Why Schools Need a Content Strategy

As a school or district employee, marketing probably wasn't something that you ever had to learn while you were in school. Even though you may not be trying to sell a product or service like other businesses, you still need to focus on marketing for other reasons. You can accomplish certain goals through your marketing and communications like informing your audience, increasing enrollment, recruiting more teachers and staff, increasing parent engagement, raising attendance at certain events, or fundraising. Whatever your school's goals are, marketing can help you achieve them.  

One important aspect of your marketing and communication efforts that you need to focus on is content creation. Whether you're a school administrator or school PR employee, creating and posting content through your school or district's communication channels is just a small part of your job. Developing a content strategy is essential, but you may not always have the time for it or understand what needs to go into it. Well, we’re here to help! Through this blog post, we’ll discuss the importance of content and provide you with a few resources, like our new ebook, Content Creation Guide for Schools and Districts, to help you with your content creation strategy.

Communication Strategy 

Before you’re able to create a content strategy, you must first figure out your communication strategy. Communication styles and technology are constantly evolving. Plans that you had in place 10 years ago won't be as effective today as they were then. As we evolve, so should our communication strategies. Some methods have advanced, some have been discarded, and new tools have become essential to modern school communication. As we have transitioned from mimeographed communication to mobile apps, it’s important to evaluate what works for keeping your community informed.

If you're at this stage in the process, download our ebook, Digital Communication Strategies for Districts and Schools. In this ebook, you'll learn:

• Communication planning essentials
• Different communication channels
• Best practices for commonly used tools
• Free worksheets to analyze your current communication 

Content Planning

Now that you have determined your communication strategy, let's get to what you came here for. At this point, you've already determined your audience and chosen what channels will help you best reach them⁠—like a branded mobile app with push notifications, social media pages, email, and/or website. Now it's time to focus on the information you'll be distributing through content.

Types of Content

• Text
  • Short form: news updates through push notifications, social media posts
  • Long-form: press releases, blogs, digital newsletters
• Infographics
• Video
  • Short form: Instagram Reels and Tik Tok
  • Long-form: YouTube, website, mobile app
• Photos & Graphics
  • Check out our blog on how you can use Canva to easily create compelling and professional-looking graphics 

The content you create should be exciting and inspiring to your intended audience. It should also look and sound professional with no errors or typos. Your messages should be clear and concise. In order to keep students, parents, teachers, and the surrounding community informed with accurate and updated information it should be distributed consistently. I know this might all sound overwhelming, but we're here to help you break it down.  

The team at SchoolInfo has created an in-depth guide to help you with your content planning. With our new ebook, Content Creation Guide for Schools and Districts: A guide for creating content to post through different channels and templates from the team at SchoolInfo, you'll have everything you need to start planning and creating professional and intentional content for your school or district. The best part about it is that you can continue to refer back to it throughout the year and in the future when you're stuck on what you should post through your communication channels. 

What's in the ebook?

• An overview of the importance of content
• How to establish goals
• Content planning tips
• Content ideas 
• Thoughts on analytics
• Free templates to implement in your strategy

Don't wait. Download the ebook today to set yourself up for success this school year. 

Not only is our team at SchoolInfo always working to provide you with resources to help you with your processes, but we also can provide you with the tools to put those processes into action. With a branded mobile app by SchoolInfo, you'll know that the content that you've worked hard to create is reaching the people you need it to. Simplify your digital communication and ensure that the content strategy you've worked hard to develop is being used effectively with SchoolInfo. For more information, request a meeting with your Territory Manager. They can walk you through how SchoolInfo's product suite is the perfect platform to showcase your incredible content.