5 Minute Hack to Book More School Tours

By Richard Mills – Founder (Digital Schools)

All schools want families to come on tours right?

If that is the case it’s vitally important to make it super clear to them that that is what to want them to do.

We often forget when we are too close to our business, school or area of expertise how it feels for someone who really knows nothing about how you work.

You will be amazed at how confusing and overwhelming it is for many parents to make the big decision on which school they are going to send their child to.

For most families in metropolitan areas of the country, there are at least 3-5 schools in their direct proximity that they ‘could’ send their children to.

So it’s fair to say in that case they are going to be shopping around and looking at the websites of those 3-5 schools.

This is what amazes me about most school websites

I spend a lot of time on school websites and giving recommendations and advice to future and current clients.

The big pattern that I see on school websites is a lack of opportunity for parents to easily get in touch with you.

Most schools list their email address, phone number and a generic ‘contact form’ (see below)

My problem with this style of contact form is it really doesn’t tell the prospective parent what you want them to do and what this form is for.

In today’s digital age the businesses (or schools) that take out the confusion and make things as easy and fast as humanly possible will win.

Large companies are getting smarter and smarter with best practice of communication with customers online – and as a result, the end user – you and I – have come to expect this with all of our online experiences across the web.

I would go as far as saying that most of us only really deal with business, social recreation or information websites that make the experience fun, easy and enjoyable.

Well, that is all well and good for the businesses doing well, but on the flipside, there is actually a large number of websites in competing niches (also trying to make a living) that are not getting your eyeballs – and one of the reasons for that is probably because they have not continually invested in making the online experience for their customers flawless.

In only 5 minutes – you can do this instead

When we design online user experiences for our clients we ask them what is the #1 reason you have this website – and invariably after some consideration, they say to help them sell their school.

They also want to engage their current community – but that is number 2.

So, if that is the case – you have to get your site geared to sell!

There are many many things that can be done to make your website a better selling experience but if you only have 5 minutes and limited expertise I would recommend signing up to an online form builder. We love and recommend Jotform but there are many others out there.

Create a form in jotform that looks something like this and get your tech person to embed it on your website:

I love this is because it tells the prospective parent what to do in plain clear English! You cannot get confused!

That’s what we all want isn’t it?

Conclusion

You will really be amazed at the increased results you get just by implementing some quick and simple changes like this.

Taking out the confusion, making things clear and easy and most importantly fast is the key to positive online relationships with your prospects in today’s online landscape.

Richard Mills is the Founder of Digital Schools – communication and engagement platforms for schools