With partial closures of schools set to continue, now is a great time to complete the daily administrative duties you may not have time for during the usual busy term time. Not only will this help you drive leads and admissions during this period, it will also set you up with a great framework when normality returns. Digithrive for Schools round up the top things you can do when you are working from home as a school marketer.
Website improvements
Now is a great time to work on improving your school’s website. Go through each page on your website and make sure everything is updated with correct information and dates, as well as recent images. This is of vital importance when parents aren’t able to easily visit or call the school for more information.
Social Media strategy planning
Another facet of your school’s marketing you can work on during this time is your school’s social media pages – now more than ever people are spending a lot of time online, so being on social media will help you stay at the forefront of prospective parents and pupil’s minds. Start by analysing all past posts and seeing what worked best, so you can create more of the same successful content. Post updates continuously to show people that you are still a functioning school even during the lockdown. Make sure to promote any and all online lessons/ activities your school is holding. You can even make these lessons accessible to prospective pupils as well as current pupils, so they can get a feel of your school’s teaching style.
Working on your blog
Like with social media, getting a blog content strategy and calendar together will be very helpful to keep your school at top of your mind. Write some new content such as what measures your school is taking to continue educating during lockdown. Or write about resources pupils can use to learn from during this time. Having a great blog will mean that people continue to come back to your school’s website over and over again, allowing your school to become a trusted informational authority in people’s minds. At Digithrive for Schools we are experts in writing content – get in touch for a free consultation on how we can help you create effective content for your school.
School newsletters and email sequences
You can also use this time to improve upon your school’s newsletters or email sequences. Go through and update old templates, or create new ones and send them out regularly to keep current and prospective parents and pupils updated about your situation.
Newsletters should include updates, useful dates, links to material such as prospectuses, as well as links and times of any online classes or virtual open days your school may be holding. For sequences email newsletters we would recommend Hubspot, Mailchimp or GetResponse.
Virtual open days
Are you worried that your inability to host a physical open day may lead to a decrease in interest and, in turn, school admissions? If so, why not consider a ‘virtual’ open day or one-to-one Zoom with the admissions officer or head of the school? Set a time aside where the headteacher, class teachers and pupils can jump on a Zoom call and talk about the school and subjects as they would during a regular open day. You can invite interested parties to watch the call, participate and ask questions, or simply make a recording for future use.
Marketing training
This is also the perfect time to brush up on the latest training for marketing. There are plenty of free and paid online courses to help you learn new skills or refine current ones. From website optimisation to content writing to effective social media strategy, there are plenty of courses available so you can get ahead of the game before lockdown is over! Start by discussing with your headteacher or head of marketing what you need – hint: focus on your digital marketing! Hubspot provides a plethora of digital marketing courses after which you can receive a certification by taking the online exam. Simply create an account and get access to all of their free courses here.
If you would like more professional tips on marketing your schools do get in touch with the Digithrive For School’s team who are always happy to help. contact us here