Domestic Boarding Trends For Independent Schools In 2022

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic where international student travel came to a screeching halt, boarding schools relied on domestic boarding students to fill or at the very least, maintain their dorm or housing capacities.

Many domestic boarding students were the first to rebound back to school when many nations overseas were still living with restrictions, making it the most obvious choice in trying to keep boarding enrollment up.

While we have all known this demographic to be somewhat dying off with the rise in local options for private schooling, the trend now is reversing that outcome. A survey completed last year showed a 78% increase in domestic boarding applications for the schools involved. The change in interest from the domestic boarding market is positive news for many private boarding schools especially when trying to navigate the ever-changing international enrollment front. To that end, how can your boarding school capitalize on the current trend?

Many domestic boarding students were the first to rebound back to school when many nations overseas were still living with restrictions, making it the most obvious choice in trying to keep boarding enrollment up.

Tips To Market Your Boarding School Post-Pandemic.

As you begin to finalize your enrollment for the ‘22-’23 school year, it is critical that boarding schools consider how to best keep the surge going with domestic boarders and create a digital marketing campaign that will capture the interest out there.

Market your school from a position of strength. As more and more parents turn to boarding schools for their adaptability and high quality of education, it’s important that your school grabs and keeps their attention with stories that build confidence in what their experience could be at your campus. Lean into the unique boarding experience students can expect to have at your school and message it with captivating imagery and videos. Visuals and stories that incite the positive emotional response from the family works best.

Observe your migration trends and use audience targeting accordingly. Relocations and the rise of remote work have opened a new world of opportunity for finding new families. In general, the trend over the pandemic has been from urban to suburban/rural areas, something your local day student population has undoubtedly been noticing. However, these migration trends can open a variety of reasons for a prospective family to choose a boarding school rather than a local day option so its important to start rght away on collecting survey data from your new boarding students so you can find common denominators and messages for your future outreach. Use those common interests in your ad platforms audience targeting options. Google and Programmatic media even have “New Movers” options available.

Update your “digital presence” to ensure families can find you. Make sure your website, Google business profile, and any other relevant membership pages have the most up to date boarding information and keywords present to ensure you are well represented across searches for boarding schools. The hottest leads are of course the families searching for your school directly, but just after that, are families searching for schools like yours such as “boarding schools in Florida ” etc. Take the time to audit, update and ensure that your website and business profiles have lots of boarding keywords to help Google’s algorithm place you at the top of the search results.

Create more “boarding experience” content on your social pages. This is especially good for TikTok and Instagram Reels. We would highly suggest that you get a diverse group of reliable and trustworthy students to help create this content. They will be able to capture the boarding life experience in more relatable ways, however, an approval process should always be implemented before a post goes out. Video content like that on TikTok are getting great engagements and can illustrate the life of a boarding student in a way that is fun and engaging.

Track and retarget visitors to boarding program pages. This is perhaps the most technical option but definitely the most rewarding. Multiple platforms can have their pixels (tracking codes) placed on specific websites and log visitors, their actions taken, and goals completed. On a granular level it is best practice to be doing all three, but on a simple level, just capturing the individuals visiting that landing page will give you the ability to send messages and ads specifically for boarding to those individuals all year round. Tactics like these are what takes a family from “I wonder what my options are” to “this is the place for my child”.

If you’re building out a digital marketing plan for capturing domestic boarding students this year and don’t know where to start, we are here to help. Schoolcraft Digital has increased domestic boarding at all client schools that are targeting that demographic. Using state-of-the-art tracking, ad platforms, and a holistic approach, we are able to find and funnel prospective families to you no matter where they reside in the country.

Many domestic boarding students were the first to rebound back to school when many nations overseas were still living with restrictions, making it the most obvious choice in trying to keep boarding enrollment up.

Tips To Market Your Boarding School Post-Pandemic.

Market your school from a position of strength. As more and more parents turn to boarding schools for their adaptability and high quality of education, it’s important that your school grabs and keeps their attention with stories that build confidence in what their experience could be at your campus. Lean into the unique boarding experience students can expect to have at your school and message it with captivating imagery and videos. Visuals and stories that incite the positive emotional response from the family works best.

Observe your migration trends and use audience targeting accordingly. Relocations and the rise of remote work have opened a new world of opportunity for finding new families. In general, the trend over the pandemic has been from urban to suburban/rural areas, something your local day student population has undoubtedly been noticing. However, these migration trends can open a variety of reasons for a prospective family to choose a boarding school rather than a local day option so its important to start rght away on collecting survey data from your new boarding students so you can find common denominators and messages for your future outreach. Use those common interests in your ad platforms audience targeting options. Google and Programmatic media even have “New Movers” options available.

Update your “digital presence” to ensure families can find you. Make sure your website, Google business profile, and any other relevant membership pages have the most up to date boarding information and keywords present to ensure you are well represented across searches for boarding schools. The hottest leads are of course the families searching for your school directly, but just after that, are families searching for schools like yours such as “boarding schools in Florida ” etc. Take the time to audit, update and ensure that your website and business profiles have lots of boarding keywords to help Google’s algorithm place you at the top of the search results.

Create more “boarding experience” content on your social pages. This is especially good for TikTok and Instagram Reels. We would highly suggest that you get a diverse group of reliable and trustworthy students to help create this content. They will be able to capture the boarding life experience in more relatable ways, however, an approval process should always be implemented before a post goes out. Video content like that on TikTok are getting great engagements and can illustrate the life of a boarding student in a way that is fun and engaging.

Track and retarget visitors to boarding program pages. This is perhaps the most technical option but definitely the most rewarding. Multiple platforms can have their pixels (tracking codes) placed on specific websites and log visitors, their actions taken, and goals completed. On a granular level it is best practice to be doing all three, but on a simple level, just capturing the individuals visiting that landing page will give you the ability to send messages and ads specifically for boarding to those individuals all year round. Tactics like these are what takes a family from “I wonder what my options are” to “this is the place for my child”.

Many domestic boarding students were the first to rebound back to school when many nations overseas were still living with restrictions, making it the most obvious choice in trying to keep boarding enrollment up.

Tips To Market Your Boarding School Post-Pandemic.

Market your school from a position of strength. As more and more parents turn to boarding schools for their adaptability and high quality of education, it’s important that your school grabs and keeps their attention with stories that build confidence in what their experience could be at your campus. Lean into the unique boarding experience students can expect to have at your school and message it with captivating imagery and videos. Visuals and stories that incite the positive emotional response from the family works best.

Observe your migration trends and use audience targeting accordingly. Relocations and the rise of remote work have opened a new world of opportunity for finding new families. In general, the trend over the pandemic has been from urban to suburban/rural areas, something your local day student population has undoubtedly been noticing. However, these migration trends can open a variety of reasons for a prospective family to choose a boarding school rather than a local day option so its important to start rght away on collecting survey data from your new boarding students so you can find common denominators and messages for your future outreach. Use those common interests in your ad platforms audience targeting options. Google and Programmatic media even have “New Movers” options available.

Update your “digital presence” to ensure families can find you. Make sure your website, Google business profile, and any other relevant membership pages have the most up to date boarding information and keywords present to ensure you are well represented across searches for boarding schools. The hottest leads are of course the families searching for your school directly, but just after that, are families searching for schools like yours such as “boarding schools in Florida ” etc. Take the time to audit, update and ensure that your website and business profiles have lots of boarding keywords to help Google’s algorithm place you at the top of the search results.

Create more “boarding experience” content on your social pages. This is especially good for TikTok and Instagram Reels. We would highly suggest that you get a diverse group of reliable and trustworthy students to help create this content. They will be able to capture the boarding life experience in more relatable ways, however, an approval process should always be implemented before a post goes out. Video content like that on TikTok are getting great engagements and can illustrate the life of a boarding student in a way that is fun and engaging.

Track and retarget visitors to boarding program pages. This is perhaps the most technical option but definitely the most rewarding. Multiple platforms can have their pixels (tracking codes) placed on specific websites and log visitors, their actions taken, and goals completed. On a granular level it is best practice to be doing all three, but on a simple level, just capturing the individuals visiting that landing page will give you the ability to send messages and ads specifically for boarding to those individuals all year round. Tactics like these are what takes a family from “I wonder what my options are” to “this is the place for my child”.