Independent school marketing strategies aim to entice potential students and their families to attend and apply to your school. A cohesive strategy is crucial for making your school relevant to your demographic in the short and long term.
If you want your independent school to be at the top of the educational spectrum, staying up to date with the latest school marketing trends and implementing them constantly is important. Therefore, this post looks at three major trends to monitor how to market an independent school and how to ensure its continued growth. We’ll discuss the rationale behind what I think should be your focus demographics, how you can effectively reach out to students and their parents, and how you can maintain their loyalty to your school through a solid online presence and digital marketing strategies.
1. Your Key Demographics
Despite the many biases and assumptions against millennials, many are quite inaccurate. The idea that they are high school teenagers or college freshmen whose whole world revolves around dating and social networking is perhaps the most pervasive of these myths. It's plain to understand that this stereotype doesn't hold now that millennials are between the ages of 27 and 42.
Simply stated, millennials are already the majority of the working population, and many have started or are about to establish their own families. This suggests that a significant portion of the parents of your prospective students would be from this age group, and a focused new parent marketing campaign centered on this audience has a high chance of increasing the school’s enrollment rate.
Furthermore, new moms comprise 46% of all women in their age group, comprising a sizable and growing portion of the millennial population. Regarding money management, mothers are often more familiar with day-to-day family expenditures.
Fewer Students Intensifies the Competition
The fact that 56% of people between the ages of 25 and 35 are childless is a fascinating recent statistic regarding the ongoing generational breakdown. This indicates that, despite being one of the most populous groups, they have not contributed to population growth. Consequently, fewer students are competing for your school’s available spots, intensifying the competition in the realm of independent school marketing.
Due to the smaller number of independent school applicants and the public perception that independent schooling is a privilege rather than a requirement, persuading parents to enroll their children in an independent school has been highly challenging.
Therefore, conducting in-depth research on this specific audience—millennial moms—is crucial as it will significantly broaden the scope of your school’s new parent marketing efforts. Considering their general behavioral patterns will lead to a stronger understanding and, consequently, a better likelihood of them enrolling their children in your educational institution.
2. Focus on Online Presence
The pervasive usage of technology and social media has caused a significant change in how people regard independent schools and how they respond to school marketing. Millennials are generally adaptive and digitally literate. With the internet, the world has become interconnected, and millennials utilize it to find solutions for almost anything. They engage with multiple social media platforms and spend considerable time on them. Therefore, focusing on millennials and their online habits is one of the most logical ways to advertise your school in the current day and age.
When searching for a new service or information, the majority of millennials turn to Google, with only about a quarter visiting official websites directly. For instance, when millennial mothers seek maternity leave and child care updates, 46% rely on Google rather than searching for individual products or blog entries.
Consequently, your independent school needs to enhance its online presence. More than 80% of all internet searches begin with general keywords like “best North Carolina kindergarten” rather than the specific facility’s name. To stay competitive in the market, your school’s website should expand and optimize its content with relevant search terms to improve its ranking in search results.
3. Embrace Personalization
Thanks to social media and commercial websites, users have been customizing their online experiences for years. In today’s world, personalization is necessary for all your digital materials. With numerous school options and abundant information, customization is key to making your content engaging and shareable.
Digital personalization goes beyond simply addressing prospective students or parents by their names in emails. It involves developing advertising strategies and user experiences around your target demographics’ interests and personal habits.
To achieve this, you need to understand your target audience's web behavior, challenges, expectations, and behaviors. This entails determining the type of content they want to see and how they prefer to consume it. Surveys can be an effective way to gather this information. Remember, the more data you have, the more precise your personalization can be.
Think big and embrace various forms of media, not just text. For example, you can personalize the headlines visitors see upon entering your website, recommend relevant articles based on their educational goals and desires, or invest in multiplatform videos that your community will share.
4. Invest in Video
The popularity of video content has never been higher. Incorporating video into your marketing strategy has become a necessity. It’s not just about having some form of video content; it’s about creating authentic and compelling videos. Nothing forges a connection with viewers like sharing personal stories. People are drawn to content that makes them feel good because it increases their likelihood of engaging, participating, or desiring more.
Utilizing platforms like Facebook, especially Facebook Live, for K-12 education marketing is a great starting point. Campuses offer excellent opportunities for capturing compelling live videos. You can live stream school events, in-class experiences, or lectures. Additionally, brief live chats on popular topics or day-in-the-life clips featuring actual student perspectives can be engaging. Live-streamed videos from school activities can also be repurposed as future content.
Apart from Facebook Live and YouTube, you can leverage live content on other social networking sites like Instagram and TikTok. These platforms are particularly popular among millennials and their children, who constitute the core demographic of your educational institution. You can share photos and short videos on these platforms and organize them into longer “Stories.” For example, a campus tour can be turned into an event or a platform for students and faculty to share their perspectives on campus life. Since all the social media platforms use hashtags, researching your student and family personas will help you identify relevant hashtags to help them discover your content.
By utilizing these platforms and creating visually appealing and engaging video content, you can effectively capture the attention and interest of your target audience. Whether showcasing student life, highlighting student achievements, or providing valuable insights into your educational approach, video content can make a lasting impact.
Remember to leverage the popularity of social media platforms among millennials and their parents to share and promote your videos. Encourage your school community to engage with and share your video content, as this will amplify its reach and increase brand awareness.
5. Tap Into the Influencer Culture
Word-of-mouth promotion has always been a crucial aspect of school marketing strategies. Schools have traditionally relied on word-of-mouth and their achievements to recruit and retain students. However, the rise of social networks has transformed the dynamics of this marketing approach.
It is logical to consider that one out of every five millennials seeks advice from others before making decisions. Seeking counsel is a natural step in the decision-making process. What makes millennials unique is their increased usage of social networking sites, which is twice as much as those over 37.
Instead of relying solely on one parent asking another for advice, parents now utilize the internet and social networking platforms to reach out to thousands of other parents through their online networks, including platforms like Facebook. Studies have shown that nearly four out of 10 of millennials use social media to make purchasing decisions. As a result, social media and the internet, in general, have become powerful platforms for independent school marketing.
Parents from this age group will likely conduct a quick Google search of your school and compare it to your competitors. Factors such as your website, online reviews, and social media presence all come into play during this stage of their research.
Incorporating influencers into your independent school advertising strategy is akin to word-of-mouth marketing, but it offers some distinct advantages. Word-of-mouth is especially valuable from a trusted third-party source that prospective parents can relate to and trust. Prospective parents know that you, as a school advocate, may have bias even if you provide accurate and relevant information.
Influencer marketing aims to identify individuals who align with your target audience, have a substantial following, and possess significant influence over your shared target audience. Influencers can assist in the distribution of articles or the creation of content that is relevant to the marketing of independent schools. Leveraging their reach and impact can amplify your school’s visibility and attract the attention of prospective parents.
By incorporating social media influencers into your marketing strategy, you can tap into their credibility and broad audience reach to promote your school effectively. Their endorsement and engagement can generate valuable exposure and engagement with your target audience, enhancing your school’s reputation and desirability among prospective students and their families.
Final Thoughts
As mentioned before, the ultimate goal of independent school marketing strategies is to encourage parents to enroll their children. Analyzing your parental demographics and developing targeted strategies to engage them through your online presence is crucial. Additionally, it is important not to overlook the power of word-of-mouth marketing and the influence of smaller networks when implementing influencer marketing strategies.
If you require assistance marketing your independent school, we invite you to contact us for a complimentary consultation. We would be delighted to offer our expertise and support to help you achieve your marketing goals.
