When it comes to successful enrollment marketing for K-12 schools, I often hear admissions officers say, “If you can just get them to visit the school, we will dazzle them from there.” Since getting families to campus is half the battle, target marketing for an open house is a must-do for independent schools. But in this ever-changing digital landscape, it’s becoming harder to know who to market to, what to say, and how to measure the highest return on investment.
Run targeted Ad Campaigns Instead
At one point, reaching all adults with school-aged children within a 50-mile radius may have been a strong approach. Blanket digital campaigns, newspaper ads or a spot on the local radio are great for a brand-lift but aren’t ideal for conversion-driven goals (like qualified open house registrations). With data available through platforms like Google, Bing and Facebook, marketers can ascertain what people do for a living, their affluence, marital status, friends, interests, hobbies, and more. That means it’s easier than ever to run targeted, smarter campaigns in order to yield a higher return on your investment.
Before going to market with a digital campaign, narrow down your audience in the following ways:
Of course, when doing all of this, ensure you are adhering to your Institution’s privacy policy and write ad copy that is relevant (not invasive) – more on that in the next tip!
Incorporate Inbound Marketing
According to a HubSpot Study, 84% of millennials don’t trust traditional advertising. This means schools can’t just put up a blanketed advertisement (no matter how targeted it appears) and expect prospective parents to engage with them. Even when it comes to digital outbound tactics, another study shows that consumers are more likely to engage with advertisements as long as they feel they haven’t been intruded upon. Messaging in a way that provides relevance and value is a great start. But how do you know what your users want? First, we must discuss the value of incorporating an inbound marketing methodology.
What is inbound? Inbound is a form of marketing that aims to provide value and relevance to customers, in order to encourage them to seek you out and take the desired action. This is the opposite of throwing advertisements out to the right people and hoping someone will see them at the right time, then just so happen to click. While that has its place, trends point towards increased effectiveness when audiences seek out products and services themselves.
How exactly does one do Inbound? Giving parents a reason to come to you can be as easy as creating blogs and other content you can share on your website and social channels. Make sure that it contains solutions that are reflective of the needs and concerns parents have for their children, parenting, and education in general. It is also important to showcase this knowledge in a way that is natural, so visitors don’t feel like they are seeing advertisements. Here are some tips for doing so:
Set SMART Goals for each effort
Data-driven marketing can sound daunting as if you need a bunch of fancy, expensive tools to get the job done right. In reality, you don’t. You just need to have a strategic plan in place before running marketing campaigns to ensure you are able to execute and measure them. Schools can begin creating SMART goals for each open house marketing initiative by checking off these 5 things when setting a goal. Ensure the goal is:
Let’s break this down.
Maybe you’ve determined the goal of a particular facebook campaign is to have 50 families register for your open house. That is a specific goal. It’s not ambiguous, like “Have a successful social media campaign that impacts open house attendance”. You’ve defined the goal specifically, with a number of registrants. You’re off to a great start!
Next, you want to make sure those 50 registrants are measurable. Do this by ensuring you have a way to track how many registrations occurred as a result (either directly or indirectly) of the social media campaign. There are a number of ways to measure, and it will depend on the platform. But for any digital tactics, it is recommended that conversion tracking is in place. For facebook specifically, you can measure conversions based on the number lead-generation forms generated, how many RSVPs were indicated on a facebook event, or how many sign ups were tracked on the dedicated landing page from facebook sourced ads. Most importantly is to measure them in the most accurate way possible to determine if the campaign’s specific goal is being met. You will also want to qualify these leads later by matching back actual open house attendees.
Next, ensure your goal is attainable by having a dialogue between your marketing and admissions team as well as any vendors surrounding that goal, and establish the platform or tactic to effectively reach influencers. Also make sure you have enough time, budget, and resources to achieve this goal, and also evaluate how it compared with last year’s numbers. The last thing you want is to set a goal for the same number of registrants as last year, when you have fewer marketing dollars or resources at hand, in a more competitive landscape.
Next, you will want to make sure your goal is relevant, in that it relates to the overall growth initiatives of your school or organization. For instance, ask yourself: “Will running a Facebook Campaign result in higher enrollment?” If you unpack this question, the answer might be yes. First, determine if Facebook is a platform your target audience actively uses, and if you have the resources to market your event there. Then, once registered for the event, will there be a strong likelihood of them showing up? And then, is there a good chance of them applying and ultimately enrolling after they’ve attended the event? If the answer is yes to these questions, then this SMART goal is relevant, and it will benefit your organization.
Once everyone is on the same page with a specific, measurable, attainable and realistic goal, it’s time for the final step - The goal needs to be time-bound by setting forth a specific timeline for achieving milestones or benchmarks for each marketing goal. For an open house campaign, consider going to market 6-8 weeks in advance of the event (longer for families expected to travel far). Set up KPIs (key performance indicators) along the way to measure progress. This could be a certain number of registrations by a specific date, a number of ad clicks, views, and shares of the campaign, etc. These time-bound KPI’s will help ensure your campaign is on track, and avoid any last-ditch efforts to improve registrations in large numbers just days before the event. For help creating a strategic marketing goal for your fall open house, download this template that EMG created with HubSpot.
With SMART goals in place, going to market with targeted outbound and inbound strategies, incorporating relevant and valuable content, will lead to an insightful and successful open house. By the time the big day arrives, you can focus on the most important part - dazzling those families and nurturing them to the real goal: Enrolling them for next year.
If you need help tackling your next open house, let's talk.