The increased use of internet and digital media is a major influence in the field of education today. The education sector is a completely revolutionized sector since the majority of the population of students are the users of the internet. This has a direct implication on the fact that educational institutions and universities need to make increased use of the internet and mobile devices to reach out to more students. And digital marketing is the best method that can be adopted by the educational institutions to reach out to prospective students.
Why is Digital Marketing the best means to impress students?
There are various reasons that make digital marketing the best means of reaching out to the majority of the student population today. Some of these are:
Prospective students are already searching online for educational and training courses.
Students spend more time on the internet rather in front of other media including television.
Display advertisements on the internet are highly effective and outperform traditional advertising.
Parents and guardians have started to judge a school or college based on its website and its online presence.
Most students have also begun to judge a school or college through its online presence.
The internet is today the most favored channel for applying and making admission queries.
Expatriates and outstation students rely heavily on the web for college admissions.
Parents and students now consider web as the most convenient means for carrying out admission processes.
The various aspects of Digital Marketing for an educational institution:
Institutions that impart higher education are using digital marketing as one of the most preferred means of engaging students. These educational institutions follow a step by step approach and a well planned strategy that is implemented in the right manner. The implementation of the plan and a check on the deviations, if any, is also required so that at any point of time, the actual objective of attracting more and more clients i.e. students, is not sidelined.
The first thing that educational institutions need to do is target the actual audience. Now, for higher educational institutions, the target is obviously the students. Of the various students, there will be a market of the mature students who are the actual target audience of the educational institutions because of the fact that they research in detail about the courses and career options. Once this audience has been identified, the digital marketing techniques can be used to create and share the required level of information with these students. Also digital marketing can be used to create content that can directly influence the prospective students. In addition, direct communication via online technology can also be used with digital marketing to maintain a dialogue with the target audience.
When devising digital marketing strategies, the educational institutions need to consider the fact that the needs of every student are different and thus various types of communication and discussion channels may be required to be set up so that the needs of every prospective client is met in the best manner possible.
One of the most important things that educational institutions need to keep in mind is the fact that most internet users do not go beyond the first three pages of the search engines to look for the required information. This means that these institutions need to make use of the right keywords and key phrases so that their website is always be in the first three pages of the search engine result pages. This requires the educational institutions to make use of optimization techniques. The educational institutions also need to make sure that the content they create for the prospective students is powerful and relevant.
The role of Social Media in Digital Marketing
Digital marketing enables the educational institutions to make use of the power of social media. Various social media sites can be used to share the information with a global audience. This information can be shared in the form of pictures as well as videos. The presence of such information on social networking sites is instrumental in influencing the decision making process of the students. One of the main reasons why educational institutions can make use of social media is the fact that 99% of the student population has presence on the social networking websites.
Advantages of Digital Marketing for educational institutions:
Cost Effective: Most online marketing platforms are affordable compared to traditional marketing methods. Online Marketing methods such as social media, email, RSS feeds and mobile marketing require very little implementation cost or investment. This means that educational institutions can target a larger audience at a low investment and thus benefit greatly.
Instantaneous Feedback: Online marketing platforms offer instantaneous feedback as messages can be relayed immediately and instant feedback can be received. Online Marketing forms such as blogs, Social networking sites or SMS offer an easy way of interaction, whereby messages are relayed or sent and within a short time.
Measurable: There are varied tools which can be used to measure digital marketing effectiveness. Since this type of marketing is highly targeted and in most cases uses permission based marketing, it becomes easy for the educational institutions to measure or track the effectiveness of a given marketing campaign as crucial data is available.
Easily Accessible Tools: Digital marketing tools or platforms are easily accessible and as a result produce better results. Using digital marketing forms such as social networking sites like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and others or SMS marketing guarantee a large focused audience.
High Conversion Rates: SMS and email are some of the digital marketing forms that receive high response rates due to the fact that they are personal and educational institutions can easily target the audience in the right manner.
Thus, for an educational institution to be successful today, it must utilize and implement an all-encompassing well thought out digital marketing strategy. This digital marketing strategy must be such that the educational institution is able to get all the benefits in terms of more student enrolment, cost effectiveness and also more returns on the investment made.
Case Study: Jagannath International Management School, New Delhi (JIMS)
Challenges: The under optimized content on the website and the lack of link popularity was holding this site back from achieving full search engine visibility.
Saviance Solution: In addition to appending and editing the content, we have built themed quality back links to the site from related resources.
Results: Today the site is enjoying first page ranking on some good traffic oriented keywords in 2 months’ time. This business relies on its online presence on the search engines to generate leads in form of admission in PGDM.
“My dealing with Saviance Technologies proved to be a pleasure by the quick and professional response … The team’s commitment to quality is the factor which has lead us to consider Saviance to other JIMS Campuses. It is a pleasure working with Saviance and I look forward to continuous relationship in the future!”
Seema Agarwal, Joint Registrar, JIMS
To learn more about our expertise in Digital Marketing, please visit:
www.saviance.com/digital-marketing/
About Saviance
Saviance Technologies is a global provider of enterprise technology solutions focusing on mobility, collaboration, cloud computing and software application design and development. They provide a host of Software products and solutions, including customized application development, mobile/web applications, iOS/iPad applications and a MS SharePoint practice. Incorporated in 1999, with more than 13 years of excellent industry track record, Saviance delivers unmatched business value to its clients through a combination of process excellence, quality services and cost effective solutions from our Global Development Centres in US and India. Saviance is awarded Silver Competency by Microsoft and is also certified as Consulting & Technology Partner by Amazon Web Services. Comfortable with adapting to the unique requirements of each of our clients, we have and developed innovative solutions for our clients focussed in verticals such as Healthcare, Education & Financial Services.
Saviance is a certified Minority Business Enterprise and has been awarded by INC 5000 as one of the fastest growing private companies in North America. Saviance has also been ranked among the Fast 50 Asian American Businesses 2013 in the United States by USPAACC (US Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce) and selected as a 2013 "Top Business" recipient by DiversityBusiness.com. Saviance is recognized by the New York and New Jersey Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) as Minority Business Enterprise in USA and is ISO 9001:2008 and ISO/IEC 27001:2005 Certified. Deloitte Technology Fast 50, 2012 India chose Saviance as one of the top 50 leading technology companies in India.
With a wide geographical diversity spanning across the USA, Europe, India, Singapore and Australia, Saviance is able to serve and support its clients in multiple geographies. To learn more, please visit: www.saviance.com