How to Promote Your School Open Day
As we commence the new year and finish off the leftover mince pies, we start our plans for the new year. If you are a school marketer you have probably started thinking about how to promote an #OpenDay at your school. We all know how important these events are, they give the school an opportunity to really show prospective students and parents the atmosphere and the heart of the school.
Stuck for some ideas for your upcoming open day? Check out our blog of 7 Open Days Ideas and get creative this open day season.
So, we have our open day idea, but how do you promote it to ensure you have as many attendees as possible? We have the answers, just keep on reading!
So, what platform is the best for you?
With the density of platforms out there, you may feel a bit overwhelmed with the choice. We broke down the list for you so you can choose which one works best for your school promotion.
Let’s start the list off with the digital giants, Facebook. Facebook is a great place to create event pages which you can send out to your followers. Creating these is a great way to engage with your existing community. If you would like to reach an audience outside of your community, you can use Boost a Post feature. In terms of advertising, Facebook Ads gives you the most control over your ad copy and creative, who sees your ad, and where they see it. Monitor and adjust your ad in Ads Manager - a free platform for Facebook Ads.
Instagram is a highly visual, image-led platform that will definitely appeal more with younger audiences (25 and under). We would recommend using compelling photography for maximum impact. Instagram is Facebook’s sibling, so there is no wonder why the platform allows you to Boost a Post in the same way as Facebook does.
If you choose to advertise using Facebook Ads, you can select your ad placement, for example, Instagram Feed and Stories.
Twitter can be used to create an event #Hashtag to not only categorise your content but also to help build excitement before and during your #OpenDay. Check out one of our earlier blogs, in which we have discussed the power of hashtag and why you should use them. Create a personalised Hashtag for the event for you and your visitors to use and make sure to display it around your school so everyone can get involved.
Creating a branded Hashtag is very simple, just use the name of your school (or an abbreviation/acronym of it) and the name of the event you are promoting, for example, #IntSchoolsOpenDay, #ISOpenDay, etc. Once you choose your Hashtag, stick with it and promote it!
With regards to advertising, you can promote a Tweet, which similarly to Facebook’s boost a post will allow you to reach a wider audience or use Twitter Ads for a more controlled way of advertising and reporting.
Periscope
Periscope is a live-streaming platform, which you can use to show snippets of your #OpenDay. Why should you use live-streaming?
It is extremely engaging
Helpful for those who couldn’t attend the event (international students).
Snapchat
Snapchat is highly appealing to younger audiences, this platform would be great to explore if you are targeting teens (sixth form). You can create Snapchat GeoFilters, which can be shared with your #OpenDay attendees. GeoFilters are similar to usual filters with one exception, you can only use them when you are in a certain location. Make sure to create GeoFilters that continue the creative of your website. This will transform the shop window of your website into something more tangible and experience-based.
What content should you use?
The most important rule you should live by when promoting an event is the better the content, the more engagement you will receive. Ensure to space out your promotions among other content to keep your Feed looking fresh - no one wants to see the same content over and over again!
Bear in mind that every platform is different and involves different audiences, therefore, it is important for you to focus on posting the right content in the right place - at the end of the day, you wouldn’t want people skipping your posts/ads because they are not relevant to them.
Scheduling
We created a blog post back in the day about 4 scheduling tools that will help you streamline your school’s marketing, these tools will help you with scheduling your #OpenDay posts.
Our team of #DigitalJedi are here to help you promote your #OpenDay. We offer help with paid advertising so do not hesitate to drop us an email (social@interactiveschools.com).