How Can Glove Help Your School?
The business of schools, colleges, and Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) is education, and marketing is an important factor like any business. If you want your business to grow, then you must be able to get people interested in your products or services.
The Government’s white paper on schools and education earlier this year stated there was a need for stronger schools and teachers, which can only be achieved by growing your organisation, and for that, you will need to be able to promote and market yourself to stand out from the competition.
Thankfully, Glove is here to help! But what exactly is it that we can do for you? We have a brief look at some of the services we provide, and how they will help grow your organisation, attract the best talent, and boost enrolments.
Marketing Matters
Your organisation, whether it is a school, college, or MAT is unique, and you must be able to communicate this by developing a robust marketing strategy. Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to this, and your marketing strategy should be as unique as you are.
At Glove, we want to tell your story, boast about your achievements, and engage with parents, current and prospective students, teachers and support staff, other stakeholders, and the wider community.
A bespoke marketing strategy must be developed for you. We will analyze how your organisation stands within the local region, and how you compare to the competition. Our associates will use their expertise and knowledge to define your target market and the best ways to reach them and present you with a plan for your future marketing activities.
A robust marketing strategy will include setting goals so you can more easily create campaigns to meet your objectives and prevent your marketing from lacking direction, which ultimately will be a waste of time and money. Budgets will also be a major consideration, as it is important that your marketing is financially viable.
We will also help you analyse your marketing campaigns so that everyone can learn from them and improve upon them. By determining what has worked in the past, you can more easily build success into future campaigns and marketing efforts.
A marketing strategy is just the beginning with Glove, as once you have a plan put together, we’re also here to help you put it into action. This could include:
• Out-of-home media
• Social media marketing
• Prospectus Design
• Other media
Out-Of-Home Media
Out-of-home media refers to the advertising seen when people are out of their homes. This includes billboard advertisements, adverts on buses, bus stops, and train stations, and more.
Via the analysis conducted at the strategy development stage, we can determine which out-of-home media will be the most effective for your organisation. We have years of expertise in the buying, planning, and creative aspects of out-of-home advertising, and will conduct research into determining the key areas and types of media that will have the most impact.
Social Media
Social media has become a vital component for any organisation and an incredibly useful communication tool.
It is highly likely that one of the first things that any parent of a prospective student will do is to check out your school’s social media presence, including your school’s website. Any business that does not have any digital presence is bound to set alarm bells ringing, so it is important to establish a striking website and profiles on the major social media platforms.
These can help provide regular updates and valuable information to parents, students, and staff such as closures due to training or adverse weather, allowing them to be able to quickly make arrangements, or share your successes, whether it is glowing reviews for a school play or to boast about your latest ‘outstanding’ Ofsted evaluation.
Most stakeholders will follow your social media profiles, but there are also paid advertising options that will place your posts in front of your target audiences, such as parents in certain demographics or geographical areas.
As well as allowing schools to engage in conversations with stakeholders and the wider community, social media marketing can also help with recruitment, reducing the costs of recruitment agencies, and helping to reach a wider audience that may already have a pre-existing interest in your school.
Prospectus Design
A professionally designed prospectus can help to capture the attention of stakeholders. It needs to reflect the way you run your school, as well as echo the school’s branding materials.
We can help with creating engaging written content, high-quality photography, and striking design that will demonstrate the values, style and priorities of your school, and help attract stakeholders.
It could be that your finished prospectus is one among many that prospective parents have gathered at open days or received through the post, so it needs to stand out and be persuasive. Parents and students will want to be drawn to your product, and the photography, text, illustrations, infographics, lists, and testimonials need to grab their attention quickly.
A prospectus needs to be an extension of what readers will have seen elsewhere, such as your website and social media, as well as visits to your school on open days. It needs to be as unique and as remarkable as your school, and for parents and students to instantly associate it with your institution.
To accomplish all this, you need design expertise and experience in crafting glossy and attractive brochures that reflect what stakeholders have already seen at open days or on your social media, and here at Glove, we can do exactly that.
Other Media
Content marketing is a catch-all term that involves the creation of various forms of media for advertising, from engaging blogs for your website to catchy audio ads for radio and streaming services such as Spotify and podcasts to striking video advertisements for TV, YouTube, and social media.
As with out-of-home media, we’re experts in knowing just which types of media will be the most effective for your organisation, as well as buying, planning, and creating the right content that showcases your school while being cost-effective.
Benefits Of Marketing
Effective marketing has numerous benefits for your organisation, all of which will help your school to grow and be stronger.
Marketing can:
• Help you keep up with the competition - strong, consistent, and professional marketing will be vital in the constant competition to attract new students and talented staff
• Help maintain a connection with parents - Grabbing the attain of parents from the outset is important, as fewer people have the time to read long-form content or study league tables.
• Improve your brand image - a set of brand guidelines in your marketing strategy will ensure that messages, colour schemes, and layouts remain consistent, which will significantly improve your brand image. A recognisable brand will help to build trust and portray a positive brand image.
• Help be perceived more favourably by Ofsted - Your school’s Ofsted evaluation plays a major role when parents are choosing a school for their children. Ofsted will encounter all your marketing before, during, and after a visit, and well-considered and high-quality marketing will help portray your school as professionally run, which will be looked upon favourably.
Glove has gained a proven reputation as a leading education marketing agency, so if you’re looking for more information about how we can help your school, college, or MAT, and find solutions that fit like a glove, then get in touch today.