How to Market an Online School on Social Media

Marketing an online language school on social media requires the same marketing principles that you would need to promote a brick-and-mortar school, i.e you need to:

• Understand your ideal type of student: their needs, desires, challenges and objectives.
• Know your competitors’ activities and how you compare
• Establish clear objectives for your social media marketing
• Have a marketing plan that integrates social media with SMART objectives.

In other words, whether you are an online language school or a brick-and-mortar one you both need a marketing strategy in place.

Marketing an Online School vs. Marketing an In-Person School on Social Media

We’ve just seen that essentially both types of schools need a strategy. However, there is a slight difference between the two when it comes to building the “Know, Like, Trust Factor” (K.L.T.) . In this case, the online school has to work a bit more on the “Know Like Trust” Factor than the in-person school.

KLT stands for Know, Like and Trust and it’s the secret to getting more customers and more repeat buyers for your business.

Salma jafri

It is known that “people do business with people they like”. Zig Ziglar says:

“If people like you they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you they’ll do business with you.”

This is known as the KLT factor in business. In the case of language services, your students need to trust you to choose your online classes. However, they can’t trust you until they like you and needless to say, they can’t like you until they get to know you!

Somehow it’s easier to build the KLT Factor if you can walk into a school and talk to the teachers, see the classrooms and facilities and take part in an open lesson. In the case of an online school, you have to make up for the absence of physical space and face-to-face opportunities to meet the teachers and get a feeling of the school in general.

For this reason, an online school should, in my opinion, go the extra mile with planning content to build the KLT factor to attract students to online classes. Another reason for investing in the KLT factor is to stand out in a busy, sometimes impersonal online school market.

Social Media Posts that help market an online school

It is wrongly perceived that if you have an online language business there isn’t much you can show about your school on social media. Some online school owners believe that because the school is online and there aren’t classrooms, a reception area or a facade to take photos and videos of, then there isn’t much they can share on social media.

This is why they end up relying heavily on “bland” graphic posts. They forget that by doing so they are penalized by the algorithm that favours content that is trending, varied, social and visually pleasant.  

“The Instagram algorithm analyzes every piece of content posted to the platform. It takes metadata (including captions and alt text applied to images), hashtags, and engagement metrics into account. Based on this information, it distributes content in a way designed to ensure that users have easy access to what they are most interested in seeing.”    

Hootsuite

(And people want to see people!!) 

What to post to attract students to online classes?

Let me tell you that even if you don’t have a classroom, a reception area or a facade you still have plenty to share such as your: set-up, platform, methodology, lessons and above all about yourself and your teachers! Let’s now look at how to plan content that helps promote your online school on social media based on the “Know, Like,Trust” Factor.

KNOW: 

As said before people prefer to “do business” with people so your first objective is to help them to get to know you and show the real person behind the online school. It is very much about talking about who you are, who you help, what problems you help them with and how do it. Bearing this in mind you should:

• Introduce yourself (and re-introduce yourself throughout the year for new followers)
• Talk about your personal values and your passions in education and in life.
• Talk about your approach to teaching, your proudest teaching moments, and the values you pass on.
• Introduce your teachers and talk about what’s unique about them (fun facts, previous jobs, hobbies,etc)
• Talk about how you choose your teachers, and what you look for in a teacher.
• Share relatable personal facts about you that show your human side.
• Also, get to know your audience so ask questions and use stickers in your stories to engage with them.

You can cover all of the above by using photos and videos or doing live streams or Reels.

Reels can be faceless but the ones that perform the better are those with real people. Check the Reels by Lingoda here below and compare the performance of faceless Reels vs Reels with someone.

LIKE:

Apart from the fact that people “do business” with people, it is also true that it will be with people they like! By sharing things you like you will find things in common which could be a passion for books, nature, yoga, gardening, music etc The idea here is to share content that students can relate to or help them get an idea of your personality.

• Show your behind-the-scenes and what is happening on the other side of the screen and in your life. Eg your cat sleeping on your lap, your cluttered desktop, your plants, your books.
• Share sneak peeks of your lessons, lesson plans to trigger curiosity and help them get an idea of what you do. You can do a video time-lapse in a vertical position for this one.
• Give tips or how-to’s to give valuable content and to do so you can do a carousel or live stream. Eg. How to remember new words, how to use phrasal verbs, and how to do a specific task in an exam.
• Share your opinions about current topics. Do it genuinely and not for the sake of getting comments and likes
• Share something that gets your audience laughing and feeling good. Here you can use memes, and cartoons or do Reel remixes.

TRUST

Having people that know you and like is great but they will only choose you if they trust you. To earn their trust you want to be always transparent and authentic on social media and have social proof.

Here’s what you need on your social media to build trust:

• Students’ Testimonials sharing how they have improved with you and how you have helped them. I strongly recommend sharing video testimonials or screenshots of messages so they are more trustworthy. To learn how to get testimonials read “How to Use Testimonials in Language School Marketing”.
• Success stories and case studies. What have your students achieved after doing a language course with you? How has this impacted their lives or jobs?
• Course reviews from Google and Facebook reviews or even from Trustpilot if you are on there.

Social Media Marketing for Online Language Schools

I have covered just one aspect that should be included in the social media calendar to promote an online school. There are more content pillars to be weaved into the social media content plan such as FAQs to mention one.

So as you can tell, being an online school doesn’t mean there is little you can share to promote it on social networks. Actually, you have a lot to say and many aspects to share through photos, videos, Reels, carousels, live streams and stories. What’s more, don’t forget that one piece of content can be repurposed in a different post type too. Therefore, all you have to do is to plan your content carefully and show up consistently to establish rapport and trust.

Lastly, remember that it is not about the number of followers you will have but about having the right followers that will come to you when they are ready. It is about having followers that will talk about you and recommend you to friends.

Need help with promoting your online school on social media? I’m here to help you from creating your strategy to planning your content or training you on creating posts that attract students to your online school. Just contact me through the contact form by clicking here . Find out about my services by clicking here.