How Schools Can Leverage a YouTube Channel to Drive Enrollment

By Maggie Twaroski, Truth Tree Contributor

When school marketers discuss enrollment marketing, the emphasis is often on familiar strategies like targeted email campaigns, website content, and social media engagement on top platforms like Facebook and Instagram. While these have major effects on bringing new students in the door, there’s another oft-forgotten school marketing channel that’s increasingly effective: YouTube. 

As the second-most visited website in the world second only to Google, YouTube is definitely a prime spot for engaging new leads for your school (and retaining current families, for that matter). With an active presence on YouTube, schools can connect with leads in an accessible manner, reach a wider audience, and express aspects of their brand that can’t be fully captured in print. 

Let’s explore how YouTube can enhance your enrollment marketing efforts, and what you need to know to keep your channel growing. 

As a School, Why Bother with YouTube?

As the most popular social media platform in the U.S. (even outranking Facebook, Instagram and TikTok), there’s a good chance that the majority of your prospective families are on YouTube right now. It’s not just the volume of users that makes YouTube a prime marketing spot, it’s the effect of video content broadly. Videos are extremely effective at engaging viewers and providing social proof–so much so that 90% of consumers say they watch videos to help them make purchasing decisions. In other words, YouTube isn’t just a place to watch cat videos, it’s where users can go to receive insights and connect with their favorite brands. 

Kimbe MacMaster, Content Marketing Manager at Vidyard, tells it like it is: “If you’re not producing video content, then you’re not meeting the content requirements of today’s video-hungry buyers. And they’ll probably go somewhere else to find it.” 

YouTube and SEO

Since Google owns YouTube, your videos can appear in SERPs the same way your website can. When users search terms related to your school’s content and offerings, your website and/or YouTube channel has the chance of ranking in a top spot–increasing your visibility and ultimately boosting enrollment further down the line. 

While simple in theory, school marketers know that successful SEO isn’t as easy as clicking “publish” on a YouTube video. It’s important to know the basics of YouTube’s algorithm, so you can make the most of your content. Here are a few things to note:

How YouTube ranks videos

YouTube determines which videos to display in a user’s feed based on their search query and watching preferences. It looks at which videos they choose most often, which ones they reject, how long they stay on a certain video, and other indicators to suggest relevant content that corresponds to the search term. 

How to increase your video rankings

Increasing the visibility of your YouTube videos largely comes down to how well you know your audience. YouTube values relevancy in its ranking process, so make sure your video content matches what your audience wants to see. If you’re not sure what kind of content your audience likes best, take a look at your YouTube analytics to see which videos perform best, and consider asking your current families what kind of video content they like via survey. 

Tips for a Successful YouTube Channel

Maybe your school already has a YouTube channel, but it’s not generating the followers and engagement you want. Or maybe you don’t have a channel, but you have plans to create one to enhance your marketing efforts. Wherever you’re at, here are some practical suggestions to start (or improve) your channel. 

Optimize your profile

A successful YouTube channel is closely tied to SEO, which means your first step should be to optimize your profile. Start by writing a keyword-rich description that tells viewers about your school and the type of content they can expect on your channel. Your keyword choices should match the phrases you’re targeting on your website and other outreach channels. 

For example, Delphian School targets the keyphrase  “international day and boarding school in Oregon” in their YouTube profile description. Searching this phrase in Google shows Delphian School in the top SERP spot, indicating that this is a primary keyword in their general SEO strategy. They also set clear expectations for viewers by noting their videos are about “life, news, events, and other cool stuff from the Delphian School.”

Once you optimize your profile, apply a similar process to your videos by including keywords in the title, description, tags, and video file name. Search engines aren’t able to crawl through video content, but they do look at the textual elements of your videos to help rank the videos in searches. 

Organize your content

Once you have a robust video library, it can be helpful to you and your viewers to organize your content into “playlists.” These are sections in your profile categorized into themes like events, classroom activities, athletics, staff spotlights, or campus life. Not only does categorizing your videos make it easier to find relevant content, it can make your profile more visually appealing. 

Consider the way your playlists might guide prospective families to answer their lingering questions.

Build Your School Playlists by Division:

• Kindergarten Readiness: videos of teachers, parents, and current students talking about the foundational year at your school
• Lower School Learnings: videos of teachers, parents, and current students highlighting all the ways students thrive in the elementary classrooms of your school
• Middle School Mania: videos of teachers, parents, and current students hyping up the facets of middle school that build on everything learned previously
• Upper School Wayfinding: videos of teachers, parents, current students, and recent graduates listing out the ways the upper school allows them to channel their passions, build on their potential, and chase opportunity.

Build Your School Playlists by Your Pillars:

• Academics at Truth Tree Academy: videos showcasing the academic rigor woven throughout the school and curriculum
• Athletics at Truth Tree Academy: videos highlighting the athletic opportunities, leadership team, and facilities that await prospective families
• Arts at Truth Tree Academy: video content that covers the different ways students can explore, discover, and participate in various art mediums
• Spiritual Life at Truth Tree Academy: capture the ways students build their faith in chapel, in class, and through service projects

Promote other marketing channels

Users who are interested in your videos should be able to easily find other ways to connect with your school, especially through your website. Make sure to include all relevant links in your YouTube profile including your website, Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, and any other marketing channels you have. 

Build relationships 

You can nurture leads further down the enrollment funnel by engaging with them through YouTube comments. Making an effort to respond to your video comments shows that your school recognizes and values its viewers. Plus, YouTube operates similarly to other social media platforms in that it uses engagement metrics to determine video rankings. The more likes and comments your videos receive, the greater chances that video will appear in search results. 

High-Quality Videos for Multi-Channel Use

With so much video content at our fingertips, the quality standards that users expect have gone up. Publishing well-produced videos shows your school is committed to providing value to its constituents at every level, and it entices viewers to continue following your content. Make sure to edit your videos and ensure they have high resolution and sound quality. Don’t forget to write enticing video descriptions and include relevant tags and keywords. 

Of course, high-quality videos don’t automatically hook viewers–you need interesting, engaging content as well. Develop a consistent content calendar based on the types of themes and topics your audience wants to see. Is your school known for a particular program? What aspects of your brand or school traditions do your families value? Which student experiences do you wish to highlight? Remember, your videos are an opportunity to showcase the unique aspects of your school that can’t always be captured in print. Here are some ideas to help get you started:

• Campus tours
• Student experiences (day in the life)
• Teacher interviews (ask students to submit questions)
• Program overview 
• Admissions FAQs
• Athletic hype videos (publish before games to encourage attendance)
• Academic projects
• Classroom tours (can include student interviews about current class projects)
• Field trips
• Behind the scenes of extracurricular groups
• Lesson reviews (can showcase your staff’s teaching style)

Repurpose Content & Build a Team

Does your school already have high-quality video content used for admissions? Did your school’s athletic department push out a hype video ahead of football season? Consider taking any 3+ minute video content and splicing it down into 30-second or 45-second clips. Each clip could have a theme or focus that correlates to the caption: divisions, campus community, extracurricular opportunities, etc.

Don’t stop there. After posting the shortened content as YouTube Shorts, consider using it on your school’s other social media channels, too.

Capturing content to tell your school’s story can feel like a full-time job. After making the most of what you’ve already got on hand, consider building a content team of fellow staff, parents, and students to capture content. According to a survey by the Social School 4 Edu team, 41% of schools involved students in social media content generation in 2024. School marketing teams are seeing the value in telling their school’s story through their students. The team at Emma Willard made a shift in their social media approach where “student-led content [became] a central part of their strategy”, and they’re seeing positive enrollment growth as a result.

Maintain your School’s YouTube Channel

Once you start publishing consistent content and growing your viewership, YouTube analytics will show you which videos are performing best so you know where to direct your efforts. You can track engagement, video duration, audience retention, demographics, and more. Use these insights to make informed decisions about the type of content you publish.

Advertise on YouTube

Creating original video content is certainly an effective outreach strategy, but you don’t need to stop there–consider advertising on YouTube to further expand your reach and increase visibility to your channel. If you’re already advertising on Google, you’ll be pleased to learn that the average cost of advertising on YouTube is significantly cheaper and less competitive. Plus, YouTube gives different ad options to choose from, so you can customize the way you’re reaching users. If you want to reach a specific audience, YouTube’s advanced targeting features allow you to select which users see your video, so you can direct your videos towards the most qualified leads.

Expand your social media marketing with YouTube

Though often pushed to the social media backburner, YouTube is perhaps the spot to engage with the majority of your leads, especially potential students themselves. Sure, creating a high-quality video may take more time than a simple Instagram post, but it’s definitely worth the effort. Video marketing is a powerful tool in nurturing leads toward action with your school, whether it’s more sign-ups, website traffic, or social engagement.