With falling enrollment threatening revenue, private schools need compelling promotions to attract new students. This post shares ten enrollment tactics to showcase your school, spur inquiries, and drive enrollment.
Top 10 Promotional Activities for Private Schools to Boost Enrollment
Immerse Parents and Students in a Virtual Open House and Interactive Campus Tours
Leverage virtual reality or interactive online platforms to provide immersive campus tours. Engage parents and students in a virtual walkthrough, showcasing facilities, classrooms, and extracurricular spaces. Research shows a positive correlation between virtual tours and enrollment rates.
For example, the fictional school, Greenfield Academy, uses online tours to showcase science labs, their performing arts center, and sports facilities.
Position Your School as a Leader in Education
Host webinars featuring your school's educators discussing educational trends, innovative teaching methods, and the unique aspects of your curriculum. This positions your school as an authority in education and fosters a connection with the audience.
Greenfield teachers share how they use personalized learning apps, creative projects, and other innovative teaching techniques to engage students through their free webinars.
Showcase Alumni Success Stories
Share compelling success stories of your alumni, emphasizing how your school played a pivotal role in their achievements. Alumni success stories serve as powerful testimonials, influencing parents' decisions.
Greenfield could highlight alumni who went on to top colleges or careers who credit the school’s programs, mentors, or opportunities.
Get Parents Actively Involved With Parent-Teacher Collaborative Events
Organize events where parents can actively participate in their child's learning experience. Workshops, seminars, and interactive sessions strengthen the bond between parents, teachers, and the school community.
Inviting parents to Greenfield to participate in S.T.E.A.M workshops, coding camps, or other interactive on-campus events alongside their child helps them to highlight their programs and encourage more parent involvement.
Social Media Campaigns: Increase Visibility Among Target Demographics
Utilize platforms like Instagram and Facebook to share engaging content. Regular posts featuring student achievements, faculty spotlights, and glimpses into campus life create a vibrant online presence.
Greenfield’s admissions director used part of their marketing budget (about $500) to run ads showcasing Greenfield’s performing arts programs and champion sports teams. This brief campaign allowed the school to reach prospective parents interested in these programs on Facebook.
Strategic Partnerships and Discounts With Local Businesses
Collaborate with local businesses to offer exclusive discounts or benefits to your school community. This not only adds value to your offering but also strengthens community ties.
Greenfield can offer families special deals and discounts by partnering with area businesses, building goodwill.
Host Open Houses with a Twist: Show off Student Ingenuity and School Facilities
Transform traditional open houses by incorporating fun and interactive elements. Consider theme-based open houses or student-led tours to make the experience memorable.
Greenfield hosts an interactive open house every year when enrollment starts, where students demonstrate projects while prospective families can tour the campus.
Monthly School Spotlight Email and Blog
Maintain an informative blog on your school's website, covering education trends, parenting tips, and school updates. Newsletters can keep parents informed about upcoming events and achievements.
Because Greenfield faculty, academic programs, community service initiatives, and other points of pride are essential to the school, parents, and current students, they send monthly emails to prospective parents highlighting these exciting articles from their blog.
Scholarship Programs
Introduce scholarship programs to recognize and reward academic excellence. Highlight success stories of scholarship recipients, showcasing your commitment to educational advancement.
Greenfield has considered offering partial-tuition scholarships to attract talented low-income students based on academic criteria such as test scores and GPA.
Personalized Nurture Campaigns
Implement targeted email campaigns providing valuable insights about your school, curriculum highlights, and success stories. Personalized communication builds a lasting connection.
By sending customized emails or drip campaigns to prospective parents, Greenfield can stay on the top of parents' minds when inviting families for campus visits.
Conclusion:
Take a proactive approach to implementing these strategies, considering your unique school culture and goals. Measure success and prioritize tactics by tracking metrics like:
- Virtual Tours: Website traffic, time spent on page, tour registration
- Webinars: Registration, attendance, satisfaction surveys
- Alumni Stories: Website traffic, social shares, enrollment inquiries
- Parent Workshops: Event sign-ups, satisfaction, referrals
- Social Media Ads: Impressions, engagement rate, link clicks, cost per registration
- Local Discounts: New business partners, deal usage rate
- Open House: Attendance, enrollment rate of attending families
- Email Newsletters: Open rate, click-through rate, unsubscribe rate
- Scholarship Program: Applicants, awards given, enrollment yield
- Personalized Emails: Open rate, reply rate, campus visit bookings
Tracking these metrics for each activity will reveal the tactics that deliver the highest return on investment and engagement.
By taking a proactive approach and implementing these strategies, considering your unique school culture and goals, you should be set up for success. For more advice or help executing these promotional activities, feel free to contact me – I’m here to help you make your private school stand out!
