Private School Advertising, The Ultimate Guide: 6 Steps to Boost Enrollments in 45 Days

If you’re like most of the private school owners or directors I’ve talked to, you want to increase enrollments, but you’re so busy managing your students and staff that advertising gets pushed to the side.

And when you finally do start scrolling through articles about “10 amazing private school advertisement ideas” and “best ever back to school campaigns,” you’re overwhelmed by your options: direct mail, pay per click, display ads — what works best?

Well, this article is different.

We aren’t just about promises and “amazing marketing ideas.”

We’re about PROVEN RESULTS and campaign tactics.

We want to save you the headache of trial-and-error marketing so that you can skip straight to growing your school’s enrollments and your school.

What follows are several school advertising strategies that are not only PROVEN to work, but they won’t break the bank, either!

Are you ready to register more new students?

Read on for these 15 effective private school marketing ideas that will help you grow your enrollment and your school.

1. Achieve a 1,009% return on investment with back to school postcards.

Direct mail postcards are a time-tested, cost-effective method of private school advertising.

A targeted direct mail campaign delivers your message ONLY to the people who are most likely to be interested in your school.

That means:

No wasted marketing dollars!

With a targeted mailing list, you can target families by:

• Income
• Home value
• Children’s ages
• Interests and recent purchases
• And much more!

Once you know who your target market is (something you can figure out by going through currently enrolled families and spotting commonalities), you should find out how many of those people live around your school.

How?

You can run an instant mailing list count yourself, or even call our marketing experts (800-628-1804) and we can run it for you for free.

Does direct mail even still work, you ask? Check out these numbers:

• 60% of consumers have been influenced to visit a promoted website because of direct mail
• Direct mail outperforms all digital marketing channels combined by nearly 600%
• 92% of Millennials have made purchasing decisions based on direct mail they received (it’s also the No. 1 purchasing influencer for Baby Boomers)

So, yeah. It works! Here’s one example:

Bethlehem Christian Academy in Cleveland, OH, sent this postcard to families in areas with low-performing schools that would be eligible for an EdChoice Scholarship. (Basically state-funded financial aid.)

After two mailings, they registered five new students for an annual income of more than $22,000 — a return on investment (ROI) of 1,009%!

2. Send postcards to families ALREADY looking for a new school — without lifting a finger.

About 12% of the U.S. population moves each year. Which means families are moving into your area RIGHT NOW.

Many of those families are looking for a new school.

That’s why your private school marketing plan should include new mover marketing!

With new mover postcards, you can reach new families to your area with a personalized postcard, welcoming them to the neighborhood BY NAME and inviting them to tour your school!

Here are some of the possibilities:

The best part about this program is that it is 100% AUTOMATED.

Here’s how it works:

You tell us the demographics of your ideal prospects and a radius you want to target, and we do the rest!

Every month, we’ll pull a list of new movers to your area that match those demographics and send them a personalized postcard for your school.

You just sit back and wait for them to call.

3. Add the power of Google to your school postcards for up to 400% better results.

Picture this:

You’ve sent some postcards out to families in your area who make over $100,000 per year, who you know have kids between the ages of 0-6.

They look at your postcard, and they love what they see.

They go to your website to learn more about you. But then they get distracted. They leave your site and never come back.

It happens ALL THE TIME!

But with DirectMail2.0, those visitors will see your Google follow-up ads — which look just like your postcards that initially piqued their interest — all over the internet, across MILLIONS of sites in the Google network!

Like this:

Does it work?

Check out these numbers:

• Google follow-up ads have been shown to increase ad response by up to 400%
• Prospects who are retargeted are 70% more likely to convert on your website

An integrated marketing plan for schools is proven to boost enrollment:

New Jersey’s ABC Spectrum Preschool registered 8 new students with their DirectMail2.0 campaign!

4. Include an offer on your school marketing to enroll 7 new students this semester.

If there’s one thing in this world that you can be completely sure of, it’s this:

Everybody loves a bargain.

This remains true in the world of school marketing!

Whether it’s waiving an enrollment fee, or giving a small discount, offers are essential when marketing a school.

Your offer should be of high perceived value, but it shouldn’t cost you too much.

It can even just be the offer of a free tour or an invitation to an open house at your school. People love things that are FREE!

Dobson Academy, a charter school in Chandler, AZ enrolled 7 new students with welcome back to school postcards that offered recipients a FREE tour!

5. Include email in your school marketing plan to save time and money.

Email is one of the most cost effective private school marketing strategies available, with one caveat:

You should ONLY send emails to people who have voluntarily given your school their email address.

Nobody likes unsolicited email!

But how do you get their email addresses?

Two ways:

1. Include a lead-capture form on your website so interested prospects can easily give you their contact information. Be sure to give them a reason to opt in: Offer a free tour or a newsletter subscription, or invite them to ask a question about your school. And voila! Another email address in your database!

2. Make sure anyone who answers the phone at your school asks for the contact information of every new lead who calls in. (Download this free New Caller Checklist and leave a stack of them by your phones for help with this.)

With email marketing software, you can create a “funnel” that sends them a series of emails at a specific schedule to keep them interested.

You could start with a simple “welcome” email, thanking them for their interest and giving them some background information on your school.

A week later, you might send a second email inviting them to tour your campus and offering tips on choosing a private school.

And so on!

Or you could send out a monthly e-newsletter with news about your school, developments in education and other interesting and helpful information! (Check out these email newsletter tips!)

Too busy? You can hire a marketing company (like PostcardMania) to write and send them for you, giving you more time to focus on what matters:

Your students.

6. Improve your school’s website to enroll more students in less time than it takes to get a cup of coffee.

What’s the first thing you do when you want to find a local business?

Do you use the Yellow Pages?

Nope. You use the internet.

When families in your area are exploring their school choices, they do the same.

So, here’s what you do:

Bring up Google, and search: “Private school in <your city>”.

Is your website there?

It needs to be. Why?

• 75% of internet users NEVER scroll past the first page
• More than 60% of the traffic goes to the first three search results

And we’re talking about the organic results — not ads.

Now:

Here’s a simple step you can take to inch your website closer to the top of those results.

See that text at the top of your browser?

Where it says “Private School Advertising, The Ultimate Guide: 6 Steps to Boost Enrollments in 45 Days?”

That’s the Page Title.

On your school’s website, your page titles should include the words that people will be searching for to find your school.

Namely: Private school, your city and the specific services you offer.

That way you website is as easy as possible for Google to find, which will make you easier for your prospects to find!

7. Generate $25,000 in revenue from your school marketing

My client Village Green Day School needed to generate more new students, so here’s their school marketing plan:

They mailed their school postcards to a mailing list with these demographics:

• 3,000 families
• With children ages 1-10 years old
• And household incomes of $150,000+.

Therefore:

ONLY families with age-appropriate children received their school postcards.

Here are their results:

From just ONE mailing, 4 families immediately enrolled, which meant $25,000 in revenue!

That’s a 1,014% return on investment for their school!

Here’s a school postcard you can customize for your business:

8. See $80,370 in revenue and a 2,870% return on investment from your school marketing plan

My client Pickaboo Daycare sent 5 separate private school marketing mailings of 1,000 school postcards over the course of several months.

After each mailing of 1,000 cards, Pickaboo Daycare received about 45 calls and converted 9 of those leads into new student registrations…

Here’s what that meant:

The annual revenue added up to $80,370 — a whopping 2,870% return on investment from their postcards for schools.

Here’s a marketing private schools design you can use for your business:

9. See $5,418 in new revenue each month from your marketing plan for schools

My client Avalon School of Music flanks their school postcards strategy with matching Google ads using DirectMail2.0.

Here’s how that works:

With DirectMail2.0, whenever an interested parent goes to Avalon School of Music’s website and leaves, they start seeing Google ads for the music school on thousands of sites across the internet.

That keeps the school top of mind for when the child is ready to start taking music lessons!

Avalon’s owner estimates he sees about 42 new students every month from this coordinated, offline/online private school marketing strategy.

10. Add $3,000 to your school’s bottom line with proven school marketing ideas

My client Grace Academy purchased a mailing list of 1,088 records consisting of homes with children ages 3-4 and located within 3 miles of their location.

From just one mailing of school postcards, Grace Academy received 3 new enrollments, which added $3000 in added revenue to the school from just ONE of their school marketing ideas to help increase enrollment!

11. Double your enrollments and generate $2,300,000 in revenue

When the president of Lakewood College learned about the possibilities of school postcards to boost enrollments, she decided to go for it full force.

We helped her create a school marketing plan that enabled this college to grow from 10 new students per month to 120+ new students a month.

In fact:

Lakewood College went from making $120,000 per year to $2.3 million.

And now —

They’re making more in a MONTH now than they used to make in an entire year from their private school marketing!

You can read their full case study and watch their video here.

Here’s a school postcard you can customize for your private school marketing plan:

12. Increase new students by 10 TIMES with proven school marketing ideas

Within 18 months of sending out his first school postcards, Mathnasium of Lake Forest had brought in 10X the number of clients they started with.

They originally had 13 clients, but through the leads their school postcards generated they brought in an additional 130 new clients in 18 months!

You can watch their case study video here.

Here’s a school marketing postcard you can send:

13. Receive 25 calls and $15,000 in revenue from marketing private schools effectively

The University of Houston-Downtown decided on a school marketing campaign that used a mailing list of their own internal leads.

They sent out 2,507 mail pieces just once, and here’s what happened:

They received 25 calls, which generated $15,000 in revenue! 

We can design a school marketing piece from scratch for you, or you can customize one of our designs —

Like this one:

14. Add $35,000 to your bottom line with marketing private schools success strategies

We provided Dobson Academy with a targeted mailing list that had homes with children aged 5 to 11, and with household incomes of $35,000 to $150,000.

They purchased 2,000 records and added Google ads automatically to their mailings using DirectMail2.0.

DirectMail2.0 showed that their website was visited by nearly 4,000 prospects (using an online analytics dashboard) which resulted in their online ads being viewed 67,011 times!

Moreover —

They received 7 new students, which meant $35,000 in revenue from this one school marketing campaign.

Here’s a marketing private schools design you can use:

15. Get a 233% return on investment from your marketing plan for schools

RLS Tutoring decided to purchase 2 mailing lists to send their school postcards to…

Here’s who they targeted:

• Single-family homeowners
• With incomes of $80,000+
• And with a child between the ages of 5-7.

Moreover —

They added Facebook, Instagram, and Google ads 100% automatically to their mailings using Everywhere Small Business, which exponentially increased their results…

Here are their campaign analytics:

• 35 tracked calls
• 55,000 times Google ads were displayed
• 376 clicks on their Google ads
• 8,808 times Facebook and Instagram ads were displayed
• 25 clicks on their Facebook and Instagram ads

You can see how Everywhere Small Business works here.

Now remember —

Your mailing list is the main dish of your lead generation so DON’T skimp on it.

We guarantee at least 90% deliverability of your direct mail, and so should ANY good mailing list provider, FYI.

Get 1,000 FREE records to start your campaign

We hope you’ve found these school marketing ideas to help increase enrollment inspiring!

If you’re ready to start a campaign for your private school — or if you want to talk further about anything you’ve read here — call our marketing experts at 877-438-1920 for a free, no-obligation consultation!

This document has been composed with the instant HTML converter tools. Click here and test it for free.

Best,

Joy

Get A Free Private School Marketing Kit

Enter your business email to get started:

Get Kit

Get $50 Off!

We'll send you a $50 voucher via text.

Name

Phone

Get Voucher Skip →

By entering your mobile number and clicking the Get Voucher button above, you are agreeing to receive text messages from us at the number you provided regarding our products, offers and other marketing messages. We may use automated technology to contact you. Your consent is not a condition of making any purchase.

Free Marketing Kit?

Enter your address to receive a free marketing kit:

Company

Address

Send Kit Skip →

We never share or sell personal information.

Talk to an Expert!

Skip →

Thank You!

We've received your request and will contact you using the provided info.

Please close this window to continue browsing, or give us a call to get started right away.

1-800-628-1804

Close window.