11 Education Marketing Tactics that Work
If you are running an educational institution, then your success rate also depends on the number of students you have every year. But how can you ensure that parents and students will be lured to go to your school or university? How can you make them love your educational institution even before enrolling? The answer is to learn the best education marketing techniques.
Yes, such a thing exists and you might want to learn the right college marketing strategy which you can also use for different education levels.
Effective School Marketing Tips
The good news is, there are marketing strategies you can specifically use for your school. And with the birth of digital media, advertising to students has become easier.
1. Use Posters, Brochures, and Flyers
For some, these materials might be a waste of money, time, and effort. But for school marketing purposes, posters, brochures, and flyers are still effective. These are tangible items that you can disseminate, and students can learn more information about your school right away. However, you need to create a sensible layout and design for your printed materials. A lousy looking poster might send a wrong message about your school.
Remember to also think about your audience. Say, for example, you are doing it for college marketing. Then your printed materials must entice high school students. Use a language that they can readily understand. The approach must be different in pre-school. Your brochures or posters must be targeted to parents because they are generally the decision-makers. You can even add more fun images to show what your school has to offer.
2. Visit Other Schools
This is more applicable to college marketing. What you can do is to work with high school campuses and hold a small talk about your university. Or perhaps, set a booth where you can place your beautifully designed visual aids such as posters, flyers, and brochures. You can go back to our first tip for this.
In addition, you can also distribute merchandise like umbrellas, notebooks, pens, and hats. Just make sure that your school logo and information are clearly printed for better recall.
3. Hold School Competitions
Another effective way for education marketing is to lead school competitions. This simple event initiated by your school can make you well-known. You can even hold the competition at your premises so that other students can have a feel of what it’s like to be in your school. And again, you can use your printed materials to introduce your university or institution.
4. Create Social Media Pages
You probably know this but everything can be seen on social media. And that’s the reason why businesses, organizations, and even educational institutions create their own social media pages.
Online visibility is effective in advertising to students. They usually resort to the world wide web for school options. They try to see the updates from the schools and they gauge if the environment is conducive for both learning and socializing. You see, your posts can really affect their decision. That is why we recommend that you work with a social media manager or expert to help you with content.
As for your graphic needs, you can call the Design Doctor team. They have a pool of talented individuals that can help you with all your design needs for school marketing.
5. Create an Online Community
Apart from your school’s social media pages, you can also maximize online communities. This is where you can invite your school’s alumni, teachers, and even potential students. This is where you can encourage more engagement. You can answer questions from parents and other students. It makes it more personal and you give a good impression that you care about the people in your school.
6. Produce Quality Videos
Education marketing can also mean creating quality videos. While you can always create grand videos showing your school or university’s facilities, we actually have a better idea. Why don’t you show the culture of your school? How about documenting the everyday lives of the students? These videos are more relatable and both parents and students will appreciate it.
7. Direct Emails
Direct emails are also good if you wish to promote your school. This is actually highly recommended for parents who are likely to check their emails on a regular basis. If you are doing college marketing or school marketing in general, have an expert look at your email. If you must know, it has to be concise yet professionally made. You would want your audience to actually read it. Otherwise, it will go directly to the trash folder and all your efforts will be wasted.
8. Stage Plays or Concerts
This depends on your audience. With parents of preschoolers, you can always produce fun plays. You can hold it in your school if there is ample space. Encourage these parents to take their kids so you can give them a quick tour of your facilities.
For students entering going into college, free concerts will work best. Use your school grounds and have some fun booths. Just make sure there is tight security so that you can avoid possible chaos.
9. Support Charities
This is not just for advertising to students, it’s really more of doing our social obligations. Make it a point to support charities and people will see how genuine you are in helping the community.
10. Encourage Your Students to Do Their Part
This education marketing technique is somehow synonymous with word-of-mouth. Your current students can actually provide their testimonies about why people should go to your school. Have a face behind your school marketing campaign as this is proven to be more effective. They can post on their social media, use IG stories, or add a review on your school’s page.
11. Work On Your School’s Website
You have to make sure that your school’s website is updated. Plus, it has to be free of grammatical errors. And don’t forget about the calls to action which need to be placed strategically. Lastly, your contact form must be easy to use. This is essential for college marketing wherein a lot of high school students send inquiries using contact forms from websites.
Education Marketing in Different Educational Levels
With education marketing, you have a broad audience, and it needs to have a variety of approaches. Again, for preschoolers, you might need to engage both the children and their parents. The colors and the graphics used in your printed materials must be fun, playful, and youthful. The same goes for middle schoolers.
However, things should be different for both high school students and those who are about to enter a university. The scheme must be more neutral and even the content should be different from the younger market. You would want to show how your institution takes education seriously as a preparation for a more competitive world.
Quite frankly, these are hard to translate into visual aids if you are not an expert. That is why you need to consult with a professional team. We recommend Design Doctor as they have already established credibility in the graphic design industry. With them, you are sure to get graphic designs perfect to get more students for the next year.
Conclusion
Education marketing is a broad concept and you can do a lot of activities. However, you must work with experts in order to reach the right market and to deliver your school’s message. This means you have to work with content writers, social media experts, video producers, and even graphic designers to name a few.