Want to learn how your school's blog can help drive new enrollments? Here are our top six tips to get you started. Pop-quiz! If we asked you to name your school’s top three drivers of enrollments, what would they be? We’d be willing to place a safe bet that your school’s blog isn't one of them.
We get it, a blog isn’t the most obvious of enrollment tools, however, you might be surprised to know that blogs are often the most frequently visited page of a website. Blogging is quickly becoming one of the most popular tactics for schools to use in their inbound marketing strategy. The content you create and promote on your blog has more power than you think. Are you ready to take your school's blog to the next level? If so, here are our top six blogging tips to drive enrollments.
Long-form content is key
Your blog should be filled with engaging content that defines your school’s USPs and inspires prospective parents to enroll their child at your school. With our ever-shortening attention spans, you’d be forgiven for thinking we made a typo here, but rest assured, we stand by our claim, long-form content is key.
According to content marketing guru, Neil Patel, blog posts that include over 3,000 words receive more traffic (yes, you read that right, 3,000 words). I know what you’re thinking, “didn’t you just say attention spans are getting shorter?” While this may be true, Internet users are using more long-tail keyword searches every day and are demanding specific and detailed answers to their questions. So, if you want your school blog to rank higher in Google search engine, you’re going to need to create longer, well-researched blog posts that not only showcase your school but also aim to educate prospective parents.
Choose engaging images
Are you a master wordsmith who has just crafted the most engaging and articulate blog post the world will ever see? Well, I hate to burst your bubble, but the truth of the matter is that when it comes to blog posts, your words simply aren’t enough. Parents are perpetually time-poor, you’re going to need to ensure your content is quick and easy to digest — this is where the right images can help!
You’re going to want to include relevant, high-quality images that support the central theme of your blog post. If you have great images on file or know your way around a camera — go for it. If not, there are plenty of free, stock image websites online like Unsplash, Pexels, and Burst just to name a few. A quick word of warning if you are planning on using a free image website though, be selective with the images you choose — they need to make sense for your blog post.
Flex your storytelling muscles
We’ve previously posted on the blog about how important effective storytelling is for communicating your school values — your blog is no different. When prospective parents visit your blog to read your content, they don’t want to sift through chunky paragraphs of dry text. Step away from simply off-loading information into your posts and start telling meaningful, emotive stories.
Incorporating storytelling in your blog posts elicits an emotional response, leading prospective parents to feel more connected to your school. If you’re able to strike an emotive chord through an engaging combination of text and images, prospective parents are more likely to take that next step towards enrollment, rather than just passively reading your blog post.
Use a direct call to action
If you want your blog readers to take a particular action, a clear and direct call to action is key — we can’t stress this enough. Where you place it, how it looks and where it links to are all incredibly important aspects of the CTAs you place in your blog or news posts. Use large, clear buttons placed after key information in an order that would make sense to a reader. Ensure that it links to the correct page, keeping in mind that reducing the steps to your conversion will increase your conversion rate. We recommend testing each CTA for a two-week period and see how well it converts, relative to the page views.
Shamelessly promote your content
Once you’ve finished writing your blog post, don’t stop there. It’s time to shamelessly promote your content across your digital channels. Promoting your blog content is a great way to engage your community and position your school as a thought leader. If you find some of your posts are performing particularly well on Facebook, consider giving them a paid boost to reach even more people.
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