3 things I’ve learnt from another challenging year in school marketing
I recently attended a COBIS Marketing and Admissions virtual networking event. It was first thing in the morning for some and evening for others, as schools from around the world (including Doha, Luxemburg and Mexico) tuned in. Regardless of our different time zones and varying locations, we could all agree that it has been another challenging year for school marketing.
“We can’t show parents around the School due to SOPs,” said one.
“Our School has been doing virtual learning for the last 9 months. How am I supposed to generate quality social media content?” said another.
We could have spent the next 8 hours discussing, comparing and deliberating the hurdles we’ve faced as marketers over the last 12 months. But, what was more insightful was the creative and inspiring solutions that many of these marketing professionals had come up with, despite the restrictions.
As we look forward into the next academic year, it’s important we accept that the school marketing landscape has completely changed. The question we now need to ask ourselves is, how do we adapt and reimagine our marketing strategies to meet the new expectations of parents?
Here are 3 valuable things that I have learned from the last year in school marketing:
A good school website is essential
After months of doing everything online and from the comfort of our own homes, society’s expectations of online experiences are now higher than ever before. If your website isn’t mobile friendly or easy to navigate, you could marr the reputation of your school and website traffic will inevitably decline.
At the start of this year, we launched a new school website with award-winning agency, Interactive Schools (click here if you’re interested!). While it's a MASSIVE task to launch a new website, I strongly believe that the investment in time, money and resources is worthwhile.
Virtual tours are useful (and easy to make!)
For many schools, face-to-face campus tours are still a thing of the past. Gone are the days where a parent could view your impressive facilities, look in on classes and really get a “feel” for the atmosphere of the school. Whilst it’s difficult to replicate the same experience, a virtual tour embedded into your website could be the next best thing.
Virtual tours can be outsourced to a professional company. Or, they can be made inhouse with a smartphone or a 360 degree camera. I used an Insta360 and built the tour using an online program called Kuula.
Be proactive in seeking user generated content
Good quality social media content might not feel as available as it used to. Most schools are conducting online or hybrid learning, and SOPs have negatively impacted sports competitions and events which would usually provide an abundance of engaging content.
Now is the time to be more proactive in seeking out those unique moments and special stories within your school community. Encourage parents, teachers and students to share their achievements with you - big or small! User generated content frequently receives a higher level of engagement and it illustrates to parents that an excellent standard of education is still being provided at your school.
Parent expectations are higher than they’ve ever been. Don’t be afraid to adapt your marketing strategy and try something different. This may be our “new normal” and the future may be hard to predict.
But where there are challenges, there are also opportunities.