To win new enrollments, your Educational Institution (IE) needs a joint work between the Marketing and Sales teams (the famous Smarketing). In few areas can we see as much of the impact of this as when we look at consumer behavior.
It is in working with this variable (consumer buying behavior) that inbound marketing actions and sales information converge to improve the conversion of leads (people interested in your brand).
This topic is quite rich, so let's talk about it today.
What will you be in the post:
- Why is it important to understand consumer behavior?
- What are the main factors that influence consumer behavior at the time of purchase?
- How can you work your Educational Marketing to convert leads?
Keep reading!
Why is it important to understand consumer behavior?
We constantly talk here on the blog about the importance of knowing your lead. This is, after all, the basis of any marketing job well done, whether outbound or inbound.
Imagine, for example, how complicated it would be to put together a Content Marketing for an unknown audience. You wouldn't know which topics catch their attention, which language is best, or which images generate the most engagement.
The same goes for the purchase decision (to enroll or not) of the consumer (their students). Understanding what factors influence their decision gives you and your team a great opportunity to intervene in this process so that your EI stands out in their minds.
A good Marketing and Sales job is focused on what people want — we have to heal the customer's “pain”. But an excellent work, in addition to considering this, also turns its thoughts on the main factors that can somehow change consumer behavior and make them close a sale or give up on the deal.
See too:
- The 10 Whys of Having a Blog in Your Marketing Strategy!
- Blog Post: the 6 most common mistakes when publishing;
- CRO, SEO and UX: learn about these optimization techniques.
What are the main factors that influence consumer behavior at the time of purchase?
The behavior of students, from the moment they know your brand to the purchase decision, can be influenced by dozens of factors. The main ones, and which tend to be common to all of them, are:
- culture;
- social class;
- influencers;
- family and friends;
- age and life stage;
- personality;
- Lifestyle;
- personal motivation;
- principles and beliefs;
- previous experiences.
Imagine that a certain student is going through the purchase journey to join your IE. During this period, there is a factor that has greatly influenced their choices: personal motivation.
This student, in particular, would like a quick insertion in the job market and wants to take advantage of college to join large companies as an intern.
He started to have more contact with his brand after he got to know the contents of Electrical Engineering and started to imagine himself in the area. This means that this lead already knows what they want to study, they already know what catches their attention and they already have a big delimiter that will define which IE will be enrolled.
If you knew that this person is being guided by these choices, it would be enough to produce content about the internship opportunities that your IE offers and that might be enough. However, what happens if you don't, but your competitor does? Well, probably the student will migrate to it.
The same logic can be applied to all the factors we've listed. Social class, for example, can either be an attraction factor in your EI for low-income people (producing content on scholarships and government incentives) or a detachment (if the Institution focuses only on the professional part and academic training).
The important thing to understand here is that everything interferes with the student's purchase decision, and the way you manage your strategies makes a difference.
How can you work your Educational Marketing to convert leads?
Since the way you work with your Marketing and Sales strategies makes all the difference in your leads' buying decision, it's time to ask yourself: who are you looking for your IE?
Is your persona well designed? Do you know what factors influence her buying behavior? Can you identify, in each of the factors we have listed, how it is impacted?
If your team and you already have the knowledge on all these topics, congratulations! You are already several steps ahead of most competitors.
However, that alone is not enough. In addition to understanding what influences the students' purchase decision, you have to create strategies that favor this influence so that it leads the person to a positive decision about your brand.
Is the student interested in a quick entry into the job market? Create an Email Marketing flow about how he can get into internships during college and what partnerships your IE has.
Have you identified that the main objection of students has been the lack of income in the family? Create specific content on the topic, create an exclusive area on funding and grants on your website, and get in touch with these people to talk about their problem.
If your team can identify the main points that interfere with student behavior (at that time automation software, especially chatbots, could help a lot) it is easy to create response strategies.
Therefore, we can say that your first focus should be on understanding which of the factors we have listed interfere with the behavior of your persona. Once understood, prepare a response using Inbound Marketing strategies (content production, email marketing, social media presence, etc.) and respond to each purchase objection, focusing on the influencing factors.
Following this path, you will have a Marketing strategy focused on converting leads, not just attracting views to your website. Combining this with a good sales team, your IE enrollments will grow significantly.
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