Trade School Advertising Strategies

After a decade of nagging about how important attending a 4-year university is, students are finally beginning to realize that it may have all been a lie. While you had to have a degree in the past to have any hope of earning decent money, that is no longer the case. Now people are changing jobs more than ever, and experience seems to count for more than education. Mike Rowe explained college this way, “We are lending money we don’t have to kids who can’t pay it back to train them for jobs that no longer exist.” Students everywhere are realizing this truth and in lieu of getting a degree they won’t use; they’re enrolling in trade schools.

This is wonderful news for trade schools everywhere that are ready to take advantage of this opportunity to train a whole generation of students on things that are practical and will help our economy. At NoRiskSEO, we can help you market your trade school so that when students start searching for where to go, they’ll quickly know the answer. While advertising is powerful, it requires being an expert in web design, SEO strategy, pay-per-click advertising, lead generation, and social media. And that’s just the beginning.

Web Design

These days, web design is everything. It’s the first impression that any student will get when they are trying to get to know you, and it will leave a lasting imprint on their mind. If your website is difficult to use in any way, they will move on and you will miss out on that tuition because of something that’s an easy fix. Your website needs to be eye-catching, attractive, and extremely easy to use, no matter who is looking at your site. However, increasing website traffic is pointless unless people are going to stay awhile.

Engage visitors on your website with high-quality photos and videos, interesting and unique content, internal and external links, and easy-to-navigate menus. For a trade school, the best thing you can do is brag about your school. Show beautiful pictures of your campus, highlight all of the good features of your school, and choose some unique aspects of your school that you can advertise, such as flexible scheduling or tuition discounts. Try sticking to this checklist for an effective and optimized website or hire our professional team at NoRiskSEO who can improve your web design for you.

SEO

SEO stands for search engine optimization, which can take a long time, but when done correctly, will help you immensely. Students who want to attend a trade school will start their search online and if your school isn’t on the first page or even near the top of the page, it most likely won’t stand a chance. It takes a lot of time and effort to increase your SEO, including keyword research, consistent blogging, and a carefully thought-out SEO strategy. It’s a good idea to have a Frequently Asked Questions page on your website so that students can spend less time trying to contact you and easily get their questions answered. The FAQ page is a great page to optimize your keywords and increase your SEO.

Additionally, a lot of trade schools are online or want to advertise to students who aren’t local, but when you are interested in local business, follow these 5 local SEO optimization tips that will get you noticed.

When your school’s website has a strong SEO strategy, the benefits are:

• More targeted leads– You know that through your SEO plan, you’re targeting students, and any student searching for a trade school is probably interested in enrolling somewhere. The better your SEO strategy, the more targeted your leads will be, which means a higher conversion rate.
• You’ll save money– In the long run, SEO plans really do save you time and money, even if the initial investment doesn’t seem that way. SEO strategies cost the most in time but are one of the least expensive ways to reach real people who are better targets.
• Better Credibility– The more precise your keywords are and the more internal and external links you include in your strategy, the more people will trust your content. You will not only be bumped up in rankings; you’ll have students spending more time on your site.

PPC

PPC or pay-per-click advertising is one of the best ways to create lead generation. Every time someone clicks on your ad, whether it’s on a search engine or a social media platform, you get charged, whether or not they turn into a paying customer. The nice thing about PPC advertising is that you can quickly become one of the top businesses displayed on page 1 of a search engine; however, it does take time to figure out how to stay at the top and make a high profit. Each click allows our team atNoRiskSEO to analyze who is clicking and when which helps them hone your ad into a more and more profitable campaign with each click. Keeping track of each click is where many businesses give up, not wanting to invest the time into analyzing the data and eventually losing their spot on the search engine results. Consider how a professional team of marketing experts could take over for you and help your business grow.

Lead Generation

Creating leads is one of the most important things you can do when marketing your trade school because leads are likely to turn into enrollment, which means more revenue for your business. The more leads you get, or visitors to your website, the higher your chances are of getting better conversion rates. Conversion rate optimization is another very important part of advertising, but you can’t worry about conversion rates until you’ve increased your lead generation. Some ideas for how to do this are:

• Create a blog
• Offer eBooks and other free content
• Host webinars
• Create an email list
• Send out newsletters
• Be consistent on social media

Social Media

You can’t advertise to young people without using social media marketing. These platforms are where they go in their downtime and when you just happen to be there time and time again, they will notice. Use a cookie-based technique called retargeting so that if they go to your website once, you will later appear as an ad on their Instagram feed. This will remind them that your website was interesting and that they should go back and enroll in your school. Some tips for your social media strategy include the following:

• Post consistently
• Always respond to comments and messages
• Only have one account per platform
• Keep your brand consistent across all platforms
• Use promotions to grab their attention
• Post videos, and stories, and “go live” as much as possible

Social media management can seem overwhelming for any business at first, and it can be a time-consuming investment. However, social media is the new press release and one of the least expensive and most effective ways to reach your audience and engage with them. When you don’t have the time or know-how to stay on top of your social media accounts, consider hiring our professionals at NoRiskSEO who can ensure that your business’s social media strategy is effective.

With so much competition on the web for higher education and the increased interest in trade schools, the key to marketing yours is to try to stand out. Consider what you can offer that others can’t and how you can best reach your desired audience. Students need something to grab their attention if they are going to notice your business, and brand consistency is key. For more tips on how to advertise your trade school and create more business, contact The Marketing Cartel today. Our services include all of the above and more. We’ll help save you time, money, and stress by creating more business for you so all you have to worry about is handling the new business coming in. Contact us today for more information.