Six Strategies Higher Education Digital Marketing
Six ways digital marketing facilitates meaningful connections and Helps Higher Education Institutions Connect with potential students and funders wherever they are. Brexit is the biggest issue affecting higher education in 2019. Universities received £500m in annual EU research funding between 2007 and 2013, but are unsure of the status of their participation in exchange programmes such as ERASMUS.
Higher Education Digital Marketing
In addition, there may be fluctuating tuition costs, international rivalry for student placements from Canadian, Australian, and Chinese universities, and a need to make investments in personnel, facilities, and infrastructure. Effective marketing techniques are undoubtedly necessary for higher education to survive in the ever-changing world.
It has been about ten years since digital marketing began to make waves in the industry. The cause? Few objections are insurmountable with the help of digital marketing tools. Higher education may communicate in a truly meaningful way with students, prospective students, and possible funders wherever they may be by utilizing six digital marketing methods.
Verify that your website and advertisements are mobile-friendly
Higher Education Institutions (HEI) are finding that a growing portion of their target audience accesses online information through mobile devices. According to the most recent statistics, people use their smartphones for an average of 177 minutes every day. Easy-to-access, readable, and downloadable websites, online advertisements, and material can greatly boost your click-through rate.
2. Use PPC’s next-generation advertising to produce quality leads
Pay-per-click (PPC) online platforms, such as search engines, charge advertisers a fee each time a link in one of their advertisements is clicked. HEIs may purchase website views with this method, which is a great alternative to depending solely on organic visitors, which are typically far slower. With PPC advertising, advertisers may quickly generate a large number of high-quality leads by refining the target population based on several criteria, such as age, interests, and demographics.
Related: University recruitment advertisements for both domestic and foreign students
3. Make SEO your best friend in digital marketing.
Beautifully written, well-considered material is destined for oblivion without astute search engine optimization (SEO). Consider SEO as your virtual public relations representative, tirelessly striving to draw in prospective students and sponsors who share your goals as soon as you post material.
There are three forms of SEO you should learn about:
Creating quality backlinks to your website is known as link building.
Content that contains plenty of strategic keywords, title tags, meta descriptions, optimized header tags, and internal links is called “on-page SEO.”
Technical SEO: Your pages will appear in Google search results more frequently the more Google comprehends your website. Hiring a web developer to ensure that your website is free of 404 or other technical faults, duplicate or unnecessary material, and malfunctioning or missing XML sitemaps is a wise investment.
Utilise live video because amazing things happen in life.
Related: An SEO checklist for the website of your college
4. Adopt Live Video Engagement for Instantaneous Communication
When you can attend a live Q&A session, who wants to comb through long FAQs? Almost nobody, that is. It’s considerably more convenient and personal for potential students to ask questions and receive prompt, personalized responses.
When it comes to producing valuable content for sessions led by deans, faculty members, current students, or alumni, the possibilities are endless. Additionally, it presents a different picture of your university, one that emphasizes your familiarity with cutting-edge technologies and your willingness to interact with students in a way that is both convenient and relevant. For the tech-savvy generations of today, this is extremely crucial.
5. Use the Internet for your PR tactics
Conventional PR has undergone a makeover, not a complete overhaul. Some PR foundations are never going to alter. One of these is establishing connections with academics, journalists, and editors. Your best bet for cutting-edge research and captivating sayings or narratives is your professor. Media professionals are your conduit for disseminating those tales and information to your intended audience as news or editorial material; these are particularly useful when they touch on hot-button issues in the media.
Higher Education Digital Marketing
Placing material or advertisements strategically on websites that are frequented by the students or organizations you want to reach is another tried-and-true internet PR strategy. The best results can be obtained by starting with a simple brand awareness advertisement and finishing with a retargeting campaign that displays new advertisements to those who interacted with your initial advertisement.
6. Make use of influencer marketing’s power
Rethink your thoughts. Influencer marketing is a great way to reach a larger audience in higher education. You should start by conducting some analysis on your own social media accounts and any places where your institution’s hashtags are showing up. Examine the people who are promoting your college and note how many times they have been mentioned. Uncertain about how to proceed? Bring in the experts. To ensure you get it right, it’s worthwhile to hire a specialized digital agency. Influencer marketing, when included in a comprehensive digital marketing strategy, may be quite successful for HEIs.
Higher Education Digital Marketing
In conclusion, developing a digital marketing plan for your HEI
Establishing a digital marketing strategy for higher education requires understanding the particular challenges it faces, such as the scale of most educational institutions, their numerous departments and interest groups, and the wide range of target customers they must appeal to.
Your digital marketing strategy should be based on the wider picture. It should include a strong social media presence and be carried out through a variety of carefully considered communication channels, such as your institution’s blogs, media-friendly content, email, and chatbots.
Learn about your ideal client. Client personas for higher education institutions include enrolled students, prospective students and their parents, alumni, potential funders, and possible new hires. Personas ought to be comprehensive, incorporating demographic information, interests, aspirations, hobbies, and the location where the persona is most likely to access their data.
Higher Education Digital Marketing
It’s time to provide content for all of your platforms. The greatest method for maintaining your digital marketing tactics over time is still this one. While few organizations have the means to create material continuously, students are a great source of useful content. Utilize the content that users have created (UGC). By encouraging the use of your hashtag on other social media platforms, you can locate and repurpose relevant content.