Free Tools for Your School’s Marketing and Communications

Great marketing and branding isn’t always the first thing that comes to mind when you think of schools — but times are changing, and schools are now seeing the need for strong marketing and communications strategies.

In years past, comic sans, clip art, and a bulletin board might have been the extent of a school’s marketing strategy. But in a competitive student recruitment environment, that won’t do the trick.

It’s time to take your school’s marketing to the next level. And that doesn’t mean blowing your budget! I’ve rounded up nine of the best FREE tools you can use to improve your school’s marketing and communications — starting now.

P.S. We have a webinar coming up next week on using my #1 free school marketing tool, Canva, for your marketing efforts. Register here or by clicking the image below.

School Social Media Marketing Tools

1. Canva: Graphic Design Made Easy

Canva is a favorite tool among experienced designers and novice designers alike.

While professional graphic designers use Adobe InDesign, InDesign requires a costly subscription and has so many bells and whistles that it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the platform. And you likely don’t need all it has to offer anyway!

Because of that, Canva is perfect for schools. Of note — Canva does offer a robust premium subscription, but the free version provides plenty to get you started.

From social media templates to flyer layouts, even the newest designer can create something beautiful. Canva also has a lot of free resources and tools, like color palette creators and the free design school training program.

2. Hootsuite: #SimpleSocialMedia

While the premium version of Hootsuite has some incredible features, the free version is still enough to make your social media plan a LOT easier. Hootsuite allows you to post to multiple social media platforms all at once as well as enables you to see your direct messages and interactions.

You can track what posts perform best, see when you should post to get the most interactions, and monitor tags and comments — all in one spot.

If you do choose to go with the premium features, make sure you take advantage of Hootsuite’s non-profit pricing.

Communications

3. Smore: Newsletters for Educators 

It’s not often there’s a marketing tool created just for schools, but Smore was created specifically for school and classroom newsletters!

With easy-to-use educator-created templates, a Smore 101 course on best practices, and a design platform so simple that it takes about 10 minutes to make your first template, Smore will take your newsletters to the next level.

The free version is enough to get you started, while the premium paid version allows you access to even more features.

Interested in receiving more enrollment and school marketing insights like those in this article? Sign up for the SchoolMint Insider newsletter. Roughly every two weeks, we’ll deliver you school marketing, enrollment management, and recruitment advice!

4. MailChimp: Easy, Well-Designed Emails

Mailchimp is an easy and simple way to design visually appealing emails for a variety of purposes.

Whether it’s a community newsletter about upcoming events, an invitation to the school play, or an announcement about an upcoming school closure or break, Mailchimp can help you get out email communications to your families quickly and easily.

5. Google Sites: Build a Communications and Resource Hub

Want a one-stop shop for updating families with information, a resource center for staff, or a place to share calendars and lesson plans with parents? A Google Site is a great place to start!

Because it is hosted online, you can make changes and push them live at any time — making it the ideal place to house resources, calendars, or other frequently updated information.

Google sites are relatively simple to set up, and there are a lot of free templates available so you don’t need to get started from scratch.

Public Relations Tools

6. Google Alerts: Stay on Top of Trending Topics and Press

Want to keep track of when your school is mentioned in the news or on the internet? It’s as easy as setting up a Google Alert.

This free service allows you to monitor phrases, keywords, or your school’s name and get alerts delivered right to your email inbox when they are mentioned in the news, on blogs, or elsewhere on the web.

7. Press Hunt: Find Local, Relevant Reporters

Want to get your press release in the right hands — but you’re not quite sure where to start? Press Hunt has a free tool that helps you narrow down your search and find local reporters who cover relevant beats, like education, politics, or human interest stories.

While a paid version is required to access press contact information within the tool itself, once you have a reporter’s name, their email is almost always just a Google away.

From there, all you need to do is write a great release, and Press Hunt will help you get it into the hands of the reporters who are most likely to run with it!

Website and Analytics Tools

8. Google Analytics: Track and Analyze Your Website Traffic

Want to track website traffic or even see where your visitors are clicking from? Google Analytics is the perfect tool for you!

While Analytics isn’t terribly difficult to get started with, there’s a bit of a learning curve on what to DO with the data once you start tracking it.

If you’ve got the time, Google has a lot of great free training on how to use Analytics and what you should be tracking.

9. Hotjar: Get Data on How Your Website is Actually Being Used

Want to understand HOW people interact with your website?

Hotjar can show you how long people view your content, where they stop scrolling, and what paths visitors take through the site (i.e., what they’re actually clicking). And, of course, it’s free!

Get Ready to Market Like a Pro

From creating slick social media graphics to optimizing your website based on real user data, these free tools will take your school-based marketing from “fine” to “amazing.”

And the best part: no expense report needed! So what are you waiting for?

Need more student recruitment resources? Check out SchoolMint Enrollment Academy!

SchoolMint Enrollment Academy is a repository of helpful content, training, videos, and so much more aimed at saving you time, effort, and money.

Whereas Canva’s premium version will cost you money, SchoolMint Enrollment Academy is FREE.

This ever-evolving “resource room” will help you on a variety of fronts — whether that’s creating social media graphics, creating press releases, improving your enrollment strategy, or something else.

Click here (or the screenshot below) to get free, unrestricted access to the academy!