Education is highly competitive and with the Government having announced a funding cut of £950m for British Universities over the next 3 years, it will only get tougher. 15-24 year olds make up 16% of the total PC-based Internet population in the UK but that figure leaps to 25% for mobile access.
Furthermore, there’s an import mature student market that needs to be considered. Are mature students more or less likely to research their options in more detail before making a decision? Either way they will need information to help them make a decision. Choosing your education path is a pivotal moment in the your life and certainly shapes your future.
Digital marketing enables direct communication and consistent dialogue to influence people throughout their buying cycle. Interactive online technology such as LiveChat can be used in conjunction with marketing campaigns to ensure students get the information they need when they need it.
How can higher education brands increase engagement with their customers?
We think there is a persuasion battle to be won for higher education. Students (and indeed their parents) need to be persuaded that the place they choose offers them the best solution for their unique needs. Not all students have identical demands; not all are driven purely by academic achievement, extra-curricular strength can be equally persuasive. Engagement is key and digital marketing provides multiple options for increasing communication and discussion.
Dominating search results is important
Only 8% of users go past the 3rd page of search results and 68% change the term if they don’t find what they want on the first page. It is logical, therefore, that higher education marketers need to master site optimisation and ensure that their webpages are prominent for relevant keyphrase searches. In the UK this inevitable will focus on Google given its continued market dominance, though due attention to Bing is also required.
It’s a social thing
In the words of MGMT, the youth are starting to change. Traffic from social networks to brand websites is increasing and social media is international. That’s a boon for universities and colleges with an international prospectus and a lucrative overseas market.
Surely social media gives such establishments the opportunity to connect with potential customers and influence their decision-making?
Our Webcredible article on digital marketing for higher education is coming out tomorrow so come back to read more on this. In the article we look at how higher education can embrace digital media to influence their customers and attract the right people to their courses.
Social media continues its domination in marketing news and buzz. Marketers with years of experience outside of the digital sector and SMEs are often reluctant to adopt it or simply don’t know where to start.
The Guardian had a clear chart with a line for each of the leaders. However, it only updated once every minute. This wasn’t frequent enough for it to enhance the live viewing experience. When Gordon Brown told Nick Clegg to ‘Get real’ I wanted to know straight away what the viewers thought about it. But, by the time the chart updated the debate had moved on.
Sky TV’s bar chart tried to show the breadth of opinions. For example, they didn’t just show the average rating for Nick Clegg. Instead Sky showed how far the ratings from most people ranged for Nick Clegg. So, the more the ratings differed the taller the yellow bar would be. This added a different dimension to how the ratings were displayed. However, it was a little more complicated and harder to interpret than the Guardian’s simple line chart. Also, the bar didn’t seem to move that much and you had to look carefully to notice any movement. Most of the time I wanted to look at the leaders themselves so I often missed changes in the ratings.
I wrote about this last week. It showed whether viewers felt positively or negatively towards what the leaders were saying. A single line went up or down in reaction to what the leaders were saying. There were 2 great things about this. Firstly, the line moved instantly in reaction to what was being said, giving immediate reactions. Secondly, the scale was set just right so that when viewers liked/disliked a leader’s comments the line rose/dropped markedly, these made the changes look and feel more dramatic. Out of the 3 displays ITV’s Worm was the best to watch.
For me, the most captivating example of social TV came from the ‘Worm’. ITV added a live graph line, called a ‘Worm’, on top of a live video of the debate. This continuously showed how much a select group of 20 viewers felt positively or negatively towards what the leaders were saying (they were provided a special device to do this).
