Every year schools work diligently to create successful enrollment campaigns. Sometimes, however, it can be difficult to come up with new ideas. To help, we compiled a list of 7 enrollment marketing strategies to help jumpstart your new campaign.
Kicking off the list might be something obvious, but sometimes the most obvious things can be overlooked. Knowing and really understanding your demographic is one of the most essential enrollment marketing strategies. This will allow you to understand your current student population and your desired target audience.
As your narrow down your demographic, you'll begin to discover what location, age group, and other factors contribute to your audience.
Once you close in on a targeted demographic, it will allow you to create a targeted marketing campaign that will bring in a higher ROI. This includes things like knowing where your target spends their time in the digital hemisphere and broadcasting an ad campaign on said platform.
Knowing where your students and/or parents spend their online time is useless if you don’t know how to properly use the platform that they are on. In a world of constantly changing trends and behaviors, it might be overwhelming to learn them all, but knowing the ins and outs will give you an advantage when using your target platform.
Effectively using a social media strategy also means not skimping on the material. No one wants to see stock photos or boring and uninspired content, it will only imply that your institution is boring and uninspired. Remember that you are fighting to get the attention of your audience, and this is not just a battle in the content against other institutions, but also other sources of media, friends, brands, and much more.
In recent years, video marketing has been on the rise and yields higher ROI. The numbers speak for themselves; in 2021, a report revealed that 86% of video marketers state that videos increase traffic to their website, 84% state that video content helped generate leads, and more importantly, video marketing helped increase the understanding of a product or service.
Including these videos in an already existing email campaign can help boost click-through rates up to an impressive 300%. You can use different marketing tools to embed videos into your email campaign such as Mailchimp. Take it even a step further, and use videos to explain certain processes or testimonials of your school to engage with your audience.
Knowing your online presence means knowing what your prospective clients are searching for while on the internet. Analyze the keywords that bring in traffic to your website and gear your headers, titles, image, and tags toward those keywords.
If your keywords are yielding no results, then maybe simplify things. Simplifying things often clears up confusion, and sometimes it allows for the freedom for different ways of thinking.
In order to have a strong online presence, you need to first understand who your competitors are and what tactics and keywords they use. This can help inspire new content or help you recognize what keywords and trends you're missing out on. Remember, don’t copy exactly what they are doing, take note of what they are doing and how your institution can improve upon it.
Keywords are words and phrases that you can use to create content that will attract more viewers. Long-tail keywords are longer phrases and therefore more specific. They tend to have a lower volume but you're more likely to rank high in searches.
One of the easiest ways to chase long-tailed keywords is by creating a blog. Blogs can offer insight on a variety of topics and can be tailored to bring in your target demographic. These long-tailed keywords often offer niche results that a prospective student/parent might be looking for.
What are your goals for enrollment at your institution? Are these goals supported? Defining and setting realistic goals should be one of your first steps in your enrollment marketing strategy.
Just remember that we live in a constantly changing world of trends, behaviors, and ideas. That means that likewise our goals and expectations should change too. You should be constantly reevaluating and updating your goals to fit your needs and your current situation.
Did you know that almost 75% of Gen Z use phones to access the internet over computers? That means that a good portion of your target audience will access your site and content through their phones; but is your website ready for that? Making sure that your website not only looks good but is also compatible with other mobile devices is an investment you won't be disappointed in.
Take it a step further and consider text marketing. SMS messages actually have a 98% open rate! Use a well-timed automated text message system to help implement your strategy of targeting the next generation. Or consider more personalized and engaging email campaigns to really connect with your audience.
As technology evolves, schools will need to change along with it. Although this may seem overwhelming, there are many online tools that can help, including TuitionEP! Schools and organizations can easily manage tuition payments and enrollment with our easy-to-use app and dashboard.
Check out our website to learn about how we can save you time and money! Or schedule a free demo today to see TuitionEP in action!
