Have you ever stopped to think why your enrollment numbers don't reach as high as you'd like? Did you know that marketing in education can be a great ally in increasing your visibility on the internet and attracting new students to your institution?
Read and discover how to use digital media to boost your business!
Why use digital marketing in education?
The education market is constantly changing and expanding. With the various changes in the job market, the demand for quality education, professional qualifications, specialization and new knowledge becomes essential, which also drives competition between the various educational institutions.
It is due to this growth and competition that schools/universities and other educational institutions demand student retention actions, aiming to achieve their growth goals. Thus, the use of different relationship platforms in the digital environment (social networks, blogs, e-mail, etc.) to capture new customers and especially to maintain current ones has become essential.
With the help of the strategies of Inbound Marketing, your institution will be able to produce relevant content, in a way that attracts the interest of your target audience, in addition to increasing your visibility compared to your competitors.
How to define the target audience?
The first step to start implementing strategies marketing in education in the digital environment is to obtain broad knowledge of the audience you want to address. Thus, persona creation, that is, the characterization or exemplification of the profile of the people you want to enroll in your educational institution, can help you in this regard.
Let's look at an example: João, 19 years old, lives in an upscale neighborhood in São Paulo, recently graduated from high school at a private school, spends a lot of time on social media, and wants to go to college to study Business Administration. The biggest dilemma he faces at the moment is choosing a good educational institution that teaches what he will truly need in the job market. His biggest concern is getting into a college that is not “stuck in time”, since the job market has been undergoing major transformations.
This is the profile of your target audience. With this information, marketing strategies marketing in education in the digital environment, they are designed to produce targeted and attractive content for this social profile, in a way that can show, through digital platforms, that the institution in question has the attributes to meet their needs.
In the case of this persona, the content on your platforms should be aimed at meeting their educational needs and convincing them to take an Administration course at your Institution.
Stages of marketing in education
Now that you have your persona well defined, you need to analyze your Enrollment Funnel, which is a graphical way of monitoring the steps in the enrollment process, identifying possible errors and corrective actions. It is divided as follows:
– Attraction
This stage consists, as the name suggests, of attracting potential customers to your institution. The aim of attraction is to spark the interest of the person through the creation of relevant content and make them understand that they need your education.
This is where the work of SEO It must be done well, so that the maximum number of people interested in your area of activity, as determined when creating the persona, get to know your educational institution.
The content on your digital platforms must be useful to your target audience. Check out some tips:
- Vocational tests;
- Study tips;
- Study guides for specific tests;
- Reasons for taking a specific course.
And since the field of activity itself is sought after by those looking for knowledge, everything becomes easier!
– Conversion
After attracting an anonymous visitor, you need to convert them into a lead, that is, a potential customer about whom you have some basic information (name, email, education, age, phone number, etc.). If your content is attractive enough, the potential customer will feel comfortable and will provide you with this information through forms on your platform.
This way, you can start nurturing these leads with information about new subjects, course promotions, study plans, etc.
- Relationship
Lead nurturing aims to build and maintain an active relationship with people interested in your educational institution's services, especially those who are not yet ready to enroll.
After all, all consumers do research before signing up for a certain service, right? That's why this process is essential. It aims to increase the credibility and authority of the institution in question in the critical view of the interested party. It's very important that your school/university is remembered!
You will gain the trust of your potential client through the content you are making available. E-books, study sheets, video lessons and student guides can be of good use at this stage.
Remember: you have to be seen to be remembered!
– Closing enrollments is the goal of marketing in education
This is the most anticipated step! After all the work of attracting, converting and maintaining the relationship with the potential client, the enrollment is finally completed and the client becomes a student.
Now it is necessary to think about retention of these students, that is, to offer quality service so that they continue to trust in their institution's learning. Therefore, the student must continue to receive interesting content, maintaining their engagement and nurturing them with information for future courses.
The results are fantastic!
Now that you know how important digital marketing is to increase your enrollments, hire a specialized agency and get started right away!