Do you and your target market audience speak the same language?

“If you want to sell what John Smith buys, you've got to see the world through John Smith's eyes”

This old adage should be stuck on the screen of every admissions registrar and marketer’s pc. The ability to understand and empathise with the target audience is the bedrock on which every great creative concept is built. Our perception is our truth, but it’s not just visual inputs and signals that lay down the building blocks of a school’s image. It is not just what John Smith sees that is important but also what he hears. Technical language and acronyms creep into every industry and education is no exception. It has a language all its own. Differentiation is crucial for brand stand out. Witness the way brands like Innocent Smoothies have developed a language that reflects their personality and point of difference.

The words we use to entice, excite, and sell, are different to those we use for more functional tasks such as Search Engine Optimisation. We exploit certain words in order to compete and stand out in a busy marketplace but need to utilise a different tone of voice to gain trust and build relationships with our potential parents and pupils. What you say and what your customer hears, must align. It must also chime with your visual content and the brand personality. It’s essential to use a language and style that make your readers feel comfortable and part of the ‘family’.

Whether you are aware of it or not, your choice of language has a huge impact on your ability to sell. Your conscious or unconscious use of vocabulary can make you seem infinitely trustworthy, alternatively, it can work against you. Successful use of language in sales is often learned by trial and error. Some of us have been lucky enough to stumble upon effective sales language and have developed the skill over time, others have been mentored.

Experienced salespeople recognise that success comes not just from what you say and how you say it, but from listening and therefore establishing exactly what your potential customer needs to hear; selling being the art of conversation, not just a pitch. We don’t want to fill this short blog with quotes, but one of our all-time favourites, and one worth remembering every time you sit down at the keyboard comes from the extraordinary Maya Angelou;

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

We have spent hours on the ‘phone to schools carrying out mystery shops. Disappointingly, the majority of the call time is usually taken up by being bombarded with irrelevant information. Talking knowledgably and persuasively has no benefit if you do not know your caller’s ‘why’. What has driven them to make the call, to take the first (or second, or third) step on their search; to convince a potential parent to commit to an appointment, view a brochure, attend an open day, you need to tick their boxes, not yours.

The other thing sales people generally struggle to do, is say nothing – well for a moment or two at least. Last quote,

“We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out”

Winston Churchill

In our everyday dealing with schools, we are starting to hear words and phrases that have no meaning or relevance to the average parent. The same is also true of school websites, where acronyms and non-customer facing language is emerging, this is particularly in school policies. The biggest brands have spent considerable time and marketing budget ensuring that the language they use is the language their customers speak. No need for such investment by schools - many of you reading this will have the advantage of being a parent, so you have the required insight to give parents what they need. All you need now is the discipline to make sure you are speaking the same language.

To find out if your school is speaking the right language give us a call: Headspace Academics; fresh thinking, helping schools on the road to recovery.