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10-point guide to content marketing for language schools

Content Marketing: Download the PDF of this mini-book: The 10-point guide to content marketing for language schools.

1. Google is just a librarian

That’s all it is. When you ask the Google librarian for something, its only job is to try and find you the very best content it possesses. Google is getting better and better at listening to you, and guessing at what will be most relevant to you. But Google is only as good as the information it can find.

2. Your online brand matters either way

The worry that marketing directly to students online conflicts with marketing via an agency is a red herring. Your online brand is vital either way. Direct students need to find you in search engine results, for sure. But students booking via an agency still research you online, and agents are equally drawn to prominent and successful online education brands. Time to move on.

3. Adwords or organic?

Pay-per-click marketing is expensive, and the day you stop paying is the day you disappear from search. If you don’t want to pay for Adwords, you need to focus on an organic content strategy. Your content is the sum total of everything you say online, whether on your website, in a blog, in videos, on social media or elsewhere. The organic content route is not a random process and needs thought and investment.

4. Aligning your content

A successful organic content strategy needs you to create a clear line of sight between four things:

  • A: The programmes you’re offering
  • B: How you talk about them online
  • C: What people really want
  • D: How they’re searching for what they want

5. Work backwards

The old-fashioned way of selling is to start with your product, and hope someone wants to buy it. But now you can analyse your search landscape to find out exactly what people want and how they phrase their online searches (D, C). With that knowledge you can write better copy to align with those needs (B) and even tweak your offering according to demand (A).

6. How to write content

Whatever the top search phrases around your educational offering, you need to demonstrate your utter prowess in that subject. For that, you need to know EXACTLY what search strings to focus on. You need to know the EXACT words and phrases your clients (and Google’s librarians) expect to see. You also need to engage your audience by ensuring you write in a way which resonates with your audience, and isn’t just a ramshackle bag of keywords on a page.

7. Content management

Do not rely on your digital marketing intern to create your content. Your strong online presence could be worth thousands or millions to you, or it could simply guarantee your survival. Have someone in charge of content management, and let them curate your content, and help you identify a clear strategy of how the content you need will be procured from across your organisation. Content creation needs to be everyone’s job.

8. Who will write content?

Look for where you have the highest volumes of people – that’s going to be your students, teachers, admissions staff, and possibly external stakeholders like trustees and agents. They all need to play a role in content creation, and what they write MUST to be dictated by what people are searching for, as opposed to what your writer thinks might be nice to chat about.

9. Content proliferation

Your digital marketing person will know instinctively how to proliferate the content they receive across the various media you cover. That means you don’t have to micro-manage what they post to Facebook. Instead, you just need to make sure you’re talking about the stuff you know your market wants, whichever channel you use. The rest will look after itself.

10 Measure and tweak

For even the mildly geeky, there is nothing more satisfying than watching your online positioning rocket for the search terms you know are most relevant to your market. The first few extra bookings usually pay for the time, effort and resource you put into this work, so you also get tangible return on investment, which is more than can be said for a lot of sales & marketing activities ;o)

How we help

We provide digital consultancy services which:

  • Rise to support you where you need it
  • Improve your digital skills
  • Build your digital resilience for the future.

We provide:

These provide you with a comprehensive content strategy blueprint which you can implement using the staff and resources you already have.

As a consultancy we can also do much more:

  • Innovative websites which align beautifully with our audits and recommendations and are really easy to update.
  • Quirky, funny and original videos created by multi award-winning cinematographers
  • Flexible consultancy services which provide you with some digital marketing oomph, without feeling tied down.

The end?

This might just be the beginning. Let’s have a conversation to find out more about your plans for the future, your current take on digital, and we’ll rustle up some ideas and suggestions, free of charge and obligation. Contact us.

Terms of use

Copyright © Richard Bradford 2017. The right of Richard Bradford to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988.

First published in 2017 by Disquiet Dog Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the written permission of the author.

The brand name Google used in this book is the property of Google. The use of this name does not imply any affiliation or endorsement of this book by Google. Although every reasonable precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of information contained herein. Illustrations by Michelle Dawson.