Every year, educational institutions face a major challenge: attracting and retaining students. But, with the strengthening of online and the emergence of new institutions operating only in the distance modality, this mission has become increasingly difficult.
On the one hand, there are thousands of students leaving high school looking for a degree in a quality college, on the other hand, there are thousands of universities competing for these students.
Todos os anos, as instituições de ensino têm um grande desafio: atrair e reter alunos. Mas, com o fortalecimento do EaD e o surgimento de novas instituições operando apenas na modalidade a distância, essa missão tem se tornado cada vez mais difícil.
De um lado, são milhares de alunos saindo do Ensino Médio à procura de uma graduação em uma faculdade de qualidade, do outro, existem milhares de universidades disputando esses estudantes.
The truth is that competition is high and competitiveness in the school community should become even more intense in the coming years, and, to be ahead, it is necessary to go much further! Today, to stand out, it does not depend only on good prices or a large budget of educational marketing.
The secret lies in investing in smart strategies that speak to your university's target audience. The big question is that, despite the competitiveness, many educational institutions do not know where to start investing and therefore end up being left behind in this race for attracting students.
With that in mind, in this post we have put together six strategies that can help you attract and retain students in Higher Education with quality. Let's go?
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Good reading!
6 tips to attract and retain students in Higher Education
With students increasingly connected to the digital universe and the competitiveness of the educational market, higher education institutions need to invest more and more in innovations to attract students and differentiate themselves from the competition.
If you arrived here wanting to transform your fundraising strategies and retention, you are in the right place! Below, we separate six tips that can make all the difference in your marketing strategies Marketing Education and improve your results!
Webinars
We couldn't talk about capture and retention strategies, not to mention the production of webinars. Video production is one of the biggest trends in the world of Marketing Digital for the coming years.
According to a study done by Wyzowl, one of the world's leading video producers,66% of people prefer videos when purchasing a service or product.
But, how does this fit into your college? You can record webinars, which are small explanatory lectures about courses, teaching modalities, selection processes and other questions that students and parents may have.
“I don't have the structure to record”.
I bet when talking about video, that's the first thing that comes to your mind. but, canrest assured that it doesn't take a big Hollywood production to produce webinars.
You can record in an environment at your educational institution that has a good setting, lighting and that the recording is not disturbed by external noise, after all, sound is an important element for videos.
You can also use your faculty for the production of webinars, bringing specialists in each course to talk about graduation, possibilities for action, trends in the area and how the current job market is.
Okay, with these elements and a good camera, you can open your YouTube channel today and start producing webinars. This is a great way to engage your audience before the selection process and build trust.
360º video
We know that good infrastructure is an important element in students' decision-making, but the reality is that we don't always have time to create guided tour programs around the university campus, which is a brilliant strategy to attract students from Higher Education.
Renowned universities, such as Harvard and Yale, do this type of action, relying on graduate course veterans to present the infrastructure to potential students.
But, fortunately, today we have the 360º videos. With them, you can create a true virtual tour and present the classrooms, library, laboratories, campus and other facilities. In this way, students have the opportunity to get to know their educational institution without even having to leave their homes.
Taking advantage of the flexibility, practicality, high power of engagement and interaction of the videos, you can also insert calls to action so that visitors can learn about the courses offered, download rich materials or even sign up for the selection process.
Web Analytics
Since the internet has become a great platform for exchanging information, collecting and analyzing online behavior data has become an indispensable strategy for educational institutions.
If you want to attract students, you need to know which websites they browse, what kind of content they consume and what their interests are. At that point, a web analytics tool is the best solution you can have right now.
Data mining brings important insights for you to improve your strategy to attract and retain Teaching studentsSuperior, after all, it shows what users are saying, sharing, seeing and hearing on the web.
Texting
Text messages are also excellent strategies for increasing enrollment. The tip is: use communication platforms in your favor! You can send SMS or create interest groups on Whatsapp, Messenger, Telegram or the like.
The aim should always be to nurture the lead and generate value for the student. Therefore, share tips, information about your educational institution, strategies and content that can be used to improve its performance. Just be careful with the frequency, not to be too much, okay?
Exclusivity
Creating a sense of exclusivity can increase enrollment and also contribute to permanence of students. That's what great teaching institutions like MIT or Harvard do. These institutions have created an unbeatable reputation and combined this perception of value with personalized selection processes.
Calling the best ranked students for an interview can provide additional information to help in the selection process, in addition to helping to identify students who really fit the profile of the educational institution. With this, you avoid evasion and default, for example.
value content
If the role of an educational institutionSuperior is to educate, why not start educating your future students before they enroll? That's the way MIT thinks. The educational institution has a blog named News MIT dedicated to the academic community, attracting students with content of interest.
Blogs also serve to generate engagement and loyalty among students who are already enrolled, which encourages internal debate and contributes to everyone's learning, including the institution, which is increasingly aware of the profile of its students.
- Therefore, it is important to invest in Content Marketing! With a good strategy, you can produce blogs, e-books, emails, rich content for social media, all according to the profile of your future student.
Once you've attracted several students to your university, you need to qualify these leads to find out if they have the right profile for your educational institution and start preparing them for the next phase: enrollment. Want to know how to do this? Get in touch with us!
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