Ever feel like you're drowning in a sea of school marketing to-dos? Between managing social media, updating the website, and planning events, it's tough to find time for important projects that can actually make a difference and move the needle in the right direction.

Aside from coffee, time is a school marketer's most valuable resource and while it might sound too good to be true, small changes can make a big difference. 

Stop letting your to-do list gather dust! We've got nine strategic marketing ideas for schools that will free up your time, boost your school's visibility, and make your job a little easier.

Gran your coffee and let’s get started—there’s no time to waste!

1. Rebuild Your Email Newsletter

School newsletters are one of the most effective ways to reach current families and alumni. However, if they aren’t optimized for mobile, don’t have relevant content, or are even visually appealing, then you might be missing out on a great opportunity to improve awareness about events, engage families, increase donations, or even improve retention.

Rebuilding your email newsletter might seem like a "backstage" task, but it has the potential to impact your school's marketing and communication efforts significantly. Here's a breakdown of the value:

• Increased Engagement: A well-designed, mobile-friendly newsletter with compelling content is more likely to be opened and read. This leads to greater engagement with your school community, keeping families and alumni informed and invested.
   
• Improved Communication: A consistent newsletter helps you share important updates, promote events, and celebrate achievements effectively.
   
• Enhanced Brand Image: A professional and visually appealing newsletter reinforces your school's brand identity and presents a polished image to the world.
   
• Stronger Community: Newsletters build a sense of belonging and keep everyone in the loop, from current families to alumni.
   
• Streamlined Workflow: Creating reusable templates saves you a ton of time and effort in the long run so you can focus on more important tasks.
   
• Potential for Increased Donations: If you can showcase your school's impact and needs in your newsletter, you can encourage alumni and families to contribute.
   
• Improved Retention: Regular communication helps families feel connected and valued, which can contribute to higher student retention rates.

Projected Time Investment: 

30 mins a template. While building a new newsletter template requires an initial time investment, the long-term benefits are significant. Presbyterian School of Houston’s newsletter is a great example of a weekly check-in becoming a valuable tool for communication, community building, and, ultimately, achieving your school's marketing goals.

Blogs to Guide the Way

• 6 Tips For Creating Mobile-Friendly Emails
• 7 School Email Marketing Mistakes You Need To Stop Making

2. Give Your Tuition Page a Well-Deserved Makeover

For most schools, the tuition page is one of the most popular pages on the website, but it often gets the least attention. If your tuition page just lists the costs, it's time for a change!

Investing just an hour or two to revamp your tuition page can bring significant value in the long run.

Here's why:

• Increased Conversions: A well-designed tuition page that clearly explains costs, financial aid options, and the value of your school can encourage more families to apply. This translates to more enrolled students and increased revenue.
   
• Improved User Experience: A clear and informative tuition page makes it easier for families to find the information they need quickly.
   
• Better Search Engine Optimization (SEO): By optimizing your tuition page with relevant keywords, you can improve its ranking in search results. This makes it easier for parents and students to find your school online.

Projected Time Investment:

While a couple hours may seem like a big time commitment, think of it an investment in your school's future. A well-crafted tuition page, like Pope Saint John Paul II Preparatory School’s, can pay dividends for years to come by attracting more interested families and improving your school's overall image.

Blogs to Guide the Way:

• 4 Strategies to Create Tuition Pages that Convert
• How To Lower Your School's Tuition Page Bounce Rate 

3. Optimize Your Website's Meta Content for Search

Over 90% of online experiences start with a search engine, and most people use general terms like "best private schools near me" when they search.

Showing up in the top results for these searches helps potential families and teachers find your school. This is important for your recruitment strategy. A good way to do this is with search engine optimization (SEO).

Projected Time Investment: 3-5 Minutes Per Page

Your site's meta content (AKA title tags and meta descriptions) play a large role in your search engine optimization strategy. Well-crafted title tags can help improve your school’s performance in the searches that matter, while meta descriptions can help increase click-through rates.

A title tag is an HTML element that specifies the title of a web page. Title tags are displayed in search as the clickable headline. You often want this to be some combination of your school’s name and any keywords you wish to rank for. While these should be limited to 50-60 characters, if you go beyond that limit, just be sure the most important terms are at the beginning.

A meta description is a snippet of text of up to 160 characters that summarizes a page's content. As a best practice, your meta description should contain similar words to your title tag. These do not help improve your search ranking, but can help with click-through rates.

If you use Finalsite Composer, managing your title tags and meta descriptions is easy. Toggle the gear button at the bottom right of your Composer editor, select “SEO,” and edit away!

Blogs to Guide the Way:

• SEO For Schools: Strategies For A Page 1 Ranking
• On-Page SEO: 10 Best Practices You Should Know

4. Take Some Time for Professional Development

Dig up all of those webinar recordings you've saved in your inbox over the course of the year — the time has come! Now is the perfect time to watch them! Whether you have an hour or a few days, use this time to learn something new and get inspired.

Projected Time Investment: Up to you, but likely a minimum of one hour.

5. Create a Social Media Plan or Calendar

Social media can take a lot of time to manage, so use your free time to plan your social media content in advance. If you don't have a social media plan or policy yet, now is a perfect time to create one.

Here's how this investment pays off:

• Saves Time and Reduces Stress: Planning your content in advance means no more last-minute scrambling for posts. This frees up your time for other tasks and reduces the daily stress of wondering "what do I post today?"
   
• Increases Consistency: A calendar helps you maintain a consistent posting schedule, which is crucial for growing your audience and keeping them engaged.
   
• Improves Content Quality: When you plan ahead, you have more time to brainstorm creative ideas, write compelling captions, and find engaging visuals. This leads to higher-quality, more on-brand content that resonates with your audience.
   
• Strengthens Your Brand: Speaking of brand, a well-defined social media plan ensures your content aligns with your school's identity and messaging.
   
• Boosts Engagement: A planned approach allows you to create content that is timely, relevant, and interesting to your audience. Hopefully, that leads to more likes, comments, and shares!
   
• Supports Your Goals: A social media plan helps you define your objectives (e.g., increase enrollment inquiries, promote events) and create content that supports those goals.

Projected Time Investment: 3-4 hours. Take it three months at a time. Creating a social media plan and calendar requires a dedicated effort upfront, it's an investment that will save you time, improve your content, and help you achieve your school's marketing goals.

• How To Create A School Social Media Calendar In 5 Easy Steps
• Creating Your School's Social Media Plan: A 10-Step Guide

6. Book Time with Your Admissions Team

Here's the thing — parent expectations are higher than ever. Beginning with their first interaction with your school, all the way through re-enrollment, every interaction matters: from website mobile experiences to personalized enrollment processes — and the only way you'll be able to meet their expectations is to break down the silos between your marketing and admissions teams.

Take some time to think about how your teams can collaborate more effectively. Then, schedule a meeting to discuss your ideas.

Projected Time Investment: 1-2 Hours (Or as much as you want!)

Suggested Reading: Tips For Aligning Marketing And Admissions Efforts At Your School

7. Build Thank-You Pages for Important Forms

Thank-you pages are a simple but effective way to improve your website. These are the pages that help keep people on your website and make their experience better.

Ideally, you would have a thank you page for every form on your website. However, you might want to start off by creating thank you pages for your most important forms, such as those used for online giving, inquiries, or content downloads.

Projected Time Investment: 30-60 Minutes/Page (You can often copy and reuse them to save time!)

8. Make Your News Section More Engaging

Your school’s news section is key to your website and marketing efforts. It's how you share updates with current families and alumni and how you can attract your target audience.

If your news section is just a list of links, it's time to upgrade! Make it more visually appealing and easy to navigate, like Metairie Park Country Day School’s. Your news post page should also include links to additional reading and calls to action to other relevant content.

Projected Time Investment: 1-2 Hours

Suggested Reading: 6 Simple Changes To Enhance Your Website's News Section

9. Grade Your School’s Website

If you’re planning a website redesign or just making some improvements, starting with a free website assessment can help identify which areas need the most attention. You'll be able to get a better sense of what might be turning visitors away and find quick ways to improve clarity, usability, and impact.

Projected Time Investment: Just a minute or two!

Key Takeaway

These smaller projects can make a huge impact! So, if you are working, make the most of your quieter time and tackle one, two, or a few of these great projects — and don't forget to give yourself a little T.L.C., too.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Connor has spent the last decade within the field of marketing and communications, working with independent schools and colleges throughout New England. At Finalsite, Connor plans and executes marketing strategies and digital content across the web. A former photojournalist, he has a passion for digital media, storytelling, coffee, and creating content that connects.