Your school website is your calling card to parents. When choosing a school, your parents will comb through the information on your website looking for key pieces of data and determining if your school is a competent place to entrust with their child. Potential employees are also reviewing your site to see if they may be a fit for your school.
A school’s website is a marketing tool for new parents and a resource tool for existing parents. Look at some of the public school websites in your area and ask yourself, ‘How Are They Doing?’ in the following areas:
Value Proposition
Who are you? Who do you serve? What makes you special? Most importantly, can I align with what I’m seeing on your site and see myself as a parent or employee in your school? Your website and blog will provide some of the best ways to house and share the content you create. Build an effective place to drive traffic that attracts new staff and families.
Lots of Visuals
By nature, the brain processes and remembers images 22 times better than text. Avoid loading up your homepage with paragraphs of content that won't get read. All the words may be important to you, but your audience is looking to connect to visual stories. Incorporate video versions of your stories. One-third of all internet activity comes from video. Watch out for FERPA but start to film events, interview kids. Have some professional editing done for a few videos but just post special moments -- a "real-world story’." The possibilities are endless, and if a picture’s worth a thousand words, imagine the power of video in your school branding toolbox.
Social Media – Testimonials
70% of consumers make a decision based on digging into reviews from other users. The same is true for your school. Make sure you give ample opportunity for happy parents to tell their stories about you. The secret of school branding is to share the love—and to let families share their personal stories.
Call To Action
Does your page include a common call to action item like, Take A Campus Tour, Visit Us, Give or Apply Now?
Celebrate and Toot Your School's Horn
You see the amazing moments and special impact your school is making day in and day out. Make sure your digital presence is celebrating the fun, publishing the learning achievements, and sharing the accomplishments in the classroom or on the playing field. It is impossible to over-celebrate, and too-loud doesn’t exist in the digital branding sphere.
