A well-planned open day allows parents and students to experience your School beyond its website and prospectus. It is a great opportunity for prospective parents to connect with current pupils and staff and get a real insight into what life is like at your School. When a school open day campaign is done right, it can boost your enrollment and elevate your School’s profile. But when managed poorly, it can become costly, yielding little return on investment.
In this guide, we’ll explore key strategies to help you plan, promote and execute a successful open day marketing campaign that engages your target audience, maximises your sign-ups, and positions your School as a top choice for prospective families.
Early planning is the key
The more time you invest upfront, the smoother everything will go later on. Ideally, you should start planning everything 4 weeks ahead of your event. This gives you plenty of time to craft a detailed plan and avoid a last-minute rush. You should start creating a specific timeline with tasks like promotional material design, venue set up, printing, etc.
Leverage data
Using data to guide your planning is critical as it gives you an insight into what works really well. Use this information when planning your next open day. Key analytics that you should look for for your open days are the number of sign-ups, conversion rates of those sign-ups into admissions, and feedback from your visitors.
SEO for visibility
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) plays a key role in ensuring your School appears at the top of search engine results. By using the right keywords you can attract prospective students and parents who are actively looking for open days local to them.
Add these keywords naturally to your open day landing pages and blogs. Use specific, location-based keywords in your page titles to attract parents searching for schools nearby like: Open days independent school in London or Open Days – Your School’s Name followed by your School’s location name. Also, include action-oriented keywords in your metadescription such as Join us at your (School’s name) for an Open Day or include the dates of your next open days such as Open Events Available – (Day) (Time).
Also, remember that SEO takes time to show results. To attract visitors before your open day, publish your page weeks ahead of the event.
Use Google Ads
Google Ads helps you reach the right audience for your School’s open day by targeting specific groups actively searching for schools. Create clickable ads using relevant keywords with high search volume and low competition to get the best value. Set a daily budget to control spending and track results in Google Analytics to see what works and adjust as needed.
Use ad extensions to add helpful details, like your School’s address, phone number, or links to key pages. Keep search ads running consistently for steady results, and add display ads closer to the open day.
Plan PPC ads
Paid Social Media Advertising is an additional avenue when it comes to targeting prospective parents to join your open events. On Facebook, through its detailed demographic targeting, you can focus on parents according to their specific attributes like location, age, interests and past behaviours. For example, you can target parents in a specific city showing interest in educational content. Facebook’s event features also are a valuable tool for promoting your open days. You can create event pages to allow parents to RSVP, ask questions, share the event with friends and receive reminders and updates. With Facebook’s other capabilities, you can also use testimonials, videos and photos to showcase your open days. Plus Facebook advertising is highly-customisable and cost-effective, enabling you to maximise your marketing budget whilst achieving your desired results.
Also, Instagram is a great way to capture the flavour of your School’s community with eye-catching content. Whether it’s through stories, reels or ads you can showcase everything from vibrant photos to short, engaging videos.
By leveraging our established owned platforms of Absolutely Magazines, Absolutely Education and the marketing expertise of our Digithrive team, you can extend your reach to a high-net-worth audience who are actively seeking premium educational options for their family.
Drive interest with email marketing
Email marketing is another effective way to drive attendance for your open days. Start by building targeted lists with parents with children moving up to a new year group but also with parents who are actively looking to admit their children to a school. Make your emails engaging, informative and action-oriented with clear calls to action to guide the recipients to register for your events.
Use compelling subject lines to increase your open rates and ensure your main body covers all the details of the events. Showcase benefits of attending your events like meeting the admissions team who will be able to answer questions, exploring the school environment and any presentations that you will plan. Include eye-catching visuals, concise information and prominent clickable links leading to your registration page.
Leverage social media posts
To increase your open day’s sign-ups, create posts that highlight the date of your upcoming open days.
Select the right platforms where your target audience is most active such as Facebook and Instagram and tailor your messaging accordingly. You can use a mix of visuals such as photos and videos of your School’s facilities and past events’ highlights.
Have a high-coverting landing page
A foundational element of your open day strategy is having a landing page that would convince families attending your event.
Your landing page should be designed to make parents see what makes your School unique. Including a dynamic video brings your School community into life. This could be showing scenes from your school building to providing real stories from your students or their families.
Signing up to your events should be easy with a simple form only asking the required information from your prospective parents. Plus, parents need to be able to find all the information needed for the event like date, time and what they can expect to learn from this event.
After registering, your form should send parents a thank you page that confirms their spot, provide any additional information or offer calls-to-action leading to blogs or news of your School.
Use page pop-ups
Page pop-ups are a great way to capture the attention of prospective parents for your next open events. Strategically place them on your high-traffic pages such as your homepage, your admissions section and other high-traffic pages using Google Analytics. Add images and calls-to-action to make parents want to sign-up.
Print Advertising
Even with the growth of digital media, print still plays a key role in reaching local audiences. By using both online and offline methods, you can expand your reach and strengthen your School’s presence in the area that your School is located. Using local magazines, or established Education titles can offer great brand awareness.
Follow up on leads
Following up with leads is key, but it’s all about finding the sweet spot. Reach out too often and you risk being a bother, or too infrequent and your prospects will lose their interest.
Keep them in the loop with updates about your School’s achievements, new developments, and stories from students and staff that reflect what they’re looking for in a school. Scale your efforts when your sign up deadline approaches.
By combining smart pre-event marketing, engaging activities during the event, and following-up after, your School’s open day can have a big impact when it comes to attracting new families.
If you’re interested in exploring opportunities for your School to thrive both online and in print, contact us now.