Most schools are only concerned with filling the seats, not creating content or similar collateral for branding. And it looks logical since you are not just dealing with an educational institute but also a profit-oriented business. And, for schools, the profit-generating period comes in the form of strict admission cycles lasting for a few months. But the harsh truth is: admissions and branding are not opposing forces, but cooperating efforts. Treating them individually can cause your digital marketing journey to become expensive and bear other negative consequences. In this blog, we’ll uncover both the components and understand how to decide priority.
What They Really Mean for Schools
Admissions Marketing
Admissions is a short-term marketing effort lasting not more than 6 months. It involves using paid media channels and the integrated marketing materials for generating immediate leads and target conversions. To an extent, admissions marketing is emotional and reactive in nature.
Branding
Branding is not just your school’s name, logo, or social media posting. It’s every effort you put in that does not guarantee direct admissions but builds trust over time (generally over 6 to 24 months). Branding includes creating audience-centric content, improving search visibility, and constructing a story around your school’s culture to motivate admissions even before the session starts.
The Big Myth: “We Must Choose One”
It’s not “admissions or branding.”
It’s “admissions and branding.”
The equation looks like this: admissions ↔ branding.
Branding prepares parents for admissions. Admissions act as the intent.
Additionally, admissions generate attention. Branding converts that attention.
Admissions without branding = expensive
Branding without admissions = slow
How Branding Directly Improves Admissions
Think of branding as the silent pre-counsellor for your admissions. A parent who has interacted with your brand’s touchpoints is both more likely to click on the admission ads and be convinced easily. It also reduces the irrational pressure from the counselling team and helps in closing the admissions quickly. In that sense, branding becomes an indispensable part of admissions digital marketing for edTech.
What Schools Should Prioritize: A Growth-Stage Approach
Stage 1: New or Growing Schools
- 70% Admissions
- 30% Branding
At this stage, you don’t have much brand value to build upon. But that doesn’t mean you should ignore branding completely. As a new stage school, your focus should be to primarily generate admission leads through paid media, while also building marketing materials like websites, a consistent social media presence, and community building.
Stage 2: Stabilised Schools
- 50% Admissions
- 50% Branding
Schools at this stage have enough brand value to build upon. That’s why, to reduce the pressure on admissions marketing, branding can split up equal halves with the former to create a balanced effort in achieving overall school goals. Basically, schools should do a bit of everything, including performance marketing, parent-focused content & blogs, and testimonials generation.
Stage 3: Established or Premium Schools
- 30% Admissions
- 70% Branding
Firmly established schools don’t attract admissions; admissions get attracted to them because of the brand. It doesn’t make sense to burn a good ton of money on admissions marketing when it could be used for enhancing the brand value further. Principally, you should be running awareness campaigns with high-quality audience-oriented content.
Rethinking Metrics to be Tracked
Likes, followers, and reach aren’t the only metrics you should be tracking for calculating your school’s digital marketing journey’s success. Here are three metrics, among others, you should start focusing on:
- Cost per admission (CPA): Generally, schools focus on cost per lead (CPL), which only accounts for the paid media expense. The CPA metric also takes into account the expenses for branding and other efforts for admissions.
- Visit-to-admission ratio: Not all school visits convert to admissions. Keep a track of how many visits took place and compare it with the total admissions you achieve in the academic year.
- Review growth and sentiment: One metric that shows the brand value of your institute has enhanced is the change in people’s attitude towards your school. Tracking online reviews and commentary for your school is necessary for this purpose.
Conclusion
Admissions vs branding isn’t a debate. It’s not a question of prioritisation, but creating a stage-based, structured digital marketing strategy. Each one without the other will lead to unsustainable digital marketing efforts. This is why you’ll see top edtech marketing agencies like Mediagarh focusing on both aspects simultaneously to make growth predictable and profitable.
