Today’s parents rely increasingly on the internet and online resources to help them make decisions, and this extends to the schools they might choose for their children. They are likely searching for terms such as, “best independent schools in Cape Town” or “best primary schools in Cape Town”, and if your school does not appear for these searches, you might be losing out on business. You should consider using inbound marketing for your school, to reach a more targeted audience.
A strong inbound marketing strategy for your school will help you to appear in the right searches and can help to build trust in your credibility as an institution. Below we discuss why your school needs an inbound marketing strategy.
Transform Strangers Into Website Visitors
While it is true that a billboard or printed advertisement can create awareness about your school, the most powerful tool in today’s world is search engine optimisation (SEO), which uses inbound marketing as one its techniques.Search engines are where parents go to find out more about a prospective school.
Your inbound marketing strategy will include the optimisation of your school website design, such as ensuring all relevant keywords are on each page and uploading content to your blog page that uses these keywords. An inbound marketing strategy can help to encourage people to visit your website and interact with your school.
Increase Your Online Visibility
Many people do not think about inbound marketing and schools, but the truth of the matter is that even educational institutions need a marketing strategy. Without one, your school will not have any online visibility, which could mean that you are missing out on potential students. Being visible online also means you are seen as being more trustworthy by parents.
Inbound marketing for schools can also help to improve the positivity of your online visibility, especially if you write blog posts and articles that are relevant and valuable to your students and parents. If this content is shared, you will soon have improved search engine rankings, helping you to appear in more search results.
Convert Visitors Into Applicants
Inbound marketing is ideal for converting strangers or searchers on the internet into website visitors, and it is even more powerful for changing these visitors into applicants. Some of the tools that inbound marketers use for these conversions include having inquiry forms on the website, using landing pages with signup forms on them for different grades, and having clear calls-to-action on every page.
Previously, gaining more applicants might have been highly difficult, especially if you did not have a website or if your school website does not use forms or calls-to-action. Without using inbound marketing, you will not have the same visibility, which is what can help with converting visitors to your website into applicants.
Build Trust And Credibility
Being seen as trustworthy and credible is vital in the education industry, but without an online presence, this can be difficult to achieve. Using inbound marketing tactics such as writing blog posts for your school, sending out newsletters to current and potential students, and posting on social media can help you to appear more trustworthy and credible.
Inbound marketing is ideal for building trust and credibility because it is a less invasive form of marketing. Rather than chasing after your potential clients, you are encouraging them to come to you. This more personalised and measured approach will make potential students and parents feel more at ease with your school and could encourage them to become applicants.
Generate Quality Traffic
One of the major benefits of using inbound marketing as part of your school website design strategy is that it will help you to generate quality traffic and leads who are genuinely interested in your school. This traffic can be generated by writing blogs and sharing them on various platforms or sending out newsletters to those who have signed up to receive them.
The content you produce will be targeted to your audience, which means that only interested parties will be visiting your website and interacting with your school. If you would like to implement an inbound marketing strategy for your school, contact the Edumedia team today to find out what we can offer you.
