Reprinted EMA The Yield Magazine article by ANGIE WARD, President and Founder, Enroll Media Group (MA), and MATT SOULE, Director of Marketing and Communications, Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall (MA)

Schools face many marketing challenges. Some may be unique to a specific school, like diversifying the student body or appealing to a certain demographic. But every school has one challenge in common — they all have to figure out how to do the most with the limited resources they have.

To give you insight into best practices, we spoke with Angie Ward, President and Founder of Enroll Media Group (EMG), and Matt Soule, Director of Marketing and Communications at Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall. They are the co-hosts of Upgrade School Marketing, a podcast for busy school marketers, and these are their recommendations to help you elevate your marketing.

Leverage your website.

Families may visit your website many times before reaching out directly, so make sure it’s up-to-date and user-friendly, with multiple ways for them to easily express interest. And prioritize search engine optimization to improve organic ranking.

Understand website analytics.

Knowing where your traffic comes from makes decisions about where to invest your marketing dollars easier. And if you decide to pay for a sponsored ad on one of those platforms, you can better analyze your ROI.

Free up your time by automating what you can.

Automation lets you work smarter without working harder. It also adds a personalized touch without extra effort and helps ensure that your families are kept up to date with important reminders. For example, use a scheduling tool such as Calendly or HubSpot for booking tours and following up with families.

Find tools that meet your needs and your budget.

There are many free or cost-effective tools available. Enquiry Tracker can be fairly inexpensive and helps you fully automate how you capture information, manage contact records, send emails, and manage events. Vidyard, a free tool, allows you to make and send a custom video within seconds to add a personal touch.

Consider other social media sites and advertising platforms.

Facebook and Instagram may come to mind first, but LinkedIn offers a lot of big benefits to schools. Bing ads have a lower cost per conversion than Google. Being on a specific platform without regularly adding content won’t serve your needs and may backfire. For instance, TikTok can be helpful only if you have a content strategy lined up.

Use AI tools as a starting point.

Relying on AI will make you sound generic. You also need to tread carefully here so as not to violate your own rules for the usage of these tools. In other words, don’t tell students they can’t use these tools themselves while you can. Current AI tools like ChatGPT are a great way to get article ideas, but they aren’t going to write an article that captures the unique essence of your school. Only you can do that.

Market to all families.

Marketing pieces that inform prospective families can also reinforce the school’s value for current families. Marketing to both is an efficient use of time and a great retention tactic.

Stay up to date on trends.

Pay attention to the marketing world, both in school marketing and elsewhere. Small businesses are quicker to jump on new marketing that might benefit your school.

THE BENEFIT OF COMMUNITY

Share the latest marketing trend you’re following or find support for your marketing initiatives in the EMA Member Community. Plus, don’t forget to tap into EMA’s free member-exclusive Tuesday Talks hosted by Jennifer Davis, EMA’s Director of Professional Development. These talks cover a variety of pressing topics to guide the important work you do.

And finally, be a part of the school community.

Attend events and listen to how teachers, students, and parents talk about the school. Marketing tools mean nothing if you don’t have something important and convincing to say.

‍

ANGIE WARD

Angie Ward is President of Enroll Media Group, an agency dedicated to helping independent schools and nonprofits achieve growth via digital marketing. Enroll Media has partnered with nearly 100 schools around North America, Australia, and Europe. Angie also co-hosts the Upgrade School Marketing Podcast.

MATT SOULE

Matt Soule is the Director of Marketing and Communication at Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall School, a day and boarding school for grades 7-12 in Waltham, MA, where he lives on campus with his family. Matt is the creator and co-host of the Upgrade School Marketing Podcast.