The Importance of Video Content in School Marketing

Incorporating video content in your school’s marketing plan is a fantastic way to showcase your school, tell your story and share your ethos with prospective parents, students, and staff.

Video content for marketing has grown rapidly in popularity, with over 6 out of 10 people now preferring to watch online video than other types of media. Video is unique in its power to really engage your audience in what can be a very saturated market.

Some other ways video can be a fantastic tool for your marketing are:

Helps to grab attention: you are able to deliver your message in the way that your audience wants to consume it and will therefore be more likely to engage.

Emotional connection: video has a way to connect with your audience on an emotional level, as it feels much more realistic. Moving images, music and voice all work in unison to capture attention and generate familiarity.

Builds trust: video marketing feels more transparent to viewers than a piece of written or static content, allowing them to access a lot of information in a short amount of time, which will help to build trust quicker.

SEO benefits: having engaging video content on your school website is great for your search engine optimisation (SEO). Search results with video are said to have a 41% higher click through rate than ‘standard’ content pages. There is also an assumption that Google prioritises search results with YouTube-based video content above those results without.

All these factors can help to both increase loyalty and encourage your target audience to choose your school over the competition.

What sort of videos can a school produce?

There are so many options to choose from when it comes to producing and creating video content for your school, however, here are some of the more popular choices:

• Welcome video with the Headteacher/Principal to attract students, staff and parents
• A tour of the school to attract students and parents
• A factual ‘day in the life’ video with key messages and staff/student interviews
• Staff recruitment videos to attract new staff members
• School ‘advert’ or ‘brand message’ style video production to provoke emotion
• Congratulations videos to students for great exam results
• Drone video to give a different perspective and show the expanse of your grounds
• Short social media video edits to promote open days or individual faculties

Things to consider ahead of a professional video shoot for your school

We understand the thought of having a video created for your school can seem overwhelming from a project management point of view, however our team is here to help plan, manage and support you through each stage. Here is what we recommend you consider before commencing a video shoot for your school:

• Goals: decide on what you want to achieve from your video. Is it to build brand awareness, welcome a new headteacher or attract new staff for example?
• Key messages: now you have your goals, consider the key themes and messages to be interspersed throughout your video to ensure a consistent theme.
• Style: think about your brand ethos and values, to ensure that your video is on brand visually and using the correct tone of voice
• Staff and student selection: include students and staff in your school video, selecting individuals who are enthusiastic about the school and who are confident behind the camera
• Permissions and safeguarding: ensure you seek relevant permissions, and it is appropriate from a safeguarding perspective
• Placement: think about the placement of your video, will you want to share it on your website, social media, YouTube or other formats?

Do you need help with video to promote your school? Concept4 has collaborated with schools and colleges for over 30 years producing video, websites, branding, marketing, prospectuses, apps and much more. We'd love to do the same for you.