If you are in the process of planning out blog postings for your private school, you’re probably realizing how much deliberation goes into it. From choosing private school blog topics, to creating effective private school posts, developing a successful content strategy for private schools needs to be a meticulous process.
However, if your potential students aren’t engaging with your content, it won’t matter how meticulously you planned it. If your private school’s content is going to compel prospective students, staff or donors to contact your facility, it must be meaningful to them, and inspire them to take action.
There are many benefits of blogging for private schools, and a well-planned and executed private school content strategy is imperative to the digital success and reputation of your facility.
Here are five things to consider before you publish the next blog post for your private school:
Is this post useful for my potential students or parents?
Our first blogging tip for private schools is to make sure your content appeals to and addresses the needs of your prospective students.
There are facilities that publish blogs about private schools on topics they find interesting, rather than what a potential applicant might need to know about your school. While we certainly want you to enjoy the topics you are writing about, its important to remember that you are writing for a very specific audience, and they are going to be seeking very specific information.
In order to begin building a connection with prospective students, your content needs to be aimed at the questions they are asking and the issues they are concerned with. Private school blog articles that are going to be the most successful in attracting qualified new students to your private school are the ones written with the students’, families’, or sponsors’ needs in mind.
In addition, your content needs to a positive and meaningful impact on readers. For example, does your content provide something new to learn? Is your facility’s website providing a solution to a problem? Is it inspiring a potential student to reach out to you? For example, a school specializing in STEM education might write an article about “What To Do To Get Your Child Into MIT” or “How To Get Your Child A High Quality Education.”
Articles like this are educational and informative., and should be part of your private school’s marketing plan. The provide detailed information to those who are seeking it online. If a blog you post is relevant to the individuals who are searching for it, then it will be more likely to attract qualified potential students to your private school.
Will the right potential students read my blog post?
It is impossible to please everyone, all the time. Few know this better than those in school administration. But that is no reason to publish generic, bland content. For one, vague or generic content will not effectively draw the type of new students your private school is looking for.
Additionally, traffic for the sake of traffic is useless. It won’t matter how many hits your school’s website gets if none of them are from qualified, interested students and parents actively seeking the services of your facility. The click are meaningless if they do not turn into new students for your private school. Don’t write articles to attract just traffic, write them to attract your ideal traffic.
Stop and consider your ideal potential student. Many private school administrations find it useful to create client (or in this case, student) personas to tailor your educational facility’s blog posts toward.
Am I including images or infographics with my private school’s blog post?
Images can have an impact on your blog and website content. If used correctly, images relevant to the topic you’re wiring about can amplify its message. Used incorrectly, and they can be a complete distraction. Imagery can add a richness and depth to your private school website that text alone cannot, and can make complicated messages easier to digest.
Images can amplify the effect of subjects that may be difficult to understand without a visual aid. Images can also help communicate important data that might be difficult to explain in text and give even more insight to a topic.
Think about the blog post example we used above, “What to do to Get Your Child Into MIT”. Perhaps your post gives three suggestions the reader should take. A quality infographic can explain a concept to your reader efficiently and quickly, and may even help them remember what to do in the future.
Often website visitors only skim posts and pages for the information they want. They do not want to waste their time hunting through a whole website. Giving your potential students choices is always a good idea. When they know your school can be relied upon you to give them content in various formats, they’re much more likely to find something to connect with you over, and in a way that makes them comfortable.
What are competing private schools writing about?
At times, we can benefit from the writing and readings of people that challenge and inspire us to improve. Before you click “publish” on your private schools’s next post, Google the topic you are thinking of to see what your competition is writing on the same subject. Do you agree or disagree with what they’re saying? Have they published an article that does not fully explain everything a potential student should know? This is a big opportunity for you to gain new new students, staff and supporters through a blog post you’ve written that is of superior quality. Doing this can benefit your school – a prospective student is going to chose a school the provides them with more resources, not fewer.
Am I optimizing the titles and sub-headers of my private schools blog post?
Often search engine users prefer to scan content for the nugget of wisdom they want. It’s important to craft headlines that grab your reader’s’ attention, and sub-headers that tell the reader what they will learn from your content. This enables them to quickly and easily locate exactly what they need. Visitors to your private school’s blog may choose to read more if you can keep their interest. Optimized informative headlines and sub-headers help a search engine choose when content is relevant to a search. This allows users to see, in a few moments, why they should read your article, and how it will benefit them.
Does your private school website need content? AdInfusion can help.
Strategic content marketing attracts the qualified traffic to your website and can convert them into new students for your private school. Whether your private school needs a website and content to accompany it or you’d like to add additional content to your site, we’re here to help. Our content marketing department provides spectacular evergreen pages, blog content, and digital marketing collateral such as ebooks and email newsletters, custom tailored to the unique needs of your private school.
To learn more about our content creation services or how we can improve your private school’s digital marketing, contact us.
