7 Simple Steps You Can Take to Improve Your Content

Let’s face it — content is an essential aspect of today’s school marketing arsenal. But it can be challenging for most schools to create valuable content consistently. Finding topics to write about, making sure you differentiate your school, articulating the value you offer, and finding the time can all be difficult to maintain over the long-term.

The best way for your school to stand out is to focus on quality. You need to ensure your content is better and improve your content.

But what is quality content, specifically? Quality content persuades a reader to consume more content, share it with their followers or take a conversion action. Read more: Top 10 Metrics School Marketers Need to Measure

The internet is a crowded, noisy place and distractions abound. Improving the quality of your content matters more than ever in order to capture and maintain your readers’ attention. Quality content helps your school stand out and gives it authority.

Here are 7 simple tips you can use to improve your content, without compromising your search visibility.

• Define your audience

Identify and understand your target audience(s). Use personas and an audience analysis to determine and understand who they are.

• Research your audience needs

Do a deep dive into what your audience needs and wants from you. Use search, social media, conversations with your audience and your stakeholders (faculty, staff, administration, board members, alumni, etc.) to better understand the information and persuasive needs of potential parents. Then, organize those needs by persona and funnel stage to create a map of the content.

• Conduct a content audit

Determine how well your existing content is performing by conducting a content audit. Most schools have weaknesses in their content strategy. Gain a deeper understanding of what your audience really wants as well as gaps in your content strategy.

Success gaps are topics that are missing from your content strategy. Strictly speaking, a success gap is missing information that potential parents need to feel comfortable and ready to submit an enrollment application.

• Determine your objectives

You can’t do it all, so you have to set measurable goals and objectives. Remember your goal isn’t to be good at content marketing. It’s to be good at enrolling families who fit the mission of your school because of content marketing.

• Make your school stand out

What makes your content different and sets your school apart from other schools in your area? What is the heart and soul of your marketing program, and how will you demonstrate this in your content marketing strategy?

• Measure your performance

Your goals and objectives will help dictate your metrics. In general, content marketers tend to measure performance in four areas:

• Traffic
• Engagement/sharing
• Lead generation
• Inquiries/enrollments

If you want to track your outcomes, be sure your activities are trackable.

• Pay attention to details

Don’t be in such a hurry you can’t pay attention to the details because details do matter! Details matter because they save everyone time in the long run and protect the credibility of your school.

Here are some details you should pay attention to:

• Check your facts
• Include reputable research sources
• Use quotes or expert insights
• Use visuals and examples to illustrate your point
• Avoid jargon
• Keep your language simple and straightforward
• Use an online editor like Grammarly
• Tweak your headlines. Consider using a headline analyzer like CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer
• Pique their curiosity
• Keep your content short and concise
• Make it easy to scan your content (use numbered lists, bullets, and headings)
• Optimize for SEO

Dramatically improve your content by using the techniques listed above. Doing so will attract more visitors to your website and create more buzz around your school. Improve the quality of your content will help your school stand out from all the distractions of the internet and increase your school’s authority and reputation.

It does take time and effort to focus on and improve the quality of your content. However, if you give it the time and attention it deserves, you will see it improve your search rankings and, eventually, enrollment. And that, as school marketers, is our ultimate goal.

This post first appeared on SchneiderB Media.