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Are you still relying on banner ads to promote your school online?
Guess what? Users are 279 times more likely to climb Mount Everest than to click on your ad!
This might be great news if you run a mountain-climbing school. Otherwise, it illustrates an all-too-common problem — how easy it is to make digital school marketing mistakes.
Does your school’s digital marketing strategy need a boost? Here are four common mistakes people make when marketing schools online.
1. Launching a Poorly Designed Website
If the Mount Everest stat gave you a jolt, here’s one more. You only have 50 milliseconds to make a good first impression of your website. That’s how long it takes the average person to decide whether to stay on your site or bounce to one of your competitors.
Any eloquent writing, introductory videos, or school accolades won’t make a bit of difference if your website design is poor. No one will stick around long enough to get to the “good stuff.” Invest the money in a professional designer to ensure your site looks and runs beautifully.
2. Becoming a “Me” Monster
We understand — you’re passionate about your school, your students, and your philosophies. That’s a good thing. What’s not good is forgetting the fact that your target audience isn’t familiar with those things yet.
Too many schools make the mistake of only publishing content related to current students and activities. This makes their website nothing more than a brag book or a calendar of school events. To attract new prospects, your content needs to be relevant and engaging to them, appealing to their wants and needs.
3. Posting the Wrong Types of Ads
Banner ads, pop-ups, and other “old school” ads aren’t as effective as they used to be. Other schools make the mistake of only running ads to new prospects and completely overlooking remarketing tactics to users who already visited their site.
The two most powerful digital marketing engines for private school ads run through Google and Facebook. Create targeted ad campaigns on these platforms with your audience in mind. Use social proof in the form of testimonials and true stories to capture the attention of your prospects.
4. Neglecting a Blog & Social Media
Having an SEO-optimized website is a vital first step, but it’s not enough to drive traffic on its own. You need to combine a stellar school website with other strategies, including blogging and social media marketing.
Blogging gives Google more pages to index, which in turn helps your site to rank better. Meanwhile, since 70% of Americans use social media each day, it’s the perfect place to open a business account and promote your school online. Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest are the biggest players, although you may have luck with LinkedIn and Twitter as well.
Don’t Make These Digital School Marketing Mistakes
Marketing schools online can be a challenge, especially if there’s a lot of local competition. No matter which types of schools you’re promoting, bookmark this list of digital school marketing mistakes so you remember what not to do.
Would you like to learn more about social media marketing? Ready to revamp your digital marketing strategy? Keep browsing our site for more expert insight!
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