Tara is the in-house content lead at Digistorm, tending to all content needs, big or small! When she’s not writing copy or managing the Insights editorial calendar, Tara is passionate about supporting theatre and live music.
Here at Digistorm, it's no secret that we're big fans of inbound marketing. Rather than competing for attention through pushy, outdated marketing tactics, inbound marketing focuses on attracting customers by creating engaging, educational content. Hubspot's inbound methodology sums it all up perfectly. The aim is to attract, engage, and delight customers by building trust and credibility through content that adds value to every stage of your customer's journey.
But, which inbound marketing channels are best for your school? In this post, we'll guide you through each option so that you can make the best possible decision for your school's marketing strategy.
Here's the good news: most inbound marketing tactics are digital, so there's a good chance that you're already implementing at least one inbound marketing tactic at your school already. Like any marketing initiative, choosing which inbound marketing tactics are best for your school will come down to your school's key objectives. Are you looking to boost enrollment numbers, improve parent engagement and communication, or build your school's brand? Maybe it's all three — whatever your goal is, we recommend honing in on three or four inbound marketing tactics to see the best results.
Around 55% of marketers say blogging is by far their favorite inbound marketing tactic. Why? Well, the proof is in the numbers. Research shows that companies who blog regularly generate up to 67% more leads per month than those who don't. Not only does blogging work wonders for your school website's SEO, but they allow your school to showcase thought leadership and provide insightful, engaging information on the topics that your audience cares about.
Take the Digistorm blog for example – this is by far one of our most effective inbound marketing tactics. On the blog, we're able to share key insights, valuable tips, and resources with our audience. Trust us, with a solid blogging strategy in place, your school will definitely start to see the benefits! Don't forget though, blogging means playing the long game. Don't be surprised if you have to stick with it for around six months before you start seeing those results.
Social media has become such an integral part of our everyday lives. In fact, it would be hard to find someone who isn't signed up to at least one social media platform (if not many). Its popularity and addictive nature make social media the perfect place to drive brand awareness, promote paid and organic content, and generate new leads for your school.
A quick word of warning though: don't over-commit your resources to managing too many social media platforms. We find that many schools struggle with social media because they spread themselves too thin. If you don't have the time or resources to dedicate a full-time role to managing your school's social media profiles, start by nailing just one platform. We find that most schools love Facebook or Instagram to showcase their school and connect with their community.
Parents are time-poor and on the lookout for valuable resources that will help make their lives easier. There's a myriad of content for parents online, but our personal favorites come in form of checklists, templates, and how-to guides. Creating valuable, branded content positions your school as a helping hand and will keep your school top-of-mind.
Here's a couple of ideas to get you started:
Finally, a great digital inbound marketing strategy to employ is email, ensuring that's personalized and targeted to your audience, of course! Albeit not the most cutting-edge technique, email marketing is still an incredibly effective way to put your school in front of customers. In the eCommerce world, email marketing generates $38 for every $1 spent, meaning it has a whopping ROI of 3800%, according to research published by Hubspot.
As a school marketer, you instead want to be creating email content that nurtures people through the enrollment process effectively, and as a result, keeps them coming back for more. For example, you might like to created automated emails that are triggered by a certain tag or category in your CRM that then reach out to a prospective family after they’ve signed up for a tour, or completed a form. These show each family the level of care your school invests into its potential students and ensures greater lead retention throughout each stage of your enrollment pipeline.
In the school context, print documents actually have more applications than you may think. Of course, these don’t actually have to be on paper — we’re more so referring to documents that aren’t collaborative but instead, encourage parents or students to go home and take a certain action rather than feeding it back into a computer. There are so many examples of great print documents that will enhance your digital marketing strategy, but we’ve narrowed it down to a few that are super effective and will maximize lead retention.
After completing a tour or chatting with your staff, prospective families are likely to want to retain the information they’ve just received — but doing so with sheer brainpower is a big ask. Why not help them keep your school top of mind by offering an informational packet or downloadable file featuring everything you’ve just talked about?
Most schools are already doing this, as it’s an integral part of maintaining good relationships with prospective families and guiding them through the enrollment process. If you’re not, we recommend you jump on the bandwagon ASAP! While you’re at it, maybe you could drum up a few creative ways to present or offer the information. For instance, maybe you email your wrap-up as a pdf file, thus ensuring you receive an email for your mailing list if you haven’t already. Or, you could encourage parents to join your social media community through links to the school’s platforms and any relevant groups that address their unique needs.
Another great way to really engage your school community (both parents and kids!) is through interactive documents. This may be a worksheet they could fill out, a template they could implement, or even just a comprehensive guide on a certain subject you know will be of interest. Once again, it’s up to you if you opt for print documents or a simple pdf or Google doc.
The purpose of this kind of content is twofold, based on what you do with it. You can distribute the material to existing parents to encourage them to interact more with the school community, with some kind of call to action that asks them to promote your school (e.g. a social media share). However, if you’re able to really fine-tune your content, you could also generate new leads by posting these interactive documents online. Whether you decide to offer them for free or perhaps via a gated email sign-up (hello, killer database!), you’ll be adding value to your school’s site and gathering credit for SEO at once. The more your content appears on Google, the more prospective parents you may have in your midst.
Here are a few examples of shareable, relevant print content for schools:
Create checklists for parents to use as part of their daily or back-to-school routines — for example, getting their kids ready for prep, selecting the perfect school or even things to do before heading back to school for the year.
Designing a branded template for parents to use to plan various activities is a great way to keep your school top of mind. Plus, it’ll be a total time-saver for parents — a great example is a homework planning template that can be used to help students sort out and allocate the week’s workload.
How-to guides are consistently popular, whether they be in the form of blog posts or downloadable content. They give parents something to refer to when they’re out of ideas, time-pressed, or simply need a little refresher course. We love the idea of a how-to guide packed with amazing school lunchbox recipes, including ingredient lists and photos.
Whichever inbound marketing strategies you decide to implement for your school, the key to generating great engagement is relevance. Keeping it relevant and valuable to your school’s audience, both current and prospective, is essential. Of course, make sure you’re not giving away all this golden information for free — gather email addresses or social media followers to ensure it becomes a mutually beneficial relationship.