The importance of an efficient marketing funnel for schools cannot be understated. In today's marketing environment, where you can easily be pulled several directions, marketing your school can seem overwhelming.
Marketing automation leans heavily on software to automate and give your organization the ability to streamline inbound marketing tasks. Using marketing automation technology allows you to automate repetitive tasks, which helps reduce the time it takes to facilitate marketing workflows.
Let us explore the benefits schools and educational organizations can derive from working with marketing automation platforms:
1) Automatic lead generation and nurturing.
If you are spending time following up with potential students who have shown interest in your school, then you can benefit from marketing automation to nurture your lead pipeline.
For example, if a student visited your website and signed up for your email list, marketing automation software can automatically send them emails and help convert those leads into enrolled students.
2) Consolidate marketing products in an all-in-one platform.
Marketing automation tools like HubSpot allow you to access multiple marketing services in an all-in-one platform. You will be able to access a variety of services without having to switch back and forth. Some of these services include:
- CRM: Manage all your contact relationships under one system.
- Email marketing: Create specified drip or email campaigns targeting your leads.
- Social media marketing: Create marketing campaigns for social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram.
- Landing Page creation: Create stunning landing pages to promote your products or services and capture leads.
- Blog Integration: Publish quality blogs specifically optimized to convert traffic.
- Analytics and business intelligence: Analyze marketing data and assess the performance of your campaigns.
Accessing all of these marketing services in one spot can make your marketing strategy a lot more efficient. This will help you save time, which means you can focus your effort on other tasks.
3) Personalize communication with potential students and leads.
Email is the most preferred communication channel among potential students during the school search and enrollment process. If you are having trouble getting high email open rates, the problem isn't the medium. Your problem is in the message.
Students crave information tailored to their interests. Depending on the scale of your student pool, it's difficult to manually send targeted, personalized content to large segments of your prospective student database.
Dynamic content can tailor your message so targeted preferences, behavior, and interests are reached, thus creating a customized experience. You don't have to spend countless hours composing messaging relevant to each prospect's position in the sales funnel.
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4) Know when to take your conversation offline.
Your admissions department likely has a limited amount of time to devote to a large database of prospects and current students. Maximizing effectiveness is paramount. You can do this by tracking student engagement with marketing automation workflows and assigning point values to each action like website activity, form submissions, and email open rates.
Marketing automation software lets your organization know when a potential student or lead is ready for a phone call, which prevents you from wasting time with unengaged leads.
5) Leverage real-time data to track campaigns and performance.
Using marketing automation software to track real-time data lets you know if your campaigns are performing optimally. This gives you the ability to tweak your campaigns based on this data, so you are more effective in turning leads into customer relationships for your school.
Static data is data collected at one specific point in time. If you just looked at static data, you would have a limited view of your campaign's performance.
For example, school admissions might be down during a specified period like Summer but may skyrocket during Fall and Spring. If you only focused on the static data for the Summer period, you would assume admissions were taking a big hit. You would miss out on the bigger picture by focusing on a small piece of data.
Real-time data gives you a deeper and more detailed look. This real-time data allows you to target the appropriate demographics by honing in on needs and preferences. Plus, it helps you monitor performance and improve campaigns.
For example, if you are not satisfied with an email open rate, you can make adjustments to subject lines and messaging to better appeal to the prospective audience.
- WHERE TO START WITH SCHOOL MARKETING AUTOMATION -
Where to get started.
When getting started with marketing automation, it's important to focus on where your school needs the most marketing help. Ask yourself what marketing processes are the most repetitive and difficult to carry out for your organization. This will give you an idea of what features are needed for your ideal marketing automation software.
Here at Sorority Group, we are a Hubspot solutions partner. As a marketing automation agency, our focus is on education marketing and enrollment conversion. We help you reach your school's utmost potential by focusing on lead generation and conversion optimization.
Want to learn more about how Sonority Group can make marketing automation work for your school? Let's set up a time to discuss!
FAQ Recap:
What is marketing automation, and how does it benefit schools and educational organizations?
Marketing automation involves using software to automate and streamline inbound marketing tasks, reducing the time it takes to facilitate marketing workflows. For schools, marketing automation offers several benefits, including automatic lead generation and nurturing, consolidation of marketing products in an all-in-one platform, personalized communication with potential students, knowing when to take conversations offline, and leveraging real-time data to track campaigns and performance.
How does marketing automation help with lead generation and nurturing for schools?
Marketing automation software can automatically follow up with potential students who have shown interest in a school, such as by signing up for an email list. It can send targeted emails and communications to nurture these leads, ultimately helping to convert them into enrolled students.
What education marketing services can be consolidated in an all-in-one platform with marketing automation tools?
Marketing automation platforms like HubSpot offer a variety of services in one platform, including CRM (Customer Relationship Management), email marketing, social media marketing, landing page creation, blog integration, and analytics/business intelligence. Having access to all of these services in one place can make a school's marketing strategy more efficient.
How does marketing automation enable personalized communication with potential students and leads?
Marketing automation allows schools to send personalized content to potential students based on their interests, preferences, and behavior. Dynamic content can tailor messages to specific segments of the prospective student database, providing a customized experience and increasing engagement.
How does marketing automation help schools know when to take conversations offline?
By tracking student engagement with marketing automation workflows and assigning point values to actions like website activity and email open rates, schools can determine when a potential student or lead is ready for a phone call or offline conversation. This prevents wasting time on unengaged leads and maximizes the effectiveness of the admissions department.
How does marketing automation leverage real-time data to track campaigns and performance for schools?
Marketing automation software provides real-time data on campaign performance, allowing schools to monitor effectiveness and make adjustments as needed. This data helps schools target appropriate demographics, monitor performance, and improve campaigns by making adjustments based on real-time insights.
How can schools get started with marketing automation?
Schools should start by identifying their most repetitive and difficult marketing processes and determining what features are needed for their ideal marketing automation software. Agencies like Sonority Group, a HubSpot partner specializing in education marketing and enrollment conversion, can provide guidance and support in implementing marketing automation strategies tailored to the school's needs and goals.