The Higher Education in Brazil’s Map shows that in 2016 there were 7.8 million students in Higher Education. 75% of them were enrolled in 2.070 private institutions.The competitiveness is high and that’s why student’s capture is one of the biggest concerns of the HEIs at the moment. Full classes are the assurance of income, made- investments profitability and highly-used infrastructure.
But is it possible to increase the purchase funnel efficiency in education? Are we evaluating the students’ buying journey correctly?
Your purchase funnel is not linear
The representation of a purchase funnel as it has sequential stages must be forgotten. The lead who reaches you, also reaches other EIs, moving forward or backward in the awareness, consideration and decision stages over and over.
Also, keep in mind that students’ capture is not finished when they take the tests. You can compare the approved vs enrolled reports. You only have a student when the enrolled process is completed. The education purchase funnel has changed: it is more complex and has - more or less - 7 stages:
- Prospects
- Interested
- Candidates
- Approved
- Enrolled
- Active
- Loyal
Each one of the purchase funnel stages must be considered in your educational marketing strategies so your purchase funnel will be more effective and it will lead you to full classes. BUt how can you benefit from the opportunities?
Start training your prospects
It’s not in the day-before-the-test that we should be concerned about lead capture. It starts much earlier with an active involvement of your HEI alongside the High School students community of your operation area.
You must monitor these students’ journey helping them to pursue a bachelor's degree three years before. If you have a High School EI, the strategy is the same: start training students from 5th to 8th grades.
Create projects alongside other schools, promote events to the community, give lectures to parents, invite students to go on tour in your HEI.
Use all the power of digital marketing: create a blog, share segmented and relevant content to each audience; be active in social media; make webinars to students and their parents; share experience with cases and whitepapers; create and publish interactive videos that show your infrastructure.
Invest in the buyer’s journey
Stop seeing your future student just as a customer. What you deliver is more than a product: it’s knowledge, skills, something for the whole life. Promote unforgettable experiences that awaken emotional bonds with your EI.
Have you ever thought about taking a group of High School students to a science park? Or maybe making a way for them to use the labs of your EI to learn something new?
Take your EI to the community, don’t wait for students to reach you by chance or by an outdoor ad in an avenue. Create value and awake the recognition to your brand.
Focus on Retation
Students’ capture is expensive, right? You invest in a thousand strategies and put effort daily to reach your goals. But have you ever thought that students’ retention costs less and can create new enrollment opportunities?
A second degreed, post-graduation, extension courses, Masters and PHD programs are great options for students to stay in your EI. As long as they had an amazing experience.
Do you know that kind of movie which shows us that business people have kept their college hoodies years after graduation? You need to build this proudness in your academic community!
Create specific programs for former students, offer benefits for those who want to stay with you, learn how to thank students for being part of your EI and for making your EI what it is.
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