Danbury Schools' marketing campaign proven successful

DANBURY — Danbury Schools' recent outreach strategy yielded great results, officials said.The district launched a marketing campaign to attract more students to the school this summer. They hired Allerton Hill, a Columbus-based marketing firm, to help educate residents about what the district has to offer.Danbury Schools superintendent Dan Parent explained the strategy's process."The first thing that we did was a series of surveys that showed that many people in the five-county area were unaware that Danbury Schools was an educational option," he said. "Our first strategy was then to develop a logo and a brand to just promote the district through newsletters, social media, billboards, and other forms of advertising."The surveys showed Danbury wasn't as well-known as district officials would prefer. "It's important for us to provide a variety of means of communication for our stakeholders," Parent previously told the Register. "We also want to attract new families to the district. We need to market all the great things we do at Danbury to prospective students and their parents."The district committed $42,000 to this specific marketing initiative, which included surveys, mailers and other outreach methods. The district had a marketing budget of $70,000 for this past school year. For its recent outreach, the district gained about 20 students and $120,000 in open enrollment funds, Parent said. Danbury Schools enrolls about 600 students from preschool to 12th grade."We believe that the marketing strategy has worked," Parent said. "We are getting a lot more interest and we are now an educational option for parents looking to move into the area.""Student enrollment was down the two previous years but we have seen an enrollment increase for this school year," he continued. "...I feel that all of the area school districts are very good districts and it is important for parents to decide what is the best fit for their child and we would like Danbury Local Schools to be considered an option in those discussions."Reach reporter Caitlin Nearhood at nearhood@sanduskyregister.com, follow her on Twitter @CaitlinNearhood and on Facebook.com/CaitliNearhoodDanbury Schools