School marketing is a need, not a want!
There, I said it! As we head into a new school year, and you look at your strategic priorities for the year ahead, how high are you ranking your marketing efforts?
Some school districts are tightening their budgets (which is understandable, given these grim realities), but reducing your focus on marketing is simply not the answer.
Marketing is crucial because students = funding, in both private and public school settings. I recently spoke with a school counselor-turned-marketer who admitted she never thought about actively marketing to attract students. She thought they just showed up! Well, in 2025, that’s no longer the case. We MUST market our schools.
Start with your website homepage, for example. How many times are you inviting visitors to schedule visits or apply? Are you encouraging them to become part of your school community? Calls to action like “visit,” “enroll,” and “request information” set the tone for a marketing-oriented website.
Regarding social media, consider these statistics: 70% of American adults are on Facebook, and the typical internet user spends nearly two and a half hours daily on social media, according to DataReportal’s “Digital 2024 Deep Dive”, based on research by Global Web Index (GWI). If your school isn’t actively marketing itself on social media, you’re missing an opportunity to connect!
Convinced? Now it’s time to take action! Today’s blog is designed to get your gears turning with some free marketing ideas for your school.
1. Use AI to Spark Creativity
Tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Grok are excellent tools for generating creative and effective email subject lines, video scripts, social media posts, and even website content ideas. For example: “I am from New Auburn, Wisconsin. We have 300 students K-12, and we really want to get support for an upcoming ballot question. What are the top three strategies that our school should utilize?”
Here are 26 more ChatGPT prompts to get your gears turning:
2. Remember: Branding Matters
Poor branding = Low value, and that includes your school district. You need to have an official logo, colors, branding kit, and style guide. There are service providers that can help you, but you can even lean on AI to help you generate some of these items! It’s crucial to maintain consistent branding for your district.
Here’s a podcast episode to help you go deeper into the topic of strategic branding:
3. Create Free Guides and Emails
Posting on social media is playing on rented land. We don’t own Meta or X or LinkedIn or any of those followers, and your page could get shut down at any time, even through no fault of your own. But when you have an email list, you own that list.
Create a free guide or opt-in that people are interested in, and for them to get it, they need to provide their email address. Then, create an email newsletter list that nurtures those followers, with the goal of converting them into enrolled families. You can also call those interested families and develop relationships with them.
Not sure what kind of guide to create? Lean on ChatGPT for ideas!
4. Email Newsletters
Don’t underestimate the power of a great newsletter, emailed directly to families and others who have opted in for regular updates from your school!
Social media is great, but due to the algorithm, not every follower sees every post. Email is almost certain to be delivered. Of course, getting them to open it depends on the subject line and the content you regularly share.
The best part? You don’t have to start from scratch! You can include photos and video links, reusing stories you’ve shared on social media, on your internal TV screens in the school buildings, and on your website.
5. Lean on Parent Ambassadors
Establish an official parent ambassador group to promote positive word-of-mouth marketing on behalf of your school. Some schools have Parent Leader Academies that teach parents how to spread the positive message of their schools!
This can be as simple as encouraging parents to share social media posts. Some schools take this one step further and train parents on all aspects of the district – it’s a lot of work, but worthwhile to have those advocates!
Want to start a program like this at your school? The #SocialSchool4EDU Membership Program offers an incredible on-demand webinar that shares all the details of how Brooke Allen started a Parent Ambassador Program within her district in Indiana.
Not only does she share what she did, but she also provides an extensive array of resources, including her meeting agendas, methods for promoting the program, and more. When you join the group, you get instant access to 200+ training sessions, along with an incredible Canva template directory, and so much more. Learn more, here.
6. Harness the Power of Community Partnerships
You can spread a positive message about your school by partnering with community organizations and businesses! Does your school have a partnership coordinator? Involving outside organizations can be powerful.
7. Try User-Generated Content
Encourage people to be “influencers” for your school! Have them take photos of themselves on the first day of school with school swag or next to a yard sign, for example, and ask them to submit it to you.
You didn’t create that content, but you get to use it on social media and in other marketing efforts! You’re also getting the help of your school families to spread the positive message of your school. Win-win!
8. Incorporate Students as Storytellers
I’m passionate about using student voices in your marketing, especially on social media. This could be a full-blown internship program or just student-submitted content.
Check out this free download for 12 ideas:
9. Ask for Positive Stories
Simply ask for positive stories from staff, community members, and students. Put a request on your website or in your email newsletter, asking people to submit “positive gossip” that you can amplify through your marketing.
Dig deeper into the concept of “positive gossip” in this blog:
10. Share Testimonials
Staff, student, and family testimonials go a long way in supporting your marketing messaging! Testimonials can be collected in a variety of ways, and then shared on just a graphic or through a short, 15-second video.
11. Celebrate Student Accomplishments
This doesn’t even feel like marketing! Showcase your “product” – your students, and how they are excelling in the world. Social media is the perfect place to do this. Read this blog for more inspiration:
12. Highlight Alumni Stories
What are your alumni doing in the years after they leave your district? Collect those stories, and share those on social media and alumni email newsletters, too!
13. Make Alumni Connections
What are you doing besides alumni spotlights to really connect with alumni? You can send branded onesies to grads’ babies, for example!
14. Try Family Welcome Posts
At smaller schools, you could welcome the entire family with a featured social media post! Share a little bit about the family and welcome them to the school community.
15. Share Classroom Moments
The best stories are happening inside the four walls of your classrooms, each and every day. Families love knowing about the math lessons, the art classes, and the fun PE classes that kids are engaging in.
Who knows – their kids might not come home and tell them about what they’re doing, so those classroom moments are even more precious! Never underestimate the power of a couple of simple, close-up photos of student learning.
Here are some photography tips to share with your teachers and staff:
16. Remember Video Content
Are you sharing video content on your social media pages? These can be behind-the-scenes, trends, student spotlights, staff involvement, and so much more.
Gain confidence with Instagram Reels with this playlist:
17. Highlight Unique Programs
Do you have a culinary program in your district? What about a robotics program? Are high schoolers engaged in apprenticeship programs? You have to tell those stories?
Don’t assume that people know about those programs! At your next staff meeting, ask your colleagues, “What are the ten most unique things that we offer at our school?” Make an extra effort to shout those out on your website, in your email newsletters, and on social media.
18. Use #ThrowbackThursday Posts
This is a social media series that I want you to start doing on Facebook ASAP; it’s just a no-brainer. Share old photos from yearbooks, and watch the followers and engagement grow, which will compound your marketing efforts. It’s also a great way to bring alumni back to your page.
Plus, your captions can be super simple, like these:
19. Ask Short Questions
Post this on social media: “Alumni roll call! What year did you graduate?”
Short questions like this create connections and, just like #ThrowbackThursday posts, drive up your engagement on your Facebook page. This helps the rest of your posts get seen by more people. Feed the algorithm!
Get 52 more short question ideas to spark engagement in this free download:
Lean Into Free – But Don’t Discount Paid Support!
I hope you’re excited to try out some (or all!) of these free marketing ideas for your school, this year. How many of them are you already doing? Which ones are you going to test out, next?
I want to hear from you! Email me at andrea@socialschool4edu.com and let me know what marketing ideas you’re going to try out in the coming months.
While you’re at it, head over to my website and take a look at my year-round membership program. School communicators like you deserve ongoing support, training, and community to back you up. And that’s exactly what we provide! I hope you join us very soon.