5 Essential Marketing Tips for Schools
You need to increase student numbers, fill beds, grow brand awareness and increase revenue. You know that marketing can help with this, but your budgets and manpower are limited. It’s a catch 22. Here's what you should be doing to break out of it.
1 - Digital, digital, digital
If you don’t already have a core digital focus to your school's marketing plan, you’re missing a trick. Digital marketing has exploded over the last few years, with mobile alone growing by an estimated 33% in 2017. The most successful schools, universities and companies now have digital search, engagement and retargeting adverts interwoven into their marketing strategy in order to reach international markets. And the best make sure it works seamlessly with traditional, offline channels.
2 - Go international
If you want to grow your student numbers quickly, with high-quality students to help boost your rankings and exam results, without the huge budgets - look to international student recruitment.
According to QS, the UK’s higher education system is the 2nd best in the world - just behind the US.That means that overseas parents and students are increasingly looking for routes into the world’s top higher education systems, with the English language (IELTS) requirements being a key hurdle that school education in an English-speaking country can help them overcome. So your potential future students are out there looking for you - you just need to make it easier for them to find YOU, than the competition.
3 - Keep it simple
This might sound counter-intuitive, but think about it. If you’re trying to attract overseas students, you will likely be having most of the application conversation with their parents.
While the world’s global economy is increasingly proficient in English, the levels of comprehension vary greatly between countries. For example, according to the English proficiency index, adults in countries such as Singapore and Hong Kong have high levels of English proficiency, whereas other Asian countries such as Cambodia and Thailand have relatively low levels of English. If you don't have the resource to have all your materials translated for your international target markets, make sure you write in ‘Plain English’. If parents and students don’t understand what you’re saying, they will find another UK school who they CAN understand.
4 - Get acquainted with email marketing
It’s already a key tool in the arsenal of the top UK universities recruiting internationally, but many schools haven’t yet harnessed the power of email marketing. A good email marketing strategy can help you semi-automate your communications (meaning less time needed to manage them) and can play a huge part in increasing your conversion rates (more on this in the next section). Use email marketing to build relationships with not only your enquirers and applicants, but your current students and agents too. It’s a cost-effective way to build greater brand loyalty and, ultimately, conversion. ActiveCampaign is a powerful email marketing and CRM tool that can make email communications and admissions processes seamless. (aff link).
5 - Convert, then convert again
It’s all very well doing all this ‘marketing’ activity, but how does it result in students in classrooms? The answer is: conversion. To make your marketing spend work harder, and to increase your return on investment, it is essential to have a conversion funnel and strategy in place. This will help you take enquirers generated by marketing activity, and turn them into paying students. But they will make you work for it. Remember: you’re probably not the only school an international student has applied to or enquired about. Keep your school front of mind and make the process easy for them to join you, and you’ll see your conversion rate increase!
To find out more about how to boost your school or institution’s marketing strategy, and how to reach international audiences, drop me a line at efell@attenger.com and I’ll get in touch to arrange a consultation call, and see how I can support your school’s objectives.
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