"School's out for summer... School's out forever...!" is how Alice Cooper summed it up, but there's still lots to consider for schools, colleges and training centres.
With that in mind, we thought now would be a great time to explain inbound in an educational environment...
After all, education establishments, particularly colleges and universities, need to advertise and market themselves just as much as businesses and organisations in any other sector.
Did you know? "Seven in ten consumers say they prefer to learn about a company through a collection of articles rather than in an ad."
(Source: The Custom Content Council)
Inbound marketing, first of all, is essentially a huge marketing strategy which revolves around the creation and sharing of high quality, carefully researched content that your audience will find valuable and have a specific 'next step' to complete after they have read your content.
This translates in to you producing content about your educational establishment and its abilities and benefits, which people want to find and engage with because it provides them with added value at no extra cost to them - it meets their needs and offers right now ("What does your college off me / my child?"), as well as solutions or options for future needs ("When can I attend an open day?" - include a call to action / link to your open day web page!).
Content in an inbound marketing strategy can be anything from ebooks, blog posts, guides, email marketing, social media posts, newsletters and video marketing.
What can it offer us?
Specifically for educational establishments, these are just some of the results that inbound marketing encourages:
Brand awareness: Spread the word about your organisation and "be seen"
Attract students: Carefully curate content that speaks to the kinds of students you need, which is great for specialist or technical colleges
Increase lead opportunities: Enable more people to se you with more options for how they can reach out to you rather than the reverse which is typical with traditional marketing methods
Recruit staff: Target messages more effectively by opening yourself up to more arenas than just job websites
How does it work?
Here is a typical example of how inbound marketing can work for a parent and a prospective student, Claire (mother) and Laura (daughter) Rogers:
As a mum, Claire Rogers, searches on Google for information on GCSE and preparing for examinations and sees a web page / advertisement in the search results about a checklist for exam preparation tips and best practices. She clicks and is taken to a landing page, on which she fills out her details and categorises herself, using a drop down box on a form, as a "Parent". She downloads and prints the checklist, giving it to her daughter.
Meanwhile, Laura Rogers, her daughter, goes on Facebook and sees a Facebook ad about your college. When she clicks the ad she is brought to your homepage and notices a call to action for free GCSE exam tips. She clicks and is taken to a landing page, on which she fills out her details and categorises herself, using a drop down box on a form, as a "Secondary School Student". She downloads and prints the checklist to use as revision help.
Both mother and daughter now have their checklist and have both given their details to you. They are more likely to return to you for more information and potentially enquire about your facilities and open days.
Equally, you have both of their email addresses! You can set up one email marketing campaign for parents explaining about funding initiatives, awards your college has won and open day information. Then, you set up a second email marketing campaign for secondary school students, highlighting information they're looking for - course details, university acceptance rates, % of students on work experience placements through your college and day trips on offer to students while they're at your college etc.
Why inbound is effective and easy to implement
For educational establishments specifically, inbound is effective and easier to implement because:
You have so many stories to tell!
All education establishments have case studies of students that have gone on to do great things since their time at your college / university. There are also so many events, trips and news stories about new facilities, investment or exciting plans for expansion that you could use! Why not turn these printed articles into email newsletters or social media posts and blogs?
The prospective students in your audience are born in the digital age.
Part of your audience are so accustomed to researching, discussing and spending several hours of the day on social media that it's second nature. Finding a college / university that is so forward thinking as to be adopting social media too is only going to earn you their attention and intrigue - use it wisely.
The needs of your audience are clear!
You know what parents of students want to hear and read and you know what students like to hear to interest them in attending open days and, ultimately, your establishment. Use these years of research and feedback to perfect your customer's journey.
Colleges and universities already produce lots of content.
There is so much printed material, in terms of letters, emails, newsletters, case studies, prospectuses, campus booklets, already being used by colleges and universities that a lot of the information for your new inbound resources is already in existence. Having this huge resource of information is so beneficial in the long run, saving both time and money!
Inbound is both cost effective and easier on resources...
Inbound is all about digital content, saving you so much money in reducing your paper trail, making your marketing and sales departments more cost effective and efficient (you don't need to wait for the printers)!
Additionally, once you've got your first landing page, form and workflow set up, you can clone them - saving you SO much time!
What's next?
- Strategise a plan and segment your audience to create personas (ask us for help!)
- Research content ideas for your establishment
- Find out where your audience can be found and how they like to be communicated with
- Collate all of your current content and how it can be re-purposed in an inbound strategy
- Create a specific plan for starting your inbound journey
- Develop an editorial calendar
- Devise a marketing and sales plan for promotion
- Speak to Thrive about help and advice with inbound and content creation, as well as our specific inbound marketing software applications
It's easy to get sidelined during term time and stick with the same marketing strategy, but perhaps it is about time you implemented a modern way of marketing your establishment and speaking with your audience segments?
Find more like this via Education.
