School marketing has always been difficult, but in today’s digital age, it may be at its most competitive.
As new generations become more familiar with how to use the internet to find answers to their questions, the most important tool for making your school more appealing is to constantly monitor and update your digital marketing.
If you’re interested in ways to help your school attract new students through digital marketing, here are some tips that can achieve that!
Know Your Audience
In many cases, marketing (not just school-related) is solved by throwing more money at it and hoping for the best. What is frequently overlooked, or at least not thoroughly examined, is who your target audience is.
According to one survey, in general, marketing professionals looking to attract more clients know only about 40% of their target audience’s information (such as name, gender, and age, as mentioned in the study). The key to achieving your goal is to gather as much information as possible and to be as close to people interested in your school as possible. This will help you narrow down where you want to spend your time.
Nowadays, both parents and students are very familiar with modern technology, so include them in all strategic planning. Studies show that millennial parents use their phones for slightly more than 4 hours per day. Learn about how they spend their phone time, which social media apps they use, and what their interests are.
How can you learn about that?
There are a plethora of options, including surveys, Google Analytics, and asking questions on social media or your school’s website.
Optimize Your Website
What does optimizing your website actually mean?
Website optimization is the process of using tools, experiments, and strategic planning to improve your website’s visibility and accessibility.
Before taking the first steps toward improving your site, it’s best to know where you are currently. Use many of the free tools to test your current status, like SemRush and Web.com, among many others.
Let’s look at some ways you can improve your website:
- Implement UX/UI design: Commonly used as a single term UX( user experience) and UI (user interaction) are both important but separate aspects of a website:
- UX design focuses more on the technical aspects, as it considers the experience a user has with the usability of the product, branding, and everything in between, from entering the site to leaving it.
- UI design, on the other hand, has a visual role; it focuses on all aspects of user interaction. That includes the colors, animations, and sounds when you click, among other things
- Improving page SEO: On-page SEO (or search engine optimization) is the process of increasing your searchability on Google. The higher your rank, the higher the chance that someone will click on your site. The study shows the first search is clicked 27.6% of the time, while the 10th search has a 25.2% decline (2.4%). With students going on Google when searching for a school, it can benefit you greatly.
- Improve page speed: The longer the user has to wait, the higher the chance there is that he will leave your page without even entering it. Use sites like Pingdom Website Speed Test to test your speed.
- A/B testing: Also known as split testing, is the process of testing your site in real life for the first time. In short, the test considers showing one piece of marketing (A) to one group of audience and the second (B) to the second group of audience. With this, you can see what you need to improve and test it as many times as needed.
Get on Social Media
Social media has seen massive growth in the past decade or so. With its growth, companies saw an opportunity to use it as a marketing tool, so how can it be yours too?
Social media’s strongest aspect is engagement. An estimated 4.89 billion people use social media daily, so by being present on multiple social media platforms at once, you can attract many students.
Every social media platform has its own demographic. Millennials are the majority of people using Instagram, one of the most popular platforms in Malaysia. The other is TikTok, which saw a massive increase in its teen users.
What to Post?
Every platform has its preferred form of content, so you have a number of options to promote your business. For example, on Instagram, which is image-based, you can share pictures of your school or campus, parts of the school like the schoolyard, or even (with permission, of course) students and teachers themselves.
On the other hand, TikTok is filled with short-form content. By being creative, you have the opportunity to pop up on someone’s page in a much more fun way, which can result in increased engagement.
Platforms like Twitter/X or Facebook can be used as information tunnels. You can post school-related news, announcements, reviews from past or current students, and even parents themselves.
Whatever the platform, be sure to use it all to your advantage. Social media has the ability to track data, so always keep checking your likes, shares, and saves when posting something.
Finally, be active. It’s crucial to keep up with modern trends and answer every question and comment.
Pro tip: If your budget allows you, consider collaborating with influencers. This is a proven method for brand promotion and increasing your page visitors. Be extra careful when looking for someone to work with; they must be respectable and professional.
Offer Virtual Tours
Adding on to the previous point, you can make a virtual gallery to showcase your school, learning centre, or academy in the best light that can attract students while also creating a virtual binder of the school’s history.
The gallery can include pictures, videos (walking around the campus, for example), or any other form of visual representation of what you have to offer. By doing this, you can not only stockpile memories and past experiences but also get an up-close and personal look at what you have to offer.
Bonus tip: Focus on people; pictures and videos of happy students and faculty can really go a long way!
Streamline Your Enrollment Process
Enrollment is always stressful, but with just a few changes and additions, you can make sure the process for your students goes smoothly.
The easiest way to start is by digitalizing the process itself. As more and more students apply to schools via the Internet, it relieves their stress.
The best way to digitalize your learning centre is to implement AOneSchools, the number one tuition centre management system in Southeast Asia.
With AOneSchools, your student data will be organized in one place and really straightforward to use. Managing learning centres with this tuition centre management system is a breeze thanks to easy online registration, remote administration, attendance tracking, and much more.
This improved enrollment process will be beneficial for everyone, including students, their parents, your teachers and administrative workers, and you as a business owner.
Final Thoughts
Enrollment is a major part of every school system and can be a stressful process for both the students and the school itself.
But by using some of our tips, you can help boost your student numbers and take out stress for efficiency.
And if you are interested in implementing the tuition centre management system—AOneSchools—contact us and start your free demo!
