If we weren’t already addicted to scrolling social media pre-COVID, we all sure are now from continuously scrolling as a way to pass time, so now more than ever before does your school have to be showing up on parent’s news feeds because that’s where their eyes are and that’s where you can grab their attention.
There are so many social media platforms today and it is your job during your investigative work to determine which ones your “A & B families” are on. Once you’ve discovered where your parents are scrolling, you need to begin getting creating and posting video content there and targeting those parents with it.
Why am I stressing on creating video content so much as opposed to static posts?
A couple of major reasons why to mention are because 68% of marketers say video has a better return on investment than Google Ads and 74% of marketers say video has a better return on investment than static imagery (Biteable).
Let’s break this concept down further into a few steps to help get you started…
Step 1.
You need to determine what social platforms your “A & B families” are on and then place your most of your effort/content on them. If you don’t know or aren’t sure how to figure it out, simply ask your existing parents what platforms they’re on (this will tell you where to find other “A & B families” that are just like them – your target demographic). Ask them to fill out a quick parent survey during pick up, email them one, or post a poll on your parent communication app. Ask them questions such as: What social platforms are they on most often? Which ones do they turn to for information/updates? Which ones do they look at for fun content? Which ones do they scroll through every day? Which ones do they spend the most time on?
Those questions will give you plenty of information to get started targeting video content to parents through social media. And based on their responses, you will know where you may possibly need to recruit help to do so (you may be unfamiliar with a newer platform that they’re using).
The good thing about creating video content for social media is that once it’s been created, you can repurpose it for all platforms. Sure, depending on the platform you might need to adjust the size or tweak a couple of small things on your video, but all of the heavy lifting will already be done and you will have a video that can be used everywhere!
Step 2.
Next, you will need to decide what type of content you want to create. I want you to focus on capturing FUN content that is between 15 seconds to one minute long!
Not sure what to take a video of? Just record anything activity being done that looks cute that the children are doing or anything fun that the teachers are doing (if you’re still not sure, I suggest you peak around at your competitors social pages and model what type of content they are capturing)!
Fun content will help you engage with your existing audience, increase your followers, and create a following of excited users that will be eager to watch and share your content going forward when you start “selling” your school through your social videos.
Step 3.
Once you know where to post your videos and what type of content you want to capture, you have to get down to actually creating them, which is easier than you think! All you really need is your phone to create a video. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy or a big production. However, I strongly advise with any video that you take with your phone that you take them in portrait mode (vertical). Vertical videos will work the best with most of the major social media platforms, with the exception of YouTube (landscape, horizontal). Your phones basic video editor will allow you to trim clips and cut off sound, and most social platforms will allow you to add fun embellishments to them such as filters, stickers, and hashtags.
Now that you have your followers hooked by your fun videos, it’s time to start slowly sprinkling in some enrollment and trust-building content into them.
Because parents have been looking at their screens more than ever before over the past year, they are now starting to enter screen-fatigue, so we need to make sure that we are capturing their attention as they mindlessly scroll. To do that, we need to transfer that same eye-catching, refreshing energy that we had in our fun videos to our new trust-building and enrollment growing videos.
You have to continue to find a way to stand out from the same ‘ole same ‘ole social content that parents have become numb to – you have to find a creative way to put a fun, high energy spin on topics that might not be as exciting, such as COVID safety procedures and your unique benefits. These videos might be a little bit more challenging to create versus the cute music lesson and craft time ones you created last month, but this is the next necessary step in the process.
After all, the point of upleveling your social media game through video content is to in return start attracting more families and building their trust through your social platforms to get them through the door for a tour and get their enrollment. I promise that even if this step seems harder than the last, it’s a very easy and simple strategy to execute in your overall marketing plan that will start producing a very large return on your investment of time and resources.
Alright, so when I say it’s time to create new trust-building and enrollment growing videos what exactly do I mean by that? Really, all I mean is that you need to start creating videos based around any topic that would interest the avatar of your desired family (the profile of your “A and B” families). Depending on your family avatar, everyone’s topics may vary a little, but typically any video relating to parenting tips and tricks, an inside look at how the child care industry works, the latest health and safety measures that your school is taking to make sure your children stay safe, parent testimonial videos – anything that will instill confidence in parents that your brand can be trusted.
In case you’re still a little unsure of what type of trust-building and enrollment growing videos to put out there, here are a few specific ideas that you can use to get you started that some of our Child Care Success Academy members have seen great engagement and success with:
Parent Testimonial Videos
If you have parents that love you, they’ll love helping show off how amazing you are to other parents! Don’t be afraid to ask your current families to provide you with a video testimonial – they’ll be happy to do it and it won’t take much of their time (around a minute long is perfect).
To gather parent testimonial videos, you can take a few different routes to do so – ask parents at the end of a parent/teacher conference Zoom call for one and record it, ask them to take a video of themselves and send it back to you (via email or through Your parent communication app), or set up an area in your lobby with a nice, clean background where you can record video testimonials yourself with a camera or high-quality phone.
Once you have your parent testimonial videos created, make sure to add captions to them – videos on social media with captions on them have higher watch through rates. AND these videos are great to repurpose to create (or update) a Parent Testimonial page on your website.
Expert Educational Videos
Have your staff help you come up with a list of hot topic parenting questions that they’re experts on and have them join in on the video making fun with you. These can be 15-60 second instructional, educational, or how-to videos – luckily, we are in an industry with endless topics to choose from! And, since you’re already taking the time to create these short videos, why not double up on content and create an extended version to post to your website’s blog – when parents come across your website they will be wowed by your expertise, view your brand as an industry expert, keep their eyes on your site longer, and help boost up your SEO.
Team Introductions
You have an amazing team, so why not show them off! Posting about your team members will let your followers see the faces behind your brand and your transparency and confidence in them will build trust with families. The more often they see/read about your team, the more personally connected they will feel to them. These team introduction videos should be short and sweet – just a minute or two of them in front of the camera to share a quick bio background (their qualifications/education, what they love about teaching, a hobby, a skill, something fun… you get the point, just let them show themselves off!).
An Awesome “About Us” Video
To create a truly awesome “About Us” video, it will have to end up somewhere between 3-5 minutes long, which I know is longer than recommended for social media. So, my suggestion is that once you make your big, awesome “About Us” video, that you break it up into segments and create a post for each segment (between 30-60 seconds long). Make sure your video…
- Has an emotional core – shows the genuine emotion involved in your business, expresses your passion.
- Explains your WHY – tells the story of how your business came to life, what your vision is, and where your business is headed.
- Builds trust – demonstrate your core values and how you and your team live them out in your business.
Again, this video provides great content that you can repurpose and post on the homepage of your website or “About Us” tab.
I hope that after reading this you are feeling confident and eager to get started making fun and engaging videos to post to your social media sites to capture the attention of your local parents!
