This is part three of our three-part series: Tips for increasing enrollment at your Montessori school. The final installment looks at using marketing strategies to answer prospective parents’ questions—the critical first step in attracting new students.

Click on any topic below to be taken to that section.

Part 1: Tips for increasing enrollment at your Montessori school

1. Website
2. Google Search
3. Reputation Management
4. Google Remarketing

Part 2

1. Facebook Promotions – Schedule a Tour
2. Facebook Promotions – Open House
3. Facebook Remarketing

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Part 3 – Tips for Increasing Enrollment at your Montessori school

1. Content Marketing
2. Video Storytelling
3. Email Newsletter
4. Building a Database

The strategies in Part 3 focus on educating parents. Because Montessori differs from the standard techniques used by public schools, it is important to thoroughly understand and respond to the questions and concerns that parents unfamiliar with Montessori will have about the Montessori Method.

Before we delve into each strategy, let’s think about one of the most common questions.

How is Montessori different than the standard education system?

If your website doesn’t clearly answer this question, parents may never give your school a second look. Although entire books have been written on the subject, the following four key strategies can guide your content decisions ensuring your site answers how the Montessori Method is uniquely different.

The following strategies help each other grow over time.  They aren’t meant to simply be completed in sequential order, rather they should all grow together over time.

Content Marketing

All website content should be directed to a specific audience. In this case, your audience is prospective parents. That means blog posts, whitepapers, eBooks, videos, podcasts, Infographics, etc. should be created with that audience in mind.

Blog posts form the foundation for content marketing.  There is an endless amount of content that can be created.  We work with our clients to create an editorial calendar to publish quality posts on a schedule designed to increase reader interest. Here are a few examples of posts that help answer the central question, How is Montessori different…?:

• Deciding Which Montessori Preschool is Right For You
• Why Students Should Teach and Teachers Guide
• A Montessori Teacher’s Role in the Classroom
• A Parent’s Role in a Montessori Environment
• A Typical Day in a Montessori School

Use content in as many ways as possible.  Some of the subjects are closely related and can be combined into whitepapers or eBooks.  For example, your school could publish a Montessori Parent’s Guide and include all of the above posts. Other examples of repurposing content include using statistics to develop an Infographic or using content as outlines for videos, webinars, or podcasts.

There is power in referencing other credible sources in your posts and content. For examples, see the Appendix below for some excellent videos that give voice to the merits of a Montessori education.

The goal of content marketing is to attract an audience.  Consider topics that have a broader appeal such as

• Fall Activities to Teach your Children about Nature
• Building Fine Motor Skills in Preschool
• Fun Activities to get your Elementary Student Interested in Writing.

It’s important to include relevant graphics as a part of your content marketing strategy.  Blog articles with graphics typically receive more views.  We connect with pictures much more quickly than we do with text.  The lead photo used in your content should visually convey the theme.  Graphics used within your content should support or visually translate the information presented.

“Vision trumps all other senses” – John Medina, Brain Rules

 

Video Storytelling

We’ve recommended to many of our Montessori clients that they work with a professional videographer to produce a video that showcases their schools, teachers, and unique differentiators.  For prospective parents, seeing is believing. Video can instantly bring your school’s culture to life and establish its credibility.

While you can create your own video content to share on social media, having at least one high-quality, professional video on your website immediately sets you apart from your competition.

You can get started by repurposing your blog posts for a video series.  Each blog topic could be used to create 3-5 minute videos that are helpful to parents while establishing you as an expert in the area of education.

“In a 2018 HubSpot survey, 54% of consumers wanted to see more video content from a brand or business they support.”

For ideas, see the Appendix below for videos that do a good job of promoting the Montessori Method.

Email Marketing

The power of email marketing is that you own it and have complete control.  You decide what content to send out, who should receive that content, and how it can be customized or segmented. You don’t have to depend on search engines or social media sites to deliver your message.

Any content you’ve created can be used for an email newsletter.   Always consider your audience when creating the email message.

Are you sending the newsletter to a list of prospective parents or to parents of enrolled students?  If the former, you may want to craft an opening message that is welcoming and invites them to learn more about the Montessori method. Just be sure to include content in your newsletter that supports your opening message.

If you are sending your email newsletter to parents that already have children enrolled at your school, you will want to make sure your message continues to invite them to engage while keeping them updated on school events.

Be sure to review all newsletter content through your audience’s eyes and consider

• Is it valuable information?
• Is it relevant?

EVERY newsletter must contain relevant and valuable information. Think about your own experience. How often have you hit unsubscribe when a newsletter contains low-quality or irrelevant content?

 

“Using the word “video” in an email subject line boosts open rates by 19% and clickthrough rates by 65%.” -Hubspot

 

Building a Database

Building a database is the process of capturing names and email addresses so that you can proactively reach out to prospective parents.  Every time you interact with someone, it’s important to think about how you will continue to interact with them in the future.

To begin, request email addresses from every new parent you meet.

Your content should also aide in collecting this information by utilizing customized calls-to-actions. Whitepapers and eBooks should always require an email address before they can be downloaded.  Videos should encourage viewers to subscribe and sign up for an email newsletter.

Conclusion

Incorporating content marketing, video storytelling,  email marketing, and building a database are effective strategies to attract prospective parents to your Montessori school.  Every parent who is researching schools is looking for one or more key differences in education that will help their child succeed.

Contact us today for help determining if your website and content strategies are helping increase enrollment at your Montessori school.

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Appendix
Informative Videos to Help Educate Prospective Parents

These videos are great for parents that want a basic understanding of how Montessori is unique.  How it fosters a love for learning, creativity and critical thinking.

• Montessori Kindergarten – https://youtu.be/8euBZVO0p_E
• Montessori Elementary – https://youtu.be/IbKMR7fLqI0

Here’s an example of one of the most famous presentations about education and the need for fostering creativity. While it’s not Montessori specific, it’s directly in line with the principles of Montessori and could used to make a case for the Montessori Method.

Stephan Curry is one of the most well liked and well-respected athletes across all professional sports.  This video does a great job of showcasing what Montessori means to him and how it played a role in his success and character development.

• Stephan Curry – https://youtu.be/Pb8kUvKcVTw

Here are some compelling explanations of Montessori from the TED stage

• TEDx – https://youtu.be/EG3XeNti3Cw
• TEDx – https://youtu.be/mcgtI_bC4sY

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Artisan Capital Partners, an industrial baking equipment supplier, has partnered with WSI to implement an SEO program to deliver their message to a greater audience. Artisan Capital Partner aims to create liquidity events for companies from industrial bakery assets. Industrial baking equipment is capital intensive to install and requires specific skills to resell. Artisan Capital Partners help companies identify the value of their equipment, assist in dismantling, then refurbish and resell the equipment. Their experience and strategic partnerships help to maximize value, simplify the process, and reduce the risk to bakeries. As a buyer and seller of industrial baking equipment, Artisan Capital Partners also provides a quality secondary market, allowing other companies to access baking production line equipment at a high value.

WSI’s custom SEO program aims to improve website performance and long-term search engine rankings. This started with on-page optimization, including an audit of the website’s SEO optimization, keyword research and selection, and developing SEO optimized pages. This work is followed by an ongoing link building program including off-site blog and social media creation and syndication. After discussing business goals with Artisan Capital Partners and completing the website audit and extensive keyword research, the following 3 SEO page themes were developed:

• https://artisan-cp.com/mecatherm-industrial-bakery-equipment/
• https://artisan-cp.com/used-bread-production-lines/
• https://artisan-cp.com/used-industrial-ovens/

WSI will continue SEO efforts to elevate Artisan Capital Partners search engine page ranks and lead captures onsite. This work will include keyword optimized blogs and social media content development that highlight Artisan Capital Partners benefits. This content will assist to create direct and indirect traffic to the site to boost the page rank. These blogs will be posted on Weebly, WordPress and Blogger.

 

This work has already begun to be tracked and website performance benchmarks well-characterized. WSI is encouraged by initial results and excited to be part of the growth of Artisan Capital Partners.

Webinar Intro:

The content below is an excerpt from the webinar posted above.   In the webinar, we compared two different Montessori schools so that we could provide a clear example of how we start to build a competitive analysis.

How to Build a Competitive Analysis for Your Business

The goal of a competitive analysis is to identify your competitors’ weaknesses and strengths to see how your business compares to theirs. This will show you the areas in your digital marketing strategy that need improvement, which can help you reshape your strategy to stay ahead of the competition.

Our competitive analysis process is fairly in-depth, so instead of walking you through the entire process, we’ll go over the most important elements with which you can get started right away.

Our Competitive Analysis Process

When working with a client, the first thing we do is schedule a discovery call. This helps us to understand their business, their target markets, and their goals for growth. From there, we gather data about the client and their competitors. Once we complete the template, we conduct a data analysis to identify areas of opportunity and present our key recommendations to the client.

A competitive analysis includes two types of deliverables:

• an Excel spreadsheet containing the raw data, and
• a PowerPoint presentation with the key findings.

You can see a detailed example of the Excel spreadsheet and the PowerPoint presentation in the above video. The Excel template is available upon request.

The Core Areas of a Competitive Analysis

A competitive analysis consists of seven core areas:

1. Market opportunity
2. Website trust signals
3. Reputation management
4. SEO performance
5. Paid search
6. Other digital marketing strategies
7. Website technical performance

Evaluating market opportunity involves using search terms and keyword ranking to identify the client’s potential in the market compared to their competitors.

After identifying their market opportunity, our first priority is to identify each company’s website trust signals and determine areas of improvement for the client. This involves going through a list of key points and seeing how many of them are present on the client’s website (see the above video for a detailed example).

From there, we compare the reputation management strategies of the client and their competitors on sites such as Google My Business, Facebook, and Yelp. We also look at various factors of the companies’ SEO performance to see how well their websites rank in search engines like Google or Bing, as well as how much they invest in paid search per month.

Other digital marketing strategies we evaluate in a competitive analysis include email marketing, social media marketing, display advertising, and remarketing. And finally, we evaluate the client’s website technical performance: average load time, utilization of Google AMP, CDN, etc. Note that these last two areas are generally for analyzing companies in highly competitive industries, so they may not be necessary for a competitive analysis of your business.

By building a competitive analysis for your business, you’ll be able to compare your company to your competitors and identify core areas of improvement in your digital marketing strategy. Get started with this tool today to stay ahead of the game!

Need help building a competitive analysis for your business? Watch the webinar video above for a detailed walkthrough of our process, and learn more about our Digital Marketing Competitive Analysis service!

Mares & Dow Construction Inc. is a longstanding partnership of 34 years between Archie Mares, Dennis Dow and hundreds of great customers throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. They offer a range of construction and home improvement services such as general contracting, building custom homes, home remodeling, skylight installation, foundation repair, retaining wall construction and commercial remodeling. At Mares & Dow Construction they ensure customer satisfaction by providing quality service and great products in both new construction and remodeling projects, with a staff of hard-working employees. With half of new clients coming from referrals, it’s no secret customers truly appreciate their work.

Mares & Dow Construction is partnering with WSI, one of the nation’s largest digital marketing network to expand their visibility online. WSI began with learning about Mares & Dow’s business and the audience they seek to attract to understand what digital marketing strategies would best fit their needs.

WSI will develop an advanced SEO program beginning with a technical website audit to prepare for SEO optimization. This SEO optimization process includes developing an SEO page level strategy and page development, as well as link building through on and off-site content creation. After an extensive keyword analysis and site structure review, WSI has identified two pages to start SEO efforts:

• Home Remodeling Contractors: http://www.maresdow.com/home-remodeling-contractors-2/
• Residential Skylights – https://www.maresdow.com/skylights/
• Foundation Repair – https://www.maresdow.com/foundation-repair/
• General Contractors: http://www.maresdow.com/general-contractors/

 

Moving forward, the SEO program will focus on the development and syndication of content relevant to their audience. This will include SEO optimized blog posts both on and off-site, social media posting as well as monthly reporting.  Offsite content will be published on WordPress, Weebly, and Blogspot. With an SEO optimized website and long-term link building, WSI expects to increase both their visibility in SERPs as well as driving more traffic to their site.

This is a part one of a three-part series.

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We’ve worked with a number of Montessori schools to help them increase their enrollments by significantly improving their marketing efforts.   Because each Montessori has its own unique needs, we create a customized approach for each school.

This 3-part blog series details the different marketing methods that we’ve used to help our Montessori clients achieve their goals.. I offer a high-level introduction to each strategy (I think I could actually write a book about any one of them). Once completed, the series will be available as a downloadable PDF.

Each of these strategies has been successful. As a big believer in the Montessori Method, I am happy to answer any questions that you have. Feel free to contact me at any time.

How you use these strategies should be dictated by your capacity to take on new students. If you have a long waiting list, you may not need anything beyond a website. If you are new or face strong local competitors, you may need to incorporate many of these strategies into your overall marketing plan.

Here’s what the series will cover:

Part 1

1. Website
2. Google Search
3. Reputation Management
4. Google Remarketing

Part 2

1. Facebook Promotions – Schedule a Tour
2. Facebook Promotions – Open House
3. Facebook Remarketing

Part 3

1. Content Marketing
2. Video Storytelling
3. Email Newsletter
4. Building a Database

 

1. Website

So far, all of the schools we’ve worked with have had websites that, in most cases, were pretty good. In general, the website should target two audiences:

1. parents with children that are looking for a Montessori school
2. parents with children currently enrolled at your school.

When it comes to website design there are a few areas where we see schools consistently make mistakes.

Not mobile friendly. If you’re not sure if your visitors consider your website to be mobile friendly, just pull out your mobile phone and type in the URL. If you have to pinch to zoom in and out, if your phone number is not tap-to-call, if your physical address is not clearly displayed, or if it is difficult to navigate, then it is not mobile friendly. If you want to see if Google considers your website to be mobile friendly use the Google mobile friendly test.

No HTTPS. Google’s Chrome browser will soon start indicating that websites without HTTPS are not secure. To check this, go to your URL. If there is a lock next to it, you are all set. If not, please contact your webmaster ASAP. Generally, this is an easy fix.

Lacking website trust signals. These are things that we look for to help us determine the credibility of a website and the school that it represents.  The top two pieces of information your website needs to have are a local phone number (tap-to-call on a mobile device) and an embedded Google map that shows where your school is located. Additional pieces of information that help establish trust include AMS schools accreditation (if you have it), a contact form (quick response times are essential), testimonials, third-party review ratings, and pictures of your staff and facilities.

Conversion paths.  When someone visits your website, you typically want them to take a specific action. For example, you want prospective parents to call or email your school. Be sure that these conversion paths are prominent on every page of your website.   List your phone and email in the header, have links to them on the menu, and list them in the footer.

Useful content. Many of the prospective parents will not be familiar with your school. They may not even be familiar with the Montessori Method.   It is essential to describe why they should learn about the Montessori Method, what makes your school great, and why your teachers and staff are uniquely qualified to teach their children. Big bonus if you can create blog content with articles about how the Montessori Method can be utilized and reinforced at home.

2. Google Search

Google is extremely powerful because there are parents looking for the types of services that your school offers right now. If someone searches Google for “Montessori kindergarten near me” they are familiar with the Montessori Method and are in the process of evaluating schools. The three ways of ranking in Google are Paid Search, Local SEO, and Organic SEO.

Case Study: Montessori School of Pleasanton. In the example below, we are searching from Pleasanton, California. The Montessori School of Pleasanton is a relatively new school, with room for enrollment, so they show up in all three segments of the search results.

Paid search receives 10%-20% of the clicks.

To leverage this strategy, you or the marketing agency that you are working with needs to have a Google AdWords account.  Here you will create ads targeting prospective clients by bidding on specific keywords. It is a fast way to get your URL into the search results, but it is also an easy way to burn through your budget. You will want to focus on keywords that show some type of buying intent (e.g. Montessori school near me) rather than informational keywords (e.g. what is Montessori).

Do not use Google AdWords Express as it allows Google to choose the keywords that you bid on. This method creates more clicks (more money for Google) rather than focusing on keywords that will convert for your website.

Local search receives 40%-50% of the clicks.

This is sometimes referred to as Google Local, Google Maps listing, the three pack, Google snack pack, etc. You must signup for a Google My Business account (GMB) and then verify your physical location with Google. Other than having a website, I can’t think of anything more important than verifying a GMB listing. If you manage more than one school, this must be done for every location. It is the only way to rank in local search and it is the only way to gather Google reviews (more on this in reputation management).

Key elements of the GMB profile include choosing the best categories, adding content and images with the appropriate keywords, utilizing posts, and consistent and accurate contact information.

Beyond your GMB profile Google also considers your domain’s authority (see organic search) and the consistency of your NAP listings (name, address, and phone number) across directories, local citations, and aggregators. Moz Local is a useful tool for checking your NAP listings.

Organic Search receives 30%-40% of the clicks.

Google looks at over 200 signals to help determine where your website should rank within its search results for any given keyword. The most important thing to focus on is the content of the pages on your website. If you have a page dedicated to a Montessori Kindergarten class, it needs to clearly define the value of the class, what the students will learn, where the class is located, and inclusion of the trust signals mentioned above.   The content itself needs to exceed at least 300 words. It may require more extensive optimization based on how well your local competitors have optimized their websites.

3. Reputation Management

Reputation management is basically asking for reviews online and responding to any negative reviews that exist. When responding to a negative review it is important to consider that you are responding to the people reading the review, rather than the person who wrote the review. Your response should be professional, non-argumentative, and demonstrate to the readers that you would like to work towards a reasonable resolution.

Here is a list of the review sites that we focus on for our Montessori clients.

Google My Business (GMB) – This one is the most important. The majority of your prospective customers will find out about your school via a Google search. In order to gather reviews you must have a verified GMB listing. Here are the guidelines for soliciting Google reviews.

Yelp – Not as important as Google reviews, but it is still a high priority. Yelp provides a lot of free tools. To get started you must verify your listing with Yelp at https://biz.yelp.com/. Add as much information to your business profile as possible. The information you provide plays an important role for how your school ranks within Yelp’s search results.

We do not recommend that you pay Yelp for anything. Their advertising platform is still immature and the targeting options make it very difficult to focus on the appropriate audience. We’ve seen schools spend a lot of money on ads without acquiring any new students in the process.

Two other review sites to consider are Great Schools and Niche. Both of these are a much lower priority than Google or Yelp.

4. Google Remarketing

Google remarketing allows you to display ads on other websites, to people who have previously visited your website. This is extremely powerful because the parents who have previously visited your website are qualified — they already have a level of interest in your school.

Case Study: Montessori School of Flagstaff. The image below is a screenshot of the Arizona Daily Sun, a popular news website. We created the banner ad just below the menu for Montessori School of Flagstaff to help promote a school tour. The ad is only displayed to people who have previously visited the website, and the budget is only spent if the ad is clicked.

When parents are searching for a new school, they will often visit multiple websites. By utilizing Google remarketing, we have the opportunity to continue to market to them even after they’ve left the website.

This is very valuable even if they don’t click on the ad because it creates additional brand impressions. The more often we see a brand, the more likely we will remember it. We tend to trust brands that we recognize.

Because we are only showing these ads to a highly targeted audience, it becomes a very cost-effective way to build brand recognition.

Conclusion

This is the first blog in a three-part series. We’ve implemented all of the techniques above at some level across the various Montessori schools that we work with and all of them have a proven ROI.

You may be able to implement some of these strategies yourself, but if you have any questions, please reach out to us directly.

Part two covering Facebook promotions and Facebook remarketing will be posted next week.