Online Marketing for Schools - How to Attract New Students

Private Schools are educational institutions, though they operate as businesses. They are therefore required to market themselves online to attract new students in order to generate school fees from students, which ultimately, provides a school with its main source of revenue.  In this guide, we're taking you through a comprehensive guide on how your school can do just that. By implementing these strategies, you can increase your enrollment figures and grow your school's brand online.

When it comes to enrolling a child at a school, there are many competing offers to consider. The dynamic between parents and schools have changed. Rather than hoping to make it onto the waiting list of a particular school, it is now the schools that are finding the parents. This is done by engaging in digital marketing, which can also hold the key to showing parents why your school is the best option for their child.

Some of the most pressing questions parents have when it comes to deciding which school to send their child to include:

Who are the teachers who would be teaching my child?

Will my child be happy, well educated, and stimulated here?

Is the school a good fit, in terms of finances, culture, and teaching style?

Why should I enroll my child at this school and not any of the others?

Finding out the questions that parents have and tailoring your marketing to answer those questions is the best starting point for school marketers. Indeed, all of your campaigns will need to answer the above, and that is just the beginning. With successful digital marketing, you will be able to reach the parents with these kinds of questions and answer them in a way that satisfies them.

Schools need to showcase their brand online effectively to market themselves, as this is what will attract the students.

Online marketing tips for schools

Student life: When it comes to schools, there is a lot of content that can be viable marketing materials. With your communication with parents and students online, you must showcase the educational quality and student life experience that you offer. This includes displays of how you intend to operate in light of the new norms following the safety measures and precautions brought about by COVID-19.

Events: When marketing your school online, there is no need to reinvent the wheel completely. For instance, in traditional school marketing, there are open days, which are still highly effective. This can be translated to online open days, whereby viewers can experience the tour virtually. This aids you in reaching more people and using digital means to make the content stimulating. Other school events can also be shared online, whether it's sporting days, awards ceremonies or seminars and workshops. Shining a light on your extracurriculars (such as the video below) and facilities can also do wonders in attracting new students.

Value: With digital marketing, one of the key ways to make an impression is to create and provide value to your visitors. Schools can do this by creating and sharing informative content and academic resources online. Another way to create value is by being a beacon within your community. Reaching out to relevant local initiatives or organizations can form part of mutually beneficial partnerships. Finally, share your value in terms of how your school transforms the lives of its students. Show a supportive network that will prepare them for their academic journey.

Target: Appeal to both the parents and scholars, keeping communication relevant and concise. Your marketing should be developed in line with your school's brand, which should demonstrate an academically inclined voice. Ensure your content is varied, including a mix of visuals, text, and audio. When people look at your school's marketing, they should understand what your values are. They should also feel a sense of genuine connection and school culture.

Website: Your school's website is one of its most fundamental points online, as all of your marketing efforts will be directing people to it. Before you embark on marketing activities, ensure that your website is up to date and functioning optimally. How you manage and operate your site is crucial as this is the online face of your brand, and can therefore be a highly inflectional factor in deciding which school to send a child to. If you are or intend to conduct online learning, then this is of even greater importance to a parent.

Network: When marketing online, it is essential to consider the bigger picture, which includes the building and nurturing of relationships. This is what will create and grow your school's online community. Be sure to use various methods to encourage support and loyalty from your students and parents, from testimonials and reviews to securing attendance at events. Positive word of mouth needs to be created and shared online, as this is a precious resource in attracting new scholars. This way, students can become both alumni and advocates.

Digital marketing that attracts new students

Content marketing: Content marketing can carry your business through challenging times, though it is a long term approach. Your school, therefore, needs to work on generating and sharing content consistently to build up a rapport with search engines. There are many forms of content marketing, including video, which remains the most engaging form of online content. Content can be shared on your website, from blog entries to all of the critical resources and information a new parent may need, from fees to forms. Content marketing requires sound knowledge and implementation of SEO to be truly useful.

Email marketing: If your school is using CRM software, you can share highly relevant content via email to parents. This can significantly influence their experience with your school. Email is a great way to engage with your audiences directly and personally. Examples of this include checklists, guides, updates, and invites.

Social media marketing: There are many social media platforms that your school can use to market itself. Since this is where many of your audience can be found online - parents and students, you can create your school's online community here. This will extend to not only current and new students, but your alumni as well. Whether it's interactive posts or clear images and text, you can keep people engaged and informed this way. Some schools make use of parental influencers, though this will be up to your marketing team. One of the reasons this form of marketing is so popular is because advertising is affordable and can be highly targeted. With promoted posts, you can ensure you reach the audience you're after. You can also use it as a communication channel for them, whereby they can ask you questions directly.

Search engine marketing: One of the key ways to market your school online is through ads. Online ads are affordable and effective, thanks to their critical targeting capabilities. Define your target market once they have been well researched, and ensure your ads tap into their desires and motives when looking for a school for their children. These adverts should consider geotagging for localized reach, using both search engine marketing and social media ads.

That wraps up our guide on how to market your school online to attract new students. From the tips to keep in mind, to the methods to use, you can increase your school's brand image and enrollment figures. We at Nexa, suggest you consider working with an award-winning agency such as ours to help strategize and run your marketing campaigns effectively.

Taking consideration of the school admissions funnel

At Nexa, we work with multiple schools and school groups to help them grow their student base by making themselves more attractive to parents and other decision-makers in relation to a child's education.  

While digital marketing certainly helps to spread brand awareness amongst targeted audiences, we often see that school's do not have a clear vision or understanding of the admissions funnel and are unclear of the journey taken by parents all the way from filling out their first web form through to enrolling their child.  That's where we come in.

We understand the importance of school funnel analysis and can employ tools to help provide admissions clarity to school administrators and admissions teams.  We can help to identify admissions challenges or weak areas of the admissions process that may be negatively impacting the enrollment process for both schools and parents.  We'll also suggest ways of resolving these challenges using data as a benchmark to understand the impact of any changes implemented.

It's aspects like these that really impact how successful schools are at acquiring new students and can often be the difference between average and outstanding results.

Book a session with us at Nexa to talk about your school's needs. We'd love to work with you on another award-winning educational marketing campaign.