Thursday 23 July 2015

Schools, you've heard it said, "content is king!"

You've probably heard it said "Content is King!" – Bill Gates

So let’s talk about the content strategy for your school's website!



Having a strategy in place is so important in any business execution. When you are thinking about a school, everything is structured in a way that allows both current parents and prospective parents to find what they need.

Having a strategy in how you are going to engage your audience is the most important thing that you can do when working on the content for your website.

In preparation for adding in content, it is always good to have written ideas of how you want to convey your content to your audience along with strategies on how you are going to convey that.

So what is a content strategy?

A content strategy involves planning what you want on your website. This includes the amount of pages that you want, and how you can introduce your information to your visitors. It not only includes your word content but it also includes your images, and your media. This could include your music playing on your site, other images and videos.

Your audience, especially prospective parents and children, want to be able to find your information quickly and efficiently. Seeing your content clearly conveyed also is dependent on your User Experience.

User Experience (or, UX if you want to get hip and technical)

What is user experience you might ask? Well, the best way to describe your user experience is:
User experience focuses on having a deep understanding of users, what they need, what they value, their abilities and their limitations. (usability.gov)

A schools website needs to convey this in a manner that not only differentiates themselves to their competitors but also engages their audience and helps them solve their problem.

For example,
Where do I enrol my child?
How to find school camps on offer?
What are the fees?
Where do I find my school time table?
What time is the bus timetable that takes me to school?
What extra curricular  

Considering both the user experience and using a content strategy will help you build on your ability to convey your content to your audience in a clear and concise way.

Your audience also wants to be involved in your content. In a school environment, audiences whether it be parents, students, or other members of the community want to feel at ease when they look to finding a school that will offer them what they want.

It is always good to have a plan of action. It allows you to be clear, concise and enables your audience to see what you are trying to convey.

A good content strategy depends on:
  • Good in depth research, this includes, keywords, search volume, and checking out your competition in regards to search pages
  • Differentiate your content
  • Ensuring that your content stands out using key phrases and key words is also an essential part to forming your content strategy.

You may ask, how else can I make my content different from others?
Some good examples include:
  • Interactive videos (don’t let your videos be too long as the audience cannot focus for very long when watching a video)
  • Images need to be clear and not pixelated. (They also need to be engaging through showing emotion)


Building on your reputation

As an educational institution, schools pride themselves on their knowledge and learning. Educating your audience on what your school has to offer is the key reason you want prospective parents to come to your school. It is all about building a reputation in a competitive market.

According to our recent Digerati survey, 85% of respondents said that they look at schools based on their reputation.

Through showing that your school is as successful as its reputation, conveying that to your audience is very important but also requires key planning. Making sure that you are able to convey these points using imagery, storytelling and testimonials as this will help in sharing that experience.

Content Focused Components
Conveying this to prospective audience is why a content strategy will assist you in building on that reputation.
Some of these components from Brain Traffic.com on content strategy are:
  • Substance: What kind of content are needed? 
  • Structure: What is the structure of your content? Will it be formatted, organised, and displayed?
  • Workflow: What processes and tools are needed?
  • Governance: What are the key decisions about content and it's strategy?


We want you to get the MOST out of your content so that your audience is able to see how your school can STAND OUT and be REMEMBERED.

Having a content strategy is complex but it will help in the long term in how to improve your Google ranking and SEO performance.

Build on those relationships with fellow teachers, students and current parents. Find out what makes them feel proud and inspired to attend your school. Enable them to feel involved in your content.

Tell me and I’ll forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I’ll understand – Chinese Proverb.


Until next time!