Creating the perfect mix of effective marketing strategies for your school can help engage with local communities, celebrate your strengths and ultimately drive student enrolment. In an increasingly competitive marketplace our experts share some insight on why effective marketing for schools is important, and some key things to consider.
Firstly let’s take a look at the benefits:
- Admissions: Every school needs healthy student enrolment numbers to thrive. Effective marketing for schools will emphasise the values, ambitions and achievements of your school, attracting students to explore and ultimately join your school.
- A positive reputation: Professional marketing will shape your school’s image with families. Consistent, positive communications help build trust and credibility.
- Engaging current parents: These are the best ambassadors for all the great things your school achieves. By improving parent communications your school can ensure positive parent involvement and improved relationships throughout the whole school.
- Supporting enrolment targets: A comprehensive marketing strategy will align with enrolment targets, ensuring a steady flow of students to drive consistent, sustainable growth.
- Something to be proud of: Your school achieves remarkable things every day. Effective marketing gives you an opportunity to celebrate student accomplishments and faculty excellence.
Next, let’s explore some essential tools in any good marketing strategy:
Understand your audience
To maximise the impact of any effective marketing for schools it’s important to fine-tune your messages towards your own specific audience. As the educational marketplace becomes increasingly competitive it is fundamental to find out what factors are most important to your prospective families, what drives their decision making and to then regularly consider these principles throughout your marketing cycle. If your communications feel generic or contains too much jargon you will struggle to effectively tell your story and to convince families your school is the best environment for their child to succeed.
A clear and concise brand
Developing a strong and recognisable identity for your school will help to pull all of your key messages together under one banner. Whether it be values and principles, unique attributes or positive news stories – consistency of brand will build credibility and constantly remind your school community as to why you should be considered their school of choice. Here’s how to achieve a strong school branding consistency:
- Develop guidelines: Create a brand document that outlines your visual and written identity. How your logo should appear, what are the key messages, typography, colour palettes and photography style should be consistent throughout all you do, to maximise your brand credibility.
- Consistency is key: Your brand should be instantly recognisable; use the brand guideline to maintain consistent visuals and messaging on your website, emails, social media platforms, and other marketing materials.
- Empower your team: Brand guidelines are a roadmap for everyone creating content for your school. Providing a clear framework ensures a unified message across the school and at all touchpoints.
- Strength in numbers: If you are part of a successful Multi Academy Trust, consider how your brand is further elevated by association with the brand of your MAT.
Maximise your online presence
Rarely is your school website the only factor parents use when deciding on the best school for their child, but it has become an increasingly critical one to get right. The objective of a great website is to give insight into school life, sell the benefits and opportunities of your school and ultimately drive people to visit the school in an already positive frame of mind. A poor school website can do a significant amount of damage to your admissions potential.
- Consider your content: Your school website should provide parents with a clear narrative so they can instantly understand your ambitions and values. Student stories, extra curricular events, exam successes and alumni insights can all help build a complete picture of your school.
- Consistency: It’s important to ensure content is created in a consistent tone and in a consistent brand identity. Failing to do so will result in a user journey that is jarring and ultimately a dilution of your overall brand.
- Be succinct: The majority of traffic to school websites is now conducted through a smartphone; statistically this leads to shorter amounts of time per visit. Ensure your content is image-led where possible and easy for users to digest.
- Search engines: Ensure your website ranks well in search results by implementing SEO best practices; this will add to your exposure when parents are conducting their research into potential schools.
- Admissions marketplace: Consider collating all information relevant to admissions into one marketplace section within your site. This means that when parents are ready to make a decision they will have access to enrolment forms, virtual tours, policies and important dates, all in one place.
- View through a parent’s perspective: Ask yourself what parents look for when deciding on the best school for their child, these could include:
- Unique strengths of your school that set you apart from competitors
- Any specialised programs, pathways or scholarships you offer that cater for specific talents (such as STEM, sports or the arts)
- Academic standards and innovative teaching methods
- Student wellbeing, mental health support and inclusion
- Ofsted accreditations and achievements
- Modern school environment such as sport or technology facilities
- Educational partnerships such as universities or businesses to boost student opportunities
Remember, good marketing is 75% storytelling
Brand storytelling is used when brands want to present themselves as more human and more relevant to their stakeholders. They do this by creating advertising or content that tells stories, and which people can engage with. It is increasingly important to understand that families want to connect with schools in both a professional and emotional capacity; getting this right can markedly improve effective marketing for schools:
- Celebrate your history: Build a rich picture of your school by focusing on your school’s history and noteworthy achievements, parents can then feel they are becoming part of something deeply rooted in their community.
- Make it about students: Shine a light on your students’ triumphs! Share their stories, testimonials, and positive experiences through regular blogs, video shorts, social posts and newsletters.
- Define your vision: It’s important that families clearly understand your aspirations and ambitions for the school. Clearly communicate any appropriate elements of the school’s strategic plans.
- Capture attention: Focus on visual impact, remembering that the use of images, videos and animations can boost engagement of your content, especially on smartphone devices.
Show people around!
School tours are a fantastic way for prospective families to experience all your school has to offer first hand. A well executed tour builds on the emotional connection between a parent and a school, here’s how to leverage them for maximum impact:
- The personal touch: In-person tours of your school are a great opportunity to not only showcase your facilities, but also to give families insight into all the great opportunities you offer. Pre-plan the route through your school and consider designating current students to lead the tours.
- Don’t ignore concerns: Ensure that parents have an opportunity to openly discuss any concerns they may have within the tour. These conversations are considerably more productive in person.
- Expand your reach: Consider offering virtual tours through the school website or social media platforms. This caters to families who may not be able to visit in person, is more convenient for parents and shows an innovative approach to problem solving by the school.
- Always follow up: After every tour, follow up with attendees to express your appreciation for their interest and answer any final questions. This demonstrates your commitment to building relationships with potential families and helps to keep you at the front of their mind.
Leverage the power of social media
UK statistics show that over 82% of the population are active social media users (as of January 2024). This provides a fantastic opportunity for any school to quickly build an online school community, celebrating and sharing good news stories:
- Choose the right platform for you: Firstly, consider your audience, and which platforms they currently utilise the most. Surveying parents and students can give valuable insight in this regard. Secondly, consider which platform is logistically easiest for you to keep regularly up to date. For instance, don’t opt for Instagram if you have strict consent policies with taking photos of students!
- Consistency (again!): Consider your social platforms as an extension of your school website, and apply the same brand consistencies as you would with any other content. Users should be able to jump between the two and still recognise the school’s persona throughout all of your content.
- Connect it all together: Ensure you have a clear social media presence within your school website, and vice versa ensure your social posts are driving traffic to the school site. Include clear links and ‘calls to action’ so that both platforms feed each other to create your own online marketing ecosystem.
- Keep it current: Commit a weekly slot in your calendar to ensure regular social articles are being posted, otherwise you run the risk of creating an online community that fades after content becomes stale. Ensure school colleagues are aware and are providing you with a good mix of positive stories throughout all departments. Encourage parental interaction by responding to comments, answering questions, and running polls.
As well as the above marketing initiatives, schools have a number of other tools that can be used to boost efficiency in specific areas:
Online advertising
If you are looking to bolster online traffic to your website and social platforms, consider running targeted online advertising campaigns through Google and social platforms. It’s important to firstly identify the best approach for your specific objectives – LinkedIn for teacher recruitment, Facebook for current parents, Google Advertising for a wider reach.
Creating Google PPC (Pay-Per-Click) campaigns can offer numerous benefits in promoting admissions events and attracting prospective students and staff. PPC allows schools to target demographics and locations, ensuring that the ads reach the right audience and therefore stand a higher chance of success.
Parental engagement
As we have already highlighted, both current and potential parents can be your best ambassadors or your harshest critics. It is essential to your marketing endeavours to build trust and respect by keeping them informed, engaged and talking of your school in the highest regard.
- Organise open houses, school tours and information sessions for prospective families – market these directly to parents, using the language they understand and focusing on the things that will reinforce their decision to apply for a place.
- Consider hosting webinars or workshops on topics relevant to parents and students for your local community, such as mental health awareness, environmental initiatives or staying safe online.
- Establish partnerships with feeder schools, community centres and local businesses to expand reach and referrals.
- Create a parent ambassador program that allows current parents to act as positive ambassadors of your school
- As part of your marketing plan, schedule email alerts that reconnect with prospective parents, reminding them about application deadlines, open days and school events.
- Use your past students to illustrate school success stories. By creating a strong alumni network you can show tangible achievement which further emphasises the benefits of your school.
In conclusion
By implementing some of these marketing elements you could considerably enhance the reputation and credibility of your school. This will, in turn, drive admissions, recruitment and ultimately create a recognisable brand that stands as a hallmark for quality in your community.
If you would like to discuss your own marketing objectives with one of our Cleverbox experts
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