Your Dream Families Are Already Writing Your Best Copy

The Secret Weapon School Marketers Are Sleeping On: Voice of Customer Research

Before we get into tactics, let’s establish the foundation: you cannot be all things to all people and still have a strong school story.

But we have so much to offer so many different kinds of families!

I hear you. And it’s probably true. But a story that speaks to everyone lands for no one. Your school story must be built around your dream families — the students and families most likely to embrace your vision, thrive in your community, and become your biggest advocates. When your messaging speaks directly to them, the right families self-select. The wrong ones move on.

So the question becomes: how do you build messaging that your dream families feel was written specifically for them?

Author Jennifer Havice answers this better than I could in her book Finding the Right Message:

“The best messages come directly from your ideal prospects and customers. In fact, the starting point for every piece of copy you write must be the thoughts swirling around in the heads of those people.”

The thoughts swirling around in their heads.

Not the thoughts you assume they’re having. Not the language your board chair would use. The actual words, phrases, and concerns living inside the minds of the families you most want to reach.

Voice of Customer research is how you capture them.

What VOC Research Actually Looks Like

VOC research isn’t complicated. It doesn’t require a research firm or a big budget. It requires intention and a willingness to listen carefully. Here are a few of the most accessible ways to do it:

Open-ended surveys.

Notice I said open-ended. Close-ended surveys give you data. Open-ended surveys give you language. When families have to write their thoughts in their own words, you get the raw material you’re looking for.

Ask questions like: Why did your family begin researching school options? What concerns did you have before enrolling? How would you describe your experience here to a friend? Then mine those responses for the phrases that keep appearing.

One of my clients — a Catholic all-girls school — ran a simple six-question survey for current families and alumnae. The results were extraordinary. One alum wrote that her four years there “solidified who I was” and that she “unapologetically was that person upon showing up” at college. Another said the school “filtered out the distraction and noise” of a co-ed environment and helped her identify “real, genuine priorities.” Another framed the school’s value as a question for prospective parents: Does your daughter want to gain confidence, grit, and resilience? Ability to think and do for herself, be a leader in her own life?

No copywriter is inventing those phrases without those insights. They’re too specific and true. That’s exactly what you want.

Interviews.

In-person or virtual, interviews let you go deeper and follow threads you didn’t know to look for. Last week, I spent a day at a New England boarding school with a transcription app running the whole time — and thank goodness, because the ways students and faculty described their community and academic experience were unlike anything I would have reached for as a writer sitting at my desk. The language was particular to that place. Irreplaceable and unique. You don’t get that from a website audit.

Reviewing past communications.

Your inbox is a VOC goldmine you’re probably ignoring. Go back through your email correspondence with prospective families. What do they ask about? What concerns come up repeatedly? What do they say when they commit? The questions families ask in the decision process reveal exactly what they need to hear — and the language they use to ask them is the language that belongs in your messaging.

Content mining.

This is the passive version: observing what your dream families are already saying in public spaces. Your social media comments. Local parent forums. The comment sections and reviews on your competitors’ platforms. You’re listening for unfiltered sentiment — what families worry about, what they celebrate, what they wish someone would just tell them directly.

Why This Feels Like Cheating (And Why It Isn’t)

When you use your dream families’ own language back at them in your marketing, something clicks. They feel seen. They feel like you understand them. The gap between “we’re considering this school” and “this is our school” closes faster.

The copy practically writes itself when you’re working from real language. Headline ideas jump out of survey responses. Homepage themes emerge from interview transcripts. The through-line of a campaign can come from a single email a parent wrote two years ago.

The alternative — generating your school story from the inside out, relying on what administrators think sounds good or what the last consultant left behind — produces the kind of copy that’s technically fine and completely forgettable. It passes the internal review and misses every family it was supposed to reach.

Where to Start

If you’ve never done formal VOC research, start with a survey. Keep it short — six questions, open-ended, focused on the decision journey. Send it to current families, new students, and alumni. Give them space to write.

Then read every response slowly. Look for the phrases that make you stop. The specific words that no one coached them to use. The emotion underneath the answer.

That’s your story. It was there the whole time — you just hadn’t thought to ask.