For many of today’s youth, college is a very important part of growing up. If you want to have a head start on your career as an adult, you will want to make the most of every opportunity that comes by during college. And with so many colleges and universities all over the world, you have lots of choices as to where to study.
But for a certain college or university to be well known, it is a great idea for them to join in on the digital marketing revolution. With almost all students now a part of the vast network of people online, it just makes sense for universities and colleges to make use of the internet to connect with students and to invite potential enrollees. Here are some amazing ways for colleges and universities to use digital technologies to engage with students.
1 Invest in a top-quality website.
A good website is a sign of good business. A school should understand that in the world wide web, a website will serve as the company’s face. So it’s imperative that they put up a website that will truly represent the values and essence of your college or university. The website should imbibe the true qualities an ideal school should possess and showcase the features and amenities a school can offer to incoming students and their parents.
2 Define the personas of the target audience.
Online marketing tactics will reach a wide variety of people. But as an educational institution, your college should understand that their target audience should be college students and their parents. It will be a lot easier for them to do this if they understand their audience and define their personas. Conducting polls and research via social media can be a good way for a university to target their audiences better. These polls can then help define the different personas of followers online.
3 Offer mobile apps for your students and prospective enrollees.
As part of a school’s digital marketing strategies, they should also invest in providing their clients with a mobile app. Considering the age group of the target audience of colleges and universities, today’s college students belong to those who were raised with enough familiarity on gadgets and smartphone apps. Through a college-integrated phone app, a school can provide their students with more options to learn more about educational offerings, enrollment and college trip schedules, and university accommodations and other amenities.
4 Join the social media revolution.
Today, seven out of ten people in America alone to connect with people, entertain themselves, as well as to share or get updates about various topics. And most of these social media users belong to the younger generation. This is why it only makes sense for a college or university to also create a business account on social media. This way, it will be easier for the school’s administration to share updates about enrollments, school events and other educational matters that students and their parents should know about.
5 Measure your marketing performance.
To better understand how a school’s marketing tactics are going so far, it’s a must that they put in place some performance metrics that are applicable to their tactics. This way they can have a clearer picture of how a campaign is coming along and what things you should work on. It will also be a good idea to be more familiar with the different digital channels that you can use to be able to reach more potential enrollees in your educational institution. Here are some things to consider when it comes to choosing which digital platform can be more effective for your marketing campaigns:
a. Targeting
When it comes to connecting with more people online, social media is definitely a great avenue. Different social media platforms target different users. For example, Instagram and Snapchat are now more popular to the youth when compared to Facebook. But Facebook still remains as the most popular platform all over the globe, with a total number of 2.41 billion users worldwide.
b. Real-time
If you are looking for a way to provide real-time updates to your students and parents, you might want to consider using Twitter. This platform is an ideal platform for sharing vital information and other crucial updates about your college or university.
c. B2B Platform
If you want to reach out to more businesses and potential employees, then LinkedIn is a better platform. Through LinkedIn, you get to build a connection between you and various companies that can provide you with a good source of hireable employees, as well as internship and employment opportunities for your students.
d. Visuals
Social media sites like Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and Pinterest are more into providing their users with the visual form of information and entertainment. This is also why it’s also an ideal media for ads, promos and campaigns. In the same way, a college or university can benefit from using these platforms by sharing videos and images.
To create a better environment for the students, a university should understand the importance of building an online community for its students. This way, they get to interact with their students and make them feel involved in everything that is happening within and around the school. At the same time, it also helps them create a good reputation online and market their brand by reaching out to different people online.