It may be a case that you have organized yourself and your new training academy in such a way that all your focus has been on getting your teaching structure worked out. You will also have spent no small amount of time sorting out all the courses you want to offer and hiring the staff you feel you will need to provide these lessons.
Although this approach is sensible, and these points are fundamental in running an academy, you need to also think about how students will find information about your courses, any requirements, and how to enroll. Finding out too late that to have a successful teaching academy, you will also need the help of marketing specialists could put undue stress on your already tight operating budget and have your academy struggling even before it has obtained its first student.
Build an attractive website
It is common knowledge that there are plenty of reasons why all businesses need a website, but in this day and age, schools, colleges, universities, and training academies do too. This is because many would-be students are searching for their perfect courses online while also researching the areas around the campus should they need to relocate to attend the facility.
This means you also need to have a professional-looking and well-functioning website. Although you may feel that you could get one together or get someone you know to perform the task, you need the services of school website developers with the knowledge and experience to put a dedicated school website together.
This is because these niche school site developers understand that these sorts of websites need to look a specific way and have certain features contained within them to be easy for your future students to understand and explore. Using a company that lacks this experience could have your potential students applying to other facilities due to the feeling that your attention to detail is somewhat lacking or that certain necessary information is missing entirely.
SEO
To actively help your target students find your website – preferably before they find your competitors – you are going to want to hire the services of an experienced SEO agency. If you don’t know what SEO is, be aware that it should help your academy climb the search engine rankings so that your students will stand a good chance of seeing it.
It is worth keeping in mind that those searching these sites for information on a desired subject will not often look past the first page of results, and those that do will go no further than page three. This means that you need your website to be featured on the first three pages, preferably on the first page, if at all possible.
Hire the services of a good SEO agency. They should also be able to help you with a PPC advertising campaign which could again boost interest in your academy and encourage interested parties to at least leave their details if not enroll at the time of visiting clicking through to your website.
Social media
Social media is proving to be a very valuable tool for promotion tactics. Making announcements on these platforms will certainly draw attention to your new facilities, but you will want your announcements to be aimed at the right audience. Again, your SEO agency may be able to help with this, or you can enlist the help of a social media influencer to help you spread the news.
Of course, you will have to make sure that the influencer you choose has a following of people that fit well with your target market to get maximum results for your efforts. However, you should keep in mind that this service will not be free or performed just because you asked. It is totally up to the influencer in question whether they will take the job, and you may find that a deal that satisfies both parties has to be reached.
Old traditional techniques
You should try the traditional techniques of getting your message across about your new academy. Newspaper articles about your courses and your facilities are a good place to start, especially if you can make your announcements fall in the part of the year when students start looking for their next educational establishment.
Don’t stop at just newspaper articles, though; you will have a wealth of specialist journals and magazines that you can also advertise in, as well as printing leaflets, flyers, and posters for noticeboards.
If you have tried this angle before but have failed to bring enough attention to your academy, it may be due to the language you are using or not targeting your desired market enough. Speaking to your SEO agency could help you with this issue; failing that, you may want to hire another professional to boost your literacy skills.
Copywriters
If you are having issues with your traditional methods of getting attention, an experienced copywriter will certainly be able to assist you. This is because they know the business of conversing with different markets and how to draw a reader’s interest down a page. If they are sales copywriters, they will also have the ability to write compelling copy that can, and frequently does, convert.
Copywriters will also know that a picture, or at least an image, paints a thousand words and could alert you to the fact that you are using the wrong type of design for your target market. In cases like this, asking a graphic designer for advice or getting your literature redesigned using a cheap online freelancing service like Fiverr is best.
CRM software
You should also invest in some quality CRM software. This will enable you to resell or upsell additional courses to current students while capturing the details of those who have expressed an interest in your academy but have failed to apply for whatever reason. Keeping in touch with these individuals by way of providing regular updates about courses or academy events, such as open days and enrolment days, could be your ticket to gaining more courses filled and keeping your academy ticking over.
