How School Communicators Can Set Goals That Work
Every communications plan starts with good intentions. Too many of them also stop there. “Becoming the best school in the region” sounds inspiring in a board meeting, but it gives your team nothing to act on, nothing to measure, and no way of knowing whether the year went well.
That statement is a wish. A goal looks like this: increase enrollment inquiries by 20 percent.
The difference matters more than it might seem. A wish says how you’d like to feel. A goal spells out what to do on Monday morning.
Why wishes don’t work
Wishes are appealing because no one can argue with them. Nobody objects to being the best school in the region. That’s also the problem. A statement everyone agrees with usually doesn’t commit anyone to anything.
When the goal is vague, three things tend to happen:
Effort spreads thin.
If everything might count toward “being the best,” then everything gets a little attention, and nothing gets enough.
Success is a matter of opinion.
At the end of the year, the principal and the communications officer may have a different view of whether things improved.
Budget conversations get harder.
It’s difficult to defend spending money on a newsletter redesign or a social media campaign when you can’t show what it was supposed to achieve.
What makes a goal concrete
A concrete goal answers four questions.
What exactly will change?
Name the specific thing: enrollment inquiries, email open rates, event attendance, volunteer sign-ups, survey responses.
By how much?
“More” is not a number. Twenty percent is. So is 150 new families or a 10-point gain in parent satisfaction scores.
Compared to what?
A target only means something next to a baseline. If you don’t know how many enrollment inquiries you received last year, your first task is to find out.
By when?
“By the end of the spring enrollment window” or “by June 30” gives the team a deadline and gives you a natural moment to review results.
Here’s how a few common wishes translate:
| Wish | Goal |
|---|---|
| Be the best school in the region | Increase enrollment inquiries by 20% over last year by March 31 |
| Improve communication with parents | Raise the weekly newsletter open rate from 38% to 50% by the end of the semester |
| Build community support | Get 300 residents to attend the fall open house, up from 210 last year |
| Strengthen our reputation | Earn coverage of three student achievements in local media this school year |
None of these goals is glamorous. All of them can be measured, assigned to someone and reviewed.
Know who you’re talking to
A concrete goal is only half the job. The other half is being clear about the audience. A school doesn’t have one audience; it has several, and they want different things from you.
A typical school’s audiences include:
- Prospective families, who are comparing options and want to know about academics, safety, programs and fit.
- Current parents, who mostly want timely, practical information: schedules, closures, grades, events.
- Students, who respond to different channels and a different tone than their parents.
- Staff, who need to hear news before the public does and who are some of your most trusted messengers.
- Alumni, who can become donors, mentors, and advocates.
- Community members without children in school, who still vote on budgets and bonds and form opinions about the school.
Writing for “the school community” usually means writing for no one in particular. A message aimed at a prospective family touring your school should look nothing like a reminder to current parents about early dismissal.
Put the two together
The real value comes from pairing each goal with a specific audience. The goal tells you what success looks like, and the audience tells you whom you need to reach to get there.
Take the enrollment example. “Increase enrollment inquiries by 20 percent” is clearly about prospective families, not current parents or staff. That one decision shapes everything after it:
Channels
where prospective families actually look, such as your website, search results, local parent groups and community events.
Message
what sets your school apart, backed by specifics such as program offerings, class sizes or student outcomes.
Measurement
inquiry form submissions, tour requests and phone calls, tracked from the start so you can compare against your baseline.
Current parents still matter here, because they’re often your best recruiters. But they play a supporting role in this goal, and your plan should treat them that way.
A simple test for your next plan
Before you finalize any communications plan, read each goal aloud and ask:
- Could two people disagree about whether we achieved this? If so, it isn’t specific enough.
- Is there a number and a deadline?
- Do we know our starting point?
- Can we name the one audience this goal depends on most?
If a goal fails any of these, rewrite it before moving on.
The bottom line
Keep in mind, your school’s strategic PR plan needs measurable goals and audiences you can describe.
Being the best school in the region may well be where you end up. Concrete goals and clearly defined audiences are how you’ll get there and how you’ll show it.