School Open House Ideas: The Ultimate guide open day marketing
Acing Your School Open House with Strategic Marketing
In the competitive landscape of private education, hosting an effective school open house is a golden opportunity for marketing professionals to showcase their institution's unique offerings. This event is your chance to make a lasting impression on prospective students and their families, setting the stage for successful enrollments. In this comprehensive guide, we'll explore creative and practical school open house ideas, from planning to post-event engagement.
Planning a Private School Open House
Success starts with thorough preparation. Whilst many school marketers have their events calendar prepped at the start of the academic year - work on an open house event typically takes place at least a couple of months in advance. Here are our top tips for a considered approach:
Defining Objectives
Before you can roll out the red carpet for your school's open house, it's crucial to clearly define your objectives to maximize event impact. What do you hope to achieve with this event? Ask yourself:
- Are you looking to boost enrollment numbers at specific entry points?,
- Perhaps you’re introducing new programs that you'd like to showcase?
- Or maybe you're working on reputation building?
By establishing your goals early on, you can tailor the open house experience to meet these targets effectively.
Setting clear objectives helps streamline the planning process, ensuring that every aspect of the event serves a purpose. It also gives you measurable outcomes to evaluate the success of the open house, guiding future improvements. Remember, a well-defined objective not only aligns your team but also enhances the experience for attendees.
Once your goals are set, organizing tasks and responsibilities becomes more straightforward. You’ll also be in a better position to segment your audiences effectively.
Identifying your Ideal Customer Profile
Audience segmentation and identifying your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is crucial. Understanding who you want to attract to your school will influence many aspects of your open house, from messaging to event activities. Consider factors such as:
- the age group of prospective students
- specific academic or extracurricular preferences
- the interests of their families
- and parent demographics
By honing in on your ICP, you can create a more targeted and personalized experience. This might include tailored presentations, specific interaction sessions with department heads, or showcasing facilities that align with the interests of your ideal families. An ICP-focused approach ensures that your open house resonates with the right audience, increasing the likelihood of conversions.
Making your Open House Accessible
Once you've set your objectives and defined your ICP, it's time to focus on logistics. Accessibility and timing are key components to boost attendance at open house events. Choose a date and time that is convenient for your target audience, avoiding major holidays or local events that might compete for attention. Evening sessions or weekend events often attract a larger crowd.
Accessibility isn't just about timing; it also involves providing clear directions and parking information. Consider offering transportation between campuses if necessary.
This is particularly important if you’re an international school or offer boarding. To help accommodate as many prospective families as possible, why not offer virtual tours and personal information sessions, or consider hosting live Q&A with prospective parents, making recordings available post-event.
Marketing and Driving Open House Attendance
Advertising Your Private School Open House
As a seasoned school marketer, you'll know how powerful online advertising is to promote your school. But there are nuances to running burst-campaigns for open house compared to your typical brand awareness plays.
Utilize platforms like Google Ads, Facebook, and Instagram to spread the word about your event. These platforms allow you to target specific demographics, ensuring that your ads reach the right audience.
Craft compelling ad copy that highlights the unique selling points of your school and the benefits of attending the open house. Use eye-catching visuals and engaging call-to-action phrases to entice potential attendees to learn more. Monitor the performance of your ads regularly, making adjustments as needed to maximize their effectiveness.
Here are our top tips to keep you organised and drive attendance:
- Designing compelling promotional material - Ensure your school open house flyers, banners, and digital ads are visually appealing and designed to drive conversion. And don’t forget to update your school’s website with all the necessary event details.
- Advertise online - Leverage the power of digital advertising and social media to reach your target audience effectively. Open day advertisement is especially important for younger entry points where parents might not be familiar with open house events or your school. With proper segmentation, a little ad spend can go a long way.
- Driving attendance with multiple touchpoints - Reminders and follow-ups are critical, especially right before the big day. Utilize more intimate channels like emails, text messages, and even personal phone calls to remind and encourage registrants to attend and build hype.
During the School Open House
Create a Lasting First Impression
It goes without saying that the school should be clean and tidy for an open event, but above that, think about what else you can do to get the atmosphere and ethos of your school across during a first visit.
If you have specific teaching methods, how can you showcase them? Is your school particularly strong in the arts, why not put up a display of pupil work?
Besides ensuring the school values shine through, don't forget that most visitors will never have been on the premesis before. That means wayfinding with clear signage is important. You could also provide campus maps to help families navigate the space if you have larger grounds.
Experience Matters
Make it interactive
To make your event memorable - try to engage attendees with interactive experiences like hands-on workshops, student performances, and classroom visits to simulate a day in the life of your students.
Staff and faculty should be well-prepared with key talking points to communicate your school’s value effectively. Personalize interactions as much as possible; for example, if a prospective student is interested in athletics, arrange for them to meet with a coach.
Utilise Social Media
Why not engage older children to create communities and build hype about joining your school using social media. It could be by creating custom Snapchat filters or perhaps creating a competition/raffle involving an Instagram hashtag. Not only will it help build online visibility - you'll get students talking about your school and potentially excited about a reward/competition too.
Utilizing Parent and Pupil Ambassadors
Engaging parent and pupil ambassadors during the open house can significantly enhance the experience for prospective families. These ambassadors can share personal stories and experiences, giving attendees a genuine insight into the community and school culture. They can also help answer questions from a first-hand perspective, making the information more relatable and trustworthy.
Post-Event Follow-Up
The relationship doesn’t end when the open house does. Follow up with personalized thank-you emails, incorporating high-quality visuals from the event to remind attendees of their visit. Use this opportunity to invite them for further engagement, such as private tours or special program introductions.
Finally, gather feedback through surveys to refine and improve future open houses. Analyze the data to understand better what worked and what didn’t, and adjust your strategies accordingly.
By blending effective pre-event marketing with engaging on-site experiences and thoughtful post-event follow-up, your school’s open house can significantly impact prospective and current families, driving both enrollment and retention.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an open house in school? |
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A school open house (also referred to as an open day in schools the United Kingdom) is an event where an educational establishment allows prospective students and their families to visit the school, look around its facilities, and learn more about how the school is run. It’s often only held once or twice a year, with the aim of increasing enrollment. |
When are school open houses typically held? |
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In the USA, school open houses are usually held in the first quarter of the year, on evenings or weekends to ensure prospective parents can attend. That being said, many schools choose to hold more than one, if they have |
How long should a school open house last? |
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Most open houses are run for around 2 hours, it varies. Larger all-through schools in particular might stagger times for different age ranges, or choose to put on performances/displays and more. |
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