BOOSTING ENROLLMENT THROUGH INBOUND MARKETING FOR SCHOOLS

Transcription

1 BOOSTING ENROLLMENT THROUGH INBOUND MARKETING FOR SCHOOLS

2 A Dynamic School Presence 2 You need: Consistent branding A compelling content strategy The ability to measure conversions Better inquiry management Leads nurtured into your admissions funnel Brand ambassadors on social media

3 School Marketing Who is your customer? Who is selling your school? What is OUTBOUND marketing? What is INBOUND marketing?

4 The Pieces 4 WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO DEVELOP A COMPREHENSIVE INBOUND MARKETING STRATEGY? å Branding Develop a cohesive brand voice and image from your school website to your social profiles. B Content Put an emphasis on SEOoptimized content that can help draw prospective families to your school. å C L å Lead Generation, Nurturing A comprehensive lead generation and lead nurturing strategy can help boost inquiry conversions and applications. A Ambassadors Your school community is your best brand ambassador. Their engagement on your website, blog and social profiles rounds out a successful school marketing plan. å

5 Start With Your Website 5 g 5 Content & Design A school website needs to be beautiful and functional. The content should be upto-date, easy to access and SEOoptimized. Mobile-optimized Your inquiries and applications will suffer if parents cannot fill them out from their mobile device or tablet. Integration Integrate your website with your SIS, fundraising campaigns, social efforts and more!

6 Consistent Social Branding 6 What is your school s voice and mission? Are those accurately reflected across all your social media platforms? Logo Tagline Content type Content voice

7 Instagram Logo Adjust for avatar restrictions. Video Dynamically feature your school. Repetition Don t be afraid to show off your brand. Promotion Send people to your website.

8 Facebook 8 Logo Adjust for avatar restrictions. Video Dynamically feature your school. Connect Engage parents and alumni. Promotion Send people to your website.

9 Twitter 9 Logo Adjust for avatar restrictions. Cross Post Link your social accounts. Connect Engage parents and alumni. Promotion Send people to your website.

10 School Blog 10 r 1 Regular Updates Post at least once per week. Dynamic Content Include photos and video whenever possible. a d Student-Generated Content Content created by students is more powerful than content created by faculty or administration. s Brand Awareness Create content that helps drive the mission of your school. Make It Personal Have a regularly featured admin or faculty columnist that can write content to help promote a personal connection with current and prospective students.

11 Benefits of Blogging 11 Increased Traffic r r 1 80% of daily visits are new. Blogs drive 53% more traffic. SEO Blogging is one of the best things you can do to boost your school s SEO. a 1 a Credibility Quality content and good design help establish credibility with leads. s Brand Awareness Enforce your school s message with the type of content you offer. s

12 Social Media Management and Monitoring 12 y mention.com Monitor social, news, websites, forums and more for mentions of your school. y SproutSocial.com SproutSocial is a powerful tool for engagement, publishing, monitoring and analytics. y hootsuite.com Hootsuite is similar to SproutSocial.

13 Content Creation - Graphics 13 CANVA.COM Y Easy Canva is an easy and affordable way to make compelling graphics for your school s social media profiles and blog.

14 Sample Graphics for Your School 14 CANVA.COM

15 Why You Need Inbound Marketing: x 12x 62% 9% Blogs Businesses with over 200 total blog posts generate Facebook Businesses with over Keep Costs Down Inbound marketing costs b F Ĉ 1,000 likes on Facebook 62% less than traditional 3.5x the leads of generate 12x more leads outbound marketing. l businesses with under 20 posts. than businesses with 25 fans or less. SEO Companies that blog have 9% more links to their website than companies that don t.

16 Lead Generation from Content & Social Marketing 16 Inbound marketing includes content marketing and social marketing. These can be designed specifically to bring in inquiries or to help inform potential parents about the things that make your school stand out. a ć 1 School Promotion Open Houses, school awards, family testimonials, student achievements. Show Not Tell Sports programs, music groups, extracurricular clubs, academic standards, classroom activities. Brand Ambassadors Students, parents and alumni acting as community participants. Student-Generated Content Student blog posts, photos, Instagram takeover, A Day in the Life series, fundraising.

17 The Inbound Marketing Timeline 1 j ATTRACT PROSPECTIVE FAMILIES Use your website, blog, social profiles, keywords and SEO-optimized pages to attract the attention of local families. m CONVERT TO INQUIRIES Visitors to each of your attraction points must be able to easily find a call-to-action whether it s a link, designated landing page, prominently placed button, or easy-to-find form. r CLOSE THE DEAL Communication is key. Develop a workflow that incorporates a comprehensive campaign to inquiries within your pipeline. b CREATE BRAND AMBASSADORS Continue your work by focusing on retention through community awareness and communication via and social profiles. Your brand ambassadors are now helping promote your brand.

18 Lead Generation from Search Engine Marketing (SEO) and Paid Ads 18 Facebook Twitter SEO Place Bids Promote Tweets Promote Accounts Daily or Lifetime Budget Promoted Posts Promote Page Clicks to Website/Conversions Video Views And more! FREE Inbound Marketing: Website (page titles, etc.) Blog posts Social content Incoming links biz.twitter.com facebook.com/business Google s SEO Starter Guide

19 Improve Your SEO to Help Drive Conversions 19 % Blog: A school blog with original and dynamic content is important. Blog % Social Media: Boost SEO by building a strong presence on social media. Social Media Keyword Research Directory Submission Website % % % Keyword Research: Research the keywords your audience would use to find you. Directory Submission: Google My Business, MySchoolAnywhere, GreatSchools, Private School Review, etc. Website: Add title tags, a sitemap, keyword rich content, headings and optimize your images with ALT properties.

20 Lead Conversions and Nurturing 20 Inquiry Form Parents should be able to inquire online. Tracking Always know the status of your inquiries and communicate with them often. Analytics Use Google Analytics to see how families are finding your inquiry and online application links. Are they social conversions? Going directly to the page?

21 Online Inquiry 21 SOME PEOPLE DON T LIKE TO USE THE PHONE Keep it Simple Many schools make it hard for prospective parents to find the inquiry link. Keep it in a high-visibility spot on your website. Know Your Data How many of your inquiries result in campus visits, applications, or enrollees? Find the gaps and fix them. Integration is Key Your inquiry and application funnel should be connected so you can get the most accurate view of your enrollment data. Consistent Follow-Up Establish a communications schedule for families who have submitted an inquiry. Inbound Links Link to your online inquiry page from your social media accounts. Promote Facebook posts about your school that contain your online inquiry link.

22 Online Application 22 SIMPLIFY THE APPLICATION PROCESS FOR FAMILIES AND FOR YOUR SCHOOL Attract More Applicants An online application process is appealing to today s tech-savvy parents. Track Applicants Track and monitor your real-time admissions funnel with the same strategic eye that higher education institutions do. Real-Time Marketing If you can see which families are in the process of applying, you can reach out and help guide them to the next step submitting an application. Application Fees Collect and process application fee payments online. No more checks. Simplify Admissions An online admissions process is simple for parents and for your team. Take hand-entering paper applications off your to-do list.

23 Lead Nurturing Using Strategic Communications 23 INCLUDE A CALL TO ACTION IN EACH COMMUNICATION 50% Day 1-50% If a family has taken the step to inquire, they re halfway there. What you do over the next month or two determines whether they enter your admissions funnel. 60% Day 2-60% the family personally. Send them your best marketing materials, whether it s a brochure, a video, or another marketing piece. 0% Day % Follow-up to the family. Provide an FAQ document and a sell sheet about your school.

24 Lead Nurturing Using Strategic Communication 24 INCLUDE A CALL TO ACTION IN EACH COMMUNICATION 80% Day 15-80% Drive the family back to your website. What are the points of interest on your website? Do you have testimonials, student blogs or a mission statement from your headmaster? Include a link to apply online. 90% Day % Give the family an idea of what a day in the life of a typical student looks like. Show academic schedules, extracurricular clubs, sports teams and music groups. 100% Day % Extend a personal phone call or to the family from the headmaster. Include a high level link to your online application.

25 Brand Ambassadors 25 RETENTION AND SATISFACTION HELPS LEAD NURTURING NEW PARENT SURVEY Ask new parents to fill out a survey to determine how successful your marketing and enrollment efforts were. TESTIMONIALS Once a new family is settled, consider collecting stories from them. Why did they select your school? What does their child like about school? Use this material to inform marketing content. NEW PARENT OUTREACH Continue to reach out to new families to connect them with your existing community. You can do this through regular phone calls, Parent Ambassadors, or encouraging social media engagement.

26 Engaging Brand Ambassadors 26 PARENTS, STUDENTS, AND ALUMNI CAN BE AMBASSADORS. HERE IS HOW TO REACH THEM: Fundraising. Annual Campaigns, fundraising events, ticket sales. v 2 Video. Use a combination of amateur video (Instagram) and polished marketing video (Vimeo). School Spirit. Live tweet sports games, celebrate school wins. t g Guest Blogging. Ask parents and alumni to submit blog posts. Photos. Photos of your campus, student body, teachers, classrooms, events and more. 1 Communication. Communicate. Overcommunicate. , social engage your school community everywhere.

27 Reinforce Your Branding Post-Acceptance 2 SHOW FAMILIES WHY THEY CHOSE YOU IN THE FIRST PLACE

28 Streamline Re-enrollment 28 MAKE IT EASY FOR PARENTS TO RE-ENROLL YEAR AFTER YEAR Speed Up Re-enrollment An online re-enrollment process speeds up the process for parents and staff. An End-to-End Solution Newly accepted and returning students use the same streamlined, online reenrollment process. Web Forms & Payment Student, Parent, and Grandparent demographic forms are pre-populated with existing data. Create custom forms that are specific to your school and collect an online registration fee from parents.

29 Inbound Marketing Success 29 s g ( % SEARCH: LEAD GENERATION & CREATE SUCCESS! Make your school easy to NURTURING: AMBASSADORS: Once all the pieces of the find and the end content Make it simple for families to Use your school community inbound marketing puzzle compelling enough to get more information about as a tool to help inbound come together, you are well- convince the families that your school. Track your marketing, enrollment and positioned to increase find you to make the next inquiries and applications in retention. inquiries, applicants, and step. This is where inbound real-time so you can retention you may even see marketing comes in. communicate effectively and a fundraising boost! convert them to applicants.

30 Keep In Touch 30 Jaclyn Day Director of Marketing and Communications Social Media Facebook.com/RenWebSchoolManagementSoftware Twitter.com/RenWebPower