Across the country and worldwide, a growing number of colleges, universities, private training firms, and all other types of organizations in the higher education industry are reaping the rewards of inbound marketing.
For example, thanks to inbound marketing:
- USC reduced recruitment costs 85%
- Saint Leo University increased web traffic by 272%
- Florida Institute of Technology increased landing page conversion rates by 34%
- LearnFast increased leads by 400%
- ULCC increased blog traffic by 400%
What’s more, these results aren’t atypical outliers either – they’re common and realistic, and we’re seeing similarly impressive outcomes in schools of all sizes.
Below, we highlight the 4 reasons why inbound marketing isn’t just helpful for organizations in the higher education industry, but with increasing competition for students and ever-tightening budgets, it’s an essential piece of the outreach, enrollment and revenue generation puzzle:
Target and Attract Qualified Students
While the size of the higher education industry is growing rapidly, competition is skyrocketing. As a result, all schools – whether they’ve been around for centuries or have recently-launched – are facing relentless pressure to connect with, attract and enroll qualified students.
Inbound marketing directly supports these aims by generating awareness across all levels (institution, faculty, programs, community, etc.), and by using a variety of highly effective online channels (websites, microsites, social media, email, etc.).
Create and Cultivate Personal Relationships
As every school knows, students don’t want to be perceived as “consumers”– rather, they want to be engaged as unique individuals who are looking for a partner (and possibly a lifetime one) to help them achieve their professional and personal learning goals.
Inbound marketing aligns with this expectation by allowing schools to create and cultivate personal relationships. For example, instead of sending out generic “one-size-fits-all” communications, schools can craft personal messages that include each prospective student’s name, and share information that is relevant to where they are in the decision-making process (i.e. exploring options, gathering information, ready to enroll, etc.).
Dramatically Increase the Enrollment Cycle
Traditionally, schools have been obliged to tolerate a linear – and often excessively long – enrollment cycle that can take months or even years to culminate; if at all.
Inbound marketing dramatically increases the speed of enrollment by providing students with multiple opportunities to request more information or, ideally, submit an application.
And just as importantly, this is NOT done in an aggressive manner that comes across like “selling”. Rather, all communication is presented in a way that empowers prospective students to choose the direction – and the speed – that suits them best.
Track, Measure & Optimize
Last but not least, schools have always needed easy-to-use, but nevertheless enterprise-grade tracking and analytics tools to optimize outreach campaigns.
Now with inbound marketing, they have this invaluable data at their fingertips (or to be more precise, via their web-based dashboard!), and can leverage it to make better, faster decisions on everything from blog and ebook content, to how to enrich the student’s journey so that it’s more relevant and mutually successful.
Learn More
To learn more about how your school can reap the rewards of inbound marketing – and achieve measurable results more easily, quickly and far more affordably than you may imagine – contact the Leap Clixx team today.
Your consultation with us is free, and we deeply understand and respect the nuances that make “doing business” in higher education different than any other industry. As an extra bonus, download our FREE eBook on Inbound Marketing best practices below:
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