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Deliverables for the Five Pillars Workshop
Finding Your School's Job-to-Be-Done We help you figure out the main job parents are hiring your school to do. This gives your school a clear focus for every message and decision you make. This becomes the foundation for everything else — your website, your tours, your conversations with prospective families, and how your team talks about the school internally. When everyone shares the same understanding of why families choose you, your enrollment efforts stop pulling in different directions.
Student Outcomes Parents Can Count On We work with you to name the real results parents can expect for their children — then make sure those results match the job your school is built to do. These outcomes give your admission team something concrete to say beyond "we have great teachers." They show up in your viewbook, your open house presentations, and your re-enrollment conversations — anywhere you need parents to see the real value of what they're paying for.
How Your Words Sound to Families We look at the language your school uses right now and check whether it matches the job you've chosen. If there's a gap between what you offer and what families hear, we'll find it. This audit shapes your website copy, email campaigns, social media, and printed materials. It helps your marketing and communications team stop guessing and start writing with language that actually connects with the families you want to reach.
How You Stack Up We look at what families generally care about most when picking a school and how well yours shows its strengths. The goal is to make sure the right parents can clearly see that your school meets their child's needs. This gives your enrollment and leadership teams a clear picture of where you lead and where you're being overlooked. Use it to sharpen your talking points, update your website, and train your admission counselors on what to emphasize during tours and interviews.
Your X-Factor We help you find what makes your school different — using programs you already have. Then we build a strong message around that difference, one that speaks directly to what your families are looking for. We will create a value proposition around this differentiation. Your X-Factor becomes the centerpiece of your brand — the thing people remember and repeat. It drives your tagline, your ad campaigns, your head of school's speeches, and the story your current families tell other parents at the soccer field.
Milestones at Every Grade We help you set clear outcomes for each grade level so parents can see progress along the way. These milestones build trust and show families that your school is delivering on its promises, creating disciples among your parent body. Division heads and teachers use these milestones in parent conferences, progress reports, and back-to-school nights. They give your re-enrollment efforts real proof points and turn satisfied parents into your most powerful word-of-mouth recruiters...
A Language Tool Built for Your School We create a custom Claude AI skill your team can use every day. It keeps your messaging consistent, suggests language for marketing and enrollment, and makes sure every communication to parents ties back to the outcomes your school promises. Your marketing director, admission team, and division heads can use this tool whenever they write — emails to parents, social posts, event invitations, annual fund appeals, even faculty job postings. It keeps everyone on message without slowing anyone down.
A Brand Promise You Can Stand Behind We help you craft a simple, honest promise to families — one that's rooted in your school's purpose and easy for parents to remember. Your brand promise anchors your homepage, your enrollment materials, and every first impression a family has of your school. It gives your board, your head of school, and your frontline staff one clear sentence they can all stand behind.
What We Need From You
Step 1 — Send Us Your Materials Share your marketing, enrollment, and parent communications in PDF or Word format. Include any ads or materials that show your current brand message.
Step 2 — Complete the JTBD Worksheet Your team fills out our worksheet to determine your school's Job-to-Be-Done and drafts the outcomes you expect students to achieve. If time allows, you'll also survey parents for their input.
Step 3 — Send It Early Get all completed materials to EM for Schools at least three weeks before your workshop date.
Step 4 — Bring Your Team Gather a strong group for the one-day workshop. We need your Head of School, enrollment and admission leaders, marketing and communications director, division heads, teachers, and two trustees. It also helps to include your CFO, development director, equity and social justice director, and parent representatives.
Step 5 — Collect and Follow Up Choose one person at the workshop to gather everything the group creates and send it to EM for Schools within two business days.