How to Promote Adult Education Programs: 10 Ideas

Adult education programs play a pivotal role in empowering individuals with essential skills. These programs expose adults to more opportunities that help transform the trajectory of their lives. Crafting effective marketing strategies for adult education programs targeted towards specific adult learners is vital to raising awareness, driving enrollment, and helping more adults change their futures. In this blog post, we'll cover ten actionable tips about how to promote adult education programs.

How to Promote Adult Education Programs

Marketing should always start with planning to help you focus on priority target audiences. The more you cater your marketing to a specific group of people, the more effective each marketing activity will be in reaching adults where they are with marketing that will catch their eye. Outline personas that represent the types of adults who attend your programs and then try some of these ideas for how to promote adult education programs.

Hone in on your messaging. 

You might encounter that people don't realize they need your programs or there may be many competitor programs that you need to stand out from. Therefore, your marketing must explain how your programs benefit adults over other offerings. The relevance of your marketing messaging will help people notice your programs and want to learn more. Review testimonials or talk to existing students to find out why they chose to pursue a program like yours and what led them to ultimately choose yours. Their responses will help you craft impactful marketing messages.

Use data to focus your marketing. 

If your adult education programs are offered throughout a state or across multiple states, use public data to help narrow your efforts. Identify who takes your programs and where you can find more of them. For example, if homeschoolers take your GED programs, look at the states where the most homeschoolers are and target marketing in those locations.

Optimize your Google business profile. 

People may search on Google for "adult education programs near me." Create your Google business profile, filling in as much information as you can, which will help your institution and website show up when they are searching. After people attend your programs, encourage those who had a positive experience to add a review to your Google profile to help fill in your profile even further and build your reputation.

Get listed in online directories.

Find resources that people or partners may go to to find programs like yours, like state Department of Education websites. Inclusion on directory listings with reputable sites not only helps people find you, but it increases the credibility of your program and may boost your overall domain authority and SEO performance to help your website show up on Google.

Create SEO YouTube videos. 

Identify frequently asked questions related to your programs or resources people might find helpful when searching for a program like yours. Create short (under 2 minute) YouTube videos that cover those topics. Use key phrases in the video title, description, and close captioning to help boost SEO so people find your videos on YouTube and Google. 

Run social media advertising. 

Advertise on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok to catch the attention of prospective learners. Test different creative messages and targeting strategies. For example, you can upload email lists of your current students and create look-a-like profiles to advertise to. Or, run retargeting ads to people who visited your website.

Advertise in different languages. 

Even if your programs are in English, you may attract more people if you advertise in the native language of bilingual or multilingual adults instead of solely in English. However, make sure you are clear in your marketing that the programs are in English, even if you're advertising in another language, to minimize confusion. 

Promote through partnerships. 

Find local employers or complementary organizations that also provide jobs or services to adults you're targeting. Run events or webinars together, promote each other's programs in your email newsletters, or find other ways to collaborate in ways that help both organizations and the adults you serve. 

Attend grassroots community events. 

Sponsor or have a presence at events in the community that adults attend, like markets, the library, or festivals, to get the word out and to answer any questions face-to-face.

Get featured in local publications. 

Pitch journalists for local publications highlighting success stories from past students to showcase the benefits of your programs and make your programs relatable to potential learners. 

Successful marketing for adult education programs requires a strategic and targeted approach. By thoughtfully promoting your programs, you will amplify your visibility, bringing in new learners and helping them change their lives and communities. When working on how to promote adult education programs, start with strategic planning to outline the types of adults who would benefit the most from your programs and then test some of the marketing activities above to see what's effective in bringing adults to your institution.