It’s pretty needless to say that digital marketing is an absolute must for the majority of businesses and industries. And when it comes to younger target markets, digital marketing strategies need to be in pin-point order! Not only do younger generations live on their smartphones, tablets and desktops; but they fully understand the hows, whys and whens of it all! The educational sector is no different; it’s digital hungry and needs to be 100% digital savvy.
In this blog, we will discover 5 of the best ways 4Sight can help your educational institution deliver the best digital marketing strategies to give your brand the boost it needs. Let’s take a look:
Make Mobile your BFF
Optimizing your online marketing efforts to mobile is a super smart choice when you’re trying to interact with the younger generations. Engagement is the number one tool in digital marketing, so making sure you give your students, current or prospective, the choice to engage with your brand via mobile is vital for ease of communication and transmission of your brand image.
Translating your educational institution’s brand’s messaging via website, banners, ads and other communicative tools such as application or enquiry forms, could result in a higher CTR (Click Through Rate) which in turn will result in more bookings, applications and whatever it is your CTA (Call To Action) for the campaign you’re promoting is.
If it’s easier and more convenient, younger users will respond to your educational institution far better than to others.
Give your advertising that Next-Gen Vibe: PPC-style
First up, what does PPC even mean? A PPC campaign is one that is based on Pay Per Click strategies – this means that online platforms charge advertisers a fee based on the number of clicks that the ad gets. Payment is not fixed but caps can be set to avoid dipping into other marketing budgets for future campaigns.
Education institutions would benefit from this because while organic searches would lead tonnes of users who are actually searching for education related queries to the desired website or landing page, these tailored campaigns can target either high qualified users or those users who are perhaps undecided or unaware of the vast prospects that your institution can offer.
PPC campaigns allow refinement in searches, which means you can target the right people within the right demographic, based on age, interests and any other qualifying factor. This sort of lead generation is time effective as well as cost effective.
Treat SEO as the Valedictorian – the best of the best
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a set of practices designed to improve to help your content rank higher on the coveted SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Page 1 is everyone’s target of course and the first 3 organic links on the list will generate the most traffic. So how do you get yourself to the top of the list?
Content is king, so keeping your website fresh and updated with high-quality content that is useful and totally readable for the human user will give your website the boost it needs. An educational institution, be it a high school or university needs character, and there’s no better way to show your company character than with content. But SEO-rich content also provides other key benefits:
- Link building; both internal and third party – for credibility and ease of access. Humans like this, and so does Google.
- On-page SEO; for increased rankability – this would include keywords, title tags, meta descriptions, headers and increased linking. Humans need this, and so does Google.
- Technical SEO; so that the Google bot can correctly crawl and index the site. Humans don’t really understand this, but it is essential for the visibility of a website.
When it’s Live Content, it’s Real Content
Allow your viewers to fully immerse themselves in the principles of your educational institution. We all know that educational hubs are not only about the learning but also about the social factor. Make sure that you breathe life into your content and give your users what they’re looking for: live content that captures the essence of campus life.
Think about all the questions you wish you could have asked before enrolling in a university; imagine you could fire out any sort of question in a live Q&A? Wouldn’t that make things a lot simpler and give you the confidence you need to tackle the pressures of campus life a whole lot easier?
Other live content could help students find their way around campus. Wouldn’t it be great if you could hop onto your educational institute’s Instagram Highlights and find your way to your Monday morning class – you know the one where the lecturer is really strict on punctuality? Simply follow the virtual tour and make your way to class on time, everytime!
Influencers lead the way… so let them lead you
Brand influencers and brand ambassadors are key players in the digital marketing industry. Love them or hate them, working in line with their key demographics could take your brand to a whole new level. Your educational institution is a brand that needs to speak the language of its students – influencers know just how to do that.
Choosing the right brand ambassador or influencer for your university or college will give you the potential to speak your message through a friendly face who your prospective students look up to or aspire to emulate. Their attention to social media trends and digital strategies is what you will learn from them as an educational hub and with the right marketing team you’ll be able to reach new heights.
4Sight is on the ball when it comes to new concepts and digital marketing techniques that can help a business grow into a power house. Pairing a great education force with a dynamic, engaging and professional marketing agency like 4Sight will give your educational institution the boost it needs to reach the right target market!
Contact 4Sight today for your student-ready tailor made strategy!