• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Looking for something?

Let’s connect!

  • E-mail
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

The Virtual Marketer

Digital Marketing for Schools

  • Home
  • About
  • Training
    • Google Analytics
    • Google Ads (PPC)
    • Facebook & Instagram Advertising
    • Social Media Marketing
    • Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
  • Services
    • Virtual Open Days
    • PPC Advertising
    • Social Media Marketing
    • Digital Marketing Strategy
    • Google Analytics Reporting
    • School Website Optimisation
  • School Marketing Blog
    • Read the Latest
    • Select by Topic
  • School Marketing Webinars
  • Contact

Spring Clean Your School Marketing Strategy

Apr 15 2018

🌸 Spring clean your school marketing strategy. There’s nothing more invigorating than seeing the cherry blossoms and the daffodils coming to life in the spring sun. And then you notice your dirty windows…! If you suddenly have spring-cleaning fever, why not take this opportunity to clean up your school’s marketing strategy as well.

Before you get started, if you haven’t already done so, add Google Analytics to your school website. Google Analytics isn’t just about the number of visitors to your website – it can tell you so much more, some of which I’ll expand upon below. It’s very simple to set up an account and your website provider should be able to add the code to your school website in minutes.

Tip – don’t use a personalised email when setting up your Google Analytics account. Use either a generic email such as marketing@yourschool or create a new one specifically for your Analytics. If you use a personal email and that individual leaves, you’ll lose access to this account. Unfortunately, I’ve seen it happen far too many times.

Okay, time to roll up our sleeves and get cleaning … !

1. Wipe the Cobwebs from Your Website

For many schools, a new website can be an extremely labourious undertaking – involving all their time and resources. A website is a pivotal piece of any school marketing strategy, but a redesign often ends with a big sigh of relief and the desire to never have to look at (the functional side of) your website again! And understandably so. But once the pain has passed and you’re receiving the much-deserved kudos for your stunning new website, I’d recommend once a year (at the very least) you wipe off the cobwebs and review your site. Below are just a few areas to tackle …

Sweep Up Your Broken Links

An easy task to start with is to scan your website for broken links – both internal and external. This will not only help with your visitors’ experience but can assist with your SEO (search engine optimisation) rankings as well. Here’s a free tool that allows you to quickly scan your entire website: Dead Link Checker.

Tidy Up Your Mobile View

If you’ve recently launched a new school website, chances are it will be responsive – i.e. mobile-friendly. But if you’ve been playing around, adding new pages to your site, and it’s been a while since you’ve looked at your school website on your mobile – do that now. Remember how your website looks on a desktop isn’t necessarily how it’s going to look on a mobile.

As there are so many mobile options, look to an online simulator to review your changes. The Responsinator tool makes it easy to view your website in the most popular mobile sizes. But you can also use Google’s Chrome emulator simply by clicking right on your webpage and choosing ‘Inspect’ from the menu. There you’ll have the option to choose your different devices.

Ideally, your CMS (Content Management System) will have an option for you to preview your page changes on a mobile before publishing and save you the trial and error of publishing and then updating.

Spruce Up Your Exit Pages

Exit Pages are the pages on which visitors are leaving your school website. This can be the only page they’ve visited or the last of many. Some pages make sense for visitors to exit – i.e. your Contact page – and others you want to keep them there longer – your homepage, your admissions etc.

You can easily find your website’s top exit pages in Google Analytics under Behaviour >Exit Pages. This data can be extremely helpful to see where you’re losing prospective parents in their journey through your website and allow you to make changes to improve your exit rate. A couple of ideas…

  • Add enticing copy with links through to other sections of your website – i.e. testimonial links on your Admissions page, scholarship links on your Fees page
  • If visitors are still leaving that page, then stick your CTA (call to action) button there. It could be a contact button, a prospectus download, or a donation button – whatever is applicable on that particular page

Buff Up Your User’s Experience

Page Analytics is a free Chrome tool that allows you to see where visitors are clicking on your website. This is a great tool to use when you want to improve the User experience.

You’ll need to have Google Analytics added to your website first (and be logged into your account) to access this tool, but it’s great for understanding what’s NOT getting clicked on your site and to adjust accordingly. If you have a button on a page that isn’t getting clicked, consider moving it, changing its colour or adding it to a page that gets a high volume of traffic.

Sort Out Your Site Search

If you’ve got a search function on your website, Google Analytics can capture this data and provide you with some very useful insights:

  1. how difficult your school website is for visitors to navigate through (are they always searching for the same thing?)
  2. what content you might be missing on your website (is there content that you’ve overlooked that matters to your visitors?)

Use this data to update your website/menu structure if necessary and to guide your content strategy. If you don’t have a search function, that’s something you may want to consider.

2. Recycle Your Content

Speaking of content – you don’t always have to be reinventing the wheel to attract new parents and improve your SEO. Look instead to recycle your best work.

Again, turn to your analytics. What were your most popular pages read on your website this past year? What content / social campaigns not only engaged new parents but led them to register for Open Days or fill out an Admissions form? If you have website goals in place you’ll easily be able to see that in Google Analytics.

Just a few content recycling ideas:

  • create smaller video bites or gifs from a popular video
  • turn a popular blog into an infographic
  • turn your most engaging social media photos into a video
  • create school guides based on your most visited website pages
  • update current copy with new links and/or references
  • repurpose your video testimonials into blogs

While we’re here … do you have evergreen content for every stage of your admissions funnel – awareness, engage and decision? This is something you should consider when reviewing your content. Check out my upcoming Content Strategy workshop.

3. Refresh Your Social Media Approach

Have you got goals in place as part of your school’s social media strategy? If not, I’d suggest that you start there first. What is it that you hope to gain from social media? Look to create social SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely) goals and then put the tools in place to measure how effective you are in fulfilling them.

As an example, one of your SMART goals may be to use Facebook to increase your Open Day registrants by 20% over the next 12 months. The first step would be to create a website goal in Google Analytics that triggers each time someone completes your Open Day form.

The next step would be to use UTM tracking and create special URLs that allow you to track which of your Open Day efforts was most effective in getting new registrants. For example, if you had an Open Day campaign based on an offline advert (yes you can track that), a newsletter and videos both on Facebook and Twitter, using the UTM code would allow you to track in Google Analytics which of these activities drove the most registration conversions. This is marketing gold as you’ll be able to use this knowledge for your next Open Day event, maximising your efforts and your ROI.

Sorry, if this makes absolutely NO sense to you, reach out and I’ll be happy to provide further guidance.

4. Polish Your Advertising

Advertising can be a very costly component of your school marketing strategy so it’s important to review it and reflect on where you’re seeing your highest return on investment (ROI).

Just like with your social media, if you don’t have measurements in place for tracking your advertising, do that now! This includes your school directories and print advertising. Again, by using the UTM tracking and creating unique URLs for each campaign, you’ll be able to easily track your advertising ROI in Google Analytics.

At the end of the day, Google Analytics can provide you with the hard facts of which advertising efforts are actually leading to conversions. Yes, brand awareness is important, but look for less costly opportunities to promote your school brand, rather than hundreds? thousands? on advertising if it’s not actually bringing parents to your school.

5. Shape Up your Mind

And last, but not least, spring is an ideal time when you’re dusting off your trainers, to get your brain in shape as well! The digital landscape is in a constant state of change and not always easy to keep up with, but absolutely essential in order to keep your school marketing strategy in the best possible shape. Make a point to set aside a few hours each month to learn something new. Whether it’s joining a webinar (try my #LunchAndLearns), setting aside time to read a few blogs each week, or arranging for bespoke in-house training, it’s important to build your brain power to remain competitive in the education space. And aside from the business benefits of shaping up your mind – learning keeps you young! How many times have you thought ‘oh to be a student again’? Well now’s your turn!

Related Posts

  • 5 SEO Tips That Every School Marketer Can Implement5 SEO Tips That Every School Marketer Can Implement
  • Social-Media-Marketing-for-Schools-5-Easy-StepsSocial Media Marketing for Schools – 5 Easy Steps
  • Your Open Day Countdown: Last Minute School Marketing WinsYour Open Day Countdown: Last-Minute School Marketing Wins
  • How to Host a Virtual Open Day at Your SchoolHow to Host a Virtual Open Day for Your School

Categorized: Content, Social Media, Strategy

Primary Sidebar

Alta Justus, The Virtual Marketer

Alta Justus, The Virtual Marketer

Recent Posts

2021 Digital Marketing Checklist for Schools

Facebook vs Google Ads: Which Should Your School Use?

How Can I Help?

A passionate digital marketer with 18 years marketing experience, I’ll work with your school to maximise your online presence. Don’t get left behind — contact me today!


Contact Me

Blog Categories

FOLLOW ME

  • E-mail
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Strategy
  • Social
  • Training
  • Reporting

Footer

ABOUT ME

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…

CONTACT ME

  • E-mail
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Follow me on social media, fill out my contact form or reach me directly @

  alta.justus@thevirtualmarketer.co.uk

 (44) 0742 879 2799

#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
Follow on Instagram
  • Home
  • Training
  • Services
  • Blog
  • Webinars
  • Contact

Copyright © 2021 · vivien theme by Lovely Confetti DMCA.com Protection Status

Welcome to my website! Just so you're aware, I use basic cookies to ensure you have the best possible experience when visiting. If you continue on my site, I'll assume that you're happy with that. If not, I'll use a cookie to remember your preference and you won't be tracked. Easy peasy. Have a lovely day! OkNo