Student Persona Development

Schools are like people – no two are exactly the same. They each have distinct personalities, strengths, and if we are honest with ourselves, weaknesses too. We hear a lot about finding “right fit” students to fill our schools, thereby matching the specific interests of prospective students to the specific traits of our school. But how exactly do we do that?

In the corporate world, marketers spend a lot of time working to define what is called “Buyer Personas” – the distinct traits, habits, interests, and backgrounds of their specific target market. In order to do this, they literally create a fictitious person – or a “persona” – to accurately represent exactly who they are marketing to. In fact, most companies and agencies create 3-5 buyer personas. They then match the marketing, messaging, and methods to that specific persona.

While this is somewhat of a new concept in school marketing, it is proving to be very effective and can help to guide your entire marketing and admissions strategy.