Education Providers can keep their Marketing Strategy Going!
All education providers are going through challenging times and usual practices can easily be moved aside. We have enjoyed supporting and seeing how our clients are managing communications and marketing plans at this time. Some providers have set up brilliant YouTube channels and presented daily to their pupils. Others have had on-line quizzes for the pupils and staff, and taken photos of the daffodils growing in the school grounds.
It can be hard to continue with strategic planning and projects that were in place before we all moved to remote working. However, colleges and sixth forms will now more than ever, need to ensure that they support potential students, and keep the keep warm strategy live. Parents of children who will be joining nursery, primary school or secondary school in September might not get the opportunity to meet the staff, view the school and have their induction programme prior to starting in September. But there is lots that you can do to make sure that important opportunities are not lost.
1) Contact Prospective Students
Contact your applicants and reassure them that they are not affected by them not having their exam results. Students and their parents will be concerned and want to know that they have a place in college or sixth form. This could be a letter or e-mail with directions on how best to make contact for a reply to their queries. You could set up a live web chat between certain hours.
2) Provide Learning Materials
Send some learning materials to your prospective students. This could be examples of students work, links to websites, past exam papers or their first module when they start. This will help form a bond that would have taken place at events such as New Student Days, Taster Days and face-to-face interviews.
3) Continue with Applicant Interviews
This is the ideal time to phone applicants and interview them over the phone as they should be easily accessible. Explain that they won’t need to attend an interview and this will be their formal interview. They can ask questions and you can put their mind at rest. It will also ensure that your data of expected enrolments will be up to date. Contact enquiries who have not yet applied and continue with the conversion process.
4) Take your School on Tour
If you have a virtual tour, send this to parents and applicants. A virtual tour of the nursery, school, college or sixth form could show prospective students and parents the learning environment. You could include videos that you have showing activities that have taken place. You could create new content such as ‘What parents need for their child in September’.
5) Keep Your Current Students Motivated
Students will, of course, want to work at home and ensure they get the learning they need to complete their school year. You can keep them motivated by sharing materials, reminding them of past fun activities and of the future activities planned when school is back. Many colleges and sixth forms will be concerned that retention might be affected and pupils might not return to continue with their studies. Keeping your current students interested, motivated and connected will help with this.
6) Promote Yourself
Sorry to say this, but the new school year will be here before you know it. Plan ahead for all the things you would like to promote and develop and ensure that you are ready to start the new school year with a hugely positive push. Now is the time to ensure to promote all the great things that your students do.
7) Show you Care
Does your school normally celebrate children’s birthday in class? Why not send them a birthday card? If students are leaving this summer they will not want to miss out on prom, so re-assure them that the school will re-arrange this when possible. Find ways that work for you to keep the positivity going.
We all hope that we will be back to normal soon. We will all be developing new skills and these will help us in the future. Many of the temporary solutions might work better, we might offer prospective students the choice between a video call interview or a face-to-face interview. This could encourage us to be more flexible in our approach in the future.