Influencer marketing is growing at a staggering rate. It enables new companies to establish their own brand, to influence the image that the public has of them, and makes them resilient in the market of services. In the past decade, it has become apparent that influencing can find its place in the niche of education. Although many schools now boast a highly educated profile of their faculty, the market is changing, and it is schools that have to reach out to prospective students and their parents now.
1. Set Goals
Set goals before planning your influencer campaign. Understand your current position and where you would like your school to be in the next 2-4 years. Whether you represent a new school that is still to prove itself or is there to reaffirm the image of an established school makes all the difference in the approach to the market. “Proper research is the basis upon which good business decisions are made,” says Frank Hamilton, a content editor at SupremeDissertations. This service can do just the right kind of research for you and provide you with a coherent, well-sourced article to better explain whatever you may be interested in.
2. Address Both Parents and Students
Now that you know your goals and your audience, combine the two to get a clear idea of how to approach them. Make sure to utilize different messages and different media for all your target audience segments. Education is for students primarily, but it is their parents who have a final say in which school the children will attend. Understand this and make sure that both target groups understand what your school has to offer and what makes you special in this saturated market. Segmentation is the key here: it empowers you to address your target audience like newspapers and television never could.
3. Use a Lot of Media
Use a lot of media in addressing your audience. While financial reports do tell the real story, not everybody has time to go through pages upon pages of printed material. So make sure to use a lot of images and videos to showcase what you have to offer in a streamlined way. Once you have your audience’s attention, go one step further: offer them more content and make sure that this time, it is longer and more informative. “Being able to properly expand on a topic is a key to keeping your existing clients. Remember that in any business, 80% of revenue comes from 20% of returning customers,” states Melissa Mauro, a writer at TrustMyPaper. They deal with a variety of types of text media and can easily work around your specific needs.
4. Use Long-Form Content to Your Advantage
Once you have your long-form content, preferably in the form of a text, make sure to utilize it properly. Go back to your audience research and the segments you have divided it into. Use this knowledge to find out about the best ways to present your new media to them. For older segments (parents, relatives, and grandparents), the text is a good way to approach them. For younger generations, such as prospective students, a video channel on YouTube may be a better option: younger generations devour video content, and turning a piece of text into a 20-minute YouTube script is easier than it seems. It is informative, relatively short, and it packs information beyond what is spoken.
5. Organize Sponsored Events
The most expensive resource is the one that goes untapped. If your school has any spaces that are available for a few nights a month for sponsored events, please go ahead and advertise them. Using this space and outside of school hours will bring additional revenue to your school. Pick the events carefully: they will help you establish a certain image with the local community, so use this resource to your advantage. Engage with local charities, hospitals, and the police and fire departments to show how much you actually care about the community and what a great value your school represents for that community.
6. Use Sponsored Events for Free Promotion
These events are free promotions for the school. Nothing influences an audience, as well as their ability to experience a product or a service first hand, and seeing how engaged your school is with the local community, can boost your rating with them and elevate the public image to new heights. Remember that schools sell a service, and these events promote your school and the service it has to offer. So tap into this resource: organize in-school book promotions, let local influencers organize events under your roof, and present the newest school books to parents in person, rather than by email. Offer office hours before a new school year starts and be available for any kind of consulting when it comes to the books and other school materials that new students may need.
7. Run Social Media Channels
Social media has become more popular than anyone ever imagined it would be, and it has even surpassed more traditional media as the number one advertising platform. Instead of relying on advertisements to present your school, establish and run interconnected social media channels. This will enable any school to reach a specific target audience. Your school will be talked about in messages and on the streets, and it is this way of silent advertising that is the most effective.
A well-run Instagram page can generate thousands of views and followers. Use this to your advantage. Make contacts with the alumni and their families. Post pictures from your sponsored events, open-door events for anybody who could not attend, and spread awareness of who you are and how your school fits into the community.
Conclusion
In the new, digital era, more modern access to the audience is necessary. With a great shift from students reaching out to schools, to schools reaching out to their future students, it is essential to recognize the benefits a well-thought influencer campaign may have on your school’s public image. Use this new resource and showcase what your school has to offer. Be it new or old, the public image needs to constantly be worked on, so engage yourselves in a new way of addressing your market.
Erica Sunarjo graduated from South Texas College majoring in Marketing and Creative Writing. She used her knowledge to make a difference in the realm of business copywriting and invested heavily in traveling and language learning. At present, Erica is fluent in French and Spanish, studying Chinese and working her way to being a multilingual copywriter. She keeps track of the latest trends in IT and technologies, blogs about efficient strategies in education and business coaching, holds educational webinars.