Like your website, a promotional video of your school has enormous marketing potential. Especially now, with it being so difficult to invite visitors to your school.
A promotional school video can help you share your uniqueness with the world. However, a poorly produced video could irrevocably damage your school’s appeal.
These tips will help you produce a top-quality, engaging, and entertaining video that demonstrates your school’s appeal as it tells the story of your school’s academic and vocational qualities.
Video Tip #1: Plan, plan, plan!
Take time to map out your video before you start shooting it. This will help you to visualize your story, ensure you include all the details you want, and reduce the editing work needed at the end of filming. You’ll need to decide:
- Your story
- The people in your video
- The scenes you will use as your backdrop
- Background music
Video Tip #2: It’s about the pupils first, and the school second
Parents who are considering sending their children to your school want to know about the school, its policies and practices, and the school’s academic achievements. Mostly, though, they want to know that their children will be respected and taught well.
Children want to see the school in action. They are interested in seeing your pupils learning and playing. They want to see science experiments, PE lessons, and helpful teachers. They want to know that each day will be a day of discovery and excitement.
A great school video promotes your school by promoting its pupils first and the school itself second.
Video Tip #3: Showcase your diversity
Diversity and inclusion are high on the list of priorities for today’s parents. Your video is the perfect opportunity to reflect this – so ensure that it does.
Video Tip #4: Use your time wisely
You’re not filming a remake of War and Peace. Today’s parents and their children have a limited attention span. Four to five minutes is a good length to aim for. This should give you enough time to include all your ‘must-haves’ in a smooth, seamless, and progressive stream of video and audio.
Video Tip #5: Showcase your achievements
With the backdrop of your pupils and the school, highlight your major achievements. Let it be known how proud the school is of its pupils and the exceptional teaching staff that guide them. Achievements may include:
- Ofsted ratings
- Academic successes and improving exam grades
- Diversity of curriculum
- Development of pupils with special educational needs
These achievements could be woven into the fabric of the video, positioned to coincide with relevant backdrops (for example, sporting achievements voiced over the backdrop of your sports field or school gym).
Video Tip #6: Showcase your uniqueness
What is it about your school that makes it unique – the hook that will get parents champing at the bit to send their children to you? Get this out there early. For example, in the video we produced for Ysgol Bro Gwaun School we made sure that the headmaster highlighted that it is the only fully bi-lingual (Welsh and English) school in North Pembrokeshire.
Video tip #7: Finish with your main message
Always end your video with a summary of why you are unique, how well pupils do at your school, and how you achieve the results you do. Repeat how proud you are of the school, its staff, its achievements, and, most of all, your pupils.
Video Tip #8: Promote your video
Though your video will be filmed to promote your school, it cannot do that unless you promote it. Place it on your Facebook page, and make sure it is easily found on your website (the homepage is ideal).
Is your school’s website compliant, complete, and inviting?
Making a video that promotes your school takes time and diligence. It must be planned, scripted, and include key characters in the school. A great idea is to have some of your pupils describe what they like most about the school in their own words. Start strong, bring your uniqueness to the front, and ensure that your pupils are in the foreground.
Remember, the promotional video for your school is the benchmark by which you will be compared to other schools. Make it as high as you can.
Would you like to bring your school to life? At Design for Education, we design our promotional videos to showcase your school, giving a compelling reason for viewers to find out more. We work with you to determine your objectives, and promote your values, vision, and aims. We edit and add captions and graphics. You get the video that sells your school.
To learn more about our professional promotional school video service, contact us today.
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