Independent schools: content marketing for every stage of student recruitment
When it comes to your Independent School’s marketing budget, content marketing offers great bang for your buck. That’s because content is a powerful way to create connection, communicate expertise, and share your point of difference.
As we know, this relationship building doesn’t stop when a child enrolls.
Here’s how to service current students (and recruit new ones!) using clever content marketing.
Tone of voice matters
If you’ve come here from this article, you’re already a full bottle on the importance of tone of voice when it comes to your Independent School. If you haven’t – I’ll wait. Don’t forget, a consistent tone of voice is critical to engaging prospective parents. It’s also a powerful part of your brand, so it’s worth spending the time to work out what your current tone of voice is saying about your school.
Once you’ve got your TOV down pat (or you’ve hired a copywriter to take it off your hands!) – here are four key focus areas for your content marketing strategy.
Attract & Engage
This is the brand awareness stage. As a K-12 school, you might have two or three different entry points for student recruitment. You’ll want to pump out some content targeting Kindy parents, of course. Attracting parents of Year Seven (for the start of High School) and even Year 10 students (for specialist senior courses and programs) might be part of your strategy as well.
With your target markets in mind, consider how to answer common parent questions at every stage. Here are some ideas that can be tweaked to suit your needs.
Youngest: Here’s how to choose the best school for your child
Middle: Is your pre-teen a closed book? Ask these questions to help them open up.
Oldest: WACE and ATAR and VET, oh my! Make sense of Senior High School pathways, once and for all.
Attract & Engage content is all about gently introducing your school to prospective parents by solving their problems and addressing their anxieties. This strengthens your expert status and creates trust – the first steps towards a long relationship.
Recruit & Convert
Now that you’re familiar to a prospective parent, they might look a little closer. Prospective Kindy parents, for example, will want to know what makes your Kindy program the best one for their child. Whether your focus is academic or nature-based, this is the time to spruik your points of difference like there’s no tomorrow.
When it comes to High School, same deal. If you’re a boarding school, parents are going to be looking for content that supports the whole family with the transition they’re about to make. Boarders aside, all parents of young teens are keen for information that will help their child get excited about the start of High School. That’s where content about orientation, on-going programs, and day-in-the-life glimpses come in. Well crafted articles, videos and social media posts make your school come alive – which is one of the best ways to turn fence-sitters into community members.
These ideas might work for you at this stage:
Youngest: Learning through play – the [school name] way
Middle: Resilience rocks! Here’s how to foster it in your teenager.
Oldest: 12 life skills your teen needs to know before they leave school
Nurture & Enrol
Now that you’ve got prospective parents and their children on-side, it’s time to compel them toward the education equivalent of “Add to Cart”. At this stage, parents are going to be looking for more specific details about why your school is the best choice. Comprehensive teacher profiles are a great way to show off your school’s human side.
Share some of the fun, light-hearted moments between teachers and students, or highlight your innovative pastoral care program.
Nurture & Enrol content is all about helping parents make a decision. It’s all about making sure your target audience knows you’re the one for them.
Try these ideas on for size.
Youngest: Meet Ms. [Last name} – teacher and adventurer
Middle: 5 ways [name of pastoral care program] supports your child
Oldest: Pathways to success – find out what our grads are up to
Retain
I don’t need to tell you that your student retention process never stops. Keeping current parents in the loop about what’s happening at school is an important way to keep families engaged. Of course, parents and student will have access to your Learning Management Program, but that doesn’t mean you can forget about them on the content marketing front.
Mentioning school events, highlighting student successes, and sharing good news stories helps foster school pride. Apart from sharing this content with grandparents and far-flung friends, current parents are likely to share it on social media – giving your school a user-generated boost.
Valuable, positive, sharable content is a strong cue for prospective parents at all stages of the recruitment process, especially when it’s shared by parents of enrolled children.
Content is Queen
When it comes to attraction, recruitment, and enrolment, you can’t go past content marketing. Not only is it a powerful recruitment tool, it’s easy to repurpose strong content on social media, in your email marketing campaigns, and even for press releases and news articles.
And hey – if you’re wondering where to start, I can help!
I’d love to have a conversation about how to make content marketing work hard for your school. All you have to do is book a call and we’ll get started straight away.
Martha Barnard-Rae is a Denmark WA-based SEO copywriter. She supports businesses in Denmark, Albany, the Great Southern and beyond with all the wordy things they need to stand out in the best possible way.
Her words live on the websites, blogs, videos, emails, and socials of businesses all over Australia. An accomplished speaker, Martha helps brands, business owners, schools, and Government Departments understand what they need to do to find their voices.
Martha holds an Honours Degree in English and a Master’s Degree in Education — communication truly lights her up. When she’s not crafting delicious words, you’ll find her walking two giant pooches, practicing her ukulele, or wrapped around a cup of tea, planning out her next Instagram reel.
To stay up to date, join the Word Candy crew on Instagram, or connect with Martha on LinkedIn.