Creative ways to improve awareness & enrollment at your school
Marketing is one aspect that’s unfortunately overlooked by many schools. This might be due to an outdated marketing department, or simply because the school has more pressing matters at hand. However, that’s all about to change by following our quick and easy guide, The ABC’s of Marketing for Schools.
It’s no secret that schools have seen a huge decrease in funding both at federal and state levels. This is largely due to the recession and at the same time, it can have devastating results when it comes to student test scores and their educational prosperity.
That’s why it is more important than ever that your school has a marketing plan which can mitigate some of these financial burdens and ensure that every student is given the opportunity for a bright future.
All marketing materials ready
A great way to market your school and to give prospective students and their parents a glimpse inside your institution is through videos and testimonials. Start building a library of various types of videos which make you stand out.
The best part is, most of the content is already happening all around you. Have someone film student events, ask teachers and students for interviews, give a tour of the school; these are just some examples to get you started.
Recently, live videos have become increasingly popular. Facebook Live, Instagram, and Snapchat are just a few platforms for this. While Snapchat is more popular with students, Facebook is more popular with their parents. These live videos can be a way to give your marketing strategy a personal touch and feels more authentic to prospective families.
You should start to compile an array of multimedia marketing materials which are ready to use. Having videos, pictures, infographics, audio interviews, and more available will make marketing your school easier with fresh content.
It’s important to note that you should always make sure you receive consent from students, parents, and teachers before posting anything online!
School information packets are a crucial and effective way of adding value to your program and increasing enrollment. This can be an e-book, downloadable PDF, or something similar.
Many schools choose to use an inquiry form in order to download their content offer. This creates the first contact for prospective families and allows you to start building a mailing list in order to reach out with more information and other offers. At the same time, you’re providing a valuable resource so it feels less like you are simply asking them to sign up for a mailing list.
You should also have a printable version of your information packet that you can give to community organizations, local daycares, or even realtors. You never know who can be an advocate for your school!
Blog with purpose & be a voice in the community
Blogs are proven to improve your website traffic and facilitates trust of your overall brand.
Websites with blogs show up a staggering 434% more in search results than those without one. It’s important to post with a clear message while also varying the type of content. One great way to achieve this is by having teachers and students write guest blog posts.
Another key benefit of blogging is improving the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your school’s website. This requires time and effort in order to determine the keywords that work and will get your website to the first page of search results.
Parents always want to be involved in their child’s education. That’s something that can be advantageous for everyone. Starting a parent advocacy group is not only a great way to make parents feel like they have a voice, but can also provide you direct access to the community.
Having these groups plan events and speak about the positive experiences they’ve personally had with your school is the best way to increase enrollment. The community is much more likely to trust information if it is coming from another parent.
These parent advocacy groups also add a personal approach when it comes to your marketing strategy. It’s better when parents and teachers work together!
Podcasts can also be a great tool to include in your marketing plan. There is a wide array of topics that would be useful to parents such as studying tips, test prep, and child behavior. Consider involving students in the creation of the podcasts as well as an additional learning tool.
Clear vision, mission, and goals set
Once you have a marketing plan ready, make sure that everything aligns with your school’s mission and vision.
The next step is to implement a strategy and set a budget. Luckily, there are many ways to market your school inexpensively or even for free as long as you put in the effort. Set goals for your marketing plan with clear results you’d like to achieve.
Some goals of your school’s marketing campaign might include increasing enrollment, creating channels to communicate with parents, promoting events, and seeking volunteers or donations.
It is important to involve everyone in your school’s marketing campaign. Consider putting together a marketing brief for your staff that highlights statistics and key points from your marketing plan. You could also find ways to involve students who are interested in business and marketing already. Setting up an extracurricular club dedicated to marketing could be a great way to expand your school’s marketing reach.
Your school should have separate marketing materials for parents and students. Some things to focus on when marketing to parents should be your school’s mission, testimonials from parents of current students, and your school’s methodology when it comes to student success. When marketing to students you’ll want to highlight the school’s extracurricular programs and photos that will give them an idea of a student’s typical day.
Your marketing plan should include both long-term and short-term goals which are broken down into categories and include easy ways to measure your results.
This brings us to your school’s website. Prospective parents are guaranteed to end up on your website before making a decision.
The overall design of the site is very important and should be polished, modern, and concise. There are still far too many school’s with websites that look like they were made on Windows 95!
Going along with this, all of the contact information should be up-to-date and easy for the user to find. Having outdated information will discredit your institution. Since a large number of people use their smartphones to look up websites, it is crucial to make sure your school has a mobile-friendly version.
Today’s parents also seek simplicity functionality when they view a website. You should have a fillable contact form and a click-to-call option at the very least. If you really want to minimize the hassle for parents, you might even consider setting up a live chat feature that connects with someone in the main office.
Public schools and any institution receiving government funding are bound by WCAG 2.1 when it comes to website accessibility. However, even if you’re a private school, there are benefits to making your website accessible to people living with a disability. Not only does it show that your institution cares about students with learning disabilities, it is also proven to increase your SEO and web traffic.
Another idea is to reach out to the local media and other non-profit organizations in your area. You can easily submit articles to your local Patch News outlet or any other news site that caters to your area. If your school wins an award or is planning a fundraising event, those are newsworthy stories and will resonate with the people in the community!
Decide on the social media outlets
Facebook is a critical part of any marketing plan and it’s important to keep all of the information up to date. Regularly post school events and photos which will engage your followers. There should also only be one main account for your school on each social media platform.
Use your social media platforms to address parents’ concerns and trends when it comes to
There is a rule when it comes to posting on social media that many small businesses follow called the 80/20 rule. Basically this means that only 20% of what you choose to post should pertain to your school while the other 80% should be current topics that engage parents and students. These might be links to news articles or blogs, for example.
It’s also important to always respond to comments on your posts or reviews on your page, regardless of whether they’re negative or positive. Parents see responsiveness as a key indicator of your administration’s effectiveness and empathy.
In recent years, it’s become more difficult to grow organically through the platform and paid advertisements have become essential. It’s worth the time and budget to dig deep into their targeted ad system and find the right
Facebook has recently given their targeting options a complete overhaul and it makes it much easier for schools to reach their intended audience. You might be surprised at how little it costs to run an ad on Facebook. The cost-per-click may vary but generally averages $1.06 in the education industry. You can also choose a number of formats for your ad that include photos, a slideshow, or video. You can choose where your ad will appear as well, whether it be in the Newsfeed, on the side panel, or even in Messenger.
Your school’s marketing plan should have a multiple channel approach that doesn’t just include Facebook. Email, social media, print, and mobile marketing strategies should all be coordinated to give your school the best reach. The more channels that your school uses, the better chance you have that your message will be heard loud and clear!
Marketing automation is a great way to increase your efficiency and manage multiple marketing channels at once. There are a number of platforms that are popular and effective for scheduling social media posts such as Hootsuite, Buffer, and SproutSocial.
You have many options when it comes to managing and scheduling your social media posts and it’s very important that you use these tools effectively and consistently.
Execute the strategy and increase enrollment
A key part of any marketing plan is being able to measure results. The key performance indicators (KPIs) will vary depending on your school’s goals.
Some basic examples of KPIs that are easy to measure include website visitors, the number of new leads your admissions department receives, and the cost per lead.
When it comes to measuring your SEO and the effectiveness of your social media channels, you can use Google Analytics to measure your website’s traffic and conversions as well as Facebook Insights to measure your page’s engagement and your brand’s overall reach. If your school also decides to use Instagram as one of your marketing channels, this is also included in Facebook Insights and makes it easier to view your overall social impact in one place.
Measuring the results of your marketing campaign is the only way to gauge its effectiveness and that’s why it is so important to have clear goals set out from the beginning.
Schools are such a vital institution that shape the future of the next generation. The immense effort that it takes to develop curriculum and create a safe environment for learning should never be taken for granted.
However, this is likely the reason that most schools are forced to put marketing on the back-burner. Hiring an entirely new department devoted to marketing can be very costly and stressful. Fortunately, there is another option available. If you want to maximize your reach and increase enrollment, consider outsourcing your school’s marketing. There are professionals who are experts on everything that has been covered in this article and can work with your school to create a personalized and effective marketing campaign.
Marketing is one area that schools always struggle with for a number of reasons. That’s why we hope our guide provided some valuable information for you to start thinking about developing a marketing plan which can increase enrollment, raise awareness, and finally give you a voice in the community that you serve.
Nobody wants to receive an F, so that’s where we’ll end our blog for today! Follow the advice here and your school’s marketing is sure to make the honor roll this year.
