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New year, new targets. What’s your school marketing strategy to deliver?

Aug 29 2018

6 New Strategies for Achieving Your Marketing and Admissions Goals in 2019

With the change in weather this week, it’s a definite reminder that September has arrived. And with a new school year comes new targets to hit. But will your school marketing strategy reflect those changes? What will you do differently this year in order to hit the goals that maybe you fell short of last year? What strategies do you have in place to measure the effectiveness of your school marketing efforts?

Unfortunately, a large number of marketers (schools included) don’t actually know which of their marketing activities have been successful and which haven’t, leading them to continue to do the same things year after year.

Data and Your School Marketing Strategy

We’re now at a point in time where the majority of your efforts as a school marketer will be digital – your school website, social media, email, online advertising etc. It only makes sense as that’s where your audience is. It may have taken schools a bit longer than most businesses to make the shift to digital, but we’re here now. So the next step really is to make the most of online’s advantage – the ability to measure and adapt in near real-time, making digital marketing one of the most powerful means of engaging with your target audiences.

Access to your school’s website data is invaluable, providing insight into what has and hasn’t worked in your marketing efforts and allowing you to adjust your strategy accordingly in order to reach your targets. Below are six new strategies, that, guided by data, will not only help you to reach, but surpass your school marketing strategy goals in 2019!

New Strategies, New Outcomes

Focus on The Social Platforms That Convert

If you’re like most independent schools today you’ll have a social media presence, showcasing your beautiful school, your brilliant pupils and your amazing staff. But do you actually know how effective social media is at helping you to reach your school’s goals? Google Analytics can not only tell you which of your social platforms drives the most traffic to your website, it can also tell you which converts the most – i.e. which platform drives the most Open Day registrants. You may be in for a surprise!

By obtaining this insight you can then focus on the social channel that benefits your school the most. I wouldn’t advise you stop using your other platforms – they may be great for engaging with parents and increasing your brand exposure – but rather, if you’re limited on resources (time, budget), put them into the social channel that converts. Maximise your ROI!

Create Content that Attracts

Contrary to what some may think, content is still king. There is no getting around that. When you think of it, content remains the driving force behind the majority of your school’s marketing efforts.

When developing your content strategy (and yes, you should have one), Google Analytics should be your first port of call as it can reveal a lot about what’s important to your audience. By revealing the blogs that they’ve read/shared the most, the words they searched for on your site and the pages they most frequented, you can gain insight into the content that resonates the most with them.

In addition, Google Analytics can reveal the content that’s brought you the most ‘New Visitors’ (i.e. prospective parents). You can even link your content directly to your goals and learn what content has led to the most registrations. This is marketing gold! Look to create more of that type of content to attract – and convert – new parents. (Don’t forget to optimise it for search while you’re there!)

Speak Directly to Your Audience

Both Google Analytics and your social platforms allow you to gather statistics about your website visitors that can give you that extra edge. By identifying their age, gender, location, devices, interests etc, you can develop true persona profiles of your audiences allowing you to personalise your marketing to resonate with them.

If the majority of your audience are connecting when on their mobile, keep your content short, use more bullet points and create mobile-friendly ads. If you have a more female than male audience, don’t be afraid to put a feminine spin on the language and images that you use. Personalise your content to reflect your target audience. A connection is key to developing the relationships that convert.

Target Your Low-Hanging Fruit

Both Google and Facebook offer insights into people who have already shown an interest in your school. Look to remarket to those visitors through Google Ads or Facebook advertising. Remarketing is a great way to remind visitors who have visited your website or shown an interest in your Facebook Open Day event, that you’re still here and you’d like them to learn more about you. You don’t have to be that annoying ad that never goes away, but there is nothing wrong with leaving a memorable impression!

Expand into New Countries

This really ties in with the above in targeting the low-hanging fruit. Look at your Google Analytics to determine where your website traffic is coming from – you may find an untapped market in another country or city that you hadn’t previously considered.

Choose a country or city that has shown significant interest in your school (without you having made any effort!) and create a landing page on your website that speaks directly to them. Dependent on your budget you might even want to consider paid social campaigns to that country/city as well. Look beyond your immediate surroundings …

Optimise Your Best Converting Traffic Channels

Again, it’s all about conversions. Yes, traffic to your school website is fantastic for brand building, but at the end of the day wouldn’t you rather have 10 parents that registered for an Open Day vs 100 that came to your website and left immediately?

Look to your Google Analytics to determine the channels that are converting your goals – i.e. Organic, Paid, Referral, Social Media etc. If Organic traffic (people that find you in search results) drive the most conversions, focus on SEO to increase those conversion numbers. If Paid traffic (Google Ads, social advertising) is the most effective, perhaps add a little more to your budget. Or look to improve your SEO and change that shift (a better long-term tactic). If you’re seeing conversions with Referral traffic (links from other websites) look for other partnerships that you can benefit from. Can a local realtor link to your school website for families relocating? Look to build your online relationships and capitalise on their traffic.

It’s really all about focusing on what’s helping your bottom line. At the end of the day, for most school marketers that is your admissions numbers.

Steps to Tracking Your Marketing Successes

In order to effectively measure your marketing efforts in Google Analytics you’ll want to follow these steps:

1. Create goals in Google Analytics that are reflective of your overall marketing goals – i.e. Admissions and Open Day registrations

2. Use UTM tracking in your campaigns. UTM tracking is used by most businesses today and is a simple tagging system that allows Google Analytics to track exactly where the traffic and conversions are coming from. For instance, if you shared two different campaigns in both Facebook and Twitter – i.e. a blog and a video – Google Analytics would be able to tell you which social platform and which medium was the most successful. Life is so much easier when you know what works! [Note: If UTM tracking is completely foreign to you, don’t despair – it’s not as complex as you may think, but perhaps it’s time to consider some digital training for a brush-up?]

3. Once your goals are in place and you’re using your UTM tracking, create automated Google Analytics reports that track your campaign successes. Make it as easy as possible to monitor and adapt what’s working and what’s not

4. And lastly, don’t do the same as last year and yet expect different results. We all know what that means …

If you need any assistance setting up your goals, your reporting or anything else with regards to your school’s digital marketing, remember I’m just an email or a call away! 

Related Posts

  • 2021 Digital Marketing Checklist for Schools
  • How Schools Can Attract and Engage New Parents via Social Media
  • 4 Surprising Ways Google Analytics Can Improve Your School Marketing4 Surprising Ways Google Analytics Can Improve Your School Marketing
  • How to Host a Virtual Open Day at Your SchoolHow to Host a Virtual Open Day for Your School

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Alta Justus, The Virtual Marketer

Alta Justus, The Virtual Marketer

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An equally creative and analytical Digital Marketing Consultant with over 18 years education and commercial marketing experience, I'm passionate about helping schools succeed in the digital arena. Read More…

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#tuesdaytip: Have a Google account? Use it or lose #tuesdaytip: Have a Google account? Use it or lose it! Google's recently announced accounts that haven't been used in a couple of years, or exceeded their storage, will be at risk of deletion. If you're like most school marketers you'll probably have a few Gmail accounts and a Google Drive or two that you haven't looked at for a while. Of course, I'd always recommend using a verified school email over a Gmail account but if are using a random Gmail and Drive to store photos or to access your Google Analytics, etc, make a point to check those accounts. It will be a while before your data is deleted, and you'll receive a couple of warnings, but as we all know tasks like this can be set aside until it's too late. Don't risk losing valuable data or photos - review your Google accounts today. And while you're at it why not switched to a Google verified work email so you don't miss any important messages like this one 😁

How to verify your school email with Google: 
Visit my blog via my bio or go to
👉 https://thevirtualmarketer.co.uk/how-to-use-my-school-email-for-my-google-accounts/

#vmdigitaltips #digitalmarketing #googlenews #schoolmarketing #educationmarketing
I love this quote about being productive vs busy. I love this quote about being productive vs busy. And this article — 11 Differences Between Busy People And Productive People — gives some great examples of the differences as well as tips to become a more productive person. I know I'm bad at saying 'Yes' a little too quickly for my own good so a great reminder for me. Who couldn't use a few tips for improving productivity... 😁

👉https://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/11-differences-between-busy-people-and-productive-people.html

#mondaymotivation #timemanagementtips #digitalmarketing #schoolmarketing #educationmarketing  #strategicmarketing
I'm so pleased to see an increase in schools reach I'm so pleased to see an increase in schools reaching out for SEO training and support. Yes, digital advertising is the fastest way to get in front of your parents, but you should still be thinking long-term. That may very well include digital campaigns, but ideally, you'll want to grow your organic traffic to the point that you can reduce your advertising spend. At the very least you'll want to maintain your school website's SEO rankings.

When it comes to optimising a website for search engines there are a few things that have remained consistent throughout the years - like these 5 SEO tips. Still relevant after all these years and yet many schools have failed to do them. Why not grab a cuppa, have a read then make a plan to optimise your school website in 2021. Every little helps...

👉 Visit my blog via my bio or copy the link below

https://thevirtualmarketer.co.uk/5-seo-tips-every-school-marketer-can-implement/

#thursdaythoughts #schoolmarketing #educationmarketing #seotips #seostrategy #studentrecruitment #2021goals
Do the computers in your ICT classroom default to Do the computers in your ICT classroom default to your school website? If they do you'll want to filter out your internal traffic from Google Analytics to get a true sense of your data. It's not difficult to do but you'll first want to have a chat with IT to get a list of your IP addresses.

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗱𝗱 𝗮 𝗳𝗶𝗹𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗻 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗴𝗹𝗲 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀:

👉 Start by creating a new view. Once you filter traffic out of GA you can't get it back so create an additional view such as 'Filtered Traffic'
👉 Next, create a filter on your new view. Go to Admin > Filters and click +Add Filter
👉 Name = Exclude Internal IPs (or whatever you choose to call it)
👉 Filter Type = Predefined
👉 Select filter type = Exclude
👉 Source = Traffic from the IP addresses
👉 That are equal to = your IP address or range

For more details on how to create your new view or filter visit https://support.google.com/ or ping me a message 😊

That's it! Now you'll be able to see both your filtered and all data dependent on the view you select! 👍📊

#tuesdaytip #vmdigitaltips #googleanalytics #schoolmarketing #educationmarketing #strategicmarketing
I'm not sure about you but I certainly don't belie I'm not sure about you but I certainly don't believe marketing can be learned in a day! And as marketing is continuously evolving, are any of us ever 'Masters'? But I agree with the intent behind the message—marketing is a profession where your training never ends. Or shouldn't! When was the last time you did any training—digital or otherwise? Why not make CPD a priority in 2021! 👍

#digitalmarketingtraining
#socialmediamarketing
#digitaladvertising
#seo
#googleanalytics
#schoolmarketing
#educationmarketing 
#studentrecruitment 
#mondaymotivation
Does your school brand reflect what parents are lo Does your school brand reflect what parents are looking for and engaging with online? The internet has evolved over the years and so have our audiences. They're savvy to sales pitches and blatant self-promotion. What they want is to connect with businesses and people they can trust—especially with their child. For brand authenticity, you need to be perceived as reliable, respectful, and 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡. Does that sound like your school...?

#morningcoffeethoughts 
#brandidentity 
#schoolmarketing 
#educationmarketing 
#contentmarketing 
#socialmediamarketing 
#schoolwebsite
You've probably heard me mention many times the im You've probably heard me mention many times the importance of gaining control and optimising your Google My Business account to improve your search engine rankings.
 
One of the fields that has a direct impact on your SEO is your Business Category. You may currently have one or two added, but did you know you can have up to 10 categories? Google is updating their categories all the time so it's worth looking at this field when you're adding new photos or sharing your latest blog within the platform. 
 
I came across this fab website the other day that can quickly show the different categories available outside of GMB. Select your country and add your term (i.e. 'school') and see all the options available. Of course, you can also do the same in GMB but this may be the prompt you need to add those additional categories and improve your school's SEO!
 
👉https://pleper.com/index.php?do=tools&sdo=gmb_categories
 
Just a note, I'm having difficulties accessing this site this morning (not sure if it's me or them??) but hopefully, you'll have no problem getting in 🤞
 
Not sure what Google My Business is? Have a peek here: https://www.google.com/intl/en_gb/business/
 
#tuesdaytip #vmdigitaltips #digitalmarketing #seotools #seotips #seostrategy #seoservices #schoolmarketing
Since how you think dictates how your week goes, w Since how you think dictates how your week goes, why not start on a positive note?! It's not always easy but there are ways to help you develop a more positive mindset. 

If you have 5 minutes, grab a cuppa and have a read of this article by @womenontopp, 𝟱 𝗪𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽 𝗮 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘀𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗛𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗳𝘂𝗹:

👉https://www.womenontopp.com/5-ways-to-develop-a-positive-mindset-to-help-you-become-more-successful/

(you can also search 'improve your mindset' in Google to find it) 

There's some great advice in there to help shift your mindset, so definitely worth the read. 

Here's to a fantastic week, everyone! 😊

#digitalmarketing #schoolmarketing #educationmarketing #digitalmarketingtraining #wellbeing #mondaymotivation
I know Monday is the last thing on your mind on a I know Monday is the last thing on your mind on a Friday afternoon but if you can do these few tasks today I guarantee you'll feel so much more positive and in control of your week:

👉 Plan for the week ahead. Tuesdays are apparently the most productive day of the week so schedule any of your big projects for that day and see if that's the case for you.

👉 Keep Monday as your flexible day. Monday is the day that sets the tone for the week and if you pack too much into the day you'll start the week off feeling behind. Schedule smaller tasks and keep as much time open as you can.

👉 Do a little digital housekeeping today. With energy usually low on a Friday afternoon it's a great time to tidy up your computer files. It's easy work, but also immensely rewarding. While you're at it, maybe give your desk a little dusting off as well. A clutter-free desk and mind are the best way to start your week!

I'm off to clear my own desktop files. I'm terrible at 'I'll file that away later'... 😁

Have a fabulous weekend everyone. See you Monday!

#fridayfeeling #organisedchaos #schoolmarketing #educationmarketing #digitalmarketing #digitalmarketingtraining
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