This is part two of a three-part series that covers tips for increasing enrollment at your Montessori school.
Part 2 reviews Facebook promotions and retargeting strategies. Click here to read Part 1: The Essentials, which covers your website, Google Search, and reputation management.
Part 2: Increase Exposure
Facebook Promotions – Schedule a Tour
One of the first things parents researching preschools and daycares want to know is if they can schedule a tour, preferably to observe a class in action. For example, many Montessori schools offer an observation window for prospective and current parents to observe the Montessori environment. Whether your school has specific dates for tours or grants year-round tours, you’ll want to promote it on Facebook.
If you’re wondering whether Facebook is still an appropriate platform, consider these recent statistics in a 2018 social media report by the Pew Research Center*
- Facebook continues to remain the primary social media platform
- 68% of U.S. adults use Facebook
- 78% of Facebook users are between 30 and 49 years of age
- Approximately 74% of Facebook users login daily
*Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank and subsidiary of Pew Charitable Trusts. Pew Charitable Trusts holds silver level status with GuideStar, indicating a commitment to transparency. These statistics reflect what WSI Connect sees across our Montessori promotions (see below).
When creating FB promotions we utilize the following layout:
Take a look at similar FB ads and use the ones you like as examples for your business to emulate.
Facebook Promotions – Open House
Similar to school tour promotions, open house promotions are targeted toward the parents of new potential students. However, your school’s capacity may differ for each type of promotion. The staffing and resources necessary to host a successful open house might be more intensive than the resources for scheduled tours.
The largest benefit of an open house is giving parents an opportunity to meet everyone at the school, from the director and teachers to current parents and students.
An open house provides your school a unique opportunity to make a lasting impression and showcase your curriculum. It allows parents to form early bonds with the staff, and if they can bring their child along, they’ll see how their child fits into the Montessori environment.
Facebook – Remarketing
Facebook Pixel is an easy-to-install remarketing tool that measures engagement with your Facebook ads and helps you develop better ads. If your website is powered by WordPress, you can upload Pixel following these instructions. Facebook also does a great job of going through the installation steps here.
Once Facebook Pixel is installed and set up, create “events” so that Facebook can track specific actions taken on your website. For example, turn on the event “Complete Registration” to track when a visitor from your “Schedule a Tour” ad clicks through to your landing page and fills out the scheduling form.
Recommendation: Use Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) Codes with or without Facebook Pixel
UTM codes track the origins of your website traffic, allowing you to evaluate the performance of marketing campaigns. We highly recommend you UTM codes, especially if you’re hesitant or not ready to install Facebook Pixel. They’ll tell you your website traffic’s source (i.e. Facebook), medium (i.e. paid ad), and whether your traffic is coming through a specific campaign (i.e. open house).
Facebook still reigns but don’t ignore the power of Instagram and Video
While Facebook and UTM codes are powerful promotional tools for our Montessori clients, it should be noted that Instagram and video ads are also powerful. Within the Facebook Ads Manager platform, you can select Instagram for ad placement or exclude it entirely. For example, you might choose to exclude Instagram ads if you don’t have an Instagram business profile. To exclude Instagram as a placement, select “edit placements” and uncheck Instagram.
Every month, 130 million Instagram users tap on shopping posts. Every day, 200 million users visit at least one business profile.
In June 2018, Instagram announced it achieved 1 billion monthly active users. Now it has over 25 million business profiles and one-third of the most-viewed stories are from businesses. Notably, 90% of users follow a business account, with the average engagement rate for posts by businesses being 0.96%.
If parents at your Montessori school use Instagram, you might want to consider creating a business profile and crafting stories that promote the benefits of a Montessori education. After all, in a Facebook study, 81% of Instagram users say they use Instagram to research products.
While the methods outlined above have increased success for our clients, your adoption should be directed by your school’s ability to accept new students.
Next steps
Once you’ve mastered your Facebook promotions and retargeting strategies, take a look at Part 3: Market to Your Audience. In that part, we will dive into how email marketing, content marketing, and video marketing can increase enrollment at your Montessori school.
