What is the Best Way to Attract New Students?

If you're in the educational sector, one of the primary questions at the heart of your business is: how can we attract students? In this article, we'll be guiding you through the best ways to do just that and why the answer to this question is fundamentally based on digital marketing and systems. 

The Research Process When it Comes to Education

One of the most common mistakes made by educational businesses is to encourage enrollments straight away. It is thought of as the first and ultimate step in the journey, when in reality, that often drives people away as they are not ready for that just yet. 

Here's the most important consideration to keep in mind: Since education is among the most important choices that students and parents make, they go to a great deal of effort to make informed decisions. Therefore, the researching phase is a prolonged one, where all of the options are considered in-depth. 

With that in mind, schools and institutions should ensure that their websites can collect all of the potential students' data. By having a CRM system in place, you can track all of the movements and guide each of your target audiences more precisely. We at Nexa use and recommend HubSpot, as it is a robust platform that works well for educational businesses. By having more information at your disposal and having your teams work together behind the scenes, you'll be better equipped and more successful with your marketing strategies. 

While we've covered the ways HubSpot help schools, here's a recap of the top 5 benefits:

• System processes: HubSpot facilitates administrative tasks from a centralized software, increasing productivity levels and improving forecasting capabilities. Its ability to record and store data is invaluable for marketers.
• Awareness: When working with HubSpot to carry out your digital marketing, you'll be able to reach a wider audience. The system is based on inbound marketing, which is all about creating valuable content for your audiences. 
• Leads: For your school to secure admissions, you need to have a lead strategy. From generating them to nurturing them, HubSpot assists you in the most technologically advanced ways possible. It makes information sharing possible, which helps to qualify leads and satisfy them accordingly. 
• Communication: Automations and personalization are made easy with HubSpot. 
• Integrations: HubSpot's integrations allow you to manage many aspects of your business with linked apps. From analytics to sales, you'll be operating with the latest software. 

The crux of successful marketing is about attracting students - and, of course, converting them from potential students to actual students. Apart from the digital marketing tips and techniques mentioned above, we urge you to follow these three golden aspects of educational marketing:

• Multi-Customer approaches: Regardless of the type of institution you are, you're likely to have various target audiences to cater to. Whether it's relatives and parents or students themselves, you've got to consider each of these age groups and desires. By building in-depth buyer personas, your website should have different pathways that appeal to them, with content that suits their needs and provides value.
• Think in terms of search: Since research is involved in finding and enrolling at a school, it benefits you to consider the searches involved. This will ensure you can produce high-ranking content that satisfy's the customer's queries. Additionally, these searches may be location-specific, so all educational businesses need to provide accurate geo-location information and target their marketing communications. 
• Retargeting: When considering the potential students' buyer journey' with your school, you need to employ retargeting advertising and marketing to remind them about your school as an option. By being visible, you'll remain in front of your mind. The goal is for the person of interest to go on a journey with your school as a front running option - this is a process, though, so you need to map out their route down the sales funnel. Again, this is where a CRM system such as HubSpot is so helpful - it can guide interested parties and provide them with automated responses depending on their interests and stage in the process. This way, you'll be sending them the information they want when they need it and continue the process by inviting them for tours of your school when the time calls for it. 

Digital Marketing Can Increase Your Student Numbers … And Sales

Right off the bat, we've got to mention digital marketing. Its all-encompassing realm helps businesses to reach and communicate with their targeted audiences effectively and cost-effectively. Here are some of the best approaches that schools can implement:

• Content marketing: With many different audiences to cater to, educational businesses need to produce a range of multi-media content. This will also add value to your brand in relation to search engine rankings. 
• Email marketing: This is a highly effective form of marketing, especially in schooling matters. It is personal and direct and can expand far beyond a simple newsletter, covering invites, updates, guides, and checklists.  
• Social media marketing: Social media platforms are among the most popular ways for businesses to market themselves online. Since most students use these platforms, it is ideal to have a brand presence and build your institution's online community.
• Advertising: When it comes to the best ways to attract students, you've got to include advertising in the mix. There are various forms to consider, and deciding on the best option for your school will depend on your budget and strategy - usually, when it comes to online, it'll be based on a pay per click structure. One option is display advertising, which is displayed on complementary third-party websites to promote your school with a link back to your own site. The other is native advertising, which are ads that seamlessly integrate into a complementary site. Finally, some social media ads can be used to target and retarget your audiences directly. All of these options for advertising are great as they're flexible, precise, and affordable. When used correctly, you can gain a lot of leads through your advertising campaigns.

Attracting new students to your educational institution is made possible through digital marketing and systems. Growing a student base requires you to reach the right people at the right time and in the right way. If you're looking for the most efficient and award-winning strategies, book a session with us at Nexa.