Education marketing requires a different calculus – and when you're primarily targeting Gen Zers and Millennials, they are 'technology-savvy and know when you're offering no substance. Even if you target older generations, the chances of getting by with outdated marketing approaches and unappealing content are slim to none.
With the sheer volume of colleges and institutions contending for the same students, you can't afford to have a less-than-effective school marketing plan. You also need to provide content that stands out from the crowd. This is why it's essential to have content that centers you as trustworthy and a thought leader within the industry.
If you sense that your education marketing strategy is failing but are not sure if it's just a stroke of bad luck, here are 8 tell-tale signs it might be time to hire help.
Traffic is good. It means you're doing well concerning brand awareness. But if this traffic barely drives contact information and applications, something's wrong.
Assuming your admissions department is following up on prospective students, engaging them through email, SMS, and taking the conversation offline when the time is right – it could be that your marketing is delivering too few or poor-quality leads.
Teaming up with an experienced marketing agency will help you solve this problem. They'll learn how your enrollment process works and integrate marketing strategies to remedy these inconsistencies.
A sudden uptick in leads or web traffic means you've done something right. But when you don't know what it is, you're losing the potential to mint 'quality' leads.
Thankfully an education marketing agency can help solve this puzzle by locating the source of the traffic (and which efforts led to it). From there, an agency can build a 'quality over quantity approach to this campaign.
INBOUND MARKETING MISTAKES TO AVOID IN YOUR SCHOOL WEBSITE DESIGN
If you're caught in a cycle of good results followed by bad results, you may be basing your marketing on instinct. The problem with this approach is it's unsustainable, and your ROI depends on how well your intuition turns out.
An agency will evaluate your unique challenges and objectives, leverage data and technology, and create an approach that solves these challenges while helping meet your objectives.
Even the most known colleges rarely have every tactical and operational skill required to fill their admission pipelines with qualified leads.
So while your marketing department may be hardworking, they may not have all the tools at their disposal for consistent and effective results like a higher ed marketing agency does.
You deserve to have the best outcome possible for your marketing initiatives. When you leave the marketing to admissions, it robs you of this possibility.
Your employees in that department might be forced to wear too many hats, or may not be trained in marketing.
In any case, an effective education marketing agency has clients across varied educational sectors – which means they can introduce fresh ideas to revolutionize your enrollment efforts.
Say you run a school and you have a great deal of marketing knowledge. Because you understand how competitive the market is, you also have automation tools to help you make your marketing effective. However, your growth curve tends to stay flat, seemingly calling for intervention.
The quickest way to fix this is to find help from education marketing experts, saving you the time it takes to hire an in-house marketing team and get your marketing back on track by leveraging education big data marketing solutions.
On the opposite spectrum, you could have an equipped marketing department, but they are swamped with work, failing to meet deadlines, and struggling to keep up with content quality on unmanageable time limits.
An external education agency can complement your skills by providing the skills you need the most -- while allowing your team to focus on what they are experts at.
According to recent figures from the American Marketing Association, a moderate demand SEO Specialist will cost you about $62,750 a year to keep on your payroll. A digital marketing manager of the same rank will cost you $83,250 for the same period. Should you hire from the top tier, these two roles will amount to $221,000 annually.
In other words, it's understandable if a marketing budget takes a more-than-you-can-bear toll on you.
Marketing agencies make a viable solution to this problem. You only pay them for productivity, so you don't have to deal with the benefits and overheads that come with in-house teams.
Enrollments today largely depend on how well you orchestrate your marketing initiatives. With that said, the secret to getting ahead with your marketing efforts means hiring the right team, agency, or both.
With Sonority Group’s decades of education marketing experience, we understand your target audience, deploy the right methodologies, and leverage technology to help you achieve your enrollment goals. So what are you waiting for? Let's set up a time to chat!
Education marketing targets specific demographics, such as Gen Zers and Millennials, who are technologically savvy and value substance in content. Additionally, with numerous institutions competing for the same students, education marketing requires strategies that differentiate the institution and establish trust and thought leadership within the industry.
Several signs indicate that your marketing strategy may not be yielding the desired results, such as a lack of quality leads despite website traffic, inconsistent results, or difficulty in attributing the source of increased traffic. If you're experiencing any of these signs, it may be time to consider hiring professional help.
An education marketing agency brings expertise, resources, and a fresh perspective to your marketing efforts. They can analyze your unique challenges, leverage data and technology, and develop tailored strategies to improve enrollment outcomes. Additionally, agencies can complement your internal team's skills and alleviate workload burdens.
While maintaining an in-house marketing team can be costly, hiring a marketing agency offers a more flexible and cost-effective solution. With agencies, you only pay for the services provided, eliminating the need to cover salaries, benefits, and overhead associated with internal teams.
When selecting a marketing agency, consider their experience in the education sector, their understanding of your target audience, their track record of success, and their approach to solving your institution's specific challenges. It's essential to choose an agency that aligns with your goals and values.
Technology plays a significant role in modern education marketing, enabling institutions to analyze data, target audiences effectively, automate processes, and deliver personalized content. Education marketing agencies leverage technology to optimize strategies and enhance enrollment outcomes.
Open communication, clear goals, and mutual trust are essential for a successful collaboration with a marketing agency. Clearly communicate your institution's objectives, provide access to necessary resources and information, and maintain regular communication to ensure alignment and accountability throughout the partnership.
Success metrics for education marketing efforts may include lead generation, application rates, enrollment numbers, website traffic, engagement on social media platforms, and return on investment (ROI). By tracking these metrics, institutions can assess the effectiveness of their marketing strategies and make data-driven decisions for continuous improvement.
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