Universities are always coming up with innovative methods of recruiting more students through digital marketing. From enticing video content to social prowess and instant messaging, knowing what piques the audience’s interest will be helpful. Most focus on streamlining and improving their marketing strategies to ensure they spend their money well. If you’re a university marketer planning to improve your strategy, below are six tips that will help you attract more students.
Learn About Your Audience
Learning more about your target audience and their interests is necessary because it’ll be the foundation of your marketing campaigns. You can’t use a one-size-fits-all method in attracting more students to your institution. Your campaign materials should depend on the programs or courses you’re promoting. For example, you can use Instagram and Facebook for undergraduates, while LinkedIn for MBA programs.
You’ll need another material for reaching out to international students. For example, you can host gatherings or events that highlight international candidates. Or you can ask an international student to highlight their stories while staying in your institution. Both are great online marketing strategies for international students.
Use a High-Profile Material
Using high-profile campaign materials is also another strategy, which is highly similar to influencer marketing. Because most institutions have famous alumni, you can tell their story as part of your marketing strategy. Or you can also work with them in promoting a program or course in online campaigns or on television.
Narrating an alumni’s current accomplishments is an excellent way to attract both new and present students. You can either do that on social media platforms or your school’s website. You can also ask high-profile students to be the institution’s ambassadors and influencers, increasing your reach on social media. For example, you can focus on video content that highlights these individuals and their daily routines.
Build a Responsive Chatbot
Nearly 60% of potential students will expect a prompt response from an institution or the same day they fill out the forms. Universities and colleges are less likely to get follow-up inquiries if they can’t respond to potential candidates’ questions within a few minutes. If you want to ensure they get prompt, short responses, using chatbots is advisable.
By using one, you can answer frequently asked questions promptly. If necessary, you can have the conversation transferred to a live representative who can provide a more personalized answer. Incorporating innovative methods in your strategy will likely boost your chances of reaching out to more people than you expect.
Use SEO for Organic Traffic
Building a website will not suffice. If interested students can’t find your website during their search, it will not have any visitors. Make it your priority to improve the site’s search engine rankings to ensure you’re getting a consistent volume of traffic. Different studies show that nearly 90% of candidates use search engines when gathering pieces of information on the internet.
Using the right keywords is essential in any SEO campaign. Do your research to find the best keywords to optimize for, strategically included in web content for more efficient organic search rankings. Your website should have well-written content that talks about a specific keyword if you want to rank higher.
It’ll also help think about the questions candidates might have and what information they’re looking for. From there, make helpful content that answers their questions. It’ll also help you get a higher rank in organic search results.
Build Mobile-Friendly Sites
Interested candidates start their search on the internet, and they do that by visiting your institution’s website. Your website must have an efficient user experience and perform well on both mobile devices and desktops. You should make the homepage and content more accessible, delivering a more mobile-friendly experience. In addition, you’ll have to think about page speed because that will affect your website’s page rankings.
Most search engines aim to deliver the best results possible. That’s because they know users will not want to visit websites with poor user experience or are slow. If your website is slow, it’ll negatively affect your search rankings.
Increase Brand Awareness
You can increase brand awareness by using display advertising. Display advertising is more effective than billboards, allowing universities and colleges to widen their reach significantly. Using banner ads will allow you to reach more interested candidates based on their online activity. On top of using enticing text, your banner ads should have GIFs, pictures, or videos that will attract candidates.
It might be hard to determine the strategy that can promote your institution because you have a lot of things to consider. One such problem is increasing the enrollment rate. If you use these strategies wisely, your institution will stand out even more. It’ll also help you build more connections with potential and existing candidates.