Short-Term Branding Strategies for Admissions

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What you’re doing for your community right now could not matter more.

At a time of unprecedented uncertainty, schools are exhibiting incredible leadership. As a steward of educational brands, Creosote believes it has an obligation to help schools cultivate and disseminate content that demonstrates value during this worldwide pandemic.

Branding and Marketing Amidst Crisis Management

The next several weeks and months will pose immense challenges, but communication and admission offices still need to enroll new families and re-enroll current families for the next academic year. It is important at this moment that your school appropriately shares how you are still delivering a superior educational experience for your students.

We believe marketing campaigns right now require the utmost sensitivity. All communication must be carefully and strategically crafted to be sure efforts are not perceived as self-serving. Our talents can help you take immediate steps to express the strength of your school’s brand at this critical point in the admission cycle.

The following efforts can help create meaningful connections during this crisis:

CRISIS-SPECIFIC MESSAGING
Our team can consult on and fully develop a strategic messaging platform specific to this crisis. We understand that institutional budgets are depleted, but schools cannot afford for their market position to weaken as a result of the pandemic.

RELATABLE CONTENT
This is not the time for “typical” admissions advertising. Focus on the content you’re delivering through SEO and search efforts and organic and paid social media. We can develop the editorial and visual assets that will make the greatest impact on current and prospective families.

WEBSITE UPDATES
Research on families’ admissions decision-making process proves the importance of your website’s content. With your campus closed, your school’s website needs to be updated. We can help communicate essential priorities, including:

  • An acknowledgement of the challenges your community and region are facing, and a confirmation of your school’s strength

  • An affirmation that your school’s culture remains vibrant, and details on how prospective families can experience what it would be like to join your community—without visiting campus

  • A confirmation that your brand promise is being lived out during these unprecedented circumstances, and that your content i’s most visited pages

Recent data also speaks to the critical importance of short video in the conversion of website visitors. We can develop what families expect to see and hear from you.

MAINTAINING INTEREST
Emails highlighting college placement and targeted ads showcasing student–teacher ratios are inappropriate right now. Prospects need you to empathize with the challenges their families face due to the crisis. However, it’s not the time to lose all the progress you’ve made attracting new families.

Our skills can help you prepare email nurture campaigns, CRM social media campaigns and re-targeting Google ads that strike the appropriate tone and keep families interested in your school.

Emily Hajjar