How can you market your institution to prospective students and their families?

2 Define your value proposition

Your value proposition is the core of your marketing message. It is what sets you apart from your competitors and convinces your audience that you are the best choice for them. Your value proposition should answer these questions: What do you offer? How do you solve your audience's problems or fulfill their desires? Why should they choose you over others? Your value proposition should be clear, concise, and compelling. It should highlight your unique features, benefits, and outcomes, and align with your audience's values and aspirations.

3 Use storytelling and emotion

Storytelling and emotion are powerful tools to capture your audience's attention and interest. They can help you showcase your institution's personality, culture, and impact, and create a connection with your audience. You can use stories and emotions to illustrate your value proposition, share success stories, demonstrate social proof, and evoke curiosity, excitement, or urgency. You can use different formats and mediums to tell your stories, such as videos, podcasts, blogs, testimonials, case studies, or webinars. Make sure your stories and emotions are authentic, relevant, and consistent with your brand identity and voice.

4 Optimize your online presence

Your online presence is a key factor in your marketing strategy. It is where your audience will find you, learn about you, and interact with you. You want to make sure your online presence is optimized for visibility, usability, and engagement. You can optimize your online presence by using SEO techniques, creating responsive and user-friendly websites, updating and managing your social media profiles, producing and distributing valuable content, and encouraging and responding to feedback and reviews. Your online presence should reflect your value proposition, stories, and emotions, and provide clear and easy ways for your audience to contact you or apply to your institution.

5 Build relationships and trust

Marketing is not a one-time event, but an ongoing process of building relationships and trust with your audience. You want to nurture your leads and prospects throughout their journey, from awareness to enrollment. You can build relationships and trust by providing timely and personalized communication, offering helpful and relevant information, creating and participating in online communities, hosting and attending events, and following up and following through. You want to show your audience that you care about them, understand them, and value them, and that you are reliable, credible, and supportive.

6 Measure and improve

Finally, you want to measure and improve your marketing efforts. You want to track and analyze your results, such as reach, traffic, conversions, retention, and satisfaction. You want to identify what works and what doesn't, and why. You want to use data and feedback to inform your decisions and actions, and to test and refine your messages, channels, and strategies. You want to keep learning and adapting to the changing needs and preferences of your audience and the market. Measuring and improving your marketing will help you optimize your performance, efficiency, and effectiveness.