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AI for Schools Marketing and SEO: How to Adapt for the Future

AI for Schools Marketing and SEO: How to Adapt for the Future

May 14, 2025 | Blog Posts, Search Engine optimisation, Website Design

Have your noticed how Google’s new AI Overviews are changing the way search results appear? —and it’s having a major impact on how users engage with content. These AI-generated summaries appear at the top of search results and aim to answer user queries instantly, reducing the need to click through to websites.

For schools, this means fewer people may reach your site, even if you’re ranking in the top positions. Recent data shows that when AI Overviews are present, the top organic result sees a 34.5% drop in clicks. As families increasingly rely on search to research schools, marketers must adapt their SEO strategy to remain visible and relevant in this evolving digital landscape.

How School Marketers Need to Shift Their Mindset

I am a firm believer that every challenge makes us better and opens up new opportunities and the introduction of AI Overviews requires a mindset shift for school marketers. The days of simply chasing rankings and clicks are fading – good marketers have always known this. It’s time to rethink what success looks like and focus on long-term brand and relationship-building. We need to change our mindset:

  • From Clicks to Connections
    Yes, traffic might drop. But that doesn’t mean your audience is gone, it means you need to focus on making an impression that sticks. Be the school people remember, not just the one they scroll past.
  • From Rankings to Relevance
    Being #1 in search doesn’t mean much if you’re hidden below an AI summary. The goal now? Be useful enough that the AI references you—or be memorable enough that people search for you directly.
  • From Volume to Value
    Avoid keyword stuffing. Content now needs to be genuinely helpful. Consider incorporating FAQs, bold subheadings, and quick takeaways. Formatting matters just as much as the message.
  • From Dependency to Ownership
    Depending on Google alone is now a risky strategy. Schools should invest in owned channels—email, social media, podcasts, and community spaces. Your owned platforms are how you stay connected to prospective families, no matter how algorithms change.
  • From Metrics to Meaning
    Traditional SEO metrics like impressions and clicks may no longer reflect true performance. Start measuring brand recall, community engagement, and lead quality. These metrics will help track the deeper relationships that lead to enrolments.
  • From Visibility to Memorability
    In a click-scarce world, it’s the schools that consistently show up with helpful, human content that will be remembered. Invest in thought leadership, storytelling, and trusted voices from your community.

This shift in mindset is about understanding how families are searching for schools and ensuring a holistic strategy is implemented from a point of understanding. Next, let’s deep dive into the new measures of success that you will need for your school marketing.

 The New Measures of Success

As AI Overviews change the way users interact with search results, school marketers must evolve how they define and measure success. Traditional metrics like impressions, traffic volume, and keyword rankings no longer tell the full story. The focus must now shift towards deeper, more meaningful indicators of engagement and influence.

  • Position #1 Isn’t the Goal Anymore:
    Being referenced within the AI Overview or remembered through strong branding is now more valuable than simply ranking. Google is rumoured to be integrating AI visibility into Search Console—this will become a key indicator of success.
  • Better Audience Quality
    Fewer clicks but stronger intent: users who do click after reading an AI Overview are likely further along in the decision process.
  • Greater Emphasis on Memorability
    It’s less about visibility, more about memorability. Ensure your school name is mentioned often, clearly, and consistently.
  • Emergence of New Discovery Channels
    Platforms like LinkedIn, email newsletters, and podcasts are becoming more powerful in shaping perceptions and capturing attention.
  • Content That Travels
    Create stories and insights that can live across platforms and mediums and repurpose blog posts into social content, podcast talking points, or video explainers.
  • Trust as the New Conversion Tool
    As clicks decrease, trust increases in value. Brands that are helpful, transparent, and knowledgeable will be top of mind when decisions are made.
  • Position for the Next Wave
    Prepare for Google Search Console to potentially include AI Overview performance data.
    Stay ready to adapt as search platforms evolve and new metrics emerge.

For Australian schools, the opportunity that AI brings lies in adapting early, investing in value-driven content, and being present across multiple platforms. 

Roberts Digital is already successfully implementing an AI search framework for our school clients. Book a free SEO strategy call to learn what we can do for your school. 

 

Facebook for Schools: Page Management Benchmarks

Facebook for Schools: Page Management Benchmarks

Mar 20, 2025 | Social Media Management

 

Wondering if your school’s Facebook page is performing well? Your page is a crucial tool for engaging with parents, attracting new enrolments, and strengthening your school’s brand. In this article, we’ll explore key strategies to help you evaluate success and improve engagement.

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1. Improve Response Rates

Timely responses to messages show that your school is approachable and attentive. Slow replies can harm your reputation and discourage prospective families from reaching out.

  • While response rates are no longer as publicly visible, quick replies remain crucial.
  • Use automated replies: “Thanks for reaching out! We’ll get back to you within one business day.”
  • A fast response time enhances trust and encourages more engagement.

Consistently responding to inquiries helps build strong relationships with parents and prospective families.

2.Focus on Quality Over Quantity

More likes don’t always mean better engagement. A highly engaged, relevant audience is far more valuable than a large, inactive one.

  • Large follower counts aren’t everything—prioritise an engaged, relevant audience.
  • A disengaged audience can reduce organic reach, limiting your visibility.
  • Ensure your followers include current parents and prospective families.

Instead of chasing numbers, focus on attracting and nurturing an audience that genuinely cares about your school.

3. Build an Engaged Audience

A strong Facebook community starts with your existing school community. Make it easy for parents to stay connected.

  • Invite new and existing parents to follow your page.
  • Include Facebook as part of your enrolment communications.
  • Avoid paid Facebook ads just for page likes—organic growth leads to better engagement.

A highly engaged audience will interact more with your content, boosting your visibility and reach.

4. Benchmark Against Other Schools

Understanding how your page compares to others can help you refine your strategy and stay ahead.

  • Meta Business Suite Insights allows you to track competitor pages.
  • Choose schools that excel in social media, not just local competitors.
  • Monitor engagement trends weekly to adjust your strategy.

Regular benchmarking ensures that your school stays competitive and continuously improves its online presence.

5. Analyse Reach and Engagement

Reach and engagement indicate how well your posts are performing. Low engagement may mean it’s time to adjust your content strategy.

  • Check post reach in Meta Business Suite Insights—distinguish between paid vs. organic reach.
  • If organic reach is low, experiment with engaging content like videos and photos.
  • Review which posts perform best and tailor future content accordingly.

Tracking these metrics will help you create content that resonates with your audience and maximises visibility.

6. Track Page Views

Page views show how many people actively seek out your school’s Facebook page, rather than just encountering your posts in their newsfeed.

  • See how many people are visiting your page via search or direct visits.
  • A high number of daily page views indicates strong brand visibility.
  • Optimise your page content to attract more searches and visits.

By increasing your page’s visibility, you ensure that prospective families can easily find and learn more about your school.

7. Understand Your Engaged Audience

Knowing who interacts with your page allows you to tailor content for maximum impact.

  • Use the ‘People Engaged’ tab to analyse audience demographics.
  • Identify which age groups interact most with your content.
  • Focus on content that resonates with your most engaged audience.

By understanding your audience, you can create content that drives more meaningful engagement and connection.

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8. Take Action: Conduct a Quick Audit

Your school’s Facebook page is a powerful marketing tool when used strategically. Take some time to audit your page, using these benchmarks as a guide:

  1. Review your page using these strategies
  2. Identify areas for improvement.
  3. Implement small changes over the coming weeks.

A well-optimised Facebook page helps boost engagement, attract prospective families, and strengthen your school’s brand. Start your audit today and refine your strategy for long-term success!

How Data-Driven Digital Advertising Is Giving Small Schools a Big Punch

How Data-Driven Digital Advertising Is Giving Small Schools a Big Punch

Feb 11, 2025 | Blog Posts, Digital Marketing

The competition for student enrolment is intense, and independent schools must be strategic in their approach. Digital marketing for independent schools is no longer about who has the biggest budget but about who makes the smartest use of data.

Whether you have a substantial marketing team or are working with limited resources, understanding how to leverage digital marketing effectively can give your school the upper hand.

The key is to maximise every touchpoint with prospective families and use data-driven strategies to attract and nurture them long before they are actively searching for a school.

The Power of Data in Digital Marketing for Independent Schools

Did you know that only 4% of families are actively looking for a school at any given moment? Many schools invest heavily in marketing campaigns that only target this small percentage, primarily through Open Day promotions.

However, the most successful digital marketing strategies for independent schools focus on expanding the funnel by engaging families in the early stages of their school search and nurturing them over time.

Data is the driving force behind this approach. By collecting and analysing data from various sources—email sign-ups, website visits, social media interactions, and event registrations—you can personalise your marketing efforts and create targeted campaigns that resonate with different segments of prospective families.

Building a Data-Driven Digital Marketing Strategy

The ability to segment your audience based on interests, demographics, and online behaviour allows you to create specific and compelling messaging. To do this effectively, independent schools need to establish a strong data foundation. Here are the essential components:

1. Install Tracking Tools – Ensure that the Facebook Pixel and Google Tag Manager are installed on your website to track visitor actions, such as booking a school tour or requesting a prospectus. These tools enable you to create highly targeted advertising campaigns.

2. Set Up Conversion Tracking – Measure key website events such as Open Event registrations, enquiry form submissions, and tour bookings using Google Analytics and Facebook Ads Manager. Tracking conversions ensures that your marketing efforts are aligned with enrolment goals.

3. Build and Maintain an Email List – Email remains the most reliable identifier of your audience. Start collecting email addresses early in the engagement process and nurture these leads with valuable content, insights about your school, and invitations to events.

4. Target Quality Audiences – Rather than chasing high website traffic numbers, focus on attracting the right audience. Ensure that your website visitors, social media followers, and email subscribers are genuinely interested in your school. Poor targeting in SEO or social media ads may generate traffic, but irrelevant visitors will dilute your results.

5. Optimise Every Parent Touchpoint – From website visits to email interactions, social media engagement, and video views, every digital interaction should serve a purpose. Implement remarketing strategies to re-engage prospective families who have already shown interest.

Using Data to Improve Digital Marketing for Independent Schools

By using data, independent schools can move from a generic marketing strategy to a highly personalised approach that nurtures families throughout the enrolment journey.

Instead of relying on directories or one-off advertisements, investing in SEO, paid digital advertising, and content marketing can position your school above the competition while also providing valuable audience insights.

Data-driven marketing also improves reporting accuracy. Schools often make the mistake of measuring success solely by immediate results, such as Open Day attendance. However, the real value lies in the long-term engagement built through digital marketing efforts. When assessing a campaign, consider the new website visitors, email list growth, social media interactions, and video views—all of which contribute to future enrolments.

For example, an Open Day campaign may bring in 50 families and result in 5 applications, but the data collected from thousands of online interactions provides an opportunity for further engagement. If these prospects are nurtured correctly, they may convert into enrolments months or even years later.

Parent Data Is a Hot Commodity—Use It Wisely

Prospective parent data is like a hot potato—it must be used immediately and strategically. Capturing an email address is just the beginning; the key is to engage and nurture your audience through personalised email sequences, social media touch points, and targeted digital ads. The biggest mistake schools make is collecting data and failing to act on it in a timely manner.

Plan your engagement strategy before launching a campaign. Map out how you will nurture your audience through every stage of the decision-making process. Avoid the mistake of building an email list only to send a single invitation months later. Instead, create a structured communication flow that keeps families engaged and informed about your school.

Embracing Innovation in Digital Marketing for Independent Schools

With the increasing role of data in marketing, independent schools must be willing to experiment with new tools and strategies.

One common mistake is assuming that certain platforms, such as Facebook, are no longer effective. In reality, Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp continue to change and provide powerful advertising opportunities for schools looking to reach prospective families.

Instead of choosing marketing channels based on convenience, ask yourself: Where is my audience? Messenger marketing, for example, requires effort to execute properly but offers direct and highly personalised engagement with parents. Digital advertising across multiple platforms is only expanding, and schools that embrace this evolution will have a significant advantage.

Before finalising your next marketing strategy, take a step back and analyse the data value of your campaigns. Independent schools must work with marketing partners who prioritise long-term success over short-term wins. The schools that build strong digital marketing foundations today will be the ones that continue to thrive in an increasingly competitive landscape

Are your scholarship marketing campaigns all clicks but no applications? Here’s why

Are your scholarship marketing campaigns all clicks but no applications? Here’s why

Feb 3, 2025 | Blog Posts, Digital Marketing, Marketing for Schools

Peak scholarships season is wrapping up and our school marketers will soon be evaluating their scholarship marketing campaign performance and assessing the number of applications received.

We’ve seen (and launched) some stellar campaigns this season and wanted take a quick moment to share the elements that make up a successful campaign and some of the reasons why your campaigns aren’t driving actual applications after all the dust has settled.

There are 4 main reasons why schools see a flurry of clicks and initial interest in their Scholarship marketing campaigns with very few applications come closing date.

1. Short copy and creatives that lack brand and storytelling. Schools often feel that just opening up the opportunity to apply for a scholarship should be reason enough for people to apply. But we’ve seen an increasingly competitive landscape where parents with gifted students are really shopping around for the best choice of school for their child.  “Scholarships now open” is not going to cut it or provide families with an insight into the world of opportunity that will be opened up to successful candidates. Storytelling is key, think quality over quantity rather than 10 ad variations with no story to tell.

2. When running online ads, people are often caught in a ‘not prepared to take action’ state. They may see an ad and click to get the details and even have the intention to visit again, but as we all know, people get busy and will forget to apply before closing date. Your ads are the first touchpoint, not the final destination. The best way to ensure that families will actually follow through with an application is to have a short expression of interest form. You can continue to communicate with families, send the full application details and more about what is on offer. An SMS a few days before closing is another great way to remind families to apply.

3. Click optimised campaigns that are designed to show vanity metrics with no real application intent. Scholarship marketing campaigns are particularly prone to ‘sticky beak’ clicks from local families that lack the actual intent to apply. If your campaigns are optimised for link clicks or conversions that are just button clicks to an application. Meta platforms in particular will show your ad to more people that will just click but not necessarily apply. In order to ensure your campaign will drive actual applications, we suggest setting up conversion tracking for actual applications and optimising for this.

4. No lead up to peak application season.Schools find that they are often only receiving applications from current families or families already on their list. This could be because the first step of many scholarship landing pages is to apply to the College first and then submit a detailed application followed by their student sitting a test. This is a huge commitment to families and if your expectation is to reach beyond your current community, a nurturing campaign needs to run for at least a few months prior to peak application season.

So what can you do about it?

The key to success for your scholarship marketing campaign is build up to your application season for the entire year leading up to. Instead of just saying “scholarships are closed” on your landing page, build expressions of interest ready to receive a launch announcement and tell the stories of transformation throughout the year to build anticipation of the opportunity that will open.

P.S. Here are 3 ways I can help you grow in your education marketing career:

1. Join our Marketing Mastery for Schools Facebook Group and connect with over 1,000 school marketers. It’s a place to learn best practise, connect and ask your questions. https://www.facebook.com/groups/MarketingMasteryForSchools

2. Sign up to join our monthly schools’ marketing training calls: https://robertsdigital.com.au/training

3. Take advantage of our 2025 Media Placements for your next campaign. Affordable campaigns created by education industry experts. https://robertsdigital.com.au/digital-marketing-for-schools/

How to use your Digistorm School Software for maximum marketing impact

How to use your Digistorm School Software for maximum marketing impact

Jan 29, 2025 | Digital Marketing

Digistorm school software has fast become one of the main players in the Australian Education market and the go-to tool for school marketing and enrolments. While many schools have implemented Digistorm Funnel and Apps into their schools’ systems – not all are leveraging it for maximum marketing and communication impact. In this article, we deep dive into how you can get the full benefit of all its features for your school.

 

Digistorm Funnel School CRM


image credit: Digistorm

Digistorm Funnel is an all-in-one enrolment and school CRM with the ability to capture leads, manage enrolment applications, track enrolment pipelines and automate your communications with prospective parents. Funnel offers the following features to schools:

  1. enquiry management
  2. CRM
  3. application forms and tracking
  4. email and sms
  5. event management, and
  6. analytics.

So how can we maximise these features for our marketing? Here are our top tips:

1. Personalise your communication


image credit: Digistorm

Segment your enquiries into years and year levels of interest and get specific in your communications. Send a Prep video from your teachers to people who have enquired about Prep. Invite families to events and share key information to help them prepare for the new year.

 

2. Use SMS whenever it improves communication

 

SMS is a great tool to use conservatively in your marketing communications. We love to recommend our clients send an SMS reminder a few days before an open event, to remind people to complete their scholarship applications or enrolment applications and to drive registrations for key events such as Open Days. Short and sweet is best and use caution to not overuse this tool.

 

3. Use warm audiences in targeting 


image credit: Digistorm

Your Digistorm school software is a minefield of potential data that you can use for targeting new audiences. Make sure to use your school database of Current Families and future families to create a remarketing list and lookalike audiences for your digital marketing campaigns.

 

4. Use automation to nurture


image credit: Digistorm

It’s a well known fact that it takes almost 20 touchpoints to get a family across the line. Automation is the best way to start to personalise your communication based on where families are at in their engagement with your institution. One of our favourite things to do is to set up a nurture sequence for new enquiries or to segment our communication based on the year levels they enquired for.