Marketing for education organisations
Get expert marketing support to attract students.
Tailored marketing to find the right students for your school, college or university
The primary marketing objective for most learning organisations is to attract more students. In local authority funded schools and colleges, funding is nearly always attached to each individual enrolment. Dwindling numbers at the bottom of the school mean a reduction in overall school budget. Equally in a privately-funded school, college or university, budget is still influenced by enrolments.
Marketing to attract students >>
Who are you marketing to?
If you’re a local authority controlled school, you’ll know you need to impress parents and guardians within a certain geographic area. But perhaps in your area, catchment doesn’t matter?
If you’ve got plenty of space for students, and interesting things to offer in comparison to neighbouring schools, you’ll have lots to talk about!
A private school, college or university will have a much broader audience to consider. Perhaps you’ve had specific success attracting students from certain areas or backgrounds, that need to be recognised and replicated.
Understanding exactly the types of students (and parents) that will be attracted by what you offer means your precious budget will be spent on marketing to the right people.
What are you offering students?
Everyone has the basics of keeping young people safe and educated. But what about the rest? What else are you offering?
Oodles of green space? Free clubs after school every day? Excellent Ofsted or Estyn results? A reputation for producing international rugby players? You know what you have better than anyone else, but you might struggle to explain it in simple terms that mean something.
Your offer is a fundamental component of a student recruitment marketing strategy and understanding the value of what’s on offer and how this meets student needs is crucial.
A student recruitment marketing strategy helps you understand what you’re offering and the difference this makes to the lives of the young people you work with.
When are parents & students ready to hear from you?
Can you recognise the points in time when people consider they need to research a school, college or university placement? Are you one of those immensely popular schools with a tiny catchment area?! If so, maybe you don’t need to worry about marketing, but for everyone else there will be key moments, such as a house move, or reaching an age milestone, where people look for a specific education provider.
A student recruitment marketing strategy allows you to explore when people need you. This means you can work out when and where to distribute your marketing to get the best return on your investment.
Why should students come to your school, college or university?
Key messages explain to people why they need you. They outline what you’re offering. These statements will form the basis of lots of marketing materials going forward – website content, prospectuses, promotional videos, social media posts, newsletters – everything benefits from consistent marketing messages.
A student recruitment marketing strategy outlines key messages that shape all your marketing content going forward.
A student recruitment marketing strategy attracts students in a coordinated, cost-effective way. It allows you to target the right people, with the right messages, at the right time. It helps to prevent mistakes.
A student recruitment marketing strategy is usually a consultancy project, crafted in partnership with your senior leadership team or governors. The output is a document that sets the parameters for future marketing implementation and includes all your key messages.