Are you struggling to increase student enrollment effectively? Does your digital marketing strategy feel like it’s missing the mark?
Many educational institutions grapple with the challenge of not only reaching potential students but also captivating their attention and ultimately convincing them to enroll. With so many options available, students have more power than ever when choosing where to pursue their education. This makes it challenging for educational institutions to stand out and increase their visibility to prospective students.
An effective solution that more and more schools are turning to is digital marketing. Implementing a strategic digital marketing plan enables educational institutions to reach a wider audience of prospects online, engage with them in meaningful ways, and ultimately drive up student enrollment numbers.
Digital marketing provides a versatile set of tools to increase brand awareness, highlight an institution’s strengths, and convey the benefits of attending.
Here are some of the best digital marketing strategies and tactics that educational institutions can leverage as part of a comprehensive student recruitment and enrollment strategy:
SEO for Educational Institutions
Optimizing your school’s website and online content for search engines can be a highly effective strategy for increasing visibility and attracting more prospective students. With the majority of students and parents beginning their college research online, ensuring your website ranks well for relevant student searches is crucial.
- Optimizing School Websites for Relevant Student Searches: Conduct keyword research to identify high-volume search queries that prospective students are using to find colleges, such as “best engineering colleges” or “top 10 computer science programs.”
Optimize your pages and content around these terms, focusing on keywords in titles, headers, meta descriptions, image alt text, and body content. This will improve rankings in search engines when students are actively looking for schools like yours.
- Leveraging Long-Tail Keywords: In addition to broad keywords, also target more specific long-tail keywords, which are more niche phrases with lower competition.
Examples include “affordable biomedical engineering degrees” or “[Specific location] colleges with strong biology programs.” Creating content optimized for these long-tail terms can help attract students with particular interests.
- Optimizing for Local Searches: Many students search for colleges within a given region or city. Make sure to include locally-oriented keywords throughout your site’s content to rank for searches like “best computer science colleges in [specific city]” or “MBA programs in [specific region].” Location-based optimization is hugely impactful for driving local enrollment.
Implementing thoughtful SEO strategies tailored to how prospective students search for colleges online can significantly expand your reach and visibility. Keep your content focused on the informational needs of students at various stages of their research process. This will organically attract more of your target audience to your website over time.
Content Marketing
Creating engaging and informative content is a powerful way for educational institutions to attract prospective students. Developing blogs, videos, infographics and other content that provides value can increase visibility and showcase what your school has to offer.
- Blogs – Develop blogs that provide helpful information for prospective students such as advice for choosing a major, application tips, and profiles of successful alumni. Share student perspectives of campus life.
- Videos – Create videos that give an inside look into academics, campus culture and student life. Offer virtual campus tours and testimonials from current students.
- Virtual Tours – Let prospective students experience campus facilities and buildings through interactive 360 virtual tours. This brings campus to life digitally.
- Infographics – Design visually engaging infographics that illustrate key data and information about your school in a creative way. Infographics are easily digestible and shareable.
The goal is to offer an authentic view into student life and campus environment. This content should aim to answer common questions, alleviate concerns and get students excited about your school.
Social Media Engagement
Social media platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook offer tremendous opportunities for educational institutions to engage with prospective students. These platforms allow schools to showcase campus culture, student life, and academics in an interactive and engaging way.
Some effective social media strategies include:
- Posting photos and videos of campus facilities, dorm life, clubs, and events on Instagram. This visual content allows potential students to get a feel for campus and student experience.
- Leveraging Snapchat filters and stories to provide a fun behind-the-scenes look at college life. Snapchat is hugely popular among high school and college students.
- Hosting Facebook Live Q&A sessions where current students answer prospective students’ questions in real-time. This allows direct engagement.
- Creating Instagram takeovers where current students give followers a first-person tour of a day in the life on campus. This gives an authentic student perspective.
- Using Facebook Events to promote virtual open houses, webinars, and other digital events that potential students can join.
- Building interest and excitement around admissions deadlines and college acceptances by encouraging student-generated content and hashtags.
- Running paid ads on Facebook and Instagram to get content about open houses, info sessions and other events in front of relevant audiences.
The key is to leverage these platforms to authentically engage younger audiences by facilitating fun, interactive experiences. This allows prospective students to get a real feel for the school’s environment and community.
Email Marketing Campaigns
Email marketing provides a powerful way for educational institutions to connect with prospective students in a personalized and targeted manner. By building effective outreach and follow-up email campaigns, schools can establish ongoing nurturing relationships with potential applicants.
The key is to segment your email lists based on student interests, demographics, and behavior. For example, separate students interested in engineering degrees from those interested in arts programs. Use this segmentation to send emails that are highly relevant to each group.
Create welcome email sequences that provide useful information tailored to each segment’s interests. For engineering prospects, share details on new lab facilities and robotics programs. For arts prospects, highlight successful alumni and gallery events.
Send targeted emails when new blog posts or videos are published that align with specific student interests. This shows you understand their preferences and are providing valuable, personalized updates.
Follow up with prospects after they’ve visited your website or campus to reinforce interest and answer any questions. Personalized outreach builds rapport.
Use behavioral segmentation to send different emails based on prospect engagement. For highly engaged leads, share academic program details. For less engaged, focus on campus life and student experience.
The key is making prospective students feel seen and understood. Personalized, segmented email campaigns demonstrate that you value their unique interests and goals. This level of relevance significantly boosts engagement and conversions.
Get the Best Digital Marketing Services for Universities with Go Online Now
To truly excel and stand out in a crowded digital landscape, a holistic approach to implementing digital marketing is essential. Effective digital marketing involves a cohesive strategy that includes SEO, content marketing, social media engagement, email marketing, and more. These elements work together to amplify your institution’s message, engage prospective students, and drive enrollment.
However, mastering these diverse strategies requires expertise and an in-depth understanding of both digital marketing and the unique needs of educational institutions. This is where Go Online Now can help.
With our specialized focus on educational marketing, we provide a comprehensive suite of services designed to capture the full potential of your online presence and turn it into a robust platform for student recruitment.
Why Go Online Now is Your Ideal Partner in Digital Marketing
Go Online Now offers tailored digital marketing services that are specifically designed to address the challenges and leverage the opportunities within the education sector. Our approach is focused on integrating various digital marketing tactics that align with your institution’s goals and resonate with your target audience.
Here’s how we can enhance your digital recruitment and enrollment strategy:
- SEO and Blog/SEO Writing: Increase your visibility on search engines with optimized content that attracts and retains prospective students’ attention.
- Social Media Marketing (SMM): Utilize platforms where your prospective students are most active to create engaging, informative, and interactive content.
- Email and Automation Services: Communicate effectively with prospective students through personalized emails and automated follow-ups that nurture their interest throughout the decision-making process.
- Video Services: Provide a virtual experience of your campus and programs with high-quality video content that can make a memorable impact.
Our team not only understands the technical aspects of digital marketing but also appreciates the nuances of the educational environment. Our services are designed to integrate seamlessly with your existing marketing efforts, ensuring that every campaign is not just implemented, but is strategic, targeted, and effective.
Take your institution’s digital marketing efforts to the next level and see a real difference in your student recruitment results with Go Online Now. Connect with us to explore how our digital marketing expertise can transform your online presence and help you achieve your enrollment goals.
