Get More Applications: Drip Email Marketing for Charter Schools

Increasing student applications starts with effective communication, and drip email marketing for charter schools is a powerful tool to achieve this. By nurturing leads through personalized and timely email campaigns, charter schools can guide prospective families through the enrollment process. In this blog, we’ll uncover how drip email marketing can help you build connections, maintain engagement, and ultimately drive more applications for your school.

This is where lead nurturing for schools enters the picture.

One of the technologies that we implement with our clients is lead nurturing emails.

Lead nurturing, as defined by Wikipedia, is:

Drip marketing is a communication strategy that sends, or "drips," a pre-written set of messages to customers or prospects over time...Drip marketing can be used as a function of the lead generation and qualification process. Specifically, drip marketing constitutes an automated follow-up method that can augment or replace personal lead follow-up. Often called Autoresponders, new leads are automatically enrolled into a drip marketing campaign with messaging relevant to the call-to-action from which the lead came. This is also known as lead nurturing.

Why Charter Schools Use Lead Nurturing Emails?

We implement lead-nurturing emails with our clients for a few reasons.

1. TOP OF MIND: Applying to a charter school involves an incredibly long sales cycle. If you inquire in the summer before admissions open, that delay could be months. Similarly, when applications open up, there's a delay in approval, and we want to stay top of mind, but without stalking them. Also, if they apply after the wait-list opens, we want to keep in touch, but without annoying them (since they are already anxious that they are on the wait-list). We believe that lead nurturing emails allow schools to be involved with their prospective families without being a nuisance to them.

2. MORE COMMUNICATION: Communication and touchpoints are key in sales. Another reason we implement lead nurturing emails with our clients is that they offer an additional layer of personalization that they couldn't necessarily achieve with contact from their admission office. When a family inquiries at your school, they really have two pipelines they enter - and the goal of each is to get the family to visit the school. Our belief is that if schools can get them to visit, it will help them advance into the next enrollment stage.

3. MORE GUIDANCE: The final reason charter schools need to implement lead nurturing emails is that email is an easy vehicle that allows you to be more helpful to your prospective families. Email is an opportunity for prospective families learn about the admission process, the school, the principal, and the vision and mission. As a result, you're sending families helpful information that will educate them and make their research of your school easier.

How To Use Drip Email Marketing for Charter Schools

We hope that you're sold on using lead nurturing emails in the admission office. If you are, the next logical question is: how do you use this type of email in your office?

As mentioned earlier we've created two pipelines prospective families move through after they inquire at a school.

The first pipeline is the personal interaction pipeline in which they receive personal contact from the admission office. Likely, you're already doing this as each application arrives.

The second pipeline is your lead nurturing pipeline, in which each prospective family receives a series of emails with the goal of helping them learn more about your school and, ultimately, hopefully, visit your school.

Within your second pipeline, segment your lead nurturing emails into three campaigns:

1. Kindergarten

2. Middle School

3. High School

(If you don't have a K-12, then you'll only have segments that apply to your school)

While there are certain emails that all three segments receive, there are certain emails that are specific and targeted for each division of the school.

An example 39-day lead nurturing campaign for Kindergarten:

​0 Day	​Initial Inquiry
2 Day Delay	​Send your School Video
​7 Day Delay	Send a Free Guide PDF with a title like "25 Questions to Help You Evaluate a School for Your Child".
​5 Day Delay	​Send the answers to all 25 questions from the PDF you offered 5 days earlier.
5 Day Delay	Send a collection of blogs written by the principal reflecting the mission and core values (links to blogs on your site).
​5 Day Delay	Send a link pointing them to your Academic Program Chart (a well-designed infographic) driving them back to a blog or page on your website. The purpose is to educate them as well as get them back to your website.
​7 Day Delay	Send a link pointing them to a series of blog posts explaining your daily academic schedule on your blog. The purpose is to educate them about your daily academic schedule as well as keep them close to the application button on your site.
7 Day Delay	Finally, send a link pointing them to your "Meet the Teachers" page on your website highlighting a few of your teachers.

There are more emails you can send, and there are variations to the series above, but you get the gist.

Oh, and don't forget the call to action. The call to action within each email is to either call, apply, schedule a visit, attend an in-person or virtual open house, or attend a webinar you're hosting. There must be something you're asking them to do over and over so they get the point.

Are you convinced of the possibilities of lead nurturing?

I hope you now understand what lead nurturing is and one way in which you can implement this tool in your charter school admission office. I also hope that creative juices are flowing as you try to think of emails that you can send to prospective families, making the case for your school.

Have you implemented lead nurturing at your school? Can you share any lessons you've learned? Please use the comments section below to share with other readers.

If you want to speak to us about implementing lead nurturing into your charter school, please schedule a discovery call with us here: EB - 30-Min Book a Call

Schedule a Discovery Call with Educational Brands

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Frequently Asked Questions About Email Marketing for Charter Schools

1. What is drip email marketing for charter schools?

Drip email marketing for charter schools is an automated series of emails sent over time to prospective families after they inquire. The goal is to nurture leads, keep the school top of mind, and guide families through the enrollment process with helpful and timely communication.

2. Why is email marketing important for charter schools?

The article explains that charter schools often have a long enrollment cycle, so email marketing helps schools stay connected with prospective families without overwhelming them. It also creates more opportunities for communication and makes it easier to share helpful information about the school, the admissions process, and next steps.

3. What is lead nurturing in school marketing?

Lead nurturing in school marketing is the process of following up with prospective families through automated, relevant communication over time. In this article, it is described as a way to educate families, maintain engagement, and move them closer to visiting or applying.

4. How should charter schools segment their email campaigns?

According to the article, schools should segment their lead nurturing emails by school division, such as Kindergarten, Middle School, and High School. This allows schools to send more relevant messaging based on the age group and interests of prospective families.

5. What kinds of emails should be included in a charter school drip campaign?

The sample campaign in the article includes an initial inquiry follow-up, a school video, a free guide for evaluating schools, answers to guide questions, principal blog content, an academic program chart, information about the school’s daily schedule, and a teacher introduction page. These emails are designed to educate families and bring them back to the school website.

6. What should the call to action be in a school email campaign?

The article recommends using clear calls to action throughout the email sequence, such as asking families to call, apply, schedule a visit, attend an open house, or join a webinar. Repeating these actions helps reinforce the next step families should take.

7. How does email marketing help increase charter school applications?

Email marketing helps increase applications by keeping prospective families engaged, building familiarity with the school, and guiding them through a series of useful touchpoints that support their decision-making process. The article specifically connects lead nurturing with stronger application growth.

8. Can email automation improve parent engagement in charter schools?

Yes. The article presents automated email nurturing as a way to create more consistent and helpful communication with families, which can strengthen engagement while making the admissions process feel more supported and informative.