Preschools – How to be found online. With or without a website.

As I mentioned in my previous #youcandothisseries we moved just last year. My youngest is 4 and I’m on the lookout for the best preschool in town.

I spent hours online reading through all options. Next day I visited every school I considered in my shortlist. Eight (8) schools. I toured, interviewed thestaff/teachers available, checked their curriculum and schedule, safety/security standards, the whole nine yards. Eight (8) schools in 1 hot summerday, with 3 children on tow. Which school Rob ended up you ask? None of those 8 schools!

My boy ended up in a progressive preschool, 10min. drive from our house, under the care of the best teachers with a tuition fee that is well within our budget. Sounds perfect right? Because it is. And I find it hard to believe that I didn’t find out about this amazing school when I did my extensive online exploration. We chanced upon it on our way to a clinic and  we just decided to get inside and inquire.

See the above image?

That’s what’s ON TOP of a search result for “preschool”.

Google pulls up data from GMB within the searcher’s proximity.

You sure don’t want to miss the opportunity to be in front of this searcher, do you?

The rise of mobile search with “near me” searches happening every minute, your first step is to create your Google My Business account, verify your business, and make its listing as strong as possible.

GMB is a free tool that lets you manage how your business appears on Google Search and
Maps. That includes adding your business name, location, and hours; monitoring and replying to customer reviews and adding photos.

According to Google, businesses  with photos see 35% more clicks to their
website and 42% higher requests for driving
directions in Google Maps.

Photos should be at least 720 pixels wide by 720 pixels
high and JPG or PNG files.

So below is the linkto start owning your google listing, go ahead clickity click!
https://www.google.com/intl/en_ph/business/

The purpose of Facebook pages for schools is to market to and communicate with potential and attending students, their parents, and the community. It’s your opportunity as a communicator to get the message you want out in front of the most interested audience around.

Success with Facebook pages for schools means engagement with the audience:
visitors are responding to your posts, asking meaningful questions, and increasing the interest level of other students and parents who see it.

This engagement is far more powerful than mere “Likes,” as they indicate a level of emotional involvement with your school to anyone reading.

For this reason I do not recommend inviting your friends to like your business page for the sake of increasing your number of page likes. Engagement, or when people react or comment to a post, is when facebook will bring up that post in front of people with the same profile/interests. Simply put: if your friends like cars and you’re selling soaps, they wouldn’t care much and engage with your business page.
 

Your audience ideally should be composed of a variety of people–fans of your content, fans of your business, potential customers, current customers and former customers. With this in mind, create posts and content that engage these groups of people.

Facebook can be a strong marketing tool that gets your message directly to your most interested audience.
 

More than seven in ten parents are on Facebook today. Facebook is where the audience is, so it makes sense to broadcast your messages where they’re already looking.

Lastly, It isn’t enough to just be present online, you need to be active too. No one is going to bother following a social media account that hasn’t been updated since 2015, nor is anyone going to revisit a website that has no new content or an outdated design. You have to invest the necessary time if you want to be successful in building a digital presence.

Consistency is key.

That’s it for today! 

If you got any questions, reach out anytime. Agree? Disagree? Let me know!

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Keep doing what you love,
-Rio