Educational Marketing exists to help educational institutions develop their brands, increase their reach and, consequently, boost student enrollment, correct?
However, within the universe of practices, methods and strategies that we call “Educational Marketing” there are so many alternatives and measures that it is necessary to have the right focus to achieve the expected results.
The purpose of this text is to help you apply best practices in your educational institution. Therefore, we have put together 6 tips that will improve your student acquisition.
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1. Have an online presence to attract more students
Attracting students in offline media is extremely important and it still represents a significant portion of new enrollments at educational institutions. But we cannot deny that the world is now digital.
Younger students (those just leaving high school), as well as parents who are part of Generation Z (born between 1990 and 2010), use the internet for everything.
They search for your educational institution on Google, read online reviews, access your website and decide, through this contact, whether to enroll or not.
Having an online presence today is more than a differentiator. It's a necessity.
2. Offer online registration
Following the line of the previous topic: if people increasingly tend to find their educational institution through internet searches and make the enrollment decision based on this contact, wouldn't it be more interesting if they could also register through the channel? Which ones do you prefer to use?
Perhaps making an online application available could be the difference between gaining enrollment or losing a potential student just because they can't (or don't want to) come to campus to register initially.
3. Invest in Artificial Intelligence to serve your leads
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the main technological bets for several areas, including Marketing and the education market. This field consists of creating machines capable of simulating human intelligence and learning as they perform a function.
An AI could, for example, be programmed to communicate via text messages. It is then placed in a chat tool and with that we have a chatbot with AI.
The programming behind this technology allows the tool's behavior patterns to be defined. This way, it can imitate a human being and the sensation is that we are talking to another person — all without needing an operator.
When using this resource to serve your leads (people interested in your brand) you guarantee that the service will be fast, efficient and will be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
SEE TOO:
- 5 reasons to invest in AI chatbot in your capture and retention;
- Chatbot service: what is the best channel to use?
- WhatsApp marketing and online: how to create a successful campaign?
4. Replace forms with chatbots for capture
In the virtual environment, it is common for educational institutions to use capture forms to collect lead data. Whether to enroll or register for the entrance exam.
However, forms are old technology, they do not interact with the user and abandonment rates are high.
Therefore, it is interesting to have a chatbot to capture data. Instead of a static form, your lead can talk to an Artificial Intelligence that will interact with them as if they were a human.
The robot asks for the necessary information, through a more natural conversation, and saves the record directly in your CRM (Customer Relationship Management).
5. Improve your Content Marketing
Content Marketing strategies have several functions. One of them (and the best known) is to increase the visibility of your educational brand, placing the name of your educational institution everywhere and improving your positioning in search engines (like Google and Bing).
However, Content Marketing also has the function of generating identification with your leads and making your educational institution position itself as an authority on various subjects.
To achieve this result, your team must have a very well-defined persona (fictional character that represents your ideal student) and create content that is completely targeted towards them, that speak in the same language and deal with important subjects for these people who access your blog, website and social networks.
6. Use CRM to help your salespeople
In this text we said that the AI chatbot is capable of asking your leads for information and then sending it to a CRM, correct?
This data is very useful. They show what stage the sales funnel that the lead is passing through. In other words, the conversation between the student and the robot allows your team to identify the possibility of a capture.
When your team of consultants (or salespeople) have this information at hand, they can be much more efficient on calls and increase student conversions.
Student Conversions
As you can see throughout this content, there are several actions that can be promoted to increase student enrollment at your educational institution. But to do this, first of all, you need to know the best alternatives that should be adopted.
Therefore, we recommend that you also read our text about new trends in Educational Marketing strategies and only then make a decision on how to invest in attracting students.
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