In the last edition of the Higher Education Marketing newsletter, we discussed the importance of using both branded and non-branded keywords when trying to generate traffic from search engines. In this edition, we’ll focus on another similarly subtle technique that can make a great difference in the success of your marketing initiatives: aligning your education marketing to program specific recruiting objectives.
We have discussed in the past how important it is to combine and link tactics like Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click marketing and Mobile Marketing, among others, however, schools often make the mistake of focusing these recruiting and advertising tools on their brand (“Come Visit the ‘University Name” would be an example).
While it’s important to invest in branding, aligning your education marketing with program specific objectives is more about increasing online lead generation, and not just increasing awareness of your brand. In this way, program specific marketing can improve your ROI and increase the number of leads generated from your website.
Higher Education Marketing recommends aligning SEO or PPC campaigns to specific programs. The overall goal of your college may be to have prospective students book a campus tour, but programs and faculties will often need to define and configure unique goals that are specific to their recruiting needs. It makes sense, therefore, to take this into account when making marketing decisions.
By separating marketing campaigns, you can then micromanage each individual program page, ensuring that the marketing needs of each program are being met. The ideal situation, therefore, would be to build a campaign for specific program instead of your school as a whole.
This more specific program campaign should include:
- Search Engine Optimization
Optimize program pages to more visible on search engine results pages - Pay Per Click Marketing
Put up ads on Google, Facebook, Yahoo and Bing for that specific program - Social Media
Use Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, among others, to promote program open houses and campus tours - Mobile SMS Alerts
Use SMS Alerts to alert prospective students about program events, open houses and admissions information
We encourage colleges and universities to think less about branding and more about marketing aligned with program specific recruitment objectives. Doing so will improve the ROI for each marketing initiative and increase online lead generation.
Contact Higher Education Marketing today for more information on how to align marketing strategies with recruitment objectives.
