Your school is under a new microscope. Families expect instant access, seamless experiences, and personalized interactions, and marketing your school requires SO much more than a glossy postcard or a flashy homepage.

Today, schools are expected to communicate as effectively as top brands, reaching families with messages that resonate and digital experiences that captivate every user experience. The old approaches aren’t enough anymore—families are doing their research, comparing options, and looking for schools that not only meet their academic needs but also feel like the right fit.

The marketing and communications strategies that used to work for your school or district may not be as successful today, which means it’s time to step up your marketing game. To attract and keep the attention of prospective families, your school’s strategies need to reflect the times and rise to new expectations.

Whether it's creating a welcoming online presence, personalizing your outreach, or using data to drive decisions, these smart marketing strategies will help your school stand out, build stronger connections, and grow your community.

Understanding Families’ New “Liquid” Expectations

What are liquid expectations? The simplest definition is that customer experience expectations carry over from industry to industry. If someone can easily order groceries online, they better be able to inquire about your school online easily.

Schools often think about how their marketing compares to direct competitors — the private, charter, or public schools down the road. But now, families are comparing your school’s online experience to any and all online experiences they’ve had — even those with brands like Amazon and Netflix.

Expectations are high across the board. Your families expect more from online experiences, including those of your school. They’re harder to impress and harder to please than ever before — and your school’s marketing strategies need to reflect that. 

Schools and districts alike should invest time or resources into the following marketing strategies for school enrollment:

1. Redesign Your Website
2. Improve Your Search Engine Strategy
3. Build Email Workflows
4. Start a School Blog
5. Create Your First Content Offer
6. Invest in Consistent, Meaningful Social Media Ads
7. Consolidate Your Social Media Accounts
8. Refresh Your School's Brand 

1. Redesign Your Website

A well-designed, mobile-first website is essential in capturing and retaining visitor attention. Since many families start their school search online, a site that’s visually appealing, easy to navigate, and mobile-friendly can greatly impact enrollment decisions. By investing in a redesign, you improve user experience, increase engagement, and reduce bounce rates, ultimately helping drive inquiries and applications.

Industry research tells us that poorly designed websites and landing pages can be the Achilles' heel of most brands' marketing campaigns. A bad website experience—especially on mobile—can stain your reputation and decrease engagement, site traffic, and more.

Consider these stats:

• 79% of people who don’t like what they find on one site will go back and search for another site
• 52% of users say that a bad mobile experience made them less likely to engage with a company
• Mobile users are 5 times more likely to abandon a task if a site isn’t optimized for mobile
• 40% of website visitors will leave if the site takes more than three seconds to load, and 47% of visitors expect your site to load in only two seconds. 
• 94% of first impressions are design-related.

We know that launching a new website is a lot of work. But before you invest any time, budget, or effort into any marketing strategies, you need a strong foundation. If your school or district’s current website checks any of the following boxes, this is your top marketing strategy for this year:

• The website is 3 years old or more
• The website is responsive but not focused on mobile devices
• The website “looks old” in comparison to direct competitors and brands
• Your website is difficult to navigate
• Your site isn't accessible

2. Improve Your Search Engine Strategy

Every school’s search engine strategy has three main elements:

• Search Engine Optimization
• Paid Per Click Advertising (PPC)
• Online Reviews

Depending on your school’s short- and long-term goals, you may need to invest in one, two, or all three of these essential search engine strategies.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is a long-term marketing strategy to increase student enrollment, but one that many school marketers don’t have the time or resources for. It requires keyword research and implementation across your site’s title tags, meta descriptions, on-page content, and, in most cases, the creation of a good blog. And because the organic traffic isn't as instantaneous as a paid ad, many school marketers put SEO on the back burner. (Often, the implementation of an SEO strategy can take many months to reap benefits from because of how long it takes Google to crawl and recrawl site pages.) 

However, an SEO strategy is essential to your school’s survival in the digital world. With 90% of all online experiences beginning in search and low click-through rates for any results beyond page one of the search engine results, you need to find the time and/or budget for your school’s website to be found.

Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC)

PPC ads are a powerful digital advertising tool you can use to help generate more awareness and website traffic for your school. If your school’s website isn’t ranking well in Google and you don’t have the time to wait to develop your SEO strategy, you can also opt for a paid ad strategy, which can land you at the top of page 1 almost immediately.

Online Reviews

Online reviews are one of the most important aspects of your online presence, and if you don’t have a four-star or five-star review from students and parents, you may never even earn a click-through to your website.

Consider that:

• 90% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business.

• 84% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation.
• 65% of people see online search as the most trusted source of information about people and companies. That's a higher level of trust than any other online or offline source.

Keep Reading: Online Reviews For Schools: Why They Matter And What To Do 

3. Build Email Workflows

If you’re looking for ways to free up your day while improving your email marketing strategy, email workflows are a great place to start. 

Email workflows—also commonly referred to as an "email drip campaign" or "automated emails"—are a staple of a school's inbound marketing strategy. An email workflow is a set of emails that are automatically sent based on the subscriber's contact information, behavior, or preferences. For example, an email workflow can be triggered by a prospective student submitting a form, but it can also be triggered by a parent's enrollment year or persona.

These "set-it-and-forget-it" emails are proven to save you time and increase email engagement. They can be used for almost every purpose, including: 

• Welcome newly enrolled families
• Nurture prospective families who recently inquired
• Onboard new faculty and staff
• Remind community members of upcoming events and deadlines
• Promote an event

Many schools are using Finalsite Workflows to build automated workflow campaigns that automatically create personalized experiences based on email engagement.

Intrigued by a time-saving email strategy? These blogs will help you get started:

• Email Automation Best Practices: 8 Tips For Getting Started
• Email Drip Campaign Ideas For Admissions
• 3 Email Campaign Ideas For Enrollment And Retention 

4. Start a School Blog

A blog is a great way to share advice, build thought leadership, tell stories that aren’t being told elsewhere, elevate the voices of your community, create a strong content library, and improve your organic performance in search.

While a school blog is by no means as important as some of the other marketing strategies on this list (Like your website!), a blog is a great place to start for schools and districts looking to take greater control of their online storytelling.

Before starting a school blog, ask yourself:

• Who is going to write our blog content?
• Where will our blog content live?
• What will our editing process look like?
• Who is our target audience?
• What are the types of topics we want to write about?
• Do we have the resources to post consistently? (At least once per week.)

The Post Oak School has a great blog featuring student and alumni stories, thought leadership, and helpful ideas for parents. 

5. Create Your First Content Offer

Most private, international, and charter schools get a prospect’s information for the first time via an inquiry form. While inquiry forms are great for capturing the information of individuals ready to learn more about your school, consumer behavior tells us this: If they’re inquiring, they’ve already done their research, and you’ve made their “short list.”

This means that without a content offer, you’re missing out on a huge audience of individuals who are still weighing their options for their “long list.”

A content offer provides prospective families with something of value to aid in their decision-making process, such as a whitepaper titled “5 Reasons to Attend an All-Boys School” or “How to Choose the Right Preschool.” It can also be a copy of your school’s viewbook.

Hebron Academy in Maine offers a viewbook download as a content offer and an eBook on the value of private education.

Content downloads often get higher conversion rates than lead generation forms (such as an inquiry form), which will help you get more families in your pipeline sooner.

Keep Reading: How To Increase Your School's Leads With An Irresistible Content Offer

 6. Invest in Consistent, Meaningful Social Media Ads

If your school hasn’t invested in social media ads yet, now is the time. Your prospective families spend a lot of time on social media platforms, and this is a smart (and affordable) way to build awareness and eventually increase enrollment. 

Social media marketing is a great advertising tool because:

• The average cost-per-click is significantly lower than search ads
• You can diversify your reach with a variety of lists, campaigns, and ad formats

If you’ve run social media ads in the past without success, it could have been an issue with your ad content, creative, audience, or even goal. For example, promoting your school’s open house to a list that has never heard of your school is going to fall flat.

Here are three smart campaigns to get you started with social media ads this year:

• A Top-of-the-Funnel Campaign to Build Awareness: Want to reach new audiences? Upload a list of demographic information about your current families to create a lookalike audience. For this campaign, keep the ad content and creative light with no heavy-hitting “pitch.” The goal here is to get your school’s name in front of new audiences. 
   
• A Middle-of-the-Funnel Campaign to Increase Conversions: Engage individuals who have already visited your website using a Facebook Pixel retargeting campaign. For this group, prompt them to inquire or apply.
   
• A Bottom-of-the-Funnel Campaign to Encourage Re-Enrollment: We all know that your job isn’t done once a family enrolls. Run social media ads to current families during re-enrollment season with value-added content marketing, like student success stories. 

7. Consolidate Your Social Media Accounts

While paid ads can help your admissions funnel gain momentum, a consolidated organic social media strategy can help with all-around communications and marketing channels. If your school or district is struggling to manage a variety of rogue Facebook, Instagram, and X accounts that are either out-of-date or off-brand, this could be an easy win!

Schools should only have one Facebook page, one X account, and one Instagram profile. While X is often seen as the “exception to the rule” as schools and districts alike use this platform for sports teams and clubs to provide timely updates, it's essential that your school maintains a single profile on Facebook and Instagram — as well as other channels like LinkedIn. 

Consolidating social media accounts has numerous advantages, including:

• Increased traffic and engagement to your school or district’s primary pages
• Consistent tone, voice, brand, and content
• Streamlined access to passwords and privacy settings
• Fewer comments to manage
• Streamlined online reviews 

8. Refresh Your Brand

A brand refresh helps modernize your school’s messaging, visual identity, and tone to connect with a new generation of families. If your school or district hasn't undergone a brand refresh in some time, it may be worth auditing your content and messaging to see how it's resonating with audiences.

Audtio your logo, color scheme, fonts, and messaging to see if it aligns with trends and your target audience's expectations. Don't forget to look at your content and communications to ensure they reflect your school’s values, personality, and mission.

Today's families are looking for schools that feel relevant, forward-thinking, and aligned with their values. A fresh, cohesive brand identity creates a strong first impression and makes your school more memorable. When your brand resonates with families, it can support community engagement, attract new families, and create a stronger, unified sense of identity among your current students, parents, and alumni.

Key Takeaway

Meeting families’ expectations is an ongoing journey, and with the right strategies in place, your school can build the kind of connections that last. Each of these marketing strategies offers a way to bring your school’s story to life, helping families feel that they belong from the first interaction. As you refine and strengthen your approach, keep in mind that it’s not about doing everything—it’s about doing what truly resonates with your community.

By investing in smart, thoughtful marketing, you’re reaching new families, creating meaningful experiences, and setting the groundwork for long-term success. So take these strategies, make them your own, and watch as your school’s reputation grows stronger, one family at a time.

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. As Finalsite’s Senior Content Marketing Manager, 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.