The Secret 10-Minute Marketing Hack Your Montessori School Is Missing Out On

Not all marketing methods need to be big scary initiatives that take a ton of time, effort, energy, and money. In fact, sometimes it is the simplest things that have the most profound impacts.

What if you could share a soft-touch marketing message to everyone you communicate with?

What if you could do that in a completely unobtrusive way that didn’t require any additional work from your normal day-to-day activities?

What if I stopped asking annoying hypothetical questions and just got to the point? :-)

Your email signature is a completely overlooked marketing tool and it is time to reclaim it!

The world runs on email

Think about the number of emails you end up sending on a daily basis. Now, think about the people who are receiving those emails. You’re basically sitting on a gold mine of a warm and receptive audience.

Your current families should be one of your strongest marketing channels. Montessori schools rely heavily on referrals and positive word of mouth. There is no stronger prospect than a strong referral from a satisfied parent.

And, while we know that our parents will most likely refer our school when asked, we also know that people are busy and don’t always think to be proactive with those referrals. That’s why they need constant, if not unobtrusive, reminders!

Adding a very subtle call to action to your email signature helps provide that regular reminder that may help catalyze your parents into action. And, because repetition is the lifeblood of marketing, you’re giving yourself the opportunity to offer a gentle but ongoing reminder in a very subtle way.

Different options for a strong email signature

The simplest approach is to offer a short and elegant reminder of the importance of referrals to your school. Something along the lines of:

Jane Smith

Executive Director

P.S. The success of our school relies on referrals from people like you! If you have a friend or family member you think would be a fit for our school, I would love an introduction.

Boom! Now every single email you send becomes a reminder to parents that will start them thinking about people they can refer to your school.

The best part is that the placement of the message makes it completely unassuming. Unlike a personal request for referrals, this completely takes the pressure off of both you and the recipient.

However, you don’t need to stop there. Depending on how your referral program works, you can offer very specific calls to action and even include incentives:

Jane Smith

Executive Director

Free tuition! Ask me about our referral program.

Or, for those that don’t mind being more direct:

Jane Smith

Executive Director

Refer a friend and receive a free month when they enroll.

It doesn’t just have to be about referrals

Now that we’re on the topic, you can use your email signature in myriad different ways. If you aren’t comfortable with the referral approach, or if you already have a strong pipeline of mission-appropriate families, use your email signature to help promote content or highlight upcoming events.

One thing that I love to do personally is to include a piece of content that I’m particularly proud of. If there’s an article on your website that you think is noteworthy or important for people to read, you can link to it from your signature. Here’s an example:

Jane Smith

Executive Director

Read our latest blog: The Importance of the Kindergarten Year

You can also include pedigree information about your school like the year it was founded or any accreditations or certifications you hold.

We have a course for that!

For our members, we created a 10-minute course on how to quickly and easily craft a beautiful email signature for free using WiseStamp.com. Head over to the Courses section in the member's area to check that out!