The Four S’s of Building A Smart School Content Marketing Plan

If you’ve been following along, you know that there’s no perfect recipe for content marketing success. (Darn, right?)

However, there ARE elements that every school content marketing plan should include, which I like to call The Four S’s of Smart Content Marketing:

Strategy – what are your goals, and what tactics will help you achieve them?

Story – what is your school’s “sweet spot” and what core story will you focus on telling?

Sharing – how will you share your story and engage your dream families?

Success – what does success look like, and how will you measure it?

These four areas give you a good place to start when crafting your initial strategy, and you can get more sophisticated as your plan evolves and expands.

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Ready to get started? Here are some questions to ask yourself when developing your four S’s:

Strategy

Every school content marketing plan needs to begin with strategy. In order for your content to actually produce meaningful results, you need to know the results you’re seeking. Start here:

Who are your target audiences – and have you created buyer personas for each?
What are your measurable goals and objectives?
What strategies and tactics make the most sense for your audiences, and your school’s capabilities or available resources?
What are your competitors doing?

Story

You can’t tell a strong school story if you haven’t done the foundational work of defining that story. Here’s where to begin:

What is your school’s content focus?
What are your content pillars?
What channels will you use to tell your story?
What content do you have that can be repurposed?
What resources do you have for content creation and curation?

Sharing

Your story is only effective if the right people hear it — and listen. Next, plan out how you will share the amazing content you’re creating:

How will you get your dream families to find and engage with your content?
How will you build relationships with influencers?
How will you make the most of each piece of content you produce?

Success Measures

Once you put your plan in place, you need to have a way to analyze your success. This will ensure that you continue to adjust and refine your strategy in order to get the best results. Ask yourself: