Increasing student enrollment is a key concern for all schools, and with the right marketing strategy, you’ll be able to boost pupil recruitment even further. In this article, we will discuss some of the ways in which you can update and enhance your campaigns. In a competitive education sector, implementing our tips could make a difference in helping your school stand out.
Utilise multiple channels
A multi-channel approach means that you use multiple platforms to reach your audience. This includes social media platforms, such as Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, email marketing, website marketing, in-person events and traditional print media. It is essential to understand how customers interact with each platform to tailor your advertisements to feel appropriate. For example:
A social media post might have a casual tone on Twitter or Instagram, but sound more formal on LinkedIn.
Email newsletters need to avoid feeling like spam, so an informative and open tone, with succinct and easy-to-read copy is a good approach.
Data and Analytics
Measuring the success of a marketing campaign can be difficult, at Capsule we use tools such as Google Analytics and Social Media insights to assess and readjust strategies during the campaign. Knowing how to read the data that these tools provide can help you to improve outcomes and ultimately save on costs, as you can make ineffective ads more targeted.
We use A/B testing to identify the most compelling messages for the audience. By running two distinct sets of creative, we can learn which copy leads to more click-throughs, sign-ups or whatever else is the aim of the campaign. This may inform ‘Phase 2’ copy, or might just mean that the more successful copy runs longer.
Creating Compelling Content
The focus for educational content should be on high-quality, professional content which highlights the strengths of the school. Visual content is an essential part of this, and incorporating photos and videos into your marketing campaign can help you to demonstrate the school community and day-to-day life.
All of your content can be engaging, try exploring student and parent testimonials, virtual and in-person tours, success stories and highlighting extracurricular and academic achievement. These will all help to convey exactly what is special about your school, so making this information easy to access on your website is important: try a dedicated ‘prospective students’ section.
Using the school community
One of the most common ways that new parents learn about good and bad schools in their area is through word-of-mouth anecdotes. Fostering strong connections with your current parent community can pay dividends in recruitment and retention. Read our article about email marketing for schools for ideas to keep in touch with your current parent community. You can also host open days where prospective parents can ask current parents questions about the school, offer workshops and seminars about attending the school, and participate in or host community events to build a stronger bond.
Exploring these options in your recruitment marketing campaigns could boost your enrollment, and will help you to build and nurture a good school image. For more tips, read our other school blog articles, or reach out to our team to discuss your next marketing campaign. Benefit from a team of creative individuals ready to collaborate with you.
