Marketing has a lot of value for K12 organizations — and automated marketing doubly so.
Engaging with parents, students, donors, and community members is an essential part of building a strong educational institution. It also makes your job a lot easier, allowing you to disseminate information with more efficiency and on a much larger scale.
Below, we’re delving into the benefits of marketing automation in the K12 world, plus the specific types of marketing emails that you can automate to make your job — and your life — run smoother.
Why Marketing Automation Makes Sense for K12 Educators
Wouldn’t it be great if you had an assistant who could handle the ins-and-outs of your email marketing campaigns?
A marketing automation platform is pretty much just that, offering tools that can help ensure your emails go to the right people at the right times — and that you get better data reporting in the aftermath.
By automating specific emails, you can ultimately save yourself a ton of time while still providing appropriate follow-ups with valuable contacts. Some of the more direct benefits include the ability to segment your contact lists so that you can quickly shoot off messages to certain groups without a lot of work on the backend, as well as the ability to pre-schedule drip campaigns that align with certain projects, protocols, or times of the year.
Since you don’t have an agency or enterprise brand’s marketing needs, you can also likely get away with using free or low-cost automation platforms that don’t bog you down with lots of unnecessary bells and whistles. The result is efficiencies without the cost or time burden that people often expect out of these types of tools.
3 Kinds of Emails You Should Definitely Automate
The sky’s the limit in terms of what you can do with K12 email marketing. But to give you an idea of where automation can really help you out, here are four types of emails that lend themselves especially well to educational organizations.
1. Welcome Emails to New Students
Being new in school is a daunting experience, so why not use welcome emails to fill new students in on what they can expect? Not only will it make their lives easier, but it will also get them onto the same page as their classmates for a more seamless transition to the school.
Use your automation platform to set up one email, or a series of emails, that cover topics like:
- The basics they need to know to start on the right foot
- Highlights about school culture and dynamics
- An overview of their curriculum and day-to-day schedule,
- A blueprint of the campus grounds
- Important contact information
Since it’s all automated, you’ll be able to write up this information once and effortlessly send it out as needed to additional incoming new students, with a little bit of personalization as needed.
2. Welcome Emails to New Staff Members
It’s not just students who have difficulties adapting to a new school. Sending an automated welcome email to new staff members is a great way to get them acquainted with the team and help them feel more at home.
Some of what you can share includes:
- Necessary protocols, items, and features they should start to get familiar with
- Tours of the school (including the location of specific key resources)
- Links to other faculty schedules and curriculums
Use these emails as a way to not just get new faculty members up to speed but to let them know that you’re here for them as they make the transition.
3. Prospect Outreach and Drip Campaigns
One of the best ways to put automated marketing to use in schools is to use it as a tool for engaging with potential new students and their parents.
When prospective students and/or their parents download a form on your website, sign up for emails, or show interest in some other fundamental way, use automation to add them to a drip campaign that provides them with relevant information over time. You can send an invitation for a campus visit, allow them to connect with a campus liaison, or guide them through the steps of enrollment — whatever makes the most sense at the time.
Doing this in a drip campaign format is particularly beneficial since it gives prospects time to get more familiar with your institution and seriously consider enrollment. It will also help keep your school top of mind as they continue with their search.
4. School Newsletters
Keeping constituents informed on the day-to-day activities, special events, and announcements related to your educational institution is vital. This is why having a K12 newsletter is extremely beneficial.
You can choose to send these newsletters weekly, monthly, or quarterly, depending on what yields the best results. K12 newsletters are also a great way to keep in touch with donors, letting them know what exciting happenings they’re ultimately contributing to and increasing future support.
If you’re not automating your K12 emails, you’re likely wasting both time and effort on rote tasks that could be done more effectively and with more productive outcomes. The question then isn’t so much why incorporate automation into your marketing strategy, but why not?