Now that the admission season will kick off in few days, all the colleges will be standing in the queue to make the classrooms full. In order to increase student admissions, the colleges come up with different tricks. Marketing has become an inevitable part of all educational institutions. Therefore to boost admissions with digital marketing is the trend now for the colleges.
Today there is a cutthroat competition in every domain and sector. Therefore, to win the race for supremacy, everyone is taking the digital marketing aid to stay ahead of the competitors. And in this, the education sector is also not behind. It has become a necessity to engage the audience and the most effective weapon is social media.
According to Statista, the monthly active social media users worldwide are expected to reach some 3.02 billion by 2021. This is around a third of Earth’s entire population. An estimated 750 million of these users in 2022 is expected to be from China alone and approximately 350 million from India.
With more users coming on the digital platform, it is now the need of the hour that the educational institutions should provide all the details online. The prospective students’ first approach before taking admission is to search which college provides the best course. And for that, they search online to gather all the information.
The students are spread all around the globe and cannot jump from one place to other to gather information to make their decision. Therefore, the role of digital marketing is very crucial in terms of reaching the students globally.
How to increase student admissions with digital marketing?
1. Increase Visibility on Search Engines
If your educational institution is on the digital front then it is vital to have visibility. And with Search Engine Optimization (SEO), you can single-handedly come up in Google ranking. If a student is typing “best MBA college in India“, then your institute must come at the top if your site’s SEO is powerful.
SEO has also been highly effective when it comes to attracting and tracking the leads through search engines.
Making your website properly optimized help in keeping parents engaged and lowers down your website’s bounce rate, which carries a lot of importance.
2. Facebook Ads
Social media presence is a must for all the educational institutions. Therefore, advertising about entrance exams and admissions on Facebook can receive a lot of positive response.
A survey by marketingcharts, say that in an average 18-34-year-old college student own 7 tech devices.The laptop and computer are the most commonly owned devices.
Around 85% of the college student population, with smartphone impact nearing 70% and tablets (36%) more widespread than cell phones (33%).
Facebook ads are useful in targeting the niche audience. The target audience can be within 5 km of radius or city specific. It can also be the age group, gender-specific or even a specific country for that matter.
3. Create and Amplify Your Content
This plays an important role. Good content is the preference in today’s time and if you nail it, you will get the success. It is the result driven marketing strategies for all the brands.
If the education institutions produce engaging and informative content on regular basis then there are high chances that the students will find it interesting.
Publishing blogs on regular basis will let the students know what all opportunities are there in the market. For instance, if a Commerce college is publishing content constantly, then it triggers the mind of the students which makes them think about the opportunities.
Also, if you are telling the students about how to overcome exam fears through the blog, then they will be interested in reading it. Therefore, publish the content that interests the students.
4. Inbound marketing
Inbound is about creating and sharing content with the world. By creating content specifically designed to appeal to your dream customers, inbound marketing attracts qualified prospects to your business and keeps them coming back for more.
This form largely focuses on creating quality content that attracts people towards the brand. These people are already the leads, searching the market and competitors to find the best option.
Creating a good website that has a proper call-to-action button that directs the student to the landing pages should be there. Landing pages are a good source to capture the leads. In the above screenshot, you can see that the CTA button is clearly visible. When you open the website of Symbiosis, the first thing that pops up is this window. Now it is the admission season, these kinds of tactics do work.
5. Create a virtual tour
Students are always interested in knowing as to how is the infrastructure of the college. Therefore, giving a virtual tour to the students through social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram will benefit a lot.
This includes creating a 360-degree image of the college campus as this kind of posts are really trending on Facebook. The 360-degree images give a complete idea of how exactly the campus looks like.
A virtual tour guide could direct them through your state of the art auditorium, your first class sporting facilities, labs, classrooms etc. Also creating videos of the campus with a good voice-over can lure the students.
6. Alumni stories and placements
Students are always interested in the placement news. Therefore, showcasing the placement record of last few years will make the students understand how it all goes.
Sharing the alumni stories is also a good way to connect with the prospective students.
Information about placements is a good way to attract students. These days students look for good packages after studies.
Below, the Mudra Institute of Communication has given information about their summer placements long with highest stipend amount.
7. Career counseling webinars
Sometimes, students search about different prospects so much on the internet that they get confused of what to choose. Therefore, the colleges can arrange webinars related to career counseling. This will also help in getting leads as the students who are interested will be signing up for the webinar.
Such kind of webinars also creates a positive impression on the students as they start trusting the organization. Through the webinars also the soft marketing of your institute can reap good results.
8. E-mail marketing
There are many ways to gather data of the target audience. And once you have the data, you can design various newsletters stating admission details, event news, recent blogs or any other relevant information about the college.
Also, adding call-to-action button can work a lot here, you just have to give an eye-catching headline. The content has to be such that the reader should take call-to-action and proceed to the next step.
This helps in building the database on large scale.
9. Quick replies
You want your brand to shine brightly among others and for that, if any student is asking something then it is your duty to tell them the answers in time. Replying in time should be the priority of every educational institution.
Students have a lot of questions and the time runs out in such cases. Therefore answering them promptly and converting them into your students will benefit your institute only.
Now that the admission season has started in full swing, it has become important for the educational institutions to increase student admissions. Therefore, it is advisable to boost admissions with digital marketing so that the leads will be generated heavily. Keep everything handy for the students and make them believe that your institute is the best source for them. There are infinite universities in the world and to live up to the expectations of the students is really a task. But with proper digital marketing strategy, the process becomes a bit easy and streamlined.
Now that you have read how digital marketing can increase the student admissions, it is the time to start working on the strategy and achieve the highest ranking of all.
