Back-to-school social media tips, Updated 4th August 2020 – I can’t believe how fast summer is going by! It’s almost time to go back to school!
For marketers, this means getting ready for the back-to-school rush with some efficient and effective back-to-school social media tips.
In this article we are going to look at some back-to-school social media tips and tricks. We will focus on primary and secondary school students.
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For families, school means spending money in uniforms, books, etc. I am trying to address this concern with some back-to-school social media tips about showcasing your best deals.
According to a survey by the Irish League of Credit Unions (ILCU via The Journal, 16th July 2019), Irish parents are spending an average of €999 and €1,379 for getting their children ready for respectively primary and secondary school.
Irish families with primary school children are spending €50 less year-on-year, while families with secondary school children are spending €20 more 2018 vs 2019.
In the US families with children in elementary or high school spend an average of $697.
Not surprisingly, one of the key drivers for back-to-school shopping is pricing.
Irish parents bear a back-to-school-related debt of €274 and €357, respectively for primary and secondary school items (The Journal, 16th July 2019).
53% of American mothers say back-to-school shopping ‘strain the budget’ (Social Media Today, 9th August 2019).
In Ireland, it seems primary students’ biggest expense goes to extracurricular activities, followed by clothing and uniform. Secondary school student spend most of their money on books followed by clothing and uniform and extracurricular activities.
In the US elementary or high school students spend their money mostly on electronics and clothing, respectively $235 and $149.
While focusing your online strategy entirely on pricing might not be very effective, make sure pricing is an evident part of your digital marketing efforts:
If you don’t have an in-house graphic designer or the resources to hire one, you can simply use Canva to create your social media banners:
It comes at no surprise that more and more families, mothers in particular, are using mobile for their back-to-school shopping.
Although this article is about back-to-school social media tips, I can’t stress enough the importance of a fast and mobile-friendly website.
According to a survey by MDG Advertising (MDG Advertising via Social Media Today, 9th August 2019) 56% of North American families buy school items in-store while 44% say they buy online.
The same research forecasts that 60% of back-to-school shoppers this year will use mobile for their back-to-school shopping, while 74% of American mothers are going to use Amazon as their main point where to buy school items.
It goes without saying that if you want to target online shoppers you need a fully-responsive, fast and attractive website:
One of the main reasons for a slow website are images not optimised for the web. In a previous article we wrote about how to compress JPG online and improve your website speed
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Depending on the item, there are different levels of influence that children and students in general have on their parents. Their influence is a high 56% when it comes to buying clothes and shoes. It drops to 23% when it comes to buying school supplies.
If you decide to target secondary decision makers like students, then Facebook might not be your best bet and you want to invest your time and money into platforms like Instagram, Snapchat and Youtube.
According to Hamarketingpr.ie (H+A Marketing+PR, n / a) [accessed on 9th August 2019] ‘Snapchat and Instagram are the most popular social channels for Irish teens (96% and 92% respectively)’.
In the US, Youtube, Instagram and Snapchat are the most popular. Youtube is the social media platform being used the most, while Snapchat is the one being used more regularly.
If you are targeting parents you need to make sure you take into account Facebook for your advertising on social media. If you are targeting mothers, then Pinterest is your best bet:
Identifying the decision maker could play a very important part in your digital marketing strategy.
In a previous article we looked at how to choose the social media platform that is most suitable for your business or brand.
It really boils down to two questions:
If you can answer yes to both, then you know you have found the social media channel for your back-to-school marketing efforts.
Use Facebook Ads Manager to get a sense of the size of your audience:
The simple answer is…now!
People are already searching school-related items on Google. Depending on the search query, you get different search volumes at slightly different times:
Indirectly related to the back-to-school shopping are searches for the clothing allowance in Ireland:
I hope you like these back-to-school social media tips, folks! As usual, feel free to leave a comment or get in touch via our contact form or directly through email at [email protected]
Feature image: https://stories.freepik.com/illustration/back-to-school/bro
Pasquale is Founder at Increasily.com, a H2H marketing agency based in Dublin, Ireland, and owner at print-on-demand ecommerce Mintycase.com. Pasquale has worked in Digital Marketing and Account Management since 2004. He currently lives in Dublin with his wife, stepdaughter and cat.
Hi Angie, you are very welcome and great infographic! If you have an article that you would like to push, feel free to reach out. Same for guest-posting
Pasquale Mellone