The key ingredient to success in school digital content
Introduction
No matter how much of a marketing magician you may be, it takes more than just a few hours of work to build a strong digital content strategy for your school. It requires a consistent effort over a long period of time to generate a solid foundation for your school’s digital marketing, and demands significant budget, time investment and more to execute. It’s hard, and it’s complex, and as experts in education marketing, we know better than anyone that it can often be difficult to know if you’re even doing the right thing.
How to create successful digital content for your school.
Over our 13+ years practicing marketing and admissions in the education industry, while we haven’t found the elixir of instant success for school marketing, we have developed a keen sense of what is required to build content that is genuinely engaging and returns on investment. If anything else, by focusing on this one key ingredient, your marketing team will have the strongest foundation to succeed.
And what is this exactly? In one word - authenticity.
Mougins British International School
It seems simple enough - be authentic in your digital content, and prospective families will connect with your school, bonding emotionally with your brand and quickly converting into new enrolments.
However, it is easier said than done, and as furniture is only as good as the instructions it comes with, we believe that our advice is only as good as the concrete actions and resolutions it can offer your school.
So we’ve broken down our understanding of authenticity in school marketing into 3 essential components.
1. Know your authentic identity with message house creation
There is simply no point in trying to be authentic to prospective families if you don’t understand who you really are as a school. It’s the reason your school exists, it’s the reason why your teachers love to get up every day and be a part of your community, and it will always be the reason why parents choose your school. It is the cornerstone of growth, keeping your school grounded in a solid identity and proving to prospective parents that you’re a safe pair of hands for their child.
Often, international schools can be so tied up in advertising every single aspect of their offered learning experience, that they lose sight of who they authentically are at the school. Indeed, every communicated benefit of your school experience must link back to your authentic self.
To make sure you know your authentic self as a school, we often consult with our partner schools on their message house, building a solid brand identity and associated brand USP’s that they can draw upon for every communication platform, from long-form website posts to 30-second Instagram Reels.
Brookhouse School Nairobi
2. Show your authentic self with a virtual campus tour
Now that you have a strong understanding of your authentic brand identity, it is vital to show your true colours to prospective families, and there is no better way to do this than through an immersive virtual campus tour.
St George’s International School Switzerland
As we often tell our partner schools, a few pictures on your website simply cannot tell the full and true story of your school, and what makes your identity unique in a crowded market. It takes a professional 360° virtual campus tour to convey the subtle details that make your school stand out.
Because of this, we have built a dedicated team of virtual tour experts over the past few years to ensure we can show your authentic self to prospective families. We advise on staging, to ensure that your school looks lived in, adding another layer of depth to your identity, and continually reinforcing your brand.
3. Tell your authentic story with impactful videography
Of course, nothing can be more authentic than looking into the eyes of a prospective family and telling them the story of your school. If you could sit every single potential prospective family down and simply talk to them authentically, you would guarantee admissions growth. However this is just not feasible, and with all that talking, you wouldn’t have anytime to actually run your school!
The solution to this is smart, sincere videography that is designed for emotional impact. With our partner schools, we build upon a strong message house by turning their key messages into creative and emotional stories.
And who better to tell these stories, than the community members of your school, who live your school experience every day. Put the spotlight on your students, teachers, parents and alumni, and we’ve found that they will always deliver true sincerity, bonding with prospective parents and driving engagement.
Summary - Creating the best school digital content
As specialists in authentic school digital content and marketing, we are always happy to talk to your school about finding your true voice in a crowded market of schools. We know exactly what it takes to be authentic in the digital age, and how to harness this power to create truly impactful digital content for prospective families.
In short, you need to:
Know your authentic self with message house creation.
Show your authentic self with a virtual campus tour
Tell your authentic story with impactful videography
If you’d like to talk more about how to achieve this, our school marketing experts are always available, so you can contact us anytime using our website contact form, or calling us on +44 20 34 55 22 41.
