Private school marketing is something that should not be overlooked, but many administrators make the same mistakes, and it jeopardizes the number of enrollments that they get each year. With a little bit of guidance private schools can identify these mistakes and correct them easily. After all, you want an effective marketing plan for your private school, so identifying these mistakes early on will help ensure optimal results across all your marketing efforts. When the right marketing strategies are put in place your school will appeal to your target audience and enhance your enrollment numbers.
5 Common Private School Marketing Mistakes
Marketing a private school is like marketing anything else, but the biggest mise a user-friendly website that matches your schools’ values. You want to make sure that your website is user-friendly, optimized for search engines, and the content is regularly updated to attract and engage potential students.
A private school’s website should be a central area where faculty post important information about the school. These updates include academic programs, extracurricular activities, admission dates/requirements, and introduction of faculty members. When a school’s website is ignored, opportunities are missed to keep current students, and potential students updated on important information. This alone could become a frustration for students and parents.
A private schools marketing plan should always include updates for the website. After all this is a representation of the brand you are offering. It gives a bad first impression to students and parents when the website is not properly maintained. It could also affect the school’s credibility and deter students from considering your school.
#2 Identifying The Schools Target Audience
Private school marketing should begin with defining the school’s target audience. Schools in general cater to a specific demographic, especially if the school offers something unique that other schools do not. In order to have an effective marketing strategy schools need to define their target audience. They need to know who their idea students are so that they can specifically attract these types of students. When the target audience is not defined marketing efforts are wasted and enrollment numbers will not be where they need to be.
Things to consider include:
- Age
- Location
- Income level
- Interest
The school also needs to capitalize on the unique programs that they have to offer families. If a school offers outdoor teaching methods, this may appeal to parents who live and work on farms. If a student is interested in art, it may be good to seek schools who have a heavy concentration on art so the child can excel. When schools do not play to their special offerings they miss out on their target audience in a massive way.
#3 Rushing Marketing Efforts
Many marketing tactics take time, and these efforts cannot be rushed. Administration should always sit down with their marketing team and have a clear understanding of the timeline. Rushed marketing efforts lead to insufficient planning, inaccurate target audience, low quality content, ineffective campaign execution, and missed data analysis and optimization. Having a clear plan from the start and understanding SEO timelines will decrease the frustration between administrators and the marketing team.
#4 Improper Communication
It is very important that the school’s website messages are returned in a proper time frame. There can be a lot of frustration for potential students and their families when they are unable to get the answers to the questions that they have. Just make sure that all forms of messaging are checked by someone daily and replies are given within a reasonable time frame.
Also, make sure that replies are personalized not a generic template. Students and their families do not want to feel like another number. They want to feel like you have given thought to their inquiry and are answering it to the best of your ability.
#5 Depending on Traditional Advertising
Digital marketing has changed a lot over the years and will continue to change all the time. For this reason, when it comes to private school marketing, administrators do not want to rely so heavily on outdated advertising. Old advertising methods include print ads, radio, and television. Most people spend their time on a digital device, so it is important that the marketing strategy includes social media, websites, and streaming services.
Conclusion
Improving private school marketing efforts need to start with a well thought out plan. If your school does not have an internal team who handles marketing, an outside company will need to be sourced. Just understand the basics when working with the marketing team, so you know what they are talking about when creating a plan.
