Private school marketing warrants time, money, and resources that can be difficult to come by. Traditional marketing worked in the past, but digital marketing has become the most effective way to attract new students. Regardless of your budget, your school can use digital marketing strategies to stay relevant without spending too much money.
Top 10 Marketing Ideas For Private Schools
1. Evaluate and Optimize Your Website
Many families will have decided to enroll in your school before submitting an application in today’s digital world. As a result, it’s critical that your website is easily accessible and answers families’ questions in an easy-to-understand manner.
Considering a website redesign? These articles may help:
- Tips For a Prospect-Focused School Website
- How to Increase Enrollment at a New Private School
- 8 Great Strategies to Boost Private School Enrollment
- Increase Conversions on Your Private School Website
2. Publish Blog Posts Regularly
While finding the time to blog regularly can be difficult, a blog can position your school as an expert on educational topics, improve your school’s website in search, increase enrollment, and boost retention. A blog is the foundation of an inbound and content marketing strategy, providing you with content to share on social media. Do you need some ideas for school blog topics? Click here for “101 Blog Ideas for Christian Private Schools.”
3. Optimize Your Site for Search Engines
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a broad and significant factor in helping to get your website found on search engines. There are two essential pieces, technical SEO and on-page SEO. You will want to ensure you are following best practices regarding the technical aspects of optimizing your site. These include the title tag and meta description that show up in the search results, keywords used in the page’s content, and proper naming of images and multimedia.
You must also consider how your site fairs in the local search market. This is often referred to as local SEO, and is an important marketing strategy for schools. Local SEO will help you show up in the Google 3-pack and on Google maps, among others. By showing up here, allowing families will be able to calculate the distance from home or work.
If you want to learn more about SEO and Local SEO, check out these links:
- What Is Local SEO? A Comprehensive Guide to Local Search
- Local SEO Checklist
- 10 Best Ways to Improve Your Local SEO
- Local SEO: The Definitive Guide (2022)
- A Comprehensive Guide to Local SEO in 2022
4. Create a Solid Social Media Strategy
Sharing engaging content on social media channels will allow your school to convey a sense of connection while also building community with students and parents. Social media should be used to keep families up to date on school activities, events, and news and to promote educational content from your blog.
5. Adopt Marketing Automation
By automating repetitive tasks such as social media posts and emails, marketing automation can be a handy marketing tool. Christian private schools that invest in marketing automation often find an increase in productivity and enrollments. To learn more about marketing automation for private schools, click here: “5 Benefits for Using Automation to Market Your Private School.”
6. Email Marketing
Email marketing for schools is one of the most effective marketing tools available. Everyone checks their email, most of the time, several times per day!
On social media, it’s easy to click “follow,” but when it comes to email, people don’t always want to give those out. If they do, they are interested in what your school offers. A well-tailored email list can be beneficial when trying to market something.
- Create an email opt-in on your website.
- Offer a free download to entice prospective families to give you their email addresses.
- Send regular emails to your list.
- Start a free monthly email newsletter.
- Use A/B testing to find out how effective your email campaigns are, and think about dividing your list so you can better target the interests of your market.
- Perfect your email signature.
- Use an email service like HubSpot, Mailchimp, Constant Contact, etc., to manage your list.
7. Share Success Stories From Your School
People, including students and parents, enjoy stories. They want real examples of your program in action, not just the latest statistics about how great your school is. Use testimonials and real-life examples to demonstrate the success of your educational programs. This will give parents the information they need to decide whether or not to enroll their children in your school.
8. Develop Parent Personas
Parent personas are based on the characteristics of your ideal target audience. They are used to target your marketing efforts to parents who are likely to enroll their children in your school.
9. Video Marketing
Video continues to be one of the best marketing strategies of our decade. If it isn’t already, video marketing should be central to your outreach and campaign efforts. It is a versatile tool that can be used throughout the entire parent enrollment journey.
10. Invest in Pay-Per-Click Ads (PPC Ads)
Pay-per-click (PPC) ads are a type of online paid advertising. PPC ads, such as those from Google or Facebook, can be an excellent way to direct traffic to a landing page. Schools can use Google Ads to optimize for relevant keywords. Facebook Ads are effective because of the granularity of audience targeting available if you have an extensive enough list. Well-written ads will address families’ needs and encourage them to visit a landing page.
A retargeting advertising campaign is typically one of the most effective uses of a private school marketing budget. These campaigns enable private schools to show advertisements to users who have visited their website or, at the very least, searched for terms related to their Christian school.
Final Thoughts
Private school marketing ideas can range from small to more extensive and aggressive growth plans. The key to success is to consistently carry out your marketing strategy. The marketing ideas for private schoolsmarketing ideas for private schools listed above will assist your private school in ensuring that you are discovered by parents who are likely to enroll their child(ren) in your school for your private Christian education.
