The Best Content Pillars For Expat Language Schools and How They Will Help You Get More Students
In today’s world, the success of a company depends on its ability to clearly communicate its message and ideas to its relevant audience. And the best way to do that is to make sure that everything you post follows your content strategy and well-chosen content pillars!
They will help you to make your content creation easier and ensure that what you post will bring you sales. If you have no clue about how content pillars work, don’t worry! In this article, we will give you lots of tips about content pillars for expat language schools. 😊
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Introduction: What are Content Pillars?
Content pillars are a set of themes or topics that your school can use to create posts on your social media pages. They have to be specifically related to your brand and will help you to show to your audience your purpose, values, positioning, set your tone of voice, and support your preferred aesthetic look.
Since you don’t want your school to have a “shaky” online presence, you should have solid content pillars! They will help you to remember WHY you are creating social media content (such as selling courses or building up your school’s authority) and you will avoid getting lost, or falling into the trap of producing non-effective content (uploading just for the sake of it, is a waste of time and money 🤷♀️).
Content pillars work as a system in which each post that you will create will fall into one of the carefully chosen categories, making it much easier to produce meaningful content that will follow your content strategy (which is built based on your marketing strategy and client avatar).
This way your posts will be part of a bigger plan, following your school’s purpose and giving an executive structure to your existing strategy. Some extra advantages of content pillars are:
It is easier to plan your social media calendar when you already know which direction you want to go;
You will save time by knowing which kind of themes to go after;
You will develop a strong identity (your social media followers will recognize your content automatically);
It will bring consistency to your brand (people will remember your school because of the kind of information you are providing);
Your followers will know what to expect by keeping up with you on their social media (so, you won’t attract people that aren’t interested in your offer and keep the ones who will, eventually, turn into paying clients)!
Now that you know what content pillars are, and the advantages of using them, let’s see how you can choose the best content pillars for your expat language school!
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So if you want a crystal clear and predictable roadmap to help you get more students, look no further!
How to Choose Content Pillars for Your Expat Language School
Each pillar should represent a type of relevant content that your followers want to see. Because of that, the main key here is: focus on the needs of your ideal client!
If you haven’t done a client avatar yet, then don’t waste more time, do it NOW (we have an article giving you all the necessary information in here 😊).
Some basic questions you should ask yourself before choosing the content pillars are:
Which platforms are my ideal students using?
What topics are they interested in?
What is valuable for them?
What can be educational for them?
How can my school’s content help them to be stronger in their pain points?
Based on those answers, your sales, and your marketing goals, you can create your content pillars.
Something that can also help you is to check your competition 🕵️️: make a list of the top five schools in your area (or online direct competitors), and go to their social media channels. Pay attention to any posts that have performed particularly well, to get to know more about what your potential students are interested in (since you have a similar – or the same – audience).
While “spying” (no judgment! We encourage knowing your competition as a healthy marketing and business practice!) try to find gaps in their communication as well. You can use that knowledge to your advantage when creating your future content.
WARNING: when looking at your competition, don’t lose sight of your own voice and goals! You want to be ahead of your competition, but don’t copy them. Original ideas and content that can differentiate you from the crowd will always be better. 😊
In the same way that you should check other schools’ social media, don’t forget to look at your own channels, to spot the types of content that your students are engaging with (which of your own posts are the most successful?), and what's not working. That can be a good beacon to limit your content pillars.
We’ve created a special content pillars to-do list with actionable steps for you to follow in the upcoming two weeks. Created specifically for language schools!
You can access the to-do list library by leaving your email address below:
The Marketing Rule of 7 and How to Apply It to Your Promotional Content
Also, make sure that one of your pillars is promotional – that is non-negotiable!
It takes on average seven times for someone to see your offer before they buy from you. That is called “The Marketing Rule of 7”, formulated by marketing expert Dr. Jeffrey Lant:
“Lant states that to penetrate the buyer’s consciousness and make significant penetration in a given market, you have to contact the prospect a minimum of seven times within an 18 months period.” - Business Insider
Seems like a lot?
Well, this is only a general rule. The fact is, that if someone was considering starting a language course and your content or ads will catch them at the right time – it might take less.
But if they are unaware buyers or currently “involved with a different school” 😜 – it might take you many more times to grab their attention strongly enough to even consider signing up for your language lessons.
You can read more about the different buying motivations of your potential students in this article.
The 8 Best Content Pillars For Expat Language Schools
We recommend you choose a maximum of five content pillars and stick to them. Otherwise, it will become confusing for you to manage so many different topics, and for your audience to know what to expect from you.
There are many content pillar suggestions you can find all over the internet. Here are the best ones, in our opinion, for expat language schools:
1. Lifestyle
Expats are new to the country and city, and they really appreciate getting good info about daily life. You can write tips in regard to places to visit, landmarks, restaurants, and cool hidden spots that only locals know.
Also, how to survive the difficulties of living in another city, can generate some content – here you can explain, for example, how public transport works in your town! Another cool approach is to suggest events that can be interesting for expats (like parties, meetings, or alternative city tours) or explain cultural differences or traditions that might be new to them.
2. Language Learning
This is the most intuitive, and default pillar that most language schools base their content on. And you are right – this is what expats are looking for – being able to communicate in a foreign country. But don’t rely solely on that – there is so much more to the language than just the grammar and vocabulary!
Please note: don't make boring grammar posts - make it fun. Use memes, games, and interesting facts. You can also focus on useful vocabulary and on the local set of idiomatic expressions – those are the cultural and interesting aspects of your language that no language learning app can showcase better than you! 💪
3. About us
This content pillar, as the name already says, is about your school, team, teachers, values, methodology, and everything else that relates to that.
You can present those as little stories about the team, your school’s daily life, and also add everything that brings a sense of credibility to you, such as partnerships, prizes, media coverage. Anything that makes your school different or unique, and the benefits that you offer for your students.
4. Community building
Here you focus on anything and everything that shows the human face and creates an emotional connection between you and your potential students. People buy from people, not from companies 😊
Not sure what kind of content builds a connection? Here you are:
jokes - preferably related to the language you teach, or to expat struggles
games – language games, cultural games. Word searches, “this or that”, charades, play on words, etc.
pictures or videos from events at your school
other accounts/ people that can be useful for your students – to show them if they decide to learn the language with you, they will also gain some useful knowledge and insight about the place they live in. You might also start some amazing partnerships that way!
taking a stand on political or social issues, showing your values as a company – don’t be afraid of this one, you will chase some people away from your school, but they were not your people anyway 😉 and those who stand on the same side will love you even more!
any type of story, or personal statement, that can help to build a community sense, showing your students and potential students, that you care about their well-being, and are aware that your school will become a part of their life and you take responsibility for that.
5. News & trends
Here you can choose topics that will be relevant to both your students and your school, that are connected to living abroad, to your city, the upcoming events, cultural agenda, or even job opportunities.
Once again, think about your ideal students, and what is interesting for them (and remember that a lot of news is unavailable for them due to the language and cultural barrier, so they will most certainly be grateful to you for sharing!).
6. Inspiration
In here we’re searching for anything that will ignite hope and give more power to your students and potential students, like:
stories of people who have changed their lives by learning your language, or changing country, getting new opportunities (real people are great, but fictional stories are also inspiring 😊)
relevant quotes
case studies
interviews
7. Entertainment
Let your audience spend cool, relaxed, leisurely time with you, your language and culture. Pop culture works absolutely amazing here.
Add some memes, jokes, and TV shows pieces, but also music, book tips, magazines, and movie reviews. Are you a funny person? Maybe you can record short videos or shoot some photos and share your sense of humor.
8. Promotion
As already said in the previous section, this is an obligatory content pillar for a language school. People need to know what you are offering in order to buy.
Here you can announce your courses, but you can also add students’ testimonials; the advantages of buying from you (why are you better than your competitors and apps, etc.); what makes your school or method unique.
Be creative with your selling, avoid being pushy and too direct, and you will see great results!
Get access to our library of free marketing guides, trackers, and templates for expat language schools:
Conclusion: How to Apply Content Pillars on Your School's Channels to Increase Student Enrollments
In conclusion of this article, we recommend you to choose three to five content pillars and plan them out evenly during the week or month (depending on your schedule).
You can put more pressure on different content pillars in different marketing cycles, but, as a general rule, it's best to use all of them more or less with the same frequency when publishing content on your social media channels.
If you chose five content pillars try to organize them evenly during the week, here’s an example:
Mondays are a good day for something instructive, but still light, since it is the beginning of the week and your students are getting back to their routine. Something inspirational can be a good idea;
Tuesdays are usually productive days, so language learning tip can be a nice fit;
Wednesdays are also productive, and people have you fresh in their mind from the previous tips, so here can be a good day to promote your courses!
Thursdays are when people start to plan the next week, so lifestyle, and news/trends, can be placed here.
Fridays should be light (since people are already thinking about their weekends). Personal things like “about us”, as well as community building can be good here.
If you are going to post on weekends, then make sure to focus on entertainment or lifestyle.
With this solid plan, you won’t be staring at an empty page not knowing what to post again!
Content pillars are the foundation that you create for yourself in order to achieve your long-term marketing and sales goals with the content you create.
Stay consistent, be creative, stick to your pillars! 💪
Confused about your own content pillars? Schedule a free call and let us help you out.
The Hassle-Free Content Templates For Expat Language Schools
Instead of spending days, weeks, months, or even YEARS searching, clicking, and scrambling to put together all the pieces required for your social media success, you can follow a proven system, roadmap, or path from Point A to Point B.
This is what our Hassle-Free Content Templates For Expat Language Schools provide: the exact formula you need to get where you want to go with little to no overwhelm or information overload.
