Marketing Strategies for Colleges and Universities
Are you overwhelmed with the idea of marketing your business to potential clients for your college or university? If you could learn 12 strategies that can increase your online presence, student inquiries and admissions, brand value, and marketing ROI, wouldn’t you do it? If so, this blog post is for you.
Get your pen and note down all these strategies that are mandatory for you to explore to welcome your future graduate, doctor, professor, freelancer, online essay writer, and many more.
There is nothing like being able to paint a positive picture for students. It’s a matter of offering real value, showing how much effort is being expended both by the institution and the student.
The best articles on argumentative essay topics for colleges and universities can help alot, it has never been more important to persuade students to see your school – all while, at the same time, trying to convince them why your school is definitely their best option.
List of 12 Marketing Strategies for Colleges and Universities
There are a lot of students to be found on the Internet, but how do you attract them? The following are 5 marketing strategies for your institute:
1. Understanding Prospective Student Motivations
To attract prospective students, you need to know what motivates them. What kind of information do they need to make a decision about where to enroll? What kind of questions do they ask? How can you help them find out about your institution before making their final selection? Questions like these can lead you to develop better marketing programs for prospective students.
2. Use Marketing Automation
There are some concrete steps you can take to improve your results. First, use marketing automation software to make your campaign fully automated.
- You don't have time to manage every aspect of a campaign, so automate as much of it as possible.
- Your software will help you create personalized messages for each prospect. In fact, it will do all of the heavy lifting for you.
- You can spend more time engaging with prospects and less time keeping up with the campaign.
3. Centralize Strategy and Reporting
Make sure everyone is working off the same page. A centralized strategy is crucial to success. Whether you're working in admissions or fundraising, if your team doesn't understand how they fit into the process and what they need to do on a daily basis, the work will suffer.
- Centralize strategy and reporting so that everyone knows their role in the larger picture and what impact their work has on other departments.
- Finally, make sure your team has access to the best data available about prospective students and alumni donors – data that comes.
4. Be Unique
You will have to work hard to come up with a way to make your school stand out from others. You can do this by being unique or better than other colleges.
- For example, if you are in an art school, focus on artists who incorporate various materials such as horse hair and tweezers into their work.
- Or if you're an architecture school, focus on how architecture can help save the environment by providing buildings that can harness solar energy. Same goes for business students. Let entrepreneurship ideas for students come on the table.
- Take your time and think of something that is different and original.
5. Showcase Your School's Accomplishments
It's important to show all the great things your college has accomplished throughout its history and continue to accomplish today. You can do this through articles in newspapers or magazines, books, or other media. If people see what a great institution your college is they will want to go there just so they can say they went there too!
6. Involvement in the Community
These tend to be effective when they involve the community.
- Get involved with local charities,
- Get involved with local schools,
- Give back to the community,
- Offer scholarships for local students to attend your college or university, sponsor local events like races, sports teams, etc.
- All of these things will help build a positive image for your organization in the community. That positive image is crucial to having success in marketing.
7. Advertise in High-End Magazines and Services
People who read high-end magazines want to be part of the cool crowd, so make sure you advertise in them. It won't be cheap, but the payoff will be worth it.
8. Use Video Sites
Create a video introducing your institution to prospective students and promote it through YouTube, Vimeo and other sites. Use it for a better online learning experience of students.
9. Check out Your Competition
Do this by looking up similar educational programmes in the same geographic area. This will help you get an idea of what is available and what your audience may be looking for.
10. Consider Taking Part in Group Buying Programmes (GPP)
Group Buying Programmes are online deals that provide discounts on one specific item or service to members of a group.
11. Use of Social Media
Advertise your services online through various social media platforms. For example, Facebook offers free services such as Fan pages, which can be used to promote courses and events at your institution.
12. Build a Digital Friendly Brand
Invest in creating an interactive mobile website and/or application that can be downloaded on smartphones or tablets so people can access information about your institution at any time, from anywhere around the world.
Conclusion
Fostering a strong, consistent brand identity is one of the most important things that colleges can do. While individual marketing tactics will vary based on the school’s goals, there are a number of properties that brands of all kinds should aim to cultivate.
We hope by using the strategies listed above, you can take a unique approach to marketing your school that will help you stand out from every other school out there.