After-school programs are a wonderful thing for students of all ages—they can be fun, engaging, and inspiring. Students can meet new friends and learn even more than in their daily classes. Schools often host these programs, but the big issue they face is how to increase student enrollment. 

The key to this is in reaching the parents the right way. With a good marketing strategy consisting of content marketing, digital marketing, and visual marketing, you can attract parents. For one, focusing on content to communicate with parents is a good idea when combined with visual aspects. But in order to do that, you need to have a good content strategy.

Discover Your Audience

The first step on your way to creating a viable and actionable content strategy is to discover your audience. Normally, you only have to look at and satisfy one group, but in this case, you should really try to attract both parents and children alike. The parents and their choices are affected by how their children feel about enrolling in your program, so try to make it fun and engaging for both groups. 

Figure out what the children you are targeting want. Think about what appeals to them in terms of visuals and activities. Then, focus on parents and their goals for their children. Be sure to thoroughly research before you begin. 

Differentiate

There are likely to be competitors to your after-school program. The best way to handle that is to differentiate your program from the others with some special traits. Ask yourself:

• What can we offer that other programs can’t?
• How can we differentiate our program by using digital marketing techniques?
• How would our uniqueness affect the customer retention? 

Tools You’ll Use

Writing good content that really speaks to the audience is not an easy feat. To get some exquisite pieces that work for omni-channel marketing and boost registration, you can use these tools:

• Via Writing and Grammarly: Good grammar and spelling are essential for your content to be taken seriously. As an after-school program, you shouldn’t have any mistakes. Use proofreading and grammar resources to check your work and help guide your messaging.
• State Of Writing and My Writing Way: All of us need some advice at some point in our lives. For good writing tips, consult these blogs.
• AcademAdvisor and Let's Go And Learn: Some guidance when writing content can’t hurt. Check out these writing guides as you craft your messaging. 

Presentation

Next, you have to figure out how you’ll present your content. Visual content works best with children and is better for digital marketing, but written content speaks more to parents. Do some research and choose one of these to incorporate visual marketing into your efforts:

• Infographics
• Blog posts
• Videos
• Social media ads

Publishing Channels

Another aspect you need to consider with your content strategy is where you would publish it. There are several options here as well, but you need to focus on your audience and publish your content where most of them can see it. Here are a few suggestions: 

• Website
• Blog
• Social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
• Parent forums

Any of these channels could work if you choose wisely in terms of where your audience is. Social media would probably be your best bet in most cases—especially in terms of dedicated parents or classroom groups where you could post your digital flyers or something similar.

Managing Tasks

The next point of your strategy is management. How will you handle operations once you begin publishing? You have to:

• Create a schedule for publishing content
• Decide who is creating the content
• Prevent clutter
• Manage the response
• Answer queries

There are many more tasks involved in this, which you will have to handle once your content marketing really starts.

Bottom Line

Having a good content strategy is essential if you want to increase conversions. Planning every step and implementing what you have learned during the research period is also a good idea. Hopefully, these steps will help you successfully market your after-school program and speak to both parents and students.

What marketing strategies have you found helpful for promoting your after-school program? Let us know in the comments below! And for helpful teaching tips all year long, be sure to subscribe to the Educator blog.