Why Boosted Posts Should NOT Be Your School’s Marketing Plan
In private school marketing, where every interaction has the potential to connect your school with a dream family, the strategies you choose can make all the difference. That’s why here at School Storytellers, we say NO to boosting posts on Facebook or Instagram.
Why? While a quick boosted post on Facebook or Instagram might seem tempting, it’s the same as putting up a generic billboard in a random area of town, hoping to catch the eye of your dream family with no real data to back it up.
Here's why relying solely on boosted posts could be steering your school's social media advertising strategy off course:
The One-Track Mindset
Boosted posts on Facebook come with a significant catch – you're limited to promoting just one post at a time. Imagine you're at a school fair, but instead of being able to engage with multiple families at once, you're only allowed to speak with one, while the others wander off. That's the predicament with boosted posts.
This limitation hampers your ability to test different messages or reach a variety of audiences simultaneously. For private schools, where tailoring your message to resonate with diverse family values and educational priorities is key, this one-size-fits-all approach falls short. By the time you've gauged what works, the relevance of your first post may have dwindled, and you've missed the chance to connect with other dream families in the meantime.
The Visibility Dilemma
With boosted posts, your ad creatives are restricted to what's already on your Facebook or Instagram feed. This prevents you from conducting vital A/B testing. Without the ability to experiment discreetly, you risk either being too repetitive or not reaching your ideal audience with the right message.
Social media ads, on the other hand, show up as unpublished posts – they don’t appear in your followers’ organic Instagram or Facebook feeds. This makes them a goldmine for testing and refining your message without overwhelming your audience.
The Audience Conundrum
When it comes to reaching out to potential families, boosted posts offer a narrow pathway. Your options are confined to people who already like your page, their friends, or a basic demographic you can target. This leaves prospective families who are looking for schools untapped.
Moreover, boosted posts are primarily geared toward engagement – likes, comments, shares – which are vanity metrics that aren’t optimized for your enrollment goals. The comprehensive targeting options available in Ads Manager, from detailed demographics to interests and behaviors, offer a more strategic approach to reaching families genuinely interested in the private school experience you provide.
Embracing a Strategic Partner: School Storytellers
Navigating digital marketing requires more than a series of boosted posts. This is where partnering with School Storytellers can shift your results. With our expertise in crafting compelling narratives and our deep understanding of the digital space, we help private schools like yours transcend the limitations of common social media sharing.
By embracing the full spectrum of tools available – from the targeting capabilities of Ads Manager to the strategic crafting of unpublished posts for testing – School Storytellers ensures that your school's story reaches not just more eyes, but the right ones. Our approach is tailored to resonate with the families who will find a home within your community, turning potential engagements into meaningful conversations and, ultimately, enrollments.
