School Admissions: How COVID-19 has changed the customer journey

In light of the recent developments, the Ministry of Education in the UAE (MOE) has confirmed that all schools in the UAE are to continue with remote learning till the end of the 2019-20 academic year. As a result, what used to be peak season for school enrolments has now turned into a period where parents need to focus on helping their kids make the most out of their remote learning experience.

Although fewer parents are in a position now to make their commitments to a school for the 2020-21 academic year, this by no means is a time for the admissions departments to step back. Instead, it is a time for their whole school community to come together and communicate relevant content to prospective parents and nurture them through a digital journey to admissions. This will help the schools gain credibility and trust from parents. Once the situation begins to evolve post COVID-19 to the ‘new’ normal, those parents who are seeking admission will be feeling pressure to quickly find and enrol their children into the right school. This is where those schools, above others, will be recalled for how they helped the community through these uncharted times. As for admissions teams, they will now have access to a rich pool of leads in their funnel, that they can start grooming into a sales prospect when the time is right.

The New Communication Strategy

To do this properly, schools need to build a communication strategy based on current trending topics and then amplify these to the right audience through a strong digital marketing strategy.

For now, let’s focus on messaging by starting with the 3 basic purposes of communication: to inform, to persuade and to generate goodwill. Being a parent myself, a very hot topic of late is school fees. Although this may be sensitive to discuss, perhaps schools explaining how fees are allocated would help parents better understand the greater value of their spend?

Another piece of content can be based on how a school was able to quickly adjust and adapt to deliver remote learning to their students. Again, from a parent's perspective, tips on how we can help our child/ren progress academically amidst the current circumstance would be greatly appreciated. Honest and raw communication helps build trust, so don’t be afraid to mention some of the challenges the school and its community has faced.

This could lead to the next hot topic: why the bricks and mortar environment of a traditional school outweigh that of an online school. Reflecting on a student’s journey through a school can help create an emotional connection with the reader. A great opportunity to include a highlight video of the school too.

These are just a few examples of topics that schools can tackle. There are many other relevant subjects that are worth communicating to the public. The key is to keep it current and customer-centric. Through this, the schools will build a reputation of being thought leaders in the industry, and their brand recall will be strengthened in the market.

The Author

Shams Eneim is a digital marketing enthusiast, with a customer centric mindset. Being a parent herself, and having worked as an Admissions Manager with one of the largest education providers in the UAE, she is privy to the customer journey from both perspectives.

Outside of work, Shams is kept busy being a life long learner, and raising her three kids to be responsible for making the world a better place.