The private school market is a pretty competitive one – just in Ohio, there are more than 1,100 private schools that serve more than 222,000 students. In a market with so much competition, wouldn’t it be nice to get an upper hand? One strategy to increase traffic is by focusing on targeting students and parents at open houses.

Know your target audience

First, you should understand the market demand for your programs. Look into who your current students and parents are and create lookalike audiences of them. Do some research on your competition and how they are attracting their students. Research how many people are actually searching for programs like yours, what choices they have, and how and where they are looking. Knowing all of these things will help you build a strategy that can reach all those potential students.

Drive the right traffic to your events through advertising

Once you have figured out what your target audience wants and how they go about their enrollment choice process, you can get ahead of the competition with targeted messaging.

Using focused and effective messaging while aiming at your target audience will drive more of the right traffic to your events. A comprehensive targeted plan will increase your potential student leads and expanded reach for your open house. The beauty of targeted ads is that you can target people in many different ways. You can target them based on what other open houses they have attended (location targeting), based on interests they have or things they’ve purchased (behavioral targeting), or based on remessaging from a website they’ve visited.

Capture mobile devices at school open houses – whether it’s yours or not

One way to target potential students and their parents is by targeting them by location, whether it’s at your open house or at a competitor’s open house.  Once their device is accessed, you can pick up those devices and continue advertising to them once they leave.

A unique advertisement or invitation increases the chance of getting noticed, attracting interested students and closing the deal. Basically, you are developing a relationship with the potential student or parent by consistently communicating with them, which can increase engagement, and possibly enrollment.

What are the benefits of targeting open houses?

Benefits include boosting the effectiveness and success of your open house. Digital advertising gives you the opportunity to generate a significant impact and strong reach within your target audience. This is a great advantage in an industry where students generally take longer to reinforce their decision on where to go. Digital advertising can help create a favorable opinion of your institute while keeping your open houses at the top of students’ minds as they consider their options. Expressing your specialty, opportunities, and strengths will increase your exposure and enhance your impact when dealing with an increasingly distracted academic.

Eliminate waste in your budget

After implementing your digital solutions, monitoring and continuously improving your campaign will reduce costs. Eliminate waste in your budget by getting your message directly in front of your target audience through relevant online channels they are spending the most time on. Having the power to identify and react quickly to an evolving digital landscape will also eliminate waste. It takes time and expertise to successfully manage a digital campaign.

Contact Advance Ohio today to let us create a customized targeted advertising strategy that will help your school increase engagement, and ultimately, enrollment by optimizing events like open houses and getting ahead of the competition.