More high school students are developing an interest in trade and vocational fields. They consider such skills to be a stepping stone towards lucrative careers in construction, plumbing, beauty, and welding industries. So instead of looking up the four-year college route, high school seniors are on the lookout for top career or trade schools that will earn them the best apprenticeships.
Teenagers spend an average of 9 hours a day online, so if your career school wants to attract new applicants for the upcoming session, why not leverage this statistic? It turns out that a lot of universities already do.
It’s how universities try to get back potential candidates who drop off while filling out an inquiry form or don’t reach out after a campus visit. This is called social media retargeting, and career schools need to join the wave.
What Is Social Media Re-Targeting?
This type of online advertising ‘targets’ users who visited your website by positioning your ads on social media sites they will visit later.
When you integrate re-targeting into your vocational school’s marketing campaign for new applicants, customized ads will track users on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram.
Now, you have a better online reach and you can build on the momentum that starts when a high school student visits your website. Engaging with them at crucial turning points, like when high school students take their finals, receive SAT results, and before general application deadlines, can help you stay at the top of their mind.
How Can It Lead To Major Conversion Spikes?
Think of it this way. If your career school has a website, it’s likely that interested students will come across it eventually when searching for schools that suit their budget and other requirements.
Users visit a website for three reasons – to contact you, get information, or to make a purchase. In this case, making a purchase is the same as sending an application. Potential applicants don’t make the final decision as soon as they come across your landing page – they still need to weigh other options, talk to their parents and discuss various other factors.
But chances are that by the time they’ve done that, other schools may have made a favorable impression already.
Your vocational school needs to develop a education marketing strategy that converts website visits from potential applicants into leads. Your school’s admissions team can follow up with them and this can eventually lead to recruitment. Social media re-targeting can do this.
Potential applicants who visit your site are interested in what you have to offer, so when you reinstate your message through re-targeting, they don’t forget about considering you when making the final choice.
Re-target Previous Visitors Based on Specific Messages
Ever had a potential lead gone cold while they were in the middle of inquiring about financial aid? How do you get back those leads with attention-grabbing content? By reminding them of what they were looking for.
When you engage with previous visitors based on which specific content they were searching for on your website, you have the upper hand when it comes to grabbing their attention.
Teenagers have the smallest of attention spans while scrolling on social media. However, as soon as they see an ad for a vocational school they checked out talking about their concerns, like financial aid or work-and-study opportunities, they’ll remember you.
Social Media Re-Targeting Best Practices
Ideally, our admissions office should be able to track everything at the same time with admissions software such as LeadSquared. With its visual dashboard, you have a bird’s eye view over various aspects of the lead conversion process, such as a lead-by-sources graph, a lead funnel, and recently sent email campaigns.
When you productively follow and keep track of website visits and develop these leads, enrollments for your career school can increase significantly. Here’s how LeadSquared can help you make the most of your re-targeting strategy:
Understand Your Potential Applicants’ Needs
LeadSquared allows you to systematically track a user’s activities on your website and landing page to better learn their motivations. Once you figure this out, you can take the lead further.
Personalized Messages through Social Media Ads
If you know what a specific student is looking for, why show them a generalized ad. Reminding them that you have what they’re looking for, be it financial assistance, courses, and campus facilities keep you at the top of their list.
Improve Admissions Department Productivity
Your admissions officers don’t need to take an hour to manage their schedule before actually starting on work tasks, LeadSquared allows them to see daily tasks as soon as they log in. They’ll remember where they left off yesterday, and plan how they’ll follow-up today.
Your admissions department can level up their conversion rates by communicating with leads, depending on engagement levels. Studies show that website visitors retargeted with ads, later on, are highly likely to convert.
We’ve established the best practice for your career school to get ahead with more enrollments. Now you can maximize the impact of your marketing strategy, engage more applicants, and take the load off admissions officers.
