Covid-19 has dramatically changed nearly every aspect of life. Now is the time to create a well-thought-out, mission-driven response. Therefore, we have four essential strategies that will help your school battle the Covid-19 crisis.

Summer admissions event

Summer will likely be the first opportunity to welcome newly admitted students and prospective families to your campus. Consequently, you need to have a plan for how you will market and implement campus visits and tours.

If you manage to open up your school by mid-summer, you should consider hosting two types of summer events on campus. The first should focus on newly enrolled families. For example, consider a relaxing summer BBQ or a fun family-themed event.

Your communication must be transparent and direct. Talk about your responses in the spring, share your students’ successes via remote learning and show them how your school will keep its students safe and healthy.

Your second event should focus on prospective families who are still in your admissions funnel. You should talk about your community and the coming academic year. Fidn a way to incorporate a high-level overview of what your school has to offer.

Virtual summer programmes

You have to consider the possibility that your community might still have to stay at home during the summer. You need to foresee how this impacts your summer camps and enrichment programmes.

Can any summer programmes move online? What is your refund policy for families who had already registered for your programmes?

2020-2021 online academic year

Use your final year-end faculty meetings to review what worked with your current online teaching and what might need to be changed in case you need to continue the 2020-2021 academic year online.

Make your decisions data-driven. Specifically, send an online survey to parents and students to get feedback on what worked well and what did not. In addition, involve faculty who were leaders in your remote-learning pivot to help analyse the results to create a fall programme that addresses your school’s “pain points”.

Emphasis on digital marketing

Now more than ever, prospective families and students are spending most of their time online. If your school already has a strong digital marketing campaign in place, you are likely better positioned to continue your admissions marketing virtually uninterrupted.

Digital marketing allows location targeting by specific demographic and opportunities to micro-target prospective families on a local, regional and national level. You can test ads and pivot your message as needed, in real-time and tailor it to various social media platforms.

Change is never easy. The challenges of educating students and marketing to prospective families during Covid-19 have forced all of us to radically change the way we do business and that is why we have these four essential strategies for your school.

At faethe.marketing we have been helping schools get more students through succesful digital marketing campaigns. So if you are looking to recruit more students for your programmes with minimal cost and effort, feel free to reach out to us.