Marketing is a critical component of K-12 school admissions. From eye-catching advertisements to informational videos and brochures, your marketing team is responsible for creating content that attracts prospective families to your school.  

For such an important department, school marketing teams are often short-staffed with a to-do list that’s miles long. Enter: artificial intelligence. Tools like ChatGPT can enhance both the productivity and creativity of your school marketing team without adding extra headcount. Keep reading to learn how peer schools are using AI for school marketing and a few prompts to help you get started.  

AI in School Marketing 

According to data from our recent Artificial Intelligence in K-12 Private and Independent Schools Report, marketing and communications teams have been the quickest to adopt AI in a school setting. 78% of school marketers are already using this technology. Popular use cases include content creation, communication, market research, video creation, target segmentation, and campaign optimization.  

Not only are AI tools like ChatGPT helping marketers brainstorm creative new ideas, but they’re saving up to 30% of their workload each week by automating manual tasks with AI. Even more, many schools have noticed a positive correlation between AI usage and an increase in school applications. School marketers are working smarter, not harder — and they’re reaping the benefits.  

Prompt Engineering for School Marketers 

Contrary to popular belief, it does require some skill to use AI. If you want to get a high-quality answer, you have to ask a high-quality question, also known as a “prompt.”  

Here are some tips to help you craft a successful prompt: 

  • Be specific. Include as many details as possible in your prompt: the desired tone, format, word count, demographic, persona, etc. The more details you share, the more structured your AI response will be.  
  • Be flexible. Research from HubSpot shows that it takes marketers an average of three prompts to achieve a desired result from AI. You may need to reword your initial prompt to get the answer you’re looking for. 
  • Be mindful. Never put sensitive school information into an AI tool. This includes any personal identifiable information or financial data. Change any names and use placeholder data when necessary.  
  • Be collaborative. AI can be a great thinking partner, but it shouldn’t replace your original thoughts and ideas. Use it with intention to brainstorm new campaigns or jump start your creative process — not to quickly check something off your list. 

AI Trends and Untapped Opportunities

Ten AI Prompts for Private School Marketing 

With so much excitement surrounding it, it’s easy to feel intimidated by AI. Whether you’re new to this technology or looking to further your use of AI, try these prompts for school marketing. 

  1. Write a 700-word blog post comparing private schools to public schools. Focus on the benefits of a private school education. This prompt can help you educate prospective families on the value of your school versus competitive options like public or charter schools.  
  2. Draft five different subject lines for an upcoming email inviting prospective families to the fall open house. This prompt can help you brainstorm new subject lines to increase email engagement. 
  3. Generate ten creative ways to increase word-of-mouth marketing for a private K-12 school. This prompt can help you think outside the box and experiment with new marketing methods.  
  4. Write a page title and meta description for [URL]. This prompt can help you optimize your web pages for SEO. 
  5. Edit the following blog post for grammar and clarity: [blog post]. This prompt can help you quickly edit and optimize blog content. 
  6. Craft five social media posts for Facebook promoting our upcoming [event or campaign]. This prompt can help you draft engaging social media copy in mere seconds. 
  7. Suggest four topics for a new eBook about the value of [program] at a private K-12 school. This prompt can help you create content that promotes specific programs on campus, like STEM or language learning.  
  8. Repurpose this eBook into three new blogs: [eBook copy]. This prompt can help you get more value out of existing content by repurposing it. 
  9. Conduct market research to assess why some families prefer a public school education over private. This prompt can help you pinpoint common objections and create content that speaks to these opportunities.  
  10. Draft an email to prospective families promoting our athletics program using the content from [URL] for reference. This prompt can help you personalize communications to increase engagement. 

Use these prompts as a starting point and add any additional details relevant to your school. Remember: you may need to refine your initial prompt to get your desired result.  

More Ways to Improve School Marketing  

AI is not the only way to improve your marketing efforts. Before you dive headfirst into artificial intelligence, make sure your team has access to the right data to inform your marketing decisions.  

As the leading one-person, one-record school management platform for private and independent K-12 schools, Veracross offers solutions for every major department on campus — including marketing and communications. Request a demo to learn about our data-driven communication tools and how they can inform your school marketing strategy.