According to research, people retain more brand information through video marketing. In response, 87% of all marketers utilize video content in their marketing strategies.
Video marketing is a substantial value add for your institution’s marketing plans, yet the size of the project can be intimidating. If you’re worried about budgeting time and money for a video marketing project, rest assured that you can produce effective video content that is both simple and affordable as long as you follow certain guidelines.
Utilizing video marketing for schools means increasing enrollment, boosting funding, and improving retention. School leaders in charge of marketing should consider adopting this method to cultivate their community and increase awareness beyond current families.
What is Video Marketing?
Video marketing represents an organization’s effort to produce and distribute video content as part of an overall marketing for schools strategy. As with all other forms of marketing, the creator must exemplify the brand, speak directly to the target audience, and sell a captivating experience in order to drive conversions.
Brands that choose to utilize video marketing should decide to either incorporate it into a comprehensive multi-video plan or stick to only one video. Marketing professionals, however, typically advise organizations to produce and distribute several videos. With several videos, an organization can create a flagship video that is surrounded by other targeted videos relating to relevant topics.
In other words, one video can address the core message and the mission of the organization while the other videos can target specific interests of the target audience. For instance, your first video can highlight interviews with students and teachers about their general experience at the school. The following videos can separately focus on athletics, curriculum, and special events.
Together, the videos can pull in prospects and nurture leads until they convert.
Marketing videos do not stand alone, either. Organizations must implement the marketing videos into a distribution plan. Strategy surrounding marketing videos usually include uploading to your school website, posting on social media, and sending out targeted email blasts to leads.
How Can Video Marketing Help Schools?
While video marketing is an effective strategy for any industry, schools can benefit from video marketing in particular. Schools need to convert prospective families by selling an experience, and video content is a powerful way to communicate that experience.
Video content engages two powerful senses: hearing and sight. Humans need sight and sound to understand the world, so being faced with a compelling audiovisual experience can command our attention and elicit emotion.
In comparison, text requires a lack of distraction combined with a longer attention span. Pictures help communicate a message faster than text but lack the audio presence that captivates video viewers.
Instead of reading an interview with a teacher about the merits of the school, prospective families can experience that conversation through video as if they’re in the room with them. Instead of clicking through highlights of the latest school sports game, interested student-athletes can experience the field and action with an expertly produced video.
Video marketing is a powerful strategy that can engage prospective families and persuade them to enroll.
Targeting the Right Audience
Marketing requires that you target your audience as directly as possible. In the first place, this means you must know what content your prospective families need. Equally important, you must deliver that content marketing to them through a compelling format.
After all, the majority of prospective parents are now millennials or younger. These generations consume video content like no other form of media. In order to best communicate with this audience, you must prioritize meeting them in the form of media they know and love best.
Utilizing a popular form of media also requires that the content is produced professionally and optimized for viewing. For example, format marketing videos so they are viewable on all different devices, not only desktops. Further, keep the length of video advertisements short so that viewers understand the message with interest rather than getting bored to scrolling away.
In addition, distribution plans are extremely important. Millennial parents and younger generations spend more time on social media than browsing search engines. Implementing strong social media marketing to bolster your video marketing content reach will ensure prospective families view your efforts.
On another note, keep both prospective parents and students in mind when producing marketing videos. Often, students are the first prospects to interact with school marketing materials. They are likely not, however, the prospects that will decide to invest in your school.
In consequence, you must market with students in mind, knowing that captivating school marketing videos must be shared with parents to improve conversions.
Targeting Students
First and foremost, you must prioritize producing video content that will impress and excite prospective students. Stay true to the institution’s values and mission, but communicate this message in a way that students will appreciate. Once you understand the video strategy, consider and SEO for schools strategy to be sure students and parents find your video when searching Google for relevant keywords.
Focus video content on topics that would excite students, such as trips, sports, extracurricular clubs, and special events. Include interviews from current passionate students who have an inspiring message for prospective students. Emphasize what students can achieve and obtain from the experience they’ll have at your institution.
In the same fashion, produce marketing videos specifically for your school’s unique programs. If your institution is the only local one that offers a thriving live performance program, focus a video specifically on this program to interest acting or musical students. By underscoring your successful programs, you are first exciting students and then convincing parents.
Targeting Parents
Once students are on board with the school’s experience, they’ll want to share it with their parents. While parents can appreciate schools offering exciting and wholesome experiences for their children, they’ll also have other concerns. Schools should target parents with videos that focus on practical matters, including finances, enrollment processes, and how teachers and staff will conduct education.
To start, combine compelling footage of classrooms and school grounds with interviews of teachers and staff. Parents will want to learn about the physical place in addition to how authority figures handle students throughout the day. Further, they’ll be interested in the teaching and disciplinary philosophies.
Moreover, convincing parents will be the last step before conversion, so video content must also provide information about enrollment and financial aid. Marketing videos are part of a larger marketing funnel, so their content should direct students and parents towards enrollment resources.
How to Create Excellent Video Marketing Content for Schools
To be successful in reaching and persuading prospective families, marketing leaders at schools need to identify the unique selling points of their institutions. Video marketing content should be based on what sets the school apart from the competition. Further, this content should underscore the topics that concern prospective families and highlight the achievements that inspire the current community.
Marketing schools online is made all the more effective with excellent video content that embodies the school’s values and the educational experience it offers. These messages should be combined with professionally produced footage, intentional editing, and a robust marketing distribution strategy. To accomplish this, a school marketing professional should closely follow four steps:
- Choosing the style, message, and featured interviewees
- Allowing interviewees to relax in front of the camera and carefully staging settings for optimal light and framing
- Editing videos to be concise and include professional graphics
- Distributing finished products on all channels as part of a careful marketing strategy
Often, it’s best to enlist the help of a professional who has experience with video marketing in the education industry. As a result, you’ll have a team that fully understands your goals and has experience with the best methods for achieving them.
School Video Marketing Content Examples
It can be difficult to start producing school marketing videos when you lack prior experience. Researching what your competition is attempting and assessing their results can help you understand what is working or failing in the market. Remember to not copy their content, but utilize their successful products as a guide that you can personalize for your school’s unique selling points.
Some excellent topics for videos are short explanations about curriculum, event highlights, virtual school tours, direct addresses from headmasters or program directors, and a “day in the life” of a student. Videos that focus on these topics are both informative and helpful for students and parents to get a taste of the school experience.
In the event that video content ideas are evading you, ask yourself which topics or issues are important to your prospective families. Are you often questioned about further athletics information, or are parents confused about which department is in charge of a specific program? Likely, there is a lack of available information about these topics, which you need to address.
Attending to information gaps through marketing video content will not only answer questions but impress prospective families.
Try Video Marketing for Schools
Schools that have not taken advantage of video marketing strategies will soon find themselves years behind the competition. As social media platforms continue to promote video content, and younger parents and students prioritize video over other mediums, marketers must embrace video marketing for schools.
VujaDay has years of experience in school marketing and highly recommends utilizing video for your strategy. Contact us today to receive expert guidance and assistance.
