How To’s

Think back to the last big purchase you made. How did you decide what to buy and who to buy it from? If you’re like most people, you probably talked to friends or read reviews. These methods of social proof helped you feel confident that you were making a good purchase. You can give your potential students the same confidence by collecting and sharing student testimonials. 

We’ve already done a whole series on feedback and why it’s important, but testimonials are a little different. A testimonial is a statement endorsing your program or class. While feedback may be positive, negative, constructive, or neutral, a testimonial is always positive. To put it another way, feedback is about improving your program, testimonials let you tell people how great it is. 

We’ll show you how to collect student testimonials and how to share them to help promote your classes. 

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Do you still distribute a printed catalog of your courses? These compendiums of course offerings have long been a staple of the education industry. Of course, in the modern world, when many of your course registrations likely come through online forms, you may be wondering if it’s still worth printing and shipping a physical course catalog.

The short answer is, yes. Printed course catalogs are still valuable in the modern world. In fact, if thoughtfully designed, they’re an integral part of the course marketing and registration process. 

Before we dive into our best tips for creating and sharing high-quality printed course catalogs, let’s take a look at why print is still a powerful medium for course marketing in 2022.

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Email helps you market your classes and share essential information. You may already be sending marketing emails to students and potential students, but are you taking full advantage of what different types of email can do for your program? 

Emails about upcoming classes are just the beginning. You can also let students know when a class is in danger of being canceled or set expectations and help them get oriented. You can reconnect with students who haven’t registered for anything new in a while, or get feedback from students who have. 

We’ll walk you through the five types of email you should be sending and offer some templates to help get you started. If you send all five, you may just find that students stay more engaged. That leads to higher satisfaction and more enrollments. You can also download the full package of program communication email templates.

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Email marketing can be an efficient and cost-effective way to reach your students. The return on investment for email marketing is a staggering $44 for every $1 spent, according to a report from Campaign Monitor. That’s the good news. The bad news is that it can be difficult to make these emails feel personal and keep students engaged. 

You probably don’t have time to write a unique email for each student on your mailing list, but you do want to show each student you care about them and their learning path. What is an education program manager to do? A smart email personalization strategy can help you stay efficient but still engage students.

Striking the balance between efficiency and personalized communication is actually pretty easy if you follow some simple best practices. You don’t have to customize everything, you just need enough personalization to show students they matter to you. 

We’ve gathered these 5 easy email personalization tips to help you save time while still getting maximum engagement from students.

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This pandemic will end. It may not be today or even next month, but the end is coming. Already, some adult, arts, and community education programs have moved back to in-person courses. This shift presents yet another decision point for programs: Should online classes be continued after the pandemic? 

It might seem like online classes were part of your emergency response strategy and a return to business as usual would mean bringing students back into the classroom. Yet, getting back to normal may not be the right goal. Instead of thinking about online vs in person learning, you might consider how each one supports your learners.

Here are five reasons you might want to keep online classes, plus how to decide whether online classes should be continued after the pandemic ends.

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You want to reach new audiences with your arts education classes, but you’re not sure how to start. You have a small, dedicated student population, but you’re struggling to reach people outside that circle. It’s like there’s some secret to class marketing that you haven’t unlocked. Are you often wondering, how do I market my art classes? If that sounds familiar, we have good news.

While working with arts education programs across the country, we’ve uncovered the secrets that can help you sell more classes. These four secrets will help you find more students and convince them to register. So, what are you waiting for? Let’s get started.

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You have a course that’s underperforming. Maybe your whole program isn’t quite reaching its registration goals. Are learners not interested, or might the schedule be to blame? Inconvenient class scheduling can prevent even the most interested student from enrolling.

Most of the advice on class scheduling is written for colleges and universities. It assumes that students have to take certain classes and are enrolled either full or part time. But enrichment, arts and culture, and adult education programs manage course schedules, too. 

Enrichment students are different. Most take classes for fun or personal development. If class sessions are inconvenient or hard to access, they just won’t attend. So, you need to attract learners by offering classes on days and times that work for them. Not sure how to optimize your class schedule for non-traditional students? We’ll show you how.

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You may not think of LinkedIn as a place to find students. It’s probably more familiar as a platform to search for jobs or hire a new employee. But, it’s also filled with professionals and job seekers.  

Both groups are often eager to learn so they can advance their careers. In short, they’re ideal candidates for adult education programs. But how can LinkedIn be used for your adult education program? Making LinkedIn part of your online presence can connect you with these motivated learners. 

Colleges and universities already use LinkedIn to find students. Many with great success. There’s no reason your adult ed program can’t follow their lead. Even if you’re not a LinkedIn pro, this post will show you how to find students on LinkedIn.

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You think you might want to try Instagram for education marketing. You’re wondering if and how Instagram can be used for education. You’ve heard that higher education programs are using it. Maybe it will work for community ed, community colleges, arts organizations, camps, and informal education programs like yours, too? There’s just one problem. You don’t really understand how Instagram works.

Maybe you have a personal account, but you’re no Instagram guru. You follow a few big names and wonder how they do it. The good news is, you don’t need a digital marketing agency or pricey influencer to promote your program on Instagram.

This article will give you the basics you need to get started on the platform. We’ll show you how to set up your Instagram account. Then we’ll tell you what to share and offer tips on finding your target audience.

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If you want to improve learner satisfaction and build the community around your program, student groups on Facebook are a good place to start. Not only do they offer a social forum, they also give you a direct line to what students are thinking and talking about. Whether you’re teaching theater or offering Certified Nursing Assistant training, groups can offer students a more positive experience.

You’re probably already using Facebook for some of your social media marketing. That means you have a business page for your program. Starting a group is an easy next step. But before we show you how to use Facebook groups for students, let’s take a closer look at why you should. 

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