Knowing your persona well (fictional character that represents your real students) is a great game changer for creating great Marketing strategies. Personalized and targeted actions generate more efficient results.
However, how can you know what is really working? In addition to the indicators that we already use in Marketing automations (number of shares, number of people who subscribed to the newsletter, email open rate, etc.), there is something else that needs to be closely monitored to understand the behavior of your current and prospective students: the buyer's journey.
What you will see:
- What is the Buyer's Journey?
- What are the stages of the consumer journey?
- What is the relationship between the purchase journey and the sales funnel?
- What are the main characteristics of the student buying journey?
- How does Mkt4Edu map the journey of its students?
Do you want to understand what this is and how this follow-up can be done? Keep reading!
What is the Buyer's Journey?
The purchase journey is the journey that the student takes from the moment he becomes aware of your brand (there in the content strategy or in the paid campaigns that your team runs) until the purchase is made – in this case, the enrollment.
So, when we know the purchase journey your students actually take until they enroll, your team has parameters to work with. Thus, the mapping of this entire process is fundamental.
After all, there is a significant difference between working with a journey expectation (a map your team created by imagining how students behave) and a real journey (a map based on real data from each of the people who enrolled in your program).
What are the stages of the consumer journey?
Even though it is dynamic and understanding that not every student follows the same path until enrollment, the consumer journey is divided into four stages:
- Learning and discovery: the student is still unsure about which course to take, does not know which Educational Institution he wants to enter, nor whether it is worth investing in;
- Problem recognition: the student begins to see the importance of graduation and is already trying to decide what he will do;
- Consideration of the solution: the student has already done a lot of research and begins to think which of the alternatives is the best (which course and which Educational Institution);
- Purchase decision: he makes his decision based on everything he has considered and makes the registration.
Caption: Visual representation of the steps taken by the customer throughout the purchasing journey.
What is the relationship between the purchase journey and the sales funnel?
The purchase journey is closely related to the well known sales funnel. While the journey helps us understand where the student is on their way to enrollment, the funnel guides us on what to do at each stage of the journey.
- The top of the funnel is associated with the period of learning and discovery.
- The middle of the funnel is related to problem recognition and solution consideration.
- The bottom of the funnel is where the student makes their “buy” decision.
But why does this relationship exist?
Well, the sales funnel guides our actions for each stage the student is in. The way you use Content Marketing, for example, is guided by this definition.
However, we have to agree that the funnel is linear and implies that every student will go through the top, middle and bottom. The reality is quite different, and having a dynamic map to understand this is essential.
There are students, for example, who will attend a webinar and go straight to the bottom of the funnel. Others will see the same webinar and start searching for their Educational Institution at that point, going to the beginning of the journey.
The student purchasing journey is increasingly multichannel and fragmented. In addition to traditional channels, new platforms such as TikTok, WhatsApp and AI assistants such as ChatGPT have expanded the possible points of contact between prospective students and educational institutions.
Mapping these interactions in an integrated manner is essential to offering a personalized experience and increasing the chances of conversion.
By knowing the journey and using the funnel as a guide, your team has a direction of actions that must be taken.
See too:
- How to increase the conversion rate in the sales funnel?
- How to make a blog post appear on Google? The 8 Tips!
- What is Big Data and How to Use It in Customer Acquisition
What are the main characteristics of the customer's purchase journey?
Each Educational Institution will have a different relationship with their leads (interested people) and this will generate a different path in the customer's purchase journey. Therefore, it is difficult to define the main general characteristics.
What can be said is that every student, to join their Educational Institution, needs to know their brand, know what course they want to take and see benefits in this training. However, the order in which this will happen or the way in which he will keep in touch with your content and website is something that you can only know after analyzing the purchase journey of your current students.
Therefore, it is important to maintain the Educational Marketing work at all stages of the sales funnel and, as the journey of a certain student becomes clearer, your team can act to make him/her become a lead or make the lead become an enrollment.
How does Mkt4Edu map the journey of its students?
As much as we talk about the importance of understanding and mapping the customer's purchase journey, how can this be done? Well, the strategy that Mkt4Edu has adopted is dynamic mapping.
By using various resources, such as cookies, R., Java, AI Watson and Hubspot, Mkt4Edu is able to understand and map each student's contact with the brand, from the first entry on the site to the completion of enrollment.
The end of third-party cookies in popular browsers requires even more attention to the use of first-party data and consent-based strategies for tracking and personalization, ensuring prospective student trust and legal compliance.
When we carry out this exercise, we can observe that some students make their first contact up to three years before they register (in the case of your Educational Institution, this period may be longer or shorter). Others already register to receive information at the first contact, some enter the Educational Institution website to register for the entrance exam and so on.
Each micro-journey can be followed closely with the dynamic mapping technique. This collection of information provides a great basis for your team's decision making and also favors salespeople, as they can identify opportunities based on typical behaviors of people already enrolled.
Marketing campaigns become more dynamic and personalized, and sellers invest their time in those who are most likely to convert, which generates a lower average cost per acquisition for each enrollment.
Summary: Mapping the student’s buying journey enables personalized strategies and reduces enrollment costs. Mkt4Edu uses AI and first-party data to identify real micro-journeys while respecting data privacy laws. This dynamic approach makes marketing more effective and allows sales teams to focus on leads with the highest conversion potential.
Is your Educational Institution already using mapping to create leads? If the answer is no, you need to read the text where we show 6 Insight Analytics strategies in the buyer's journey!
Student buying journey: how to map it and increase enrollment
What is a student's buying journey?
It is the path a student takes from the first brand interaction to enrollment, covering stages like awareness, problem recognition, consideration, and decision.
What’s the difference between buying journey and sales funnel?
The journey reveals the student’s path; the funnel guides actions at each stage. They are complementary, but the journey is more dynamic and data-driven.
How to effectively map the buying journey?
Using tools like cookies, HubSpot, and AI, institutions can track interactions from the first click to enrollment, building a real picture of student behavior.
Why consider new platforms in the journey?
Because students now engage through TikTok, WhatsApp, and AI tools. Integrating these touchpoints enables better personalization and higher conversion rates.
What are micro-journeys and why do they matter?
They are individual paths each student takes to enroll. Understanding them helps identify the right moment to act and convert leads more efficiently.
How does Mkt4Edu map the student journey?
By using a dynamic approach with primary data, AI Watson, R., Java, and HubSpot, always respecting data privacy laws and delivering actionable marketing insights.
What are the impacts of journey mapping on student acquisition?
It lowers the cost per enrollment, improves campaign precision, and helps sales teams focus on leads with the highest conversion potential.
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