boosting enrollment through inbound … board docs...| lead generation from content & social...
TRANSCRIPT
BOOSTING ENROLLMENT THROUGH INBOUND MARKETING
FOR SCHOOLS
| A Dynamic School Presence
You need: • Consistent branding • A compelling content strategy • The ability to measure conversions • Better inquiry management • Leads nurtured into your admissions
funnel • Brand ambassadors on social media
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| School Marketing 101
• Who is your customer? • Who is selling your school? • What is OUTBOUND marketing? • What is INBOUND marketing?
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Lead Generation, Nurturing A comprehensive lead generation and lead nurturing strategy can help boost inquiry conversions and applications.
Branding Develop a cohesive brand voice and image from your school website to your social profiles.
Content Put an emphasis on SEO-
optimized content that can help draw prospective families
to your school.
Ambassadors Your school community is your best brand ambassador. Their engagement on your website,
blog and social profiles rounds out a successful school
marketing plan.
| The Pieces WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO DEVELOP A COMPREHENSIVE INBOUND MARKETING STRATEGY?
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Content & Design A school website needs to be beautiful and functional. The content should be up-to-date, easy to access and SEO-optimized.
Mobile-optimized Your inquiries and applications will suffer if parents cannot fill them out from their mobile device or tablet.
Integration Integrate your website with your SIS, fundraising campaigns, social efforts and more!
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| Start With Your Website
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• Logo • Tagline • Content type • Content “voice”
“ What is your school’s voice and mission? Are those accurately reflected across all your social media platforms?
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| Consistent Social Branding
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Logo Adjust for avatar restrictions.
Video Dynamically feature your school.
Repetition Don’t be afraid to show off your brand.
Promotion Send people to your website.
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Logo Adjust for avatar restrictions.
Video Dynamically feature your school.
Connect Engage parents and alumni.
Promotion Send people to your website.
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Logo Adjust for avatar restrictions.
Cross Post Link your social accounts.
Connect Engage parents and alumni.
Promotion Send people to your website.
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Brand Awareness Create content that helps drive the mission of
your school.
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Dynamic Content
Include photos and video whenever possible.
Make It Personal
Have a regularly featured admin or faculty columnist that can write content to help
promote a personal connection with current and prospective students.
Regular Updates
Post at least once per week.
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Student-Generated Content
Content created by students is more powerful than content created by faculty or
administration.
| School Blog
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Increased Traffic 80% of daily visits are new. Blogs drive 53% more traffic.
Credibility Quality content and good design help establish credibility with leads.
SEO Blogging is one of the
best things you can do to boost your school’s
SEO.
Brand Awareness Enforce your school’s
message with the type of content you offer.
| Benefits of Blogging
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mention.com
Monitor social, news, websites, forums and more for mentions of your school.
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| Social Media Management and Monitoring
SproutSocial.com
SproutSocial is a powerful tool for engagement, publishing, monitoring and analytics.
y hootsuite.com
Hootsuite is similar to SproutSocial.
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13 | Content Creation - Graphics CANVA.COM
Easy Canva is an easy and affordable way to make compelling graphics for your school’s social
media profiles and blog.
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15 | Why You Need Inbound Marketing:
3.5x 12x 62% 97%
Blogs Businesses with over 200 total blog posts generate 3.5x the leads of businesses with under 20 posts.
Facebook Businesses with over 1,000 likes on Facebook generate 12x more leads than businesses with 25 fans or less.
Keep Costs Down Inbound marketing costs 62% less than traditional outbound marketing.
SEO Companies that blog have 97% more links to their website than companies that don’t.
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16 | Lead Generation from Content & Social Marketing
Inbound marketing includes content marketing and social marketing. These can be designed specifically to bring in inquiries or to
help inform potential parents about the things that make your school stand out.
a School Promotion Open Houses, school
awards, family testimonials, student
achievements.
Show Not Tell Sports programs, music groups, extracurricular
clubs, academic standards, classroom
activities.
1 Brand Ambassadors
Students, parents and alumni acting as
community participants.
7 Student-Generated Content
Student blog posts, photos, Instagram “takeover,” A Day in the
Life series, fundraising.
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ATTRACT PROSPECTIVE FAMILIES
Use your website, blog, social profiles, keywords and SEO-optimized pages to attract the attention of local families.
CONVERT TO INQUIRIES
Visitors to each of your “attraction points” must be able to easily find a call-to-action—whether it’s a link,
designated landing page, prominently placed button, or easy-to-find form.
CLOSE THE DEAL
Communication is key. Develop a workflow that incorporates a comprehensive email campaign to inquiries within your
pipeline.
CREATE BRAND AMBASSADORS
Continue your work by focusing on retention through community awareness and communication via
email and social profiles. Your brand ambassadors are now helping promote your brand.
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| The Inbound Marketing Timeline
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Daily or Lifetime Budget
Promoted Posts
Promote Page
Clicks to Website/Conversions
Video Views
And more!
facebook.com/Business
Place Bids
Promote Tweets
Promote Accounts
biz.twitter.com
FREE
Inbound Marketing:
Website (page titles, etc.)
Blog posts
Social content
Incoming links
SEO
Google’s SEO Starter Guide
| Lead Generation from Search Engine Marketing (SEO) and Paid Ads
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Blog
Social Media
Keyword Research
Directory Submission
Website
Directory Submission: Google My
Business, MySchoolAnywhere, GreatSchools, Private School Review, etc.
Website: Add title tags, a sitemap,
keyword rich content, headings and optimize your images with ALT properties.
Keyword Research: Research the
keywords your audience would use to find you.
Social Media: Boost SEO by building a
strong presence on social media.
Blog: A school blog with original and
dynamic content is important.
| Improve Your SEO to Help Drive Conversions
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Inquiry Form Parents should be able to inquire online.
Tracking Always know the status of your inquiries and communicate with them often.
Analytics Use Google Analytics to see how families are finding your inquiry and online application links. Are they social conversions? Going directly to the page?
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| Lead Conversions and Nurturing
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Consistent Follow-Up Establish a communications schedule for families who have submitted an inquiry.
Know Your Data
How many of your inquiries result in campus visits, applications, or enrollees? Find the gaps
and fix them.
Inbound Links
Link to your online inquiry page from your social media accounts. Promote Facebook posts about your school that contain your
online inquiry link.
Keep it Simple
Many schools make it hard for prospective parents to find the inquiry link. Keep it in a
high-visibility spot on your website.
Integration is Key
Your inquiry and application funnel should be connected so you can get the most accurate
view of your enrollment data.
| Online Inquiry SOME PEOPLE DON’T LIKE TO USE THE PHONE
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Application Fees Collect and process application fee payments
online. No more checks.
Track Applicants
Track and monitor your real-time admissions funnel with the same strategic eye that higher
education institutions do.
Simplify Admissions
An online admissions process is simple for parents and for your team. Take hand-entering
paper applications off your to-do list.
Attract More Applicants
An online application process is appealing to today’s tech-savvy parents.
Real-Time Marketing
If you can see which families are in the process of applying, you can reach out and help guide
them to the next step—submitting an application.
| Online Application SIMPLIFY THE APPLICATION PROCESS FOR FAMILIES AND FOR YOUR SCHOOL
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Day 1 - 50% If a family has taken the step to inquire, they’re halfway there. What you do over the next month or two determines whether they enter your admissions funnel.
50%
Day 2 - 60% Email the family personally. Send them your best marketing materials, whether it’s a brochure, a video, or another marketing piece.
Day 6-7 - 70% Follow-up email to the family. Provide an FAQ document and a “sell sheet” about your school.
| Lead Nurturing Using Strategic Communications
60%
70%
INCLUDE A CALL TO ACTION IN EACH COMMUNICATION
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Day 15 - 80% Drive the family back to your website. What are the points of interest on your website? Do you have testimonials, student blogs or a mission statement from your headmaster? Include a link to apply online.
80%
Day 20-25 - 90% Give the family an idea of what a day in the life of a typical student looks like. Show academic schedules, extracurricular clubs, sports teams and music groups.
Day 30 - 100% Extend a personal phone call or email to the family from the headmaster. Include a high level link to your online application.
| Lead Nurturing Using Strategic Communication
90%
100%
INCLUDE A CALL TO ACTION IN EACH COMMUNICATION
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| Brand Ambassadors RETENTION AND SATISFACTION HELPS LEAD NURTURING
NEW PARENT
SURVEY Ask new parents to fill out a
survey to determine how
successful your marketing and
enrollment efforts were.
NEW PARENT
OUTREACH Continue to reach out to new
families to connect them with
your existing community. You
can do this through regular
phone calls, Parent
Ambassadors, or encouraging
social media engagement.
TESTIMONIALS Once a new family is settled,
consider collecting stories from
them. Why did they select your
school? What does their child
like about school? Use this
material to inform marketing
content.
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Fundraising. Annual Campaigns, fundraising events,
ticket sales.
School Spirit. Live tweet sports games,
celebrate school wins.
Photos. Photos of your campus, student body, teachers, classrooms, events and
more.
Video. Use a combination of amateur video (Instagram) and polished marketing video (Vimeo).
Guest Blogging. Ask parents and alumni to submit blog posts.
Communication. Communicate. Over-communicate. Email, social—engage your school community everywhere.
| Engaging Brand Ambassadors PARENTS, STUDENTS, AND ALUMNI CAN BE AMBASSADORS. HERE IS HOW TO REACH THEM:
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27 | Reinforce Your Branding Post-Acceptance SHOW FAMILIES WHY THEY CHOSE YOU IN THE FIRST PLACE
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Speed Up Re-enrollment An online re-enrollment process speeds up the process for parents and staff.
An End-to-End Solution Newly accepted and returning students use the same streamlined, online re-enrollment process.
Web Forms & Payment Student, Parent, and Grandparent demographic forms are pre-populated with existing data. Create custom forms that are specific to your school and collect an online registration fee from parents.
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| Streamline Re-enrollment MAKE IT EASY FOR PARENTS TO RE-ENROLL YEAR AFTER YEAR
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29 | Inbound Marketing Success
SEARCH:
Make your school easy to
find and the end content
compelling enough to
convince the families that
find you to make the next
step. This is where inbound
marketing comes in.
LEAD GENERATION &
NURTURING:
Make it simple for families to
get more information about
your school. Track your
inquiries and applications in
real-time so you can
communicate effectively and
convert them to applicants.
CREATE
AMBASSADORS:
Use your school community
as a tool to help inbound
marketing, enrollment and
retention.
SUCCESS!
Once all the pieces of the
inbound marketing puzzle
come together, you are well-
positioned to increase
inquiries, applicants, and
retention—you may even see
a fundraising boost!
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30 | Keep In Touch
Email [email protected]
Jaclyn Day
Director of Marketing and Communications
Social Media Facebook.com/RenWebSchoolManagementSoftware
Twitter.com/RenWebPower
Instagram: @renwebpower