ally, you mentioned that one of the biggest marketing wins was actually a school-wide retention strategy. Mm-hmm. So why do you think intention retention is such an important marketing lever for schools serving students with learning differences? 

Alli: Um, I, I think first of all, that I, I’m like such a fan of focusing on retention first and foremost is the school’s kind of like primary always their like primary number one.

Priority because re if you focus on retention, you learn all kinds of things about what you need to do to keep making your community really amazing. So if you’re focusing on retention, you’re checking in on your, on your families constantly, and you’re gonna learn things about your program that you know, might need improving or you’ll learn things about [00:27:00] your team or or things about your messaging or your facilities or whatever, because you’re constantly checking in on the satisfaction of.

Of your families. And so I think that this is true for all schools, not just with um, specialized schools or schools for kids with ld, but word of mouth is your greatest marketing tool. And so if you have highly satisfied families that are sticking around year after year they’re, they are almost certainly telling their their friends.

Um. In LD schools, that is especially important for all of the reasons that we just named. It’s like we have a, we have a tall order to market our schools, and so if we can have a natural, organic, um, process where parents are going to. Suggest to our school, to other families that would be good fits for our school, and they have a vested interest in keeping the population of our school mission fit.

Right? And so, the, the more you focus on keeping [00:28:00] your families close and happy and wanting to come back again, the, the more likely they are going to be bringing in really high integrity perspective families into your pipeline. I also think that one of the things that happens as you focus on retention, because you need to do this to have great retention, is you get everyone in lockstep internally, like all of the internal marketing.

So a, um. Clear internal marketing is a mechanism of good retention. We talk all the time with our teachers, like before parent conferences, before any big community event where, where we’re gonna have everyone on campus about the, like, talking points, the value proposition. Um, a a funny thing in um, schools for kids with learning differences is as soon as they start to have success, parents are like, is it time to leave?

You know, like that. If, if they let you know they’re no longer failing at school, is it time to go to, you know, is it, is it time to go [00:29:00] elsewhere? And so we’re, we’re constantly practicing the messaging of they are succeeding because they’re here. Their success is not an indicator they should leave.

Their success is an indicator they should stay. And so, as we’ve worked on retention, what we’ve also worked on is our. Is our kind of elevator pitch is our internal, clearly articulated value proposition. And then not only our parents, amazing word of mouth marketers, but your entire faculty and staff become excellent word of mouth marketers as well.

And so, I just can’t like emphasize enough how much I think a concerted retention strategy, it’s just like lifts all boats. It is, it’s a wonderful way to spend your energy but perhaps especially for schools that have such complicated uphill battles as it concerns marketing themselves like ours.

Samantha: Yeah, no, I think that’s so valuable. And we’re a first through eighth, right? So like our end goal is, is high school readiness, [00:30:00] which is a huge, like when you think about like, as an, you know, an LD parent, like preparing, you’re like, okay, a ton of content reading. A ton of writing like independence, executive function skills organization.

And our program is scaffolded. Like we integrate executive function skills all the way through, through knowing that when they leave in eighth grade, they need to be independently organizing a study calendar, you know, reading content heavy. Or in engaging in content heavy classes like science or biology, social studies where you’re reading a lot, you have to take notes.

You are preparing you know, an essay, that sort of thing, or studying for. A multi-page test. And so keeping students all the way through that eighth grade year gives them the full picture full engagement in our, in our school so that not only like boosts what I would consider like the ROI to a school like ours is like.

Independence, the ability to like know themselves, you know, our students self-advocate in high school. We hear that all the time. Like, [00:31:00] you know, they got themselves organized. They went to their advisor, they set up study dates, they did all the things they needed to do in order to successfully engage in a high school program.

Um, so. That retention focus is so huge to make sure families see that all the way through. And because this is such a niche, right? So like when you have a family in your program who meets like what you would say like mission fit, your program is serving them, they are experiencing growth and progress, like all of the things are hitting right.

The. They’re circling in the areas where you would recruit future students from. They’re going to, you know, the psychologist’s office to receive that, you know, neuropsych testing. They’re meeting with like the OT outside of school, potentially they’re going to like the academic remediation camps over the summer.

And so they’re navigating in the areas that you would recruit future students from. And so a good experience and a positive like. Brand in all those spaces, it returns [00:32:00] tenfold, right? Like most of our prospective families come from referrals. So it comes from professionals in the industry, or former families or current parents.

Because again, when you go back to that search motivation being problem based, when you have a problem, like you ask for help, right? As a parent, you’re like, who can help me do this? And someone will say, oh, this school, like you should call them. Even if it’s, you know, we’re having, picking up the phone and having a conversation with a family who might not be mission fit.

We’re at least answering the phone. We’re being like a friendly lifeline to someone who’s really looking for help and maybe sending them down the road to a different school who might serve a different profile of student. But that retention focus and making sure that you’re, um, your insides match your outsides, right, like what’s happening inside the walls matches what you’re saying outside the walls.

That’s, that’s the key to all of it really. 

Tara: That makes a lot of sense. Sam, I’m curious, ’cause I know you have a, you know, a really strong marketing background. What’s some of the most effective tools and strategies that you’ve used to help market your [00:33:00] school? Like specifically some tools, if you would share any trade secrets, maybe.

Samantha: Okay. I think it really comes down to like. People. So having, you know, as a, I can’t be out of my office taking pictures all the time, or, you know, writing blogs or capturing content. So really, you know, like Allie was talking about, like talking about your value proposition, like before, uh, school events, talking about like why it’s important or making sure that event design takes into place, like any friction points for families at different points during the year.

1. I’m a, I’m a data person, so I look at our you know, I look at our analytics. It’s no surprise to me that our website traffic spikes after quarterly reports in public schools. So it’s like, you know, right now we’re in a little bit of a lull. It’s gonna kick right up after spring break when they start looking.

You know, end of the year and their child hasn’t progressed and they’re meeting with their child’s teacher and like that sort of thing. So we time things around [00:34:00] that, um, calendar in year over year for the past five years. That, that is true no matter what through COVID, through, you know, um, military transitions in the DC area, like the times of year in which people organically search for schools like ours follows that map.

So we. You know, we have a very targeted event and comm schedule based around that. Right. And then ensuring that I’m here to support all of the different departments doing the work. So like the academic team, when they’re looking at like our spring learning showcase, we met this morning and talked through it.

’cause they’re coming from the perspective of like, they wanna make sure that all the teachers and the students are organizing. You know, a great way to like showcase learning. And I am coming at it from the perspective of, okay, we’re gonna have 200 cars pull in at the same time. So like what door and room makes the most sense to like, welcome everybody and how can I support this event and streamline.

So everybody has a really positive experience with like the least amount of friction points, right. Showing. Joy [00:35:00] in social media and balancing that joy and being specific and explicit in like the skillset and, um, explaining the academic pieces so that parents get a full picture of what their child is experiencing.

I’m trying to think. You know, in general it’s just kind of keeping all of your buckets looking at your calendar and being strategic in your timing and, and working really closely with the people inside the building who are. We’re excellent at their jobs. It is a privilege to talk about the work that our teachers and our team and our kids are doing here.

Right? Like, that’s a huge privilege. So being able to, to share those moments is, is a big part of our marketing strategy. 

Aubrey: Thanks Sam, and I know from talking to you how important data is, and I love that you mentioned that you’ve tracked the data and you’re like, okay, so this is when we’ll probably see, you know, an uptick in, uh, interest in our school.

So fascinating. So I’d like to ask this question. So there might be schools listening right now who, you know, aren’t specialized [00:36:00] in learning differences, like they are just maybe a more traditional. Like school. What do you think what are some things that they can learn from the work that you’ve been doing in your school around marketing?

Alli: Yeah. I think that one of the things that’s true of consumers in general, but but parent consumers of of school tuition is that they’re incredibly informed, and it’s not just parents of kids with learning differences, it’s parents in general. And now, you know, I can go online and take a 27 point quiz to find out which shampoo I should buy, right?

So if I can do that for any product that is like the new expectation for what schools, you know, need to offer a child. So that kind of like curated concierge service. And so. Our schools need to be a lot of things for our students, but I think parents, I, I hear it all the time when families come and tour for [00:37:00] one of their children, right?

They’ve got three kids. One of them has dyslexia and they tore our whole school and they say, all schools should really be like this. You know, all schools should be this responsive. All schools should run on this ratio. All schools should integrate this level of expertise. All schools should be this intentional.

And and so. There is a funny thing in independent schools, particularly as they’re pressured to be all things to all people, that they forget that they are first and foremost schools and should be experts in teaching and learning. So I think there is a lesson in that. You know, from schools for kids with LD end up being thought leaders.

They are educational experts and, um, they really have to get into the granular details of. Who their mission fit child is. What is the best pedagogical practices for those mission fit kids? And it’s not just the teachers that need to know that. Like the marketing [00:38:00] team needs to know that. And the admissions team needs to know that.

And the, and the fundraisers and the development team need to know that, like everyone becomes an expert in teaching and learning in an LD school. And I think that if that happened in all schools, I, I think also, you know, like you would see higher performance there as well too. And so I, I do think that what we need is what other schools should, you know, what we need to do, other schools should, should strive to do.

I would say.

Samantha: I love that. I totally agree. I think there’s a lot of movement in parent choices in public schools, charter schools you know, online schooling. And so independent schools could do themselves a service by kind of, taking a hard look at their messaging and their websites and kind of their.

Their process and their offerings and determine whether or not they’ve left the door open for somebody who might not think that private school is, you know, on their, on their bucket list. Yeah.

Tara: All right. This has been [00:39:00] a really great conversation and I know we talked before we started that we could be doing this for probably a lot longer. We could carry on this conversation, but it’s now time to move on to our rapid fire questions. Woo-hoo. The first rapid fire question is as always my favorite.

If you could put one book as mandatory reading in the high school curriculum, what would it be?

Alli: Do you have one, Sam? 

Samantha: I do. I better Together by Robert Putnam case studies of different communities coming together and working to solve problems. Uh, it’s pretty good. It’s positive and hopeful. So 

Alli: cool. Um, I’m going with late Bloomers by Rich Carl Guard. I think more high school students should explore a little wandering before they, um, determine the rest of their lives.

Counter to, I think what goes on around college search and, um, and, and the anxiety of that junior, senior year. I think late blooming [00:40:00] should be an option on the table. So there’s mine. 

Aubrey: Oh, I love these gold. I love that. We will add them. Um, we have a good reads list, so we’ll be sure to add them to that. Um, that’s awesome.

And we can expand our reading as well, because I haven’t read either of those, so that’s fantastic. What is one app you couldn’t live without? Sam, why don’t you kick us off? 

Samantha: Ooh. Um, my Kindle app I read all the time. That’s like my decompress, so yeah. 

Alli: I am gonna continue in the nerd category and I’m gonna go with my Audible app.

Uh, I went back and forth on whether it would be Kindle or Audible, but I actually think my Audible allows me more reading on the go. So I’m gonna go with Audible. 

Aubrey: You both 

Tara: have 

Aubrey: so much in common. Look at that. 

Tara: I know, I know. Readers love it. All right, well then what are you reading right now? 

Alli: I actually am just cracked this open in physical form.

I’m reading the story of stories, um, and it’s by Kevin Ashton. It’s this kind of like epic exploration of storytelling from sitting around [00:41:00] fires in, in it’s early man all the way up to, um. TikTok and ai. So, um, it’s really, really interesting so far and, and you know, it’s, it’s one of those like sweeping narration.

And, and it’s so far, so good. Cool. 

Samantha: That’s awesome. Now I’m blanking on the author, but I’m reading, uh, Janesville an American Story, which is about the last General Motors plant in, um, closing in back in 2008. And the talks about like, it’s different profiles of the people in the town and like how they rallied and coming together.

And, uh, it’s pretty interesting. 

Aubrey: These are two fascinating, but I, I’m, we will also add these to our good reads too. This is so fun. I love this conversation. I love that you all. Are also continuing to learn, you know, beyond, you know, all the time. So. Fantastic. Well, I mean, as we wrap up the show, we first wanna thank you for being here.

And second, where can people find you? I mean, you all have, [00:42:00] this conversation has been just so enlightening and so positive and just informative for, I’m sure it’s been for Tara and me as well as our audience. Where can people find you to connect? Ally, do you wanna kick us off with that? 

Alli: Sure. Um, I am not particularly active on social media, but I do keep a LinkedIn and so, um, Allie Williams on LinkedIn.

I’m the head of the school at the pilot school and that’s the easiest way to track me down. Or you can go on our school website, learn all about pilot, find my email that way too.

Samantha: That’s so funny. Um, I, you could also find me on LinkedIn. I do social media for my job, so I do not do it for my personal life. Um, but I’m there. So you can find Samantha Fleming on LinkedIn or you could go to our website and I don’t think you could actually email me directly ’cause I turned all that off for our teachers.

But you can email our front desk and they’ll forward it. 

Aubrey: Thank you both again for being here. Thank much and for sharing with our audience. We really [00:43:00] appreciate it.

Thanks for joining us on the Mindful School Marketing Podcast. We’d love it if you pop into iTunes and leave a review. Five Star Preferred. Let us know how you like the show. It helps us improve what we’re doing and helps others find us too.