Is your independent school planning an in-person, virtual, or hybrid admissions event this fall? If so, it’s critical for your school’s event to be optimized on search engines. Many private school marketers know that SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a relatively large undertaking.

But did you know that you truly can take SEO one page at a time?

Each year presents its own unique marketing challenges for independent K-12 schools, and this year is no exception. On the heels of a global pandemic, a drastically shifting economy, and a privacy-centric online advertising space, schools need to allocate annual marketing dollars smarter and leaner than in the past in order to more effectively reach right-fit families online. 

Here are some tips for schools looking to develop a stronger and smarter digital marketing strategy this year: 

Families are eager to see what opportunities await their children for both in-person and virtual summer programs this year. While summer camp marketing should be a year-round strategy, now is a great time of year to take digital marketing to the next level. Whether you focus on test prep, arts, athletics, STEM, or nature-based themes, digital marketing is a great way to boost those summer registrations, and quickly. 

How Your School Can Market Your Summer Camps and Programs Online:

In today’s market, especially during a pandemic, paid advertising is a great way for independent schools to promote all the benefits and successes they are experiencing this year. The ads are also a great way to reach new families who are exploring different options for their children. According to an eMarketer study, 96% of social marketers consider Facebook the most effective paid advertising option available to them. Paid advertising on social media can be very effective at growing your admissions funnel, and it is relatively easy to put a quick ad campaign together; however, it is important to remember your organic presence can continue to nurture these families throughout the admissions process, as well as support the paid ads, so that the paid and organic strategies together have a longer, stronger impact.

3 Reasons Your School Should Be Posting on Facebook and Instagram While Running Ads

Every year presents its own enrollment challenges for independent schools. In these unprecedented times, it is more critical than ever to consider multiple factors before launching digital marketing campaigns.

Schools need to leverage market research to launch more informed and increasingly impactful digital campaigns heading into 2021.

It starts with understanding who your core audience is, and who it needs to be, so that you can begin to reach, attract, convert, and retain the right-fit families to sustain your enrollment marketing efforts now— and well beyond — COVID-19.

If you’re a school marketer, you may be wondering what the Google Analytics 4 announcement is all about. 

Here's an overview of Google Analytics 4 and how your school can leverage it.

With reopening plans and the new school year just around the corner, it’s easy to put things like Search Engine Optimization (SEO) on the back burner. But since families are not visiting campus to ask all the right admissions questions, it’s more critical than ever that your website be optimized to provide information about the admissions process to parents in the exact moment they are looking. Without proper SEO, you might be preventing your admissions pages from showing up in search results, or worse, the wrong pages and information could be showing up, creating a bad user experience and leaving a bad impression.

Here's how schools can optimize their admissions pages for search right now:

Is your school dealing with a persnickety review or low star rating? It can be challenging to keep up with various ways in which prospective families are searching for, and learning about your school online while understanding which of those ratings really matter. For better or worse, the reality is that online reviews are part of the equation for every stage of the funnel -- from the initial discovery and inquiry, to deciding whether to visit, apply, and ultimately enroll -- key considerations are being made by adults who rely on the internet for a large source of information. 

As of July 10, 2019, Google announced that they were discontinuing support of K-12 G-Suite users in Brand Accounts, a service that was originally created by Google to help organize Google products associated with a brand (or in our clients’ cases, their school).

At EMG, all of our clients and partners are working with Google products in some capacity. As a result, we have prepared the following resources as a quick guide to help you navigate these changes, if your school is impacted.

UPDATE – As Google's deadline of November 1, 2019, has passed, Brand Accounts that were not granted an extension by their school’s G Suite administrator have now been deleted. Please reference Google's page devoted to the K-12 Brand Account Suspension topic, and we will post any further updates here as well!