Higher Education marketing isn’t the same as marketing a traditional business. For one, your audience is constantly changing. Every four years, the group of students you target shifts completely, graduating, moving on and settling on the university or career path of their choice. This requires a constant shift of strategy—especially as generational changes become more and more apparent.
Still, despite the ever-changing education marketing landscape, there are a few tried-and-true rules you can follow to ensure your efforts are as effective and profitable as possible.
Go where the students are.
From the get-go, choose your placements carefully. Sure, students might hang out at the mall, but you know where they’ll absolutely be five days a week? In school. Leverage schools and other venues where your potential audience is guaranteed to be, and focus the bulk of your efforts there.
Maximize your budget with sure-fire methods.
Let’s face it: most education marketing budgets aren’t deep. But that doesn’t mean your efforts can’t be effective; you just have to be a little more creative with the dollars you do have. Get the most out of your budget by utilizing media that will give you a direct line to your target audience. Focus your budget on more pointed marketing that reaches your target audience directly.
Target the audience with the most potential.
By the same token, it’s important to pick and choose your audiences carefully, just as you do your methods and placements. You select the school districts and campuses where students are most likely to come to your school. Reach a broad audience throughout all grades – not just juniors and seniors – and get students interested in your college or university before other campuses reach out to them. The Scholastic Network will extend your reach and relevance with or without physically sending a recruiter
Support your in-person recruitment events with direct messaging.
Use marketing tools that can draw attention to your in-person and on-campus events, as these are where the biggest results come from. Broadcasting tools like The Scholastic Network can help amplify your message, boost visibility of your events and generate more foot traffic. Then let your recruiters take it from there.
Draw attention to causes.
Today’s students care about causes—and showing you do too can win you big points in their books. Sponsor messaging that shows you’re dedicated to helping the community and residents who live there and make it known that your organization cares about more than just a student’s pocketbook. This sort of approach can go far with today’s humanitarian Generation Z students.
Need help boosting your education marketing campaign? Consider The Scholastic Network, and reach up to 200,000 students 18x per day across the state of Texas.