In his ground-breaking book Hot
Button Marketing: Pushing the
Emotional Buttons That Get People
to Buy, consumer behaviorist Barry Feig
identifies 16 “hot buttons” that motivate
purchasing behavior. Successful marketers
identify and push the hot buttons that
will best motivate their target audiences
to make a purchase.
The problem is, many private schools
don’t know which hot buttons are behind
parents’ decisions to send their children
to their schools. Here’s the full list of
Feig’s hot buttons: desire for control, I’m
better than you, excitement of discovery,
revaluing, family values, desire to belong,
fun is its own reward, poverty of time,
desire to get the best, self-achievement,
make me smarter, sex/love/romance,
nurturing response, reinventing oneself,
power/dominance/influence, and wish
fulfillment.
At first glance, it seems there are many
items on that list that private schools
could speak to, but to maximize efforts,
schools should focus on the one that
appeals to the greatest number of parents
and highlight all the ways they can meet
that specific need.
Fortunately, the Secondary School
Admission Test Board (SSATB) conducted a
survey that helps schools know just what
button to push. This survey had 2,300
participants whose children took the SSAT
between August 1, 2013, and February
28, 2014. They came from a variety of
backgrounds. Some were brand-new to
private schools, while others had been
sending their children for years. There was
one thing that 97% of these parents agreed
on when it came to why they wanted their
children to attend private school.
The reason nearly every parent wanted
to send his or her child to private school
fell under the hot button of “Make me
smarter.” The primary reason these
families selected private school over the
alternatives was they believed private
school would “Provide an education that
will challenge the child.”
In their marketing, many admissions
directors focus on their beautiful campuses
and extensive extracurricular activities.
While these are all well and good and may
appeal to some aspects of a parent’s “wish
list,” they don’t speak to the fundamental
question parents are asking: Will your
school make my child smarter?
One Account on Multiple Devices
As your families connect to your school from multiple devices, your services should be able to connect all of
their devices to their individual accounts. Most software on the market today isn’t able to handle cross-device
identification or data collection yet. However, Smart Tuition can. Our system has secure logins and dedicated
mobile apps for smart phones and tablet devices. This enables your families to login to their account at any
time from any device.
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