📑 📲 Print Materials vs Digital: Which is Best for Your School?

✨ Hi there!

Last week during our Small School Leaders Meetup, a key hot topic came up: Print Materials vs. Digital, what’s the best option for your school? 

🏫🤗 Here are some tips on how to determine what’s right for you!

Recently, small schools have been reevaluating their budgets, wondering if print materials are the best use of their money and time or if they would benefit from switching over to digital. This shift will look different for each school because, to make the right decision, you need to know your school's audience. 

A lot of the schools we’ve talked with are experiencing younger and younger parents enrolling into their schools. Oftentimes, these families tend to be more eco-conscious 🌳than previous generations and prefer digital content over print materials because of their environmental impact. Or simply they just prefer, for example, a digital annual report vs a printed one for convenience and accessibility.

There are many ways to connect with these families - I’ve seen schools send out email and video series 📩to prospective parents that are great at showcasing the value proposition of their school. Annual reports, viewbooks, pamphlets, etc. - these print materials can all translate digitally.

📑 What if your school also has an audience that prefers print materials? You want to find a way to connect with them too, so consider a hybrid approach to bridge this gap.

Find ways within your budget that you can spend on smaller print pieces, such as postcards, pamphlets, etc. Maybe it no longer benefits you to print a viewbook for prospective parents, so consider switching to sending out a timely postcard with a QR code that directs recipients to a digital viewbook. By understanding your audience you can understand where it makes sense to invest, which leads us to…

💸 Determine the return on investment for print materials. What products are reeling in prospective parents and improving your retention? If you realize a viewbook isn’t giving back the results you’re looking for, find other ways to invest that money.

Overall, determine who your audience is, your budget and which investment ultimately bring you the most benefit. 

✨ I'd love to hear from you - what did you find helpful in this and how are you using print materials and digital pieces in your enrollment and development efforts? Connect with me on LinkedIn!

 Aubrey