To give you a better idea of the available media and the strengths and weaknesses of each, we've performed an analysis. This chart will guide you through the selection process and help you choose the medium that will help maximize responses to your advertising efforts.
With so many different marketing options availabke, it's easy to overlook some of the most valuable solutions. To make a big impact in your enrollment efforts, PlattForm recommends these five must-haves for your budget.
Key takeaways include:
Prompt inquiry response and continual nurturing is vital to optimal conversion rates and successful student enrollment. Here, we provide best practices for key admissions processes as well as industry trends.
The paper offers insights and guidance on the best marketing strategies for promoting adult education programs in a digital age, an analysis to help you determine which media will be most effective for your plan and guidelines for how to determine ROI.
Specifically, you'll learn:
The more you read about smart phones and see them everywhere, the more you wonder if you should tailor your marketing to serving the mobile market. The quick answer is a resounding YES! The longer answer is to explain what you’re missing out on without mobile, which this one sheet does nicely.
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he Google Display Network is a group of websites that have partnered with Google to display their Adwords ads. This service is contextually targeted, meaning it’s based on content relevant to specific key terms. It allows you as the higher education marketer to place text, image, video, or rich media ads that are targeted based on specific themes in your keyword list. You can target websites that fall within the network, as well as Google properties such as YouTube and Google Maps.
Marketing your school with the Google Display Network
Internet users spend the majority of their time on content based sites (not search engines), so the Google Display Network allows the education marketer to display ads on a cost-per-click model on sites with content that is relevant to the interests of their users. The higher the degree of relevancy, the more likely the target clicks on your ad.
There are three main areas where you can utilize the Google Display Network in your education marketing:
Overall, ads on the Google Display Network can be a powerful tool in your marketing arsenal. Dollar-wise, it makes sense because you can adjust your enrollment marketing budget and targeting to fit your market. Keys to success: set your price for results and keep in mind your metrics for determining effectiveness.
We highly recommend the use of the Google Display Network, along with your current Search Engine Optimization and Pay-Per-Click efforts, to round out your interactive marketing plan. With effective use, you will see a boost in the overall performance of your campaigns.
When prospective students are researching colleges and universities, one underlying aspect that is a pivotal driving point behind their decisions is the heritage of the college. Heritage runs much deeper than “how old the school is,” “what it is known for” or even “the number of people enrolled.” Heritage is not that subtle. It cannot be put into words or even depicted by the best of artists. Heritage is the building blocks of the culture, longevity, reputation, development and strength of a university.
Heritage, in nature, is unchanging and stoic against all disparities each year. However, one attribute about the heritage of an institution is that it can change over many years. This does not always come easy. However, it does come out of demand. As more and more, prospective students lean toward technology to seek answers, admissions reps, college reputations, word of mouth and “offline heritage” starts to lose its luster. What is being said and displayed online can impact this offline historical image of an institution’s name and start to create a new heritage--an online heritage. The best way to have the ability to adapt to this new way of information gathering is to be present and aware of what is going on. In order to reach a target audience, in the realm of the Internet and technology, institutions must step away from what they were doing and demonstrate what they are doing.
Websites, today, are dime-a-dozen and come in all shapes and sizes. In order to best harness this heritage for the new generations, universities must adhere to the best practices of online marketing. Search engine optimization, paid search marketing and social media are just the beginning of what constitutes a successful online marketing campaign. The best way to be found is to be present.
Search Engine Optimization
Search engines have replaced dictionaries, encyclopedias, newspapers and much more. The death toll of traditional learning by search engines continues to grow each year, and for the first time in years, it is a necessity to be found by potential students online.
Through SEO, universities gain the ability to be found for search terms that everyday users are searching for, beyond their brand. Users no longer want to find “XYZ University” but “universities in California” or “online MBA degrees.” Through search engine optimization websites can be developed and optimized in a way where users can find them for these more generic key phrases. This can open up new doors for potential students not knowing about the offline heritage of a specific school and learning about the newly found and successful online heritage.
Paid Search Marketing
PSM coupled with SEO is a fail-proof plan to take up real estate on the search engine results pages. By being properly optimized and coupling that with a strategic PSM campaign, users will be bombarded with your brand and website everywhere they look on the results pages. With increased real estate on the search engines, institutions are able to limit the amount of competition for potential students and increase website traffic. The more targeted the traffic, the higher the conversion rate.
Social Media
The best way to think of social media is comparative to being able to listen in and entertain conversations about a specific brand. By having a strong social media presence, institutions gain the ability to display information and attract potential students that use the service. Studies have shown that people listen to their friends' opinions about a product or service more than advertisements. With a presence on social media, universities can be a topic for discussion, join in discussion, post relevant and interesting material and be found when interested students are looking for more information. Social media is not a fad or a bandwagon. It is a successful marketing tool that can further enhance brand and online heritage awareness.
These three verticals of online marketing are key elements to producing high brand awareness, potential student interaction and substantial inquiry/conversion growth today and into the future. They are not the end-all be-all of online marketing tactics for higher education. However, they can build a solid foundation to help a University grow and develop a new heritage, beyond what is known offline. The merging of these two concepts (online and offline heritage) can help a University develop growing numbers of potential students while maintaining the historical prominence that has always been.
A university’s heritage is what they are. Is YOUR University’s heritage going to become a distant memory, or a technological advancement for generations to come?
An institutional website isn’t just an informative portal—it can also be a highly effective marketing tool for admissions. Read on for some tips on how to turn your website into an admissions machine!
Archived webinar; Spring 2011
Click here to view the webinar.
