The enrollment rate for higher education institutes is dropping, which is pushing schools to amplify up their admissions process with refined higher education marketing strategies. Here is the list of biggest predictions for upcoming years to know the current and future higher education marketing trends:
1. Stories, IGTV, and YouTube for Student Recruitment
Social media posts have played a massive role in increasing enrollment in institutes, but more schools are moving from away from long, elaborative posts and onto impactful ‘stories’. Stories on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat are already established as powerful entities so they do not classify as an ‘upcoming trend’. Nonetheless, predictions show that they may soon overtake other formats of posts in the upcoming year.
Student recruitment videos are a popular means of showcasing a school’s competitive traits, whether it is the labs, extra-curricular activities, stadium, or professors. YouTube is the top place for student recruitment videos but Instagram is attempting to dethrone the video viewing giant with IGTV.
While IGTV has a long way to go before it catches up with YouTube, it already has a few good features. For example, vertical view format, which makes videos instantly much easier to watch.
2. Get an Endorsement
For many colleges, popular graduates are a beneficial aspect since they serve as an endorsement. In social media posts and other online advertisements, institutes of higher education can talk about some of their well-known graduates as a way to attract enrollments.
3. Contextual Calling
Calling qualified leads is a significant part of the enrollment process because it allows admission reps to have a one-on-one conversation with students to answer their queries. Upgrading this feature with context-based calls can increase a student’s chances of enrolling.
For contextual calling, you will need to take help from smart enrollment management software, such as LeadSquared. It works by admissions officers being notified whenever a user visits a relevant page on the website, such as that for courses, faculty, or financial aid. You can download the best admission calling scripts curated by Lexington Maximus, a seasoned Admissions Leader.
Saving this data allows you to make context-based calls with background information that catches the lead’s attention and increases their chances of enrolling.
4. Become Mobile-Friendly
Studies show that a whopping 60 percent of internet traffic comes from devices such as smartphones. It is crucial that you develop your website to make it mobile user-friendly. This includes properly sized web pages, navigation features, and quick loading times.
5. Voice and Visual Powered Searches Are Taking Over
Nowadays, all smart devices are equipped with voice assistants, and now people are adopting the idea of connecting one to their home. This includes voice assistants like Google Home and the Amazon Echo.
If colleges and trade schools intend to keep up with the rising trend, they will have to bring their A-game when it comes to search engine rankings, because voice assistants only speak information provided in the top search result. This brings us to the next higher education marketing trend.
6. Develop an Informative Blog
One of the best ways to boost search engine rankings is to provide website visitors with relevant content. In this case, we are referring to blogs that offer valuable information to potential enrollments. Examples of great themes and topics include the admissions essay, the SAT, and how to ace an admissions interview.
7. Use Smarter Automation
College and other higher education institutes should start relying on automation to build systematic workflows of each student’s journey. Using the collected data, admissions officers can automate emails, schedule calls and campus tours with simple software.
In fact, you can also start automating lead distribution for admissions representative using the higher education CRM, such as LeadSquared. If you are unaware, check out what is a higher education CRM.
8. Video Ads Get More Engagement than Written Ads
Compared to written ads, video ads are gaining more engagement among students, especially on video viewing and streaming platforms like YouTube. However, even on other social media platforms, it is less likely for written posts to get as much traction as videos. The current trend in higher education demands you to take advantage of videos. If your institute has yet to embrace video ads, it is about time that you do.
9. Use Lectures and Professors as a Marketing Tool
For many potential enrollments, the educational experience is a persuading factor. To lure in these leads, use your institute’s professors and lectures as a marketing tool. Give potential students the classroom experience so they can get a taste for the kind of academic life they will enjoy. Virtual tours are also an interesting method to help students in other states experience what it feels like to be on campus.
10. Work On Your Email Marketing Strategy
Lastly, you should not miss out on developing an effective email marketing strategy. Automating email marketing campaigns with an enrollment management CRM can help you send out compelling content and reminders to qualifying leads at the best time. This makes for higher conversion rates.
