As in-person events come back into the frame and virtual meets gain traction, school open houses stand as a key marketing tool for student recruitment. Open houses give prospective students a valuable firsthand look at the experience on offer at your school, including the programs, facilities, faculty and student community. This is a critical opportunity to present and persuade potential applicants to choose your school over other options – and there’s no better way to do so than by giving them the chance to visualize life on your campus.
In many cases, an open day will make or break an applicant’s decision to attend your school. With so much to gain from these events, the challenge is getting potential students to invest the time or money in visiting your campus in the first place. Digital marketing efforts should focus on getting your school and its events noticed while leading qualified prospects to take the next step towards enrollment. Through effective lead generation, you can boost attendance at your next open day and bring your school to life in the minds of potential students. Find out more about how to market your school’s open house below.
Example: The University of Manchester has a page on its website that’s dedicated to announcing its open days, featuring important dates and locations to remember. The page includes a call-to-action button that leads interested prospects to take the next step in registering for the event.
Source: The University of Manchester
To really garner attention, you can also announce your next event loud and clear on the homepage, and direct visitors to the page on your website that is dedicated exclusively to promoting the open day.
Embrace Virtual Tours
In recent years, virtual tours have become an increasingly popular tool that offers convenience and accessibility to prospects. Research suggests that higher education institutions can generally expect a 69% year-on-year growth in leads from virtual tours. Unlike in-person events, which require students to invest time and money in travel, interested applicants can drop into your campus from the comfort of their own homes. By giving prospects the chance to register for virtual events just moments before, your school can enjoy a greater window of opportunity for lead generation.
Example: Harvard College takes the ease of virtual tours one step further by giving prospects 24-hour access via its website. Potential applicants can discover the campus facilities, classrooms and dormitories, guiding themselves through the tour at their own pace. After the tour, prospects are encouraged to take the next step and register for an online information session to learn more.
Source: Harvard College
Virtual open days are also a great way to extend your reach to international students. Through webinars and virtual campus tours, you can generate leads from around the world who may otherwise have been unable to attend an in-person event.
Design an Email Marketing Strategy for Student Recruitment
To effectively market your open house, it’s important to make sure interested leads are informed about your event. When brainstorming marketing ideas for college events, an email marketing campaign should be at the top of your list.
Email marketing campaigns help to build a rapport between qualified leads and your institution. When a prospect expresses interest in your school, you need to nurture that interest by providing them with relevant updates and keeping them engaged with your content.
Create Email Lead Nurturing Campaigns
The best place to start is targeting prospects who have signed up to your mailing list. Prospects may join your mailing list by filling out a form, requesting information on a program, downloading a brochure or other actions that signify their engagement. Personalized email workflows are a great way to welcome those prospects to your school community and update them on upcoming events. Through a well-designed series of emails, you can spark interest in your next open day and follow up on that interest with important details on how to register.
To optimize efficiency in your email campaigns, consider automating your workflow using a customer relationship management (CRM) platform. This technology allows you to send automated emails to prospective students at specific intervals to remind them of upcoming open days. The content of the email can be personalized to give them the right information at the right time to nurture their interest leading up to your event.
The email workflow below illustrates the steps involved in generating leads through a mailing list and encouraging engagement with your school’s event.
Most importantly, this workflow applies “waiting periods” between emails to capture recipients’ attention at the optimal time. Emails are scheduled to generate interest in your school, with the right information sent out gradually over the course of the workflow. For instance, above we see that information about upcoming events is sent on Day 25. With this approach, you can lead prospects to register for your event after they have become more familiar with your school and its offerings.
Remember, you want to keep your event in the mind of prospects without overwhelming them with information. With an email drip campaign, you can strike a careful balance between the two.
Clarify the Content of Your Emails
Along with an organized schedule, the content of your emails should be relevant, clear and to the point. Emails are a great resource that prospects can refer back to for key information on your open house.
Example: This reminder email from Bishop’s University opens with the line “Don’t Forget to Register!” so that recipients immediately know what to expect while creating a sense of urgency. The body of the email contains key information, including the time and date of the open day in bold. It also contains a link to allow prospects to register for the event straight away.
Source: Bishop’s University
With concise and curated content, you can ensure your emails meet the needs of your target audience and lead prospects to take the next step in engaging with your school.
Spread the Word on Social Media to Reach New Leads
When marketing any event, awareness is the first step to engagement. In today’s world, there’s no better way to build awareness than through social media channels. Prospects should be able to hear about upcoming open days through each of your school’s social media channels. The more platforms you use, the greater your potential to reach new leads.
Facebook is the most used social media platform worldwide, with an average of 2.91 billion monthly active users. Of those users, 1.93 billion use the site daily. To connect with those users, the most obvious place to start is creating a Facebook event for your open house.
Example: The University of Alberta created a Facebook event for its Virtual Open House as an easy way to deliver important information to prospects. The “Discussion” section of the page was also used to post reminders of the event to those that registered their interest.
Source: Facebook
Facebook events, such as the one above, serve as a digital space for interested prospects to receive details on the event, track any changes and invite their friends or family.
Use Social Ads to Generate Leads
Paid advertisement is a powerful tool when it comes to lead generation for schools. Social ads can be used to target users based on age, location, interests, their field of study and more. In particular, Facebook advertising can give a boost to your event promotion by generating more qualified leads through precise audience targeting.
To promote an event like an open house, Facebook Ads can be used to direct people to a landing page with more information and a form where they will be contacted after. Your school can also boost posts for the event on Facebook that could link to a site where prospects can register immediately.
Example: This open house Facebook Ad from The Bishop Strachan School leads prospects directly to a web page where they can learn what to expect from the event, request more information and register for the event.
Source: Facebook
When it comes to generating leads for your next open day, consider the kind of person that would be interested in attending your event – especially those who are already familiar with your school – and target social ads to those prospects.
Update Social Media Posts With Teasers
Social media posts are a chance for your school to get creative in its marketing approach. Remember, an open house is first and foremost a visual promotion of your school. Videos, images and infographics are all engaging tools that your school can use to generate excitement around the upcoming event. By sharing campus photos, pictures of guest speakers or student interviews, you help prospects to visualize their time on your campus with a taste of what’s to come.
Example: Cambridge University created a TikTok post that introduces a member of its Admissions Office. Set against the backdrop of the university’s campus, the video gives viewers a brief introduction to the application process and encourages them to sign up for the school’s open day to learn more.
Source: TikTok
For an upcoming open day, it’s a good idea to start promoting early and post reminders in the days leading up to the event. Gradually, you can share more information about the open house, such as guest speakers, program details or student testimonials, to nurture leads through your social channels.
Example: This Instagram post from University College London features an alumni testimonial to generate interest in its MSc programmes, as well as the date and time of its Virtual Open Day. The post was published five days before the event to build momentum along with a link for prospects to register directly.
Source: Instagram
By updating your social media channels at scheduled intervals, you can pique the interest of prospective students in your event and nurture that interest into engagement. This is also a good opportunity to capture last-minute registrations for your open house.
Build Visibility by Investing in Paid Search Ads
With Google being the most visited website in the world, it processes over 8.5 billion searches per day. Google ads can ensure that your school and its events are visible to the many prospects who rely on Google for their research. As the competition for organic search results increases, paid advertising can help your school land a top spot on relevant results pages.
Your school can advertise its open day on Google by placing ads for relevant search terms, such as “open days” or program-specific keywords.
Example: This Google Ad for the 2022 Spring Open House at St. Lawrence College appears as a top result when users search for the term “open house.” The school has designed a web page to accompany it, so that prospective students can sign up for the event as soon as they click on the ad.
Source: Google
Depending on your budget, you can choose the right keywords to increase awareness of your next open house.
Optimize Your School’s Landing Page
Your paid search efforts should lead prospects to a landing page; a page on your website that is solely designed to convert visitors into leads where an action takes place such as filling out a form, identifying their motivation or interests, and providing contact information. It is where prospects will arrive after they click on one of your ads and where they can take the next step in registering for your event. As part of your marketing strategy for student recruitment, consider creating a landing page that is dedicated to your open house.
This landing page should contain everything that prospective students and their families should know about the event. That includes the dates and times of the event, a registration link, an itinerary for the day and key information about your school.
Example: A landing page from the University of Hertfordshire was designed to generate leads for its next “on-campus applicant day.” The page contains details on the time and date of the event, along with a brief summary of the scheduled activities. The registration form is conveniently located under the heading “Book your place,” making it easy for prospects to take the next step.
Source: University of Hertfordshire
Remember; the landing page should do more than direct prospects to fill out the form; it needs to convince them to take the time to visit your campus. Think about what your school’s unique messaging is – what differentiates it from other schools – and weave that into the content of the landing page. When prospects feel like they’re getting something unique out of your open house, they’ll be more inclined to take the next step in registering. Student testimonials and videos are other good ways to optimize your open house landing page.
Example: FACE Elementary and Secondary School marries information and storytelling by creating a landing page that highlights the culture, history and learning aims of its institution. By including a video, the page gives visitors a glimpse into the unique experience at the school. A highlighted call-to-action button leads prospects directly to the registration page for the school’s open house.
Source: FACE EMSB
An Open House is an extremely valuable opportunity for prospective students to connect with the experience on offer at your campus. By helping prospects to get acquainted with your school through various digital marketing efforts, you can make the most of that opportunity and reap the benefits of new, qualified leads for your next open house.
