The Ultimate Digital Storytelling Kit for School Marketers

In today's digital landscape, storytelling is more than just a task; it's an art form, a science, and lies at the heart of a successful marketing department. Whether schools are aiming to attract new students, engage parents, or build relationships with alumni and donors, mastering the art of digital storytelling is the key for admissions, funding and a school’s overall profile.

Here at Interactive Schools, we understand that life in a school marketing department can be pretty hectic. Trying to ensure all areas of school life are showcased through social media and appealing to all relevant stakeholders is no mean feat. To find out how a school’s story can be authentically and successfully communicated to its school community and beyond, look no further.

Crafting Immersive Experiences

The first place prospective parents will visit when wanting to find out more about a school is its website. At Interactive Schools, we pride ourselves on creating the best websites for the world leading schools. We put users first and craft incredible, immersive experiences that blend creative magic, measurable engagement and tangible impact, to ensure that our websites act as a window into the living heartbeat of its school.

Keeping Content Fresh

It’s vital that marketers are constantly monitoring the content on the school website, ensuring that both images and videos, as well as written content and information, remain relevant and continue to reflect the school’s current offerings and evolving #Purpose. If marketers are struggling with how to word content to ensure that it best reflects the school’s unique identity, they can simply type their content into ChatGPT for inspiration on stylistic word choices and structure. If marketers have an Interactive Schools’ website, they even have the luxury of our embedded ChatGPT Content Helper to keep content fresh and engaging.

Virtual Tours and Engagement

Taking the immersive nature of our websites even further, we even provide 360° Virtual Tours via our SprXVR platform. In combination with our branded Interactive Schools headset, 360° photography and cinematic video, users will have the opportunity to feel physically present at any school, irrespective of where they are in the world, expanding a school’s marketing reach beyond the constraints of distance.

Maximising Social Media Platforms

Beyond a school’s website, Social Media continues to be a fully integrated aspect of modern life and arguably the most prominent outlet for modern-day marketing. Whether marketers choose to empower faculty members to communicate their school’s story or decide upon a more centralised marketing-driven strategy, it is imperative that marketers understand how to best utilise the different Social Media platforms and channels to best communicate the school’s #People #Place and #Purpose as effectively as possible.

Data-Driven Strategy

In order to evaluate a school’s Social Media success, marketers should be reviewing the data of their school’s social media content to review exactly what kind of content gets the highest level of engagement. They may wish to use the social platform’s own free data analytics tools (such as Insights via the Meta Business suite for Instagram and Facebook) or an aggregator tool like Google Analytics to see exactly what content their audience is viewing, and where from, for all platforms in one place.

Marketers may also consider our new SprXdata platform that aggregates all data from a school’s suite of platforms/networks, providing detailed insights into a school’s storytelling output. This means marketers are able to identify and fill any gaps in their #ContentStrategy, allowing them to plan and execute a balanced portrayal of the school covering all year/grade groups, subjects and extra-curricular activities.

Creative Social Media Presence

Suppose you wish to add a creative flair to your Social Media presence. In that case, you may consider utilising Canva: a popular online graphic design tool that is most commonly used for social media templates. With over 250,000 free templates to choose from and over 400,000 templates on a Pro subscription, there is a template for every Social Media need that can be seamlessly customised to fit a school's branding. If marketers are feeling particularly innovative, they may wish to use Canva’s tools to create their own bespoke templates to really give their school that uniquely designed edge. Need more convincing? Well, guess what - schools qualify for Canva Education, unlocking Pro features for free! For more information on Canva Education, read here.

Social Scheduling Efficiency

With so many fantastic things going on around your campus, and with so many different platforms to which you should be sharing your #SchoolStories, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. If you, the marketing department often find yourself in this predicament, social scheduling could be the answer. With the ability to schedule and customise content across multiple platforms in one place, marketers are able to plan aspects of your school’s social media strategy months in advance, freeing up time for more demanding aspects of the job, such as covering events, gathering promotional video content etc. When conducting our research of the social scheduling tool market, we found Buffer to offer the best free plan and Social Champ to offer the best value for money for its paid plans.

It’s important to remember that both consistency and breadth of stories being told are vital to ensuring that the true greatness of your school’s community is communicated to all relevant audiences. Whilst the thought of appealing to such a wide audience can often be daunting, by simply telling the stories of all of the wonderful happenings of everyday school life on the right platform, your school’s unique charm will be evident to all.

For a more in-depth discussion of how your school can maximise your social media presence, please reach out to wow@interactiveschools.com, and we’ll be thrilled to talk through your school’s Content Strategy, and how we at Interactive Schools can support.