In this competitive business landscape and with increasing online education platforms, marketing your institute is a complex and daunting task. Right from managing your marketing strategy and daily activities in addition to marketing to the entire campus and other campaigns that aim to connect with alumni, prospective students, and other groups.

However, with correct strategies and tactics, you can overcome these obstacles and can market your institute in a better and effective manner. Having a off page SEO plan can highly benefit your institute required for reaching wider audiences for growth of your education platform.

Before understanding different off page SEO strategy and ways to market to students, we need to understand why marketing is critical for higher education and institutes?

Why is there a need to market your higher education or institute?

Just like any business website or ecommerce, prospective students visit university websites for a number of reasons, including learning more about programmes, financial aid, and accommodation. Although students don’t search for university aggressively the way they do as consumers for purchasing other products or services. You need to keep your visitors and students engaged with your website.

Besides, for many young people, college represents their first significant step into adulthood. This creates a fantastic chance for brands and businesses to intervene, make an impression, and address any needs or issues that may arise. Also, the number of students graduating every year or pursuing courses is continuously increasing which makes university marketing a must strategy in overall plan of operation.

In simple terms, marketing puts you ahead of rivals in the race to win over the passionate, eager, and loyal group of students.

Proven Strategies for university marketing

1.  Define your brand and brand image

The first step in university marketing is to define and tell your brand and brand story. Each school or education institute has a distinct brand which is how they are presented to the outside world. You should work to differentiate yourself from the competition because each one approaches their brand differently. Decide how you want to be perceived in order to define your brand image. There should be a "voice" for your college. People may utilize this "voice" to personalize their perceptions of your institution by giving it a voice or a story to tell.

This can entail reassessing your present brand standards and upgrading your marketing plan of action. This action doesn't initially directly promote to your target, but over time, the brand will gain traction overtime. Marketing relies heavily on graphic design, which is why it shouldn't be treated lightly. It reinforces the notion that you offer educational opportunities to your audiences.

2. Harness the power of social media platforms

In this digital world wherein extensive information can be accessed with just a click, perhaps the best university marketing strategy is to make use and harness the power of social media platforms. High school students no longer rely on direct mail for all sorts of information related to courses or college itself because of social media and the internet. The students no longer rely on brochures and prospectus to make a decision which is an impersonal form as well. These days more and more students rely on social media platforms not only for information, but also for reaching alumni and ex-students to get information and to know their experience.  

However, different generations use different social media platforms and placing your campaign in the appropriate platform is key to off page SEO. Conduct a thorough research about latest trends on social media. Once you determine what platforms work best for you, the next step is to gather your present, potential, and alumni students to follow you on these platforms. These individuals will assist in determining how your school could already look on social media.

3.  Word-of-mouth marketing

One of the best off page SEO strategies is to make use of word-of-mouth marketing which will help you to create and deliver more credibility for your institute. And one of the best ways to do this is through alumni testimonials. This is because they are representative of your institute, and when they speak about your institute, it will make your marketing plan more credible. Create and maintain closer connections with these people so they can work with you to spread the word about how incredible and beautiful your institution is.

One great way to get this done is having alumni interaction pages which will give your prospects and future students a chance to interact with them which will help to enhance brand awareness and credibility in the long-run. Similarly, you can use email marketing to advertise and reach wider audiences.

4. Optimize your SEO

The internet is already full of institutes and courses wherein It is easy to get lost among the crowd. And if your university or school doesn’t show up in top searches, there is a high possibility that students will not notice your brand.  Making sure specific sections of your website correspond with phrases you know people use to search colleges or universities. This might involve adding specific keywords across the website or changing the names of some page titles to a general term followed by the name of your college.

You can make use of programs like Facebook and Google Ad Words to help ensure that your university's adverts appear above others. To obtain the greatest outcome, this should be utilized along with your SEO strategy for reaching wider audiences across the globe.

Final thoughts

In this competitive world, your institution will have to develop a higher education marketing strategy, but there are challenges along the way. However, with correct strategies and placement, you can plan your best off page SEO campaign. Right from spreading word of mouth to reaching prospective students through email and social media should be in your marketing plan. Besides, you need to focus on SEO which will ensure your institute turns up in the first and top searches which will enhance your prospect of further growth and expansion.

Your registration rate will soar through the roof with above techniques in no time!

So, start reading and put some of these tactics into practice to up your higher education marketing game.