When high school students start considering their options after their graduation, the typical first step is to begin researching schools online. Some of them might opt to stay whereas others could decide to get their higher education out of state. Also, some students already have a clear idea of their major while others are still reviewing their preferences.

What is certain is that they will come across a huge body of information before they begin their educational journey at their college of choice. For this reason, it’s imperative they get the opportunity to find the right information, contact the right people at the right moment, particularly if you’re looking to attract more students to your college. 

Here are several simple strategies that you can incorporate into your marketing tactics to ensure maximum exposure and get the best results after your campaigns. 

Pick the right timing

There is commonly a very narrow window of time when students are on the lookout and still researching schools. The time frame you have is usually just several months spanning from June through September and this is the perfect time to boost your marketing campaign so you can have the opportunity to get the most public attention possible.

The easiest way to ensure you don’t miss this deadline is to invest your efforts into creating a reverse timeline. This means you start with the planned launch date, for instance, May 31st, create a to-do list of all the things you need to accomplish up until that moment so you can get your campaigns out while peak season is unfolding. 

Offer good content value

Being among the most effective digital marketing strategies, blogging is an excellent way to increase SEO, get exposure and offer high-value content that helps to boost conversion. By offering a deeper and more precise insight into your school, its programs, cultures and offerings, you are making a significant impact on the decisions of potential students. The more information you can offer, the better it will be for your school. Producing great content is quite time-consuming, but this is what will help you get the best results and the biggest boost in SEO.

It’s common knowledge that great content is the principal driver of all lead generation efforts and good content marketing can create three times as many leads as other, more traditional strategies. However, with a ton of content material on the web, you need to rise above your competition.

As the bachelor’s degree in visual design at Raffles Milano is teaching its students, great design is about the art of change and the ways in which we can transform and improve the world around us, both small and great. Therefore, instead of focusing on your primary topic, consider your demographic and what format would get their attention. It could be something interactive that goes along with their preference of mobile games and apps, such as fun quizzes about your campus culture or your degrees programme.  

Be accessible

There’s bound to be some fierce competition among higher education institutions attempting to get the attention of the thousands of students looking to start college every year. The important question here to ask yourself is how you can get the competitive edge? The answer to this is quite straightforward - the easier it is for people to find you, the more leads you will get.

It’s certainly not advisable to let your prospective students jump hurdles and struggle to find information regarding your school. You need to ensure there are numerous ways in which the prospective students can find the information they need or contact you directly, whether it is through your website, ads, or a variety of different social media platforms.

Moreover, making sure your website is regularly updated and Search Engine Optimized will help push your institution up among the top few pages on Google, and therefore put you in front of more curious eyes of both students and their parents. 

Be clear about the type of students you want

One of the priorities in your campaign should be specifying the type of students you want to attract to your school. Think about whether you want those with higher GPAs or the students who are keen on participating in sports and various extracurricular activities. Ask yourself if you want a high rate of diversity.

The answers you get to these questions will give a more precise description of the kind of students you would like to attract to your school, and these are crucial bits of information in defining your personas and specifying your target audience. Having an elaborate profile of students’ personas will help you have more success in attracting the right type of students to your educational institution. 

Manage your social media

Clever management of your social media platforms can be a valuable part of your marketing strategy. Don’t hesitate to use scheduling and management tools such as Hubspot or Hootsuite to help you save time, be organised and keep your multiple accounts in order. The only thing to be careful about is to make sure you use the tools while maintaining some level of diversity across each platform. The reason for this is that each platform has a typical kind of audience that is more likely to use it. For instance, students prefer to use Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat much more than their parents, who would rather opt for Facebook or LinkedIn. 

Students of today rely heavily on the web to find, assess and pick their future college, and they have quite high expectations. They look for authentic experience so for your marketing strategy to be successful, you need to use the methods listed here, embrace the speed of change and find a way to stay competitive.

Author's Bio: 

Jennifer Hahn Masterson is the Lead Content Strategist at Spread the Word Solutions, holding an MA degree in business communication. She is always doing her best to help her clients find their place in the ever so competitive business arena, insisting on long-term sustainability rather than on some questionable get-rich-fast scheme.