Marketing strategies are always evolving. With so many different ways to promote your institution, it’s not about which strategy is best overall, but rather which one is best for your school’s immediate goals. What objectives do you have over the next year? Do you hope to increase enrollment? Improve student retention? Drive more traffic and applications?
As you define your goals and the audience you want to reach, you can take advantage of the right strategy. Below are five great ones to choose from.
1. The Social Networking Strategy
From a statistical standpoint, Facebook is wildly popular. It’s one of the most widely used networks in the world, with 2.07 billion monthly active users. But, Facebook is just not that cool with the younger age groups. While they may have accounts to stay connected, high school and college students are more likely to use Snapchat and Instagram. You can still run ad campaigns on Facebook and Twitter, but don’t forget to add other networks to your strategy. College prospects want to be entertained, so short, visual content is best.
2. The Mobile Madness Strategy
By now, most colleges and universities have mobile websites. You should too. Now that 2018 is right around the corner, it’s time to advance your mobile strategy. Everything should be mobile-friendly; and that includes your landing pages, emails, and text-based marketing campaigns. Use your site often to make sure things are running smoothly. Images should be loading, content should be easy to read, and forms should be effortless to fill out.
3. The Engaging Video Strategy
Video continues to rise in popularity. Forty-three percent of people say they want to see more video from marketers, and nearly 52% of advertisers agree that video marketing brings the best ROI. Lucky for you, adding more video into your higher EDU strategy is simple. There are plenty of opportunities for video content, such as filming your school campus, interviewing current students and professors, featuring snapshots of on-campus events, and more.
4. The Targeting and Retargeting Strategy
It takes a long time for a college prospect to convert. College is a major decision, and there are usually several people involved in the selection process. This is why targeting and retargeting is crucial. If you have a prospect visit your site and leave without doing anything, you have to assume that they are at least somewhat interested. Bring them back by showing them content and paid ads that might help in their search.
5. The Personalized Automation Strategy
Marketing automation software makes it possible to communicate with prospective students in a highly personalized yet automatic way. But, be sure that you are using the software correctly. Automation has endless features, but if you get lazy, your messages will look automated and robotic. Instead, take the time to set up highly relevant, triggered messages that will reach your audience in the right moment.
With a new year upon us, it’s a great time to review your current higher education marketing strategies and update them with one of our top picks from above!
