DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGIES FOR EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

The number of students enrolled in higher education worldwide is expected to reach almost 300 million by 2025. With 29 percent of Indian population being between the are of 0-14 right now India’s education sector offers a great opportunity. The higher education segment is expected to increase to Rs 2,44,824 crore (US$ 35.03 billion) by 2025. The education institutes know that to stand out among the crowd they need both online and offline marketing.

Why is digital marketing strategy for higher education important?
More so than ever in today’s time the internet has become the primary source for people to search for any information. The student community takes up a huge chunk of people who use internet on daily basis. Internet is the ‘to go’ place for everyone, especially students, to find more information about relevant topics, subjects, syllabus, assignments and to connect with brands. This is also the only way a few would prefer to know about courses, colleges, admission process, college infrastructure, college rankings, fee structure, placement records and everything else related to an educational institute. Parents and guardians too do the primary search via net before maybe consulting with someone or making a visit to the premises.
The complete info about an educational institute including a virtual tour can be easily delivered via internet.
Parents and guardians judge a school or college based on its website, online admission processes and its online presence. Digital marketing for education is gradually taking over traditional marketing.
The competition has is high in higher education and every colleges or university is looking out for different tactics in order to showcase their course offerings and how best they could provide education that too within a pocket friendly budget.

To build online presence, digital marketing is one of the most helpful tools. It creates awareness, helps in branding, and establishes an educational institute’s online credibility. The most basic advantages are of a well-planned digital marketing strategy are -

• Brand Awareness
In today’s date brand value speaks. So, in order to compete with other educational institutions, one needs to create hype for their own brand and make it look the best in the market by every possible means. The whole world is online, especially so the younger generation parents and students so why not tap them where they are. And that is exactly what a good digital marketing strategy will do, target the exact audience at the exact time and create brand awareness.

• Course offerings
Once branding is taken care of, it is now time for an institution to outline an idea regarding their curriculum and extracurricular activities before the student. And what is the better way to present the same than making it easily searchable on the website. The more prominent is the outline the more marketing message it will spread among the student community which in turn will help the educational institution in a much larger way.

• Credibility and Authenticity
Would you trust an institute with no or negligible online presence? Website, images, videos, social media presence, live videos, reviews and third party content builds high credibility. People know that you are there, and you are authentic. Publishing press releases, news bulletins and relevant information about the institution regularly on internet helps build authenticity further.

• Access to Target Audience with Social Media
Social Media is one of the most integral parts of the whole process. A good social media strategy can help drive enrollments. Many global educators are already putting best social media tactics in use to do just that. With more and more prospective students using social media to research about colleges and institutions education providers can tap and communicate with the students with ease much before a call or a campus visit.According to Statista, almost 20% of high school students browse through universities’ Instagram accounts multiple times a day.

• Higher Conversion Rates
Television ads can get significant screen time and a greater reach but to mass audience. Digital marketing ads can do the same or more at an affordable cost for a targeted audience. Features like geotagging allows even lesser budget education establishments to accurately target the audience without hiking the ad spend. Also, digital ads helps your audience to take the “next step’ with ease. Whether your goal is brand awareness or enrollment a specific call-to-action button offers higher conversion.

What Are the Best Digital Strategies for An Educational Institute?
Now let’s have look the few steps that an educational institute needs to take for going digital and to promote and connect with the students online. Proper set of objectives with a proper strategy planning is important. You need an all-around marketing strategy, starting with a remarkable website, multichannel social media presence, through digital communication methods that include not only emails but messenger bots and university blogs.

• Invest in a World Class Website
Investing on a world class website is one of the foremost criteria to start with. A proper website with all information regarding the course offerings, facilities provides by the educational institution, info about high class faculties, placement cells, along with unique set of curriculum can really highlight the potentially of the institution thus increasing the chances of getting more and more response from students and parents all around the globe.

One crucial thing here is while developing the website, the institutes need to make their sites mobile-friendly. Mobile optimization is a vital strategy for higher education.

• Engage 24/7 with Chatbots
Chatbots are changing communication online by speeding up our actions. Various initial queries can be immediately replied 24x7. Chatbots when implemented effectively as a part of digital strategy for educational institutions can work wonders. A chatbot can answer the queries immediately making the decision making process faster. Chatbots on websites and social media also helps in portraying the institute as futuristic and tech-savvy.

• Multi-Channel Social Media Presence
Using social media along with an integrated mobile application in support can really take things to the next level. Social media being one of the most powerful yet unique tools for digital marketing can really aid the institution to get global and viral in no time. As per Google analytics social media influences the organic search ranking of a web page to an great extent.

• Platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Instagram can work as a true mouthpiece for any educational institution to showcase their potentiality in helping students to reach their dreams. Online application supported with virtual touring, user generated content can also be an added advantage that the students love to avail.

• Go Live
A common and dominant algorithm on all prominent social networks is live video. Going live is a very popular trend among students on social media. Live streaming by existing students can be utilized to maximum extent in gathering attention of prospective students.

• Create Unique Content
Unique contents regarding the accolades and awards obtained through academic excellence can work as an unique storyline which can be published in internet supported by audio, visuals, videos and other animated documentations that will not only inspire parents and students to get engaged with the institution but will also provide an awareness among masses which in no time will provide a good dividend in return. Conversion oriented content needs to be generated and marketed. Make interesting content describing the institutions. Show and write about the amenities, infrastructure, campus facilities, faculty details, placement records, fees structure etc. Details and being transparent will directly persuade students and the guardians to connect with you.

• Don’t Ignore Paid Search and SEO
Last but not the least, taking help of paid search can really work wonders in digital promotion of the educational institution. Display advertisements on the internet are highly effective and outperform traditional advertising In today’s date, this is one of the most certified techniques that is applied successfully by many institutions for brand promotion and as per studies, the results are quick, unique and positive.

• Organic SEO techniques with paid search is a must for long run victory.
SEO is the most indispensable element of a successful digital marketing strategy. SEO enhances brand visibility on search engines and makes sure that you stay on the top. So make sure that the content on your web page is well optimized for searches.

• To Sum It Up
Before jumping on the bandwagon, a digital strategy must be crafted carefully by measuring against several factors. One needs to know that digital marketing is a constantly evolving process that needs to be tweaked and updates as per audience response and ROI. What nay have worked a month back may get outdated today. To real the maximum benefits of the vibrant digital domain it is important for the education institutes to seek assistance from a committed digital marketing company that offers specialized solutions for educational institutes