3 Tips to a Successful K-12 Marketing Plan
If you are responsible for the success of a school or school district, it would do great benefit to learn about K-12 marketing online and how it can increase student enrollment. As an insider with experience in the K-12 marketing world, I would like to share with you 3 tips to a successful K-12 marketing plan.
1. Create a Marketing Funnel
Creating an online marketing funnel is nothing new in the business world but this is a key strategic starting point for attracting new students and families. You start with a lead generation campaign that should incorporate paid as well as free advertising methods. For instance, maybe you run an ad on a site that is frequented by students and families in your district. You offer a free giveaway of some sort for the visitor if they click through to your website or landing page. Once they arrive at the landing page, the visitor in exchange for the free information gives you their name and email address. This visitor is now a lead and they can be contacted and followed up with concerning attending your school.
2. Use Facebook Ads
Facebook offers unparalleled targeting with its advertising service. You can target the exact type of people and families you are looking for based on selected criteria. Targeting can be based on criteria such as family size, location, school districts, personal likes and dislikes, age, etc. For instance, Facebook uses geotargeting which means they have the ability to only show your ad to people who live in a certain school district or city. This is a great way to get super targeted leads into your funnel.
3. Establish a School District Blog
Another way to not only generate leads for your school district but to also keep current families informed is to create a school district blog. The key to generating leads with your blog to create compelling content that could include things such as upcoming district programs and events. The blog could have a lead capture page as well as a call to action on each blog post to convert visitors to subscribers.
One of the most powerful uses of the blog is search engine optimization or SEO. Simply put, SEO involves using certain keywords that families would likely search for in search engines such as Google, Yahoo, or Bing to find your content. Making a blog search engine friendly is a must to compliment any form of advertising you may use to fill the marketing funnel.
Recap
Creating an online marketing campaign is a great way to increase student enrollment as well as community awareness. The success of your campaign will depend on being consistent in developing compelling content as well as becoming more educated on the latest online trends. Technology changes rapidly and social media networks are evolving with new features to attract and retain visitors. You should be aware of these changes and always be willing to test new ideas to see if they can fit into your overall marketing plan. Over time, when you combine these online marketing tips with traditional offline efforts, you should see a steady increase in enrollment.