Your university may offer heaps of exciting, non-conventional courses—but if the seats in your classroom aren’t quite filling up the way you’d hoped, you might be wondering how you can inspire more sign-ups.
While some of these courses may be outside of your student’s core requirements, you can highlight their value using a variety of marketing methods.
Below, we’ll break down five ways to launch a successful course promotion campaign and add more names to your classroom’s roster.
#1 Define Your Courses’ Target Audience
Effective marketing campaigns start with market research. If you already have some students enrolled in your course, you can administer a survey to find out more about them and their motivations for taking the class.
You can summarize your findings into a handful of buyer personas. Buyer personas—or in this case, student personas—are semi-fictional descriptions of your ideal students based on your data and research.
For instance, maybe you review the enrollment data you have for a “Beekeeping Apprenticeship” course and discover that a notable portion of enrollees are:
First-year students
Female
Interested in majoring in the sciences
By clarifying the type of students who are most interested in your non-conventional courses, you can craft your promotional efforts with them in mind.
#2 Host Free Events on Campus
College students are known for their love of freebies and fun events. You can combine the two by hosting an on-campus event where you give away free food or branded swag. Some inexpensive swag options include flash drives, ID holders, reusable bottles, or lanyards.
During this event, you can:
Introduce your non-conventional course
Explain why students should consider signing up for it
Give out free, branded swag that can double as advertising for your course
Host an exciting contest or giveaway
Direct interested students to a convenient sign-up sheet
Pass out flyers with a QR code to your course’s online registration page
Make sure that you tailor the details of the event to draw the type of students you think will be most likely to sign up for your course.
#3 Promote Your Course in Your University’s Newsletter
Since so much university coursework is done online, there’s a good chance that your student body actively checks their university emails. You can capitalize on this fact by featuring your non-conventional courses in your university’s monthly newsletters.
In these newsletters, put your offering in the spotlight by sharing some interesting details about the course and what students can expect to gain from taking it. If you have any photos of the course in action or its field trips, be sure to include those too.
Finally, don’t forget to include a CTA button below your non-conventional course write-up so interested students can easily register for it on the spot.
#4 Ask Students to Share Their Positive Course Experiences
According to Nielsen, 92% of consumers trust reviews from their friends and family more than any other type of advertising. In other words, word-of-mouth marketing is powerful.
One way to generate more word-of-mouth marketing for your course is to ask past and present students to participate in a video where they share their experiences. Their recommendations will likely sway other students to sign up for it this semester.
You can also ask professors of similar courses to name-drop your course from time to time.
#5 Share Course-Related Content on Social Media
Another way to attract prospective students to your non-conventional course is by promoting it on your university’s social channels, whether that’s Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or TikTok. Many of your university students may follow these social media accounts already.
Your posts and stories about your non-conventional course should be eye-catching and engaging. For example, you can post:
High-quality photos of your students in the classroom
Short-form clips of your students’ feedback videos
Funny memes that relate to the course’s content
In your captions, share some key details about your course and direct interested students to a clickable place where they can register for it.
Work With a Top-Tier Higher Education Marketing Agency Like Semgeeks
Lastly, you can boost your non-conventional course enrollment by partnering with an agency that understands the ins and outs of higher education digital marketing, like Semgeeks.
At Semgeeks, we have extensive marketing experience in the education sphere. Some of our digital marketing services include:
Content marketing
Email marketing
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Social media management
Analytics
By allowing our team to manage your higher education marketing, you can refocus your attention on shaping your course materials and creating memorable classes for your future students.
Are you ready to enhance your university’s non-conventional enrollment? Speak with a digital marketing expert at Semgeeks today.
