Blending Digital Marketing to the Education Industry

Remember shortlisting colleges and universities for your higher education??

Selecting top colleges and universities, considering the criteria of the Merit list, Look over the campus around, verify the placement details and then finalise the list as per the allowance.?

These factors are contemplated as the topmost priority, but things are drastically changed now. As we all have shifted to the online platform, our selection criteria have also taken a slight variation.?

Students now not only rely on the Academics, infrastructure, campus ambience and faculty members. They want their institutions to be active digitally. Post glimpses of their cultural events, share the fond memories of freshers and farewell celebrations, promote their services online, run interactive campaigns, indulge the audience in creative competitions and many more.?

Thus, being digital is the topmost requirement for every institution in the present era.?

In this article, I'll share the value of Digital Marketing and its utilisation in Education Institutions So, let's get started with a brief introduction to digital marketing.

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing can be simply elaborated as the marketing activity of promoting goods or services on digital channels. As we all are acquainted with the fact that the world is moving towards digitalization rapidly. Almost every sector is acquiring digital marketing strategies and evolving its business online. According to an estimate the digital marketing industry encountered a growth of 15-20% in the year 2021 this great hike was a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

With the access to cheap data connections and affordable smartphones, the number of people around the world who have access to the internet has exponentially increased.

The concept of digital marketing has entirely changed the way we operate any business, from small startups to extreme big projects, the implementation of digital marketing is an essential parameter.

Almost every sector is now adapting to this technique because-

• Helps to engage with the customers
• Sell and promote products or services at affordable prices
• Helps to connect with potential customers around the globe
• Create huge brand awareness
• Higher return on investment

Various businesses are using digital channels such as social media, search engines, email, and websites to connect with audiences and prospective consumers.

Now that we are aware of the benefits of digital marketing, we can move to its implementation in the education industry.

Digital Marketing for Education Industry

Over the last year, people have developed the habit to study online. So, Prospective students are already searching for online training courses, as we all are avoiding social gatherings due to the covid pandemic. This can turn out to be a great opportunity and can create massive conversions.

According to a study, students spend more time on the internet rather than in front of other media channels such as television or radios. So, in marketing the primary duty is to finalize the targeting channel. It is decided by the presence of a targeted customer. Thus, if their audience is present on that medium, then they must be highly active on that only.

Advertisements on the internet are highly effective compared to the traditional style of advertising which are usually billboards, TV commercials, radio advertisements, and word of mouth.

Most parents and guardians today judge a school or college based on its website and its online presence. No one selects a college based on a bad review or rating. Even the internet is the most favoured and simple channel for applying and making queries related to admission.

Outstation students depend more on the web for college admission even their parents prefer this means of communication convenient than the offline one.?

In today's fast-paced world, students are more aware of all the marketing channels plus their tactics. The education sector experiences some tough competition and as it is becoming more challenging to attract students their level has increased too.

The need to move with the trend and study the behaviour of the target audience from time to time.

Here are some points which are considered by the education industry to move into the digital marketing sector.

Points Considered by Education Industry to Blend into Digital Marketing

Prioritising the marketing channel

All promotional activities should be engaging and prioritise across the most effective channel to reach the right and precise audience, at the right time, and in the right way.

Think! If your audience is present on Instagram in heavy numbers then why would you make the effort to publicize on Twitter?

Manage your funnel

One's the channels are finalized, they move on to the next one and ensure that the recruitment channel which is generated by marketing activities is authorised carefully. This process ultimately means that conversion must be kept in mind across all of your marketing activities.

The correct way to create a funnel is- First Plan, Then create reach, Then Act, Then Convert and at last Engage.

Measure your results

This part will help you to ensure that your marketing funnel is fully integrated and efficient, as well as you will be able to differentiate between the areas which are inefficient and efficient. Moreover, providing a scope of improvement. Every part of your advertising and marketing campaign ought to come again to your audience, from your tone of voice to the channel you use. This will make certain you succeed at virtual advertising in the education sector and stand proud of the competition.

Now that we are aware of the points, we can move to the utilisation of digital marketing for education institutes.

The Utilisation of Digital Marketing In Educational Institutes

Now that we have brief information about digital marketing and its implementation in the education sector, we can move ahead to the utilisation of digital marketing in the education sector.

Targeting and personalization

A correct and functional analysis of Big Data leads to a better understanding of your audience, both the real audience and the potential one, to predict and influence their possible behaviours.

The first step, therefore, is to divide the target into portions, into increasingly specific segments with aligned and consistent characteristics. But that’s not all. The frontier is personalization, so going as far as the single person, to a dialogue that is one-to-one, interactive, and tailored. This is precisely what institutions like IIDE, which specializes in personalized marketing, are dealing with.

Boost Brand Awareness?

Social media platforms & online exposure are the best approaches to generate brand awareness effectively and to reach the right target group as they consist of a large group of audience.

They can help you enhance your followers followed by an increased conversion rate. Numerous educational industries executed social media marketing techniques successfully to enhance leads, audience and brand awareness as well.

They can share engaging posts on their social media handles to attract the students to their various courses and offerings. Conduct quizzes, giveaways, rewards, discounts and certification courses. Plus, Live sessions of their ambience and workflow can boost their conversion rates.

Virtuous Response

Digital media service is the best medium to communicate and interact with the target audience in just a single click and few seconds they can get valuable feedback.

It helps them to provide a platform where quick feedback as messages, replies, comments, and shares are provided. On this digital media, queries are read immediately and solved simultaneously. In terms of social media, Twitter and Instagram are the best mediums to obtain instantaneous feedback from students.

Cost-Effective

Digital Marketing channels are reasonable compared with conventional marketing strategies. Internet marketing strategies like Social Media, Email Marketing, and Mobile marketing require less investment and return good conversions.

Through Digital Marketing, educational industries can focus on a bigger audience at a low venture and achieve considerable benefits.

Measurable Results

Digital Marketing Tracking Tools help you track and measure the relevance of your online marketing campaign for schools and colleges. With the statistics available, it is possible to refine the institution's strategy to implement and improve the educational institution's goals.

High Conversion Rates

Email and SMS are an important part of digital marketing that can help educational institutions achieve high response rates due to their closeness to people. With digital marketing services for schools and colleges, education sectors can easily effectively reach their target group.

Before, Moving to the conclusion let us develop an idea about how the pinnacle institutions are acquiring the concept of digital marketing.

Amity University has designed a wonderful presence online through its Instagram handle, consistently post about upcoming events, masterclasses, reviews from the students, inspirational thoughts, testimonials, blogs, and study selfies.

The most creative initiative is '5 Minutes InstaClass' where top educators around the world go live and teach them about a special topic.?

Mica College and University how successfully adapted a technique of digital marketing and establish themselves as a top university for strategic marketing and communication management.

They have an alluring website which helps us to understand its course curriculum, learn about the college, discover their programmes, have a brief intro to the faculties and their ambience.?

Conclusion

The education industry has been growing as a leader in today’s developing digital marketing trends. Digital marketing for the education sector assists universities and schools, college institutions in building their brand and also amplifying the student recruitment process.

In the digital age, institutions can use the speed and flexibility of digital marketing to change the time it takes. They can test new ideas without fixed assumptions and not only question the effectiveness of messages or information, but also define the most suitable target groups. Several tests can be carried out in parallel and provide valuable insights with little media expenditure.

Traditional marketing often promotes irrelevant content and messages, as the students are now more digitally savvy and increasingly impatient; these practices cannot work out anymore.

According to marketers, Today, 42.7% of internet users globally report using an ad blocker and that number is growing rapidly. When selecting new courses and colleges, students rely more than ever on the advocacy of people they know and trust. According to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, personal recommendations through digital marketing are now five times more reliable than brand marketing.

So, that's all from my side. Please share your thoughts on this in the comments section below.

Thank you for taking the time to read my work, and if you liked it, please share it with your friends and family.