Promote Blogs Through Paid Advertising
Maximizing your blog through paid advertising can raise awareness and strengthen positive perceptions of your school. Branding through a well-executed paid social media campaign can bring important audiences to your website and secure your position as an education leader.
Content reigns
Remember: when writing a blog to be promoted externally, ask yourself: What do the audiences I’m trying to reach care about most regarding education? Far too often, schools develop content around what they want the market to care about instead of deploying content that addresses actual market needs. Consider being an educational resource—offering helpful information to all families in your community in an easy-to-consume format using subheads, bulleted lists, graphics, etc.
Content, in blogs and everywhere you message, must strategically align your school’s strengths with what your market values.
Reinforced socially
When your blog content is ready to be shared, use a targeted social media campaign to reach prospects. Effective promotion should include amazing imagery and/or bold graphics to create engagement.
When ads start generating clicks, consider retargeting prospects with additional content to reinforce your value. Social media can help cultivate a relationship with your prospects—establishing trust, gaining support and building your brand.
Case Study: Old Trail School
After partnering with Creosote to conduct a full brand study, Old Trail School was ready to roll out its brand when the pandemic spiked in the United States. We needed a unique way to launch Old Trail’s brand and attract prospective families without being perceived as opportunistic. Creosote developed a series of blogs that offered parents resources and guidance—from educational enrichment activities to tips for managing their child’s stress during quarantine. The blogs conveyed the essence of Old Trail’s brand and positioned the school as expert educators.
To promote the blogs, Creosote produced graphic images (Facebook) and brief animated teaser videos (Instagram) to be used on social media.
On Facebook and Instagram, the first post generated nearly 300 clicks at a click-through rate that more than doubled the rate of Old Trail’s previous paid ads.
As each blog and corresponding ad was pushed live, Old Trail was repeatedly reaching interested prospects with content that was customer-focused, timely and authentically on-brand. Creosote and Connect.ED will be managing Old Trail’s paid social media for the 2020 marketing cycle.
Written by Jack d’Epagnier, Copywriter at Creosote Affects
Creosote conducts research, develops marketing strategy and produces unmatched creative for independent schools and colleges.