How to Maximize Inbound Marketing for Higher Education Institutes?

With 90% of students exploring colleges and universities online, institutions who practice inbound marketing for higher education are in a better position to involve the potential students along their path to admission.

For students who are planning to apply in colleges is more hectic now than ever before. Choices abound, competition is tough, and tuition fees is high. Some potential students will dump a degree altogether in the face of a great job offer.

Those who don’t know that the school or university they choose will have complications in the near future. They need information that will assist them in making an informed decision about the university that is right for them.

Colleges and universities who nurture a selfless, carefully constructed inbound marketing policy will have armed themselves with the tools to help those prospects during this dire stage in their lives.

What is inbound marketing?

Inbound is basically a marketing exercise based on an understanding with the customer, thorough planning, and detailed research. It focuses on two questions:

Who are our personas?

Inbound marketers develop what they call ‘buyer personalities.’ Through qualitative and/or quantitative research, they recognize what problems or ‘pain points’ are pouring customers to seek out a product or service, and then craft marketing content that says directly to those pain points.

In higher education, buyer personas may translate to student personas, parent personas, or even teacher personas. Anyone involved in the decision to apply to your institution may, can and should be a persona.

How do we remain relevant to your customers at each stage of their journey?

The buyer’s journey is a model that breaks down the buyer’s decision-making procedure into three distinct stages: awareness, consideration, and decision.

Inbound marketers deliberately align marketing content with each stage of the buyer’s journey. Prospective buyers in the consciousness stage, who may not have heard of your company, need an introduction.

Blog posts and social media appointments work well here. Content for the consideration stage should validate what makes your product or service distinctive. The decision stage is the time for advertising offers and pitches.

The buyer’s journey for the potential student may be the journey to the application or even enrolment liable on how much funding is needed through the process.

Why it’s a good idea to include inbound marketing in higher education?

Your college or university produces plenty of digital content. Blog posts, statistics, photos, student testimony, recent events, and general information pages fill most university websites.

But one size doesn’t fit for all when it comes to content. Parents, guidance counselors, alumni, and potential students are all exploring colleges and universities online, and they all want various information.

A student who has wanted to be an engineer since she was five years old doesn’t want to hear about your college’s nutritional science program.

Parents want to know about safety features on campus and dining hall accommodations. And professional studies students don’t want to watch videos from last year’s undergraduate orientation.

To add, inbound marketing is one of the most active ways to market for businesses and organizations that have a long sales cycle. When well-wrought, a plan focused on inbound marketing for higher education institutions safeguards that the right content reaches the right parent, student, or teacher at the right stage of their journey.

Awareness: Reach more prospective students:

If a student hasn’t heard of your school, they won’t visit your website, apply, or enroll. You have to get your name out there. But how? By providing prospective candidates with information that they find helpful, not intrusive, you can begin to build a permanent relationship.

Try blog posts with titles like “10 Best College Essay Topics from Last Year” or “Top 5 Reasons to Go to College in India.” Let potential students find their way to your content through SEO and social media. Show them that you’re a dependable source of information and a name that they can trust.

Consideration: Differentiate your institution:

As of 1st February 2020, there are near there are approximately 935 universities in India, State Universities 409, Deemed to be universities 127, Central Universities 50, Private Universities 349 as per the date listed in UGC website.

What makes your college unique? With effective blog posts and relevant web content that help guide potential students to your website. You need to also make sure that you are always ready with extra content to show students not just why your school is great, but why it’s great for them.

 Show videos of student testimonies, or offer a list of new course offerings for the freshers. Ask students to engage with you by sharing their views, and then respond to them by offering content that speaks directly to their interests. When students feel recognized by the course, they will be more akin to apply.

Decision: Provide support during the application process:

When students apply to colleges, they apply to a lot of them. Consider streamlining your application procedures to help applicants direct the process. Craft content and tailor messaging to meet students’ concerns at this stage: finances, transportation, campus visits, and maybe even a letter or text message from an admissions officer who found a student’s essay to be particularly well-written.

In the aspect of decreasing enrollment statistics, crafting content to see the needs of potential students at each stage of their journey is one effective way to attract, involve or convert candidates and the basis of successful inbound marketing for higher education and beyond.