Acing Your School Open House
With Strategic Marketing
In the competitive landscape of private education, hosting an effective school open house is a golden opportunity for marketing professionals to showcase their institution's unique offerings.
This event is your chance to make a lasting impression on prospective students and their families, setting the stage for successful enrollments. In this comprehensive guide, we'll explore creative and practical school open house ideas, from planning to post-event engagement.
WHAT THIS ARTICLE COVERS:
Planning a Private
School Open House
Success starts with thorough preparation. Whilst many school marketers have their events calendar prepped at the start of the academic year - work on an open house event typically takes place at least a couple of months in advance. Here are our top tips for a considered approach:
Defining Objectives
Before you can roll out the red carpet for your school's open house, it's crucial to clearly define your objectives to maximize event impact. What do you hope to achieve with this event? Ask yourself:
- Are you looking to boost enrollment numbers at specific entry points?
- Perhaps you’re introducing new programs that you'd like to showcase?
- Or maybe you're working on reputation building?
By establishing your goals early on, you can tailor the open house experience to meet these targets effectively.
Setting clear objectives helps streamline the planning process, ensuring that every aspect of the event serves a purpose. It also gives you measurable outcomes to evaluate the success of the open house, guiding future improvements. Remember, a well-defined objective not only aligns your team but also enhances the experience for attendees.
Once your goals are set, organizing tasks and responsibilities becomes more straightforward. You’ll also be in a better position to segment your audiences effectively.
Identifying your Ideal Customer Profile
Audience segmentation and identifying your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is crucial. Understanding who you want to attract to your school will influence many aspects of your open house, from messaging to event activities. Consider factors such as:
- the age group of prospective students
- specific academic or extracurricular preferences
- the interests of their families
- and parent demographics
By honing in on your ICP, you can create a more targeted and personalized experience. This might include tailored presentations, specific interaction sessions with department heads, or showcasing facilities that align with the interests of your ideal families. An ICP-focused approach ensures that your open house resonates with the right audience, increasing the likelihood of conversions.
Timing Your Open House Right
Once you’ve set your objectives and defined your ICP, it’s time to focus on logistics. Timing plays a key role in boosting attendance at open house events. Choose a date and time that’s convenient for your target audience, avoiding major holidays or local events that might compete for attention.
Working parents may appreciate evening sessions or weekend, wheras those with young families will likely be more flexible during the working week. Be sure to balance this with the availability of staff and ambassadors to ensure a smooth and engaging experience for visitors.
Consider Alternative Formats
To help accommodate as many prospective families as possible, why not offer virtual tours and personal information sessions, or consider hosting live Q&A with prospective parents, making recordings available post-event.
Marketing and Driving
Open House Attendance
Whether you’re part of a world-renowned institution or a small preparatory school, simply relying on word of mouth isn’t enough to fill seats at your open house. In an increasingly competitive landscape, effective marketing is essential to attract the right students and families, showcase your school’s strengths, and ensure a successful event.
Advertising Your Private School Open House
As a seasoned school marketer, you'll know how powerful online advertising is to promote your school. But there are nuances to running burst-campaigns for open house compared to your typical brand awareness plays.
Utilize platforms like Google Ads, Facebook, and Instagram to spread the word about your event. These platforms allow you to target specific demographics, ensuring that your ads reach the right audience.
Craft compelling ad copy that highlights the unique selling points of your school and the benefits of attending the open house. Use eye-catching visuals and engaging call-to-action phrases to entice potential attendees to learn more. Monitor the performance of your ads regularly, making adjustments as needed to maximize their effectiveness.
Here are our top tips to keep you organised and drive attendance:
- Designing compelling promotional material - Ensure your school open house flyers, banners, and digital ads are visually appealing and designed to drive conversion. And don’t forget to update your school’s website with all the necessary event details.
- Advertise online - Leverage the power of digital advertising and social media to reach your target audience effectively. Open day advertisement is especially important for younger entry points where parents might not be familiar with open house events or your school. With proper segmentation, a little ad spend can go a long way.
- Driving attendance with multiple touchpoints - Reminders and follow-ups are critical, especially right before the big day. Utilize more intimate channels like emails, text messages, and even personal phone calls to remind and encourage registrants to attend and build hype.
During the School
Open House
Attracting families to your open house is just the first step—now it’s time to make a lasting impression. A well-executed event goes beyond basic logistics; it should showcase the school’s culture, engage visitors, and leave them excited about becoming part of the community. From creating a welcoming atmosphere to leveraging student ambassadors and social media, every detail plays a role in turning prospective families into future enrollments.
First Impressions Count
A clean and well-organized school is a given for any open event, but first impressions go beyond tidiness. Think about how you can immediately immerse visitors in your school’s atmosphere and values from the moment they step inside.
Remember, most visitors will be navigating the campus for the first time. Provide:
- Directions and parking information
- Clear signage and friendly guides
- A campus map if required
- Consider offering transportation between campuses if necessary.
This is particularly important if you’re an international school or offer boarding. An easily accessible open house makes families feel comfortable and help make the experience as smooth as possible, especially in larger school grounds.
Make It Interactive
To make your event memorable, engage attendees with hands-on experiences. Workshops, student performances, and classroom visits allow families to step into the daily life of your students.
If your school follows a unique teaching approach, find ways to bring it to life—whether through live demonstrations or student-led activities. If you have a strong arts program, showcase it with dynamic displays of student work or even live performances to highlight student achievements.
Make It Personal
Giving families a sense of belonging at a school open house can be challenging, but personalizing their experience makes a lasting impression. Where possible, tailor interactions to visitors’ interests.
Staff and faculty should be well-prepared with key talking points to communicate your school’s value effectively, but arranging 1-on-1 time can make families feel truly valued and increase your inquiry-to-enrollment ratio. If a prospective student is passionate about sports, connect them with a coach. If a family is curious about academic pathways, pair them with a faculty member who can provide in-depth insights. These small touches create a more meaningful and memorable experience.
Leverage Social Media
Social media can extend the impact of your open house beyond the event itself. Encourage older students to create excitement online through platforms like Instagram, TikTok, or Snapchat. Consider:
- Creating a custom event hashtag and running a competition or raffle for those who use it.
- Designing Snapchat filters featuring your school’s branding.
- Hosting live Q&A sessions on Instagram or Facebook for prospective families who couldn’t attend in person.
Not only does this boost online visibility, but it also gets students involved in showcasing their school pride.
Utilize Parent and Pupil Ambassadors
Hearing directly from current students and parents can be one of the most powerful ways to engage prospective families. Parent and pupil ambassadors can:
- Share personal experiences that make your school feel more relatable.
- Answer questions from a firsthand perspective.
- Help visitors feel welcome and comfortable by guiding them through the event.
By involving ambassadors, you create an authentic, trustworthy environment that resonates with potential students and their families.
Post-Event
Follow-Up
The relationship doesn’t end when the open house does. Follow up with personalized thank-you emails, incorporating high-quality visuals from the event to remind attendees of their visit. Use this opportunity to invite them for further engagement, such as private tours or special program introductions.
Finally, gather feedback through surveys to refine and improve future open houses. Analyze the data to understand better what worked and what didn’t, and adjust your strategies accordingly.
By blending effective pre-event marketing with engaging on-site experiences and thoughtful post-event follow-up, your school’s open house can significantly impact prospective and current families, driving both enrollment and retention.
Frequently Asked Questions
| What are the email workflow tools for schools to send follow-up emails? |
|---|
|
A great email automation tool for schools is one that seamlessly integrates with your open house registration data and ideally your admissions platform too! Some tools we can recommend include:
|
| Do I need New Landing Pages For My Open House Marketing Campaigns? |
| Whilst you may already have pages on your 'front-facing' website that allow users to sign-up for your open house events, it's often benficial to create dedicated landing pages. The campaign specific landing pages can be used for Social media promotion, paid search ads and offline advertising alike, but would be dedicated to driving conversions (i.e. sign-ups). To avoid duplicate content/seo issues, it's often advised these pages are hidden and no-indexed to prevent search engines crawling them separately. If you need advice on what the right choice is for your school, reach out to our friendly team who will be happy to help. |
| What is an open house in school? |
| A school open house (also referred to as an open day in schools the United Kingdom) is an event where an educational establishment allows prospective students and their families to visit the school, look around its facilities, and learn more about how the school is run. It’s often only held once or twice a year, with the aim of increasing enrollment. |
| When are school open houses typically held? |
| In the USA, school open houses are usually held in the first quarter of the year, on evenings or weekends to ensure prospective parents can attend. That being said, many schools choose to hold more than one. |
| How long should a school open house last? |
|
Most open houses are run for around 2 hours, it varies. Larger all-through schools in particular might stagger times for different age ranges, or choose to put on performances/displays and more. |
Looking for Open Day
Marketing Support
Are you looking for open day marketing support?
We're here to help. Get the most out of your next open day with expert
advice on how to drive registrations and attendance.
 |
Meet The Author: Gretlin Aumre, Director of Services Gretlin has spent the last 15 years in marketing, both agency- and client-side, and has a rich understanding of digital marketing and content. With significant experience in the education sector, Gretlin joined Amplify in May 2024 as Director of Services. When she’s not collaborating on school campaigns, she’s spending quality time with her kids, immersed in art or lifting weights. |
Discover more
School Open House Ideas: The Ultimate guide open day marketing
