Traditionally, independent schools cite that their number-one source of leads is “word of mouth”. Today, word of mouth is no longer just neighbors talking; it encompasses your digital footprint and what people are saying online. Before a prospective family schedules a campus tour or fills out an inquiry form, they are vetting your school by searching your website, school directories, and your social media presence.

Knowing your school needs reviews is one thing, but knowing how and when to ask for them is another. Here are tips to intentionally solicit high-impact reviews for your private school.

Too often, schools and organizations pour their valuable marketing dollars into search and social ads, only to direct valuable traffic to a cluttered homepage.

If you want to maximize your return on investment, the secret lies in the landing page. A landing page is a webpage created specifically for a marketing or advertising campaign. Unlike your website, which encourages exploration, a landing page is designed with a single goal in mind: conversion.

Here are three reasons landing pages are essential to your digital advertising strategy and how you can leverage them to boost your lead-generation efforts.

Enroll Media Group compiled data from the Google Ads accounts of over 125 independent schools to establish benchmarks and averages across day, boarding, and summer programs in 2026. 

Word of mouth and print marketing are not enough to fill an Independent School classroom. Today, the parent journey begins, and often ends, online. 

According to a recent NAIS survey, nearly 70% of chief marketers in independent schools report directly to the head of school, highlighting how critical marketing has become to the institutional mission. However, with limited internal bandwidth and a rapidly changing tech landscape, many schools are finding that doing it all in-house is no longer sustainable.

If your admissions and marketing teams are feeling stretched thin, here are five reasons why outsourcing your digital marketing is the smartest move for your school’s growth.

As families rely more on online research, reviews, and digital experiences, private schools must rethink how they approach enrollment marketing strategies. To help schools stay competitive, Enroll Media Group has identified the top 10 private school digital marketing strategies schools should prioritize this year to increase visibility, engagement, and enrollment.

Location-based marketing is a powerful tool for schools looking to boost visibility and brand awareness. In addition to basic geotargeting deployed on popular digital platforms like Google and Meta, Mobile Location Targeting (MLT), Connected TV (CTV) advertising, and modernized Direct Mail strategies offer more sophisticated and highly-targeted ways for schools to reach prospective families directly in their homes. Let’s take a look at each of these tactics and how schools can leverage them. 

With the growing use of generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Google’s AI mode, schools are tasked with monitoring yet another set of platforms to make sure what users see accurately reflects their community. While this can feel overwhelming, the good news is that many of the tried and true SEO tactics your school is already using still apply. In other words, you can shape the conversation on AI tools—sometimes called Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)—in much the same way you approach traditional Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Let’s break it down:

Video advertising is a powerful way to connect with prospective families, but independent schools fall behind in executing a video marketing strategy the same way other industries have. According to a study from Niche.com, less than 5% of private schools are investing in video production as a marketing tactic, and a study by Finalsite found 40% of schools noted that video was their biggest marketing pain point.

Creating video content can be time-consuming and expensive, but a well-planned video strategy as part of your enrollment marketing strategy can help maximize that investment. If you’re considering incorporating video into your school's marketing plans, here are some platforms to consider that allow you to connect with prospective families online.

Social media advertising has become an essential tool for independent schools looking to boost enrollment and engage with prospective families. As the leading digital marketing agency for independent schools, Enroll Media Group works with over 100 day and boarding schools across the US. Because of this, we were able to analyze dozens of Meta ad campaigns from the past year to identify ads that consistently deliver impressive results. This data-driven approach reveals what works when it comes to Facebook and Instagram Ads. Here’s what we found. 

Many enrollment and admission directors are feeling tremendous pressure to deliver on lofty enrollment goals in an increasingly competitive independent school landscape. As a former director of admission, I know this pressure almost too well. At the same time, marketing and communications directors are facing similar demands as it relates to attracting the number of mission-aligned students and families admission teams need, while also fostering a sense of joy and community that assists in retaining those families for the long haul. So, I was quite surprised to learn that some schools continue to lack alignment between these two departments!

Enrollment and marketing directors must focus on creating a strong, aligned foundation within the school to ensure that enrollment and marketing strategies are sustainable, well-coordinated, and effective. Here are five ways your school can achieve this: