As a private school principal, administrator, or board member, you may be wondering the best ways to market your school. The problem is that promoting your private school was as easy as sending out brochures or postcards to families. Then you could sit by the phone and wait for it to ring with eager parents begging for appointments. The harsh reality is that these traditional marketing methods simply don’t work as they once did.

Today we live in an increasingly crowded and noisy online space with private schools vying for the attention of families searching for the best education for their children. Families have more options than ever, and information is thrown at them everywhere. It can be challenging for a private school to break through the noise and reach the parents looking for the right fit for their family.

The question then becomes what can you do to ensure your private school gets noticed and makes a real impact in the minds of parents making decisions about their children’s education.

One surefire way to increase your chances of getting recognized and gaining more students is through content marketing.

What is Content Marketing?

Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as “a strategic marketing approach of creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – intending to drive profitable customer action.”

In other words, content marketing promotes an organization or school by creating and sharing helpful and interesting information with people instead of just trying to sell them something.

Imagine you have a lemonade stand and want to sell more lemonade. Instead of just standing there with a sign that says “Lemonade for Sale!” you could also give out free samples and recipes to show people how good it is. That’s kind of like content marketing. You’re not just selling lemonade, you’re sharing information that people will find helpful, valuable, and interesting, and that will help them want to buy your lemonade.

With content marketing for private schools, you may use various mediums such as:

• Blogs
• Videos
• Social Media Posts
• E-books
• Infographics
• Reviews and Testimonials

The main thing is to educate and engage the families in a non-intrusive way so that they will see your school as a reliable source of information and be more likely to enroll their child in the future.

Does Content Marketing Work for Private Schools?

The short answer is yes! Education requires a different approach from traditional businesses but is similar enough that many of the same techniques can be used. With that being said, here are some business world statistics to reinforce my point:

• Compared to traditional marketing efforts, content marketing generates 3x as many leads. (Source: HubSpot)
• Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional outbound methods. (Source: Demand Metric)
• 9 out of 10 marketing pros surveyed by Semrush achieved success with their content marketing in 2021. (Source: Search Engine Journal)

Here are the significant benefits of using content marketing for your private school:

Top 10 Ways Content Marketing Can Help Private Schools Increase Enrollment

1. It Builds Trust With Potential Students And Families

Content marketing’s primary goal is to create content sharing knowledge and facts about your educational services and school with current and prospective students and families. It’s best to create content focused on a specified niche that makes everything you write and produces more relevant to a particular target audience.

For instance, your main focus is providing quality education focused on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Then share knowledge about it through blogging and writing blog posts about the different approaches and methodologies used to teach it. More so, you can create infographics that illustrate statistics and other information on the benefits of studying STEM and how it can positively impact a student’s future.

Having this kind of content on your blog or website attracts more students and their families and builds trust with everyone visiting your website. This only shows that you have a good grasp of what you’re offering and know more than enough about the education industry and your institution.

2. Builds Brand Authority

Another benefit of having a content marketing strategy for your private school is you become an authoritative figure within the education industry. This allows you to be the go-to resource for your website visitors and current and prospective students and their families.

To do this, you need to:

• Answer people's questions: It helps you connect with more people and become a “go-to” place for people who are seeking answers to questions related to your educational focus or the care that your institution provides.
• Use reviews and testimonials: These will both aid you in presenting your expertise in certain subjects and approach to education and emphasize your school’s greatness.

3. Create Brand Awareness

Content marketing is an excellent way to create more brand awareness around your school, and all you have to do is create content that is valuable and relevant to them.

For example, you can use social media to post simple infographics that catch the attention of families interested in your school. As previously mentioned, focus on a certain set of people to target. So, for instance, if your private school focuses on STEM education, maybe you can share some tips on encouraging students to pursue a career in STEM fields.

By doing this, you’re not only offering valuable tips and information to the people who might see your posts on social media, but you also somehow promote your brand by providing them with content that is relevant to them, showing how knowledgeable you are in the education industry and your institution.

4. Boosts Organic Search Visibility

More often than not, when people open their browsers, they type a keyword or phrase into a search engine such as Google. Then, that search engine immediately shows the most relevant information to the user based on their search query. So private schools must understand local search engine optimization (SEO) to boost their visibility.

As you create more expert content by sharing relevant and useful information to your target audience, search engines recognize that the content you produce is essential. It answers the most in-demand questions that people are searching for. This way, your pages (and posts) will rank higher on the search engine results pages (SERPs).

A good example might be if your private school is in a rural community. You could write blog posts or create social media graphics about what makes your school an excellent opportunity for those in your local community. As a local school, you also have a greater grasp of the community’s quirks, concerns, and pain points. Use them in your marketing materials and to your advantage.

5. Generates Leads for Your Independent School

After building your brand awareness and having authority within the education industry, another great thing about content marketing is it attracts prospective students and their families. And rightly so! Content marketing allows others to see your website and other content through your useful and informative marketing materials.

According to a Demand Gen report, 7 out of 10 consumers consumed at least three pieces of content in the purchase process. Now think about what parents might be doing for their children. I care to be higher than that.

Therefore you need to have a plethora of comprehensive content that discusses a certain aspect to attract more leads interested in what you’re offering. The thing is, we all need leads to be able to enroll students, and this is one of the goals of content marketing: to reach these leads.

6. Attracts Prospective Students and Families

As you know, having a good number of leads is great. But if they’re unqualified leads, they’re close to nothing. You need to attract ideal families interested in enrolling their children in your school.

Content marketing enables your private school to attract prospective families through the content you’re producing and letting people know of your expertise and values.

While you may have a narrow pool of people you are targeting, the good news is that by putting content out there that targets these families, you can automatically filter out the poor fits before they even reach out. These can save you and your staff time, energy, and money.

7. Keeps Your Private School Website Fresh and Relevant

Content marketing allows you to create content for your private school’s website consistently. And when you regularly create comprehensive and meaningful content related to your school and educational philosophy can also be valuable to your target audience. As you create content, also be sure to link back to your older content, as Google and all the other search engines love seeing the relationships.

8. Creates backlinks for SEO

Having expert content that is always updated, relevant, and authoritative will help you become more visible not only to prospective students and families but also to other businesses or organizations that are related to yours or share your same values. More often than not, they also have their own marketing strategies and techniques in place. So they’ll be researching for content that talks about the topic their business is related to.

Creating comprehensive and evergreen content can boost your chances of getting a backlink, which is a link created when a website links to another. Having more high-quality backlinks is good for SEO, as it increases your website traffic and visibility.

9. Generates a Great Return On Investment

I already mentioned that content marketing generates 3x as many leads compared to traditional marketing efforts and can cost over 60% less than print ads, billboards, postcards, and brochures.

With content marketing producing three times more leads, it’s important to note that this also increases website traffic, including new prospects, social media shares, and brand visibility. Although these metrics can be considered mere vanity metrics, they are still important to be aware of and look at.

10. A Subtle Way of Promoting Your Private School

As mentioned, content marketing aims to produce and share relevant and valuable content with your target audience. By implementing a solid marketing strategy for your private school, you can share knowledge and information with everyone, especially those interested in your school.

To say we have reached the point of advertisement fatigue is an understatement. It is said that the average U.S. consumer is exposed to 10,000 messages a day. Content marketing addresses this issue by subtly promoting your school without overtly selling to prospective families.

For example, as a private school, you can create a mini-guide on education topics, STEM techniques, and other informative content that educates or entertains people, making them interested in the education industry.

Conclusion

In conclusion, there are many reasons why you should implement a content marketing strategy for your private school. With the rise of online education markets, it is important for private schools to market themselves effectively.

Now that you understand the benefits of having a content marketing plan and strategy, you might want to start your content marketing project immediately. If you need assistance from an expert, reach out to me today!