3 Common Digital Marketing Mistakes made by Schools

As a school owner, no doubt you would have invested a lot of resources in the development of high-quality educational programs and services. However, there are possibilities you may have ignored the marketing aspect of it, or you may have committed an equal amount of effort to promoting them to parents, but the enrolment numbers are not improving. Where could your marketing efforts have gone wrong? Did you implement a bad strategy, used an ineffective tactic, or targeted the wrong audience altogether?

We have identified the top 3 most common marketing mistakes schools make, so you can reappraise your marketing strategies to improve the effectiveness of your efforts.

 

1.   Not Identifying your Target Audience

When you are marketing, you can’t just throw your net wide thinking that it will catch more “fish” because if you target every audience, you are actually targeting no one. And targeting is crucial to the success of your marketing campaign. It matters to figure out your target audience and define their characteristics to be as detailed as possible.

For instance, if your focus is special education and you try to reach every parent, that would include those who are seeking other learning features like the Montessori curriculum, then it would be a waste of time and effort. Once you know your audience, you can perform keyword research correctly, and create the best marketing message that will drive prospective families to respond positively and enroll at your school.

 

2.   Handling too many Tasks

Oftentimes, school owners try to get everything done themselves. Their belief is that traditional marketing (TV, billboards, newspapers, etc.) is the best, so they try to use limited resources when it comes to digital marketing.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the relentless pressure of competing priorities, plus, most might find it complicated to actually optimize digital marketing strategies in order to see the results. Take some time to determine whether you need to delegate, readjust current efforts, or outsource so that you can accomplish much more than you have planned.

 

READ MORE: What Every School Owner Should Know about School Marketing

 

3.   Poor Website Strategy

A website with great visuals and valuable content can set you apart from other schools, and increase parent engagement as well as student enrolment. The website has to be parent-oriented, and most importantly, mobile-friendly – most users will access your website from their mobile devices. So, if your website isn’t mobile-friendly, you could lose valuable visitors.

Plus, it’s essential to optimize your website for search engines. You need to incorporate the most effective search engine optimization (SEO) practices for families who are a good fit to be able to find your school online at the top of Google’s first page.

On top of that, most families are active on social media, therefore, your school should be too.