Skip to main content

Why press releases and mailers aren’t enough marketing for schools, and what you can do

By September 20, 2019Uncategorized

Press releases, mailers, movie theater advertisements…they’re not enough marketing for schools anymore.

Why?

They’re expensive, they’re not trackable, and oftentimes it’s not where your audience is searching for you.

Don’t get us wrong, traditional marketing for schools is still important. We’re not saying to ditch all these methods. We’re just saying that it can’t be your only source of marketing if you want to see those enrollment and student retention rates soar.

Here’s the different forms of marketing for schools, and how you can incorporate them for your district:

Submit press releases for community awareness

It used to be that getting a story of your school in the news was everything. And sure, there is a lot of value to it still. But if you’re thinking a news story will increase ‘business,’ you’re going to find yourself disappointed.

Just tweak the angle of your press releases a little bit. The goal of these is to reach out to your community, and help people become more aware of your school. Think of sharing great student stories, new updates and anything else you think might be “newsworthy.” If the news publishes the story, you get back linked (meaning someone other than you links to your site) and people get to view your school in a good light.

Use traditional marketing for brand awareness

Traditional marketing includes anything that’s not ‘digital,’ meaning billboards, radio, mailers, movie theater ads, newspaper and magazine ads. They’re the forms of marketing we’re used to.

These work for enrollment, sure. But their best use is brand awareness, meaning you help people around you recognize your school and think about it more. The goal would be that they see a billboard or an ad and then search for you.

And that’s when you need to be ready on digital marketing….

Implement digital marketing for schools to build relationships and increase school enrollment…

Why do we love digital marketing so much? Well,

  • It’s cheaper than traditional marketing
  • It can be customized to your audience and location
  • You can build relationships with your ‘customers’
  • It helps you see what’s working well and what’s not and customize
  • You can track where students and parents found you, and what made them enroll

Now, about building the relationships…ever feel like all you did what think about, say, a new pair of shoes, and then all you see on the internet are shoe ads? You can be like that for your school.

Most people don’t just go to your website and think, “Where do I sign up?!” Some do, but most need to learn more and research their options before making a decision.

When someone goes to your website, searches for your school or something similar to it (ex; AwesomeSauce online high school vs. online high school), you should have ads placed on Google to track them and advertise to them. That way, you stay on the top of their minds.

Place Adwords (search terms on Google), Google display ads, remarking ads, digital newspaper, through the radio (email blasts and website ads), wherever you think your audience is going to be, advertise digitally there.

…And do the same on social media, while helping student retention

Social media is relatively cheap advertising you can track to see who goes to your website and converts from it.

It’s also where you can reach out to your current students and build a community for them to feel a part of something important. Posting daily geared toward your students can ultimately help with student retention rates.

For enrollment, you can advertise through social (mainly Facebook and Instagram) incredibly customized. Want to find only people who like pickles on their sandwhiches? Sure, you can do that.

This way, you reach out to the people who want to hear from you. You’re not wasting your dollars.

An expert can help you to see who is best to advertise to, help you ‘mirror you current audience’ and get that set up.

This can sound like a headache at first, and that’s why we’re here to help you out! We know digital marketing for schools like the back of our hand. If you’re ready to increase your school enrollment, build relationship with your community and increase retention rates, click on the button below.

Leave a Reply