Is your district putting more emphasis on marketing this year?
Are you feeling the pressure from private and charter schools in your area?
School marketing is becoming more important as competition is increasing for public schools across the country. It is time for school districts to embrace marketing. If you remember anything form this podcast, make sure to know that marketing is an investment… not an expense.
Marketing is an Investment... Not an Expense
In Part 2 of this article, you’ll discover four more simple tips to improve your school marketing.
Let's Recap Part 1
School Marketing is about using tools to get more parents to enroll their children in your schools and keep them there. School Marketing is also about getting more community members to support your schools more often so your school district succeeds.
In part 1 we discussed these important tips:
- Live Video for Marketing
- Google Analytics
- Marketing Success with Facebook Ads
- The Facebook Pixel
Improving Your School Marketing
5. Content Marketing with Lead Magnets
Content marketing is about being useful. Give your audience something that will help them make an informed decision. Hopefully a decision that will result in them choosing your district.
Before anything else, the most important thing you can do is to educate them before you sell to them. You goal should be to create content that educates your audience.
"You goal should be to create content that educates your audience."
And a lead magnet is just that… a piece of content that is so valuable that your audience will give you something to get that content. Most of the time it is their email address.
My district has had great success using this technique with parents of preschoolers to market our kindergarten program. We offered a Kindergarten Milestone Checklist to parents if they signed up for our Kindergarten Email Newsletter.
6. Creating Niche Email Lists
From our Kindergarten Newsletter we have had several families choose CFBISD as their district of choice for their incoming kindergartner. Our newsletter focuses on tips and techniques for parents as their child begins school for the first time. It is in partnership with our district parent blog, School-A-Hoop.
Much like our Kindergarten Digital Newsletter, we have created several niche email lists to meet the needs of the different groups in CFBISD. General district newsletters can be fine, but the real power comes with niche lists, with content for a specific group who has specific questions.
Past Article Alert: How to Use Email to Make a Powerful Impact
There is too much data and too many tools to not know what people want in your district. And everybody's wants are not the same. Your athletic parents do not want the same information and help as your fine arts parents. You elementary school parents are more concerned with what is happening in elementary school at the moment.
Here is a sample of "Niche Lists" we have created in CFBISD:
- Fine Arts Parents
- Athletic Parents
- STEM TIPS
- Pre-K Parents
- High School Programs
- CFBISD Alumni
- Over 65 in the Community
Our list are influenced by our data and well thought out. Niche content is emailed to them in hopes they choose CFBISD, or remain as a proud parent.
7. Stop Worrying About Likes
So many people on social media are concerned with likes. All I can say is... social media is not a popularity contest. It's about finding the right audience who is going to engage with your content.
The Order of Importance of Social Media Engagement (Least to Best):
- Likes/Hearts
- Comments
- Shares/Retweets
Worry about engagement, not if someone likes you.
Likes can be good to build an audience who is going to share, but make sure they are the right likes.
8. Build Audience Personas
You must know your audience to be able to create content that they will consume. Building audience personas is crucial for each of your campaigns.
Everybody is different, but similar groups bubble to the surface when you do the research.
Many leading content marketing blogs have used this great quote from Ardath Albee to define Audience Personas:
"A marketing persona is a composite sketch of a key segment of your audience. For content marketing purposes, you need personas to help you deliver content that will be most relevant and useful to your audience."
The key statement I see is "help you deliver content that will be most relevant..."
Defining your audience can help with many different things including campaign management, social media paid ads, and video marketing.
Hubspot has an excellent Buyer/Audience Persona template to help brainstorm and build your audiences. We use them in our district to help organize the process.
Conclusion
All school districts should start thinking about school marketing. It's an investment that all districts will need sooner than later.
With increased competition from all types of educational establishments, it is better to start now to be ahead of the game. Remember, you are investing in the future of your school district.
What do you think? Will you try these school marketing techniques?
Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
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