Fundraising strategies for any organization require massive amounts of time, energy, and thought. Independent schools in particular feel the pressure, as any MarCom or Development staffer will acutely understand. After all, fundraising failures result in cut programs and faculty, or—worse—a total shut-down. You believe in your school’s mission, and you know it’s worthwhile. When poor
Social media marketing is important for your independent school—you know this. You also know how intense it can be. When your MarCom team spends most of its time generating content or collecting it from other staff members, for example, they may overlook what strategies aren’t working to accomplish your digital goals. Sometimes, there simply aren’t
Engaging email newsletters are one of the critical components to marketing your school to prospective families, and fostering a sense of community among current families. They’re obviously incredibly important all around. What practices, however, make a school’s email newsletter effective? How do you keep your audience from unsubscribing? And—perhaps most importantly—with everything that happens at
Independent schools like yours must invest time and funds into a social media presence. Your target demographic, after all, spends hours per day online for both work and play. But maintaining an engaging space on social media for your school is often an overwhelming, intense task. Questions are bound to arise. How do you measure
How often do your webmasters take a comprehensive look at your school’s site? Do they examine its structure, content, and technological “backbone” to identify potential issues and productive opportunities? A muddled, disorganized website can cost your school its bottom line, to say nothing of its donations and enrollment numbers. If a full “head-to-toe” website audit
Your school’s target demographics—Gen X, Millennials, and/or Gen Z—get their information primarily from social media. No longer are print ads and television spots enough: your independent school needs to have engaging, authentic ads on platforms like Facebook. What makes a “good” Facebook ad, however? How do you go about creating something both professional and eye-catching?
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is of the utmost importance in the online world. If your independent school’s site lacks proper SEO, there’s a high chance it won’t show up on Google or Bing when prospective families search for it. And if families can’t find your website, it might as well be invisible. Thankfully, we’ve
The user experience of your school’s website is crucial to its success, and therefore to your enrollment numbers. If information is hard to find, hard to read, or simply not useful, visitors will leave without entering your marketing funnel. This means that accessibility must become a top priority. All visitors, including those with disabilities, need
Videos, photos, blog posts, and social media posts all comprise your content strategy. Effective content not only brings in new leads and prospective families—it can help solidify relationships in your current community, as well. Students and families who feel like they’re a part of a bigger educational “family” are more likely to return to your
What comprises your independent school’s communications strategy? It isn’t just email updates, although those certainly come into play. A communications strategy also entails: social media posts on all platforms blog(s) and posts print materials (such as brochures) website content press releases Regardless of your goal with any of these mediums, there are certain tried-and-true standards
