Quick Content Marketing Strategies for Higher Education

Quick Content Marketing Strategies for Higher Education

Are you an Admissions or Enrollment representative for a higher education institution that is looking to increase your student enrollment rates? Looking for ways to get better qualified leads of prospective students? The answer is implementing a content marketing strategy that is centered around really knowing your customers. If you are wondering how you will build or curate different types of content, then the treasure chest of content marketing is closer than you think.  While you may not be aware of it, trade schools, career training institutes, community colleges, 4-year college and universities have loads of content ideas right under their fingertips. Unique content is easily at your disposal as faculty members would love to share articles they have written about topics related to the course they are teaching, and students would jump for the opportunity to provide a testimonial on how great your school is to them. Higher education content marketing can also be expanded to include ideas such interviewing thought leaders within targeted professions or creating short videos at an industry conference. Here are some additional great content marketing ideas to get you started.

Higher Education Marketing Quick Idea Starters:

What are the most frequently asked questions that your buyer personas of prospective students have? Write down a list of 10 FAQs that your school’s admissions and enrollment team encounter on a daily basis. Prioritize the list of the FAQs and write a blog post to address each question and provide an in-depth answer. Write a blog each day until you have gone through your list of questions. Blogs are an essential tool to help generate traffic to your website.

What separates your higher education institution from your competition? Highlight your best attributes — do you offer special enrollment services like waiving the application fee, unique training programs or career placement services for graduates? Content marketing is a great way for your school to demonstrate how you help to guide prospective students to success even before they step foot on your school’s campus or enroll in your online course.

Interview an employer partner of your higher education institution. Why do employer partners love hiring students and graduates from your school?  What does the employer partner view as the important things that your school does to provide graduates for success in the real work world. Ask 3 – 5 of your employer partners to do a video testimonial interview on why they hire graduates from your school — they will be more than willing to do so as it gives them an opportunity to have an engaging video on your website for all of your visitors to see.

Interview your internal staff. We all have a story to tell and your prospective students who are considering enrolling in a program at your school are very interested in reading and viewing stories from the staff in your various departments. Bring a human connection to your school by featuring your professional staff, faculty, and professors who are experts in their field. Conducting a interview that becomes a blog article, video or podcast is a a great form of content marketing. The interview can be on various different topics; however, the key here is conducting these interviews will provide your school with quality, fresh, and newsworthy content that can be shared on a across the Internet and social media.

Interview your students. Students want to hear from other students. Let your current students and alumni share their story. Here are some examples of the type of things your students can write about or record via video to help your school have remarkable content that resonates with prospective students: Why did they choose to attend your school versus other schools they were considering? What do they like most about your school? What are their struggles with adjusting to taking classes in your program and how has your school’s professors or resources helped them to overcome their challenges? What do they most hope to take away from their college (or trade school) experience? Having students share their answers to questions like this will ensure your content marketing strategy resonates with the buyer persona of helping prospective students and will make them feel like your higher education institution understands their wants and needs.

The Impact of Content Marketing

Whether your institution is large, mid-sized or small, our higher education digital marketing solutions can help to:

• Attract high-quality students
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• Engage more students in a meaningful way
• Increase website visits, inquiries and applications
• Recruit great faculty and staff
• Encouraging alumni to make donations to support school programs
• Build up your school’s brand recognition and reputation
• Measure the marketing effectiveness of your campaigns
• Build a streamlined system and best practices
• Maximize your resources and budget

Content that genuinely adds value to your prospective students and leads them through the stages of their buying journey is absolutely critical if your school’s goal is to increase qualified leads to your admissions team. If you are involved in creating or implementing a content marketing strategy for a higher education institution, we’d love to hear your input — what are the most effective strategies you’ve found for engaging your audience through content? Please share your feedback by posting a comment below.

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