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Enroll More Students Now with These Behavioral Science Tips
In higher education, enrollment success hinges on more than attracting interest – it’s about removing barriers that prevent prospective students from taking action.
With behavioral science principles, institutions can reduce friction throughout the enrollment process. The focus should be on guiding students smoothly through their journey from inquiry to enrollment.
Today, we’re exploring some practical ways to make enrollment a student-centered experience. With simplified decision-making and an optimized website, your organization can create a powerful enrollment funnel.
With these tips, you can clear the path for prospects to choose your institution and boost enrollment numbers.
Understanding Enrollment Through the Lense of Behavioral Science
Behavioral science seeks to understand how and why people make decisions. In the context of enrollment, understanding these insights can help institutions design a process that aligns with natural human tendencies. This can make it easier for prospective students to take the next step.
A key principle here is the concept of reducing friction – removing obstacles that might deter or confuse students considering enrolling. For instance, overly complex forms, unclear or conflicting instructions, or too many steps can cause decision fatigue. When this happens, prospects often abandon the process.
When organizations prioritize removing such barriers, they create a smoother, more intuitive experience that aligns with how people prefer to engage. The result is a more student-centered enrollment journey that attracts inquisitive minds and converts their interest into action.
The gap between applying and enrolling can be intimidating for many applicants. That’s why it’s crucial to make this experience as simple and painless as possible.
Reduce Friction in the Enrollment Process
To keep prospective students engaged and motivated throughout the process, organizations must identify and remedy friction points. This includes anything that complicates or delays decision-making, often taking the form of:
- Lengthy, convoluted forms
- Confusing application requirements
- Overwhelming number of steps
To address these, streamline your application process. Eliminate unnecessary fields and break tasks into manageable steps. Clear, concise instructions can guide students through each stage, effectively reducing frustration and uncertainty.
Additionally, utilizing technology to automate parts of the process – like uploading documents or deadline reminders – can alleviate pressure and keep applicants on track.
Simplified communication is also important. Avoid industry jargon and ensure your messaging is supportive and straightforward. Nurture emails are a great way to stay in touch with prospective students who are considering, have stared the application process, or have been accepted but have yet to enroll. Using emails to stay top of mind and provide helpful information allows you to meet studens where they are in the enrollment journey without trying to stuff too much onto your program pages.
By minimizing these barriers, you create a seamless, student-centric enrollment experience that feels easy and accessible. In the long run, reducing friction in the enrollment process can boost completion rates while also strengthing students’ confidence in choosing your institution.
Creating a Student-Centered Enrollment Experience
Students represent the beating heart of educational institutions. That’s why placing prospective students’ needs, goals, and concerns at the heart of your process should be a primary objective. This approach ensures that every interaction from the initial inquiry to final enrollment resonates with what matters most to applicants.
Start by personalizing communication – use relevant data to tailor messages that highlight programs, scholarships, or campus experiences of interest.
Showcasing success stories and testimonials from current students and alumni can build trust and make your institution’s value more tangible.
You can also streamline the enrollment journey by offering easy access to technical support, whether through live chat, FAQs, or virtual advising sessions.
A student-centered approach also means anticipating and addressing common questions or concerns upfront. This can be done in blog posts, emails, and even through social media.
When prospective students feel understood and supported, you create a positive, engaging experience that encourages them to move forward. This focus on personalization and empathy can often lead to higher enrollment rates and more satisfied students.
Your Website as an Enrollment Funnel
To maximize enrollment chances, your website should act as a strategic funnel that generates leads, nurtures interest, and drives action.
Start with clear, intuitive navigation that leads visitors to essential information quickly – program details, application instructions, and financial aid resources should all be easy to find.
Incorporate visible, action-oriented calls to action like “Apply Now” or “Request Information” to encourage immediate engagement.
And for prospects who may not be ready to commit, offer valuable lead magnets such as downloadable guides or webinars that capture their interest and keep them in your funnel.
Make sure your messaging is clear and addresses common concerns that emphasize the unique strengths of your institution.
With an optimized website as a well-organized, persuasive funnel, you create a seamless pathway from initial exploration to final enrollment.
Empower Prospective Students to Choose Your Institution
Informed by behavioral science principles, your engagement strategy can significantly improve the student experience and increase enrollment rates.
Remember that reducing friction in the enrollment process, creating a student-centered experience, and optimizing your website are all powerful steps toward achieving your goals.
When the path to enrollment is clear, straightforward, and supportive, prospective students are more likely to complete their journey from interest to application. These strategies not only help your institution stand out but also ensure that students feel confident in their enrollment decisions.
To further refine your approach and drive even better results, download Greenstone Media’s free guide, The Ultimate Guide to Enrollment Marketing. It’s a powerful resource that can help you continue optimizing your efforts to boost your institution’s enrollment figures.
Let’s dive right in…
These 5 Elements Will Get You More Results
First things first: You need clear and specific goals, budgets required, and metrics for KPI tracking. Determine which products or services you’re looking to increase sales for, define growth goal numbers for each one, the number of leads needed to meet those goals, and the budget needed to accomplish them.
Secondly, you need a clear message using proven storytelling tactics that attract and engage more of your ideal clients. You’d be surprised at how many companies use internal or unclear messaging that doesn’t relate to their target audience. If you don’t clearly communicate how your products or services help your customers solve a problem, or invite them into an engaging story where they’re the hero who achieves success with your help (by using your products or services) then your message will get lost in the noise of all the other marketing messages out there… and there are A LOT.
Thirdly, you need your website to work as a 24/7 “salesperson” to help you consistently feed enough leads into your funnel. There are 4 core components your business website must have. If not, you are basically handing out leads to your competitors. The 4 core components are:
- Place a tagline above the fold
- Have a clear call-to-action
- Show what success looks like for your students
- Be concise when describing your products/services
The fourth element you need is an automated sales funnel with an email marketing system to nurture all leads into customers. We do this by adding lead generators to your website and landing pages, and implementing a nurture email sequence that converts leads into customers without being overly “salesy”. This helps you convert an additional 20% of leads who visit your site or see your ads into customers since not everyone is ready to buy right away.
Fifth: Use paid ads (like Google or Bing Ads, and Meta Ads) and your lead generators to get in front of your target audience on social media platforms and Google search. Utilizing the lead generator(s) and clear messaging you’ve created will help you reach the right audience and break through the noise with an engaging marketing message. Paid ads and lead generation efforts will help drive new leads into your automated funnel and consistently bring you new prospects every single month.
Spend Your Time Where You Want To
These 5 core elements will ultimately help you attract more high-quality leads who are being further nurtured and qualified by the enrollment funnel. Plus, with the entire system automated, you can spend your time elsewhere without adding more work to your plate, wearing so many hats, or hiring more employees to build an internal marketing team to do it all for you.
Get more details on creating an effective, automated sales funnel here.
Schedule your free consultation call or ask about our customized Marketing Blueprint at this link here.
“Use it or lose it” is great advice for much more than learning a new skill. It also applies to higher education enrollment marketing strategies.
In terms of budgeting, many educational institutions work on the “use it or lose it” basis. If funding is not used at the end of the school year, it does not roll over into the next year’s operations. In fact, if money is left unused, those in charge of budget planning may decide that funding for your department should go down in the upcoming year.
For that reason, savvy higher education enrollment marketers will optimize their spending habits at the end of the school year. Even if the previous school year’s enrollment period has already passed, there are always strategies that can be put in place to help enrollment in the following year.
Here are some of our top strategies for planning your enrollment marketing spending:
Look Backward to Plan Ahead
Just like learning a new skill, a schedule for improvement is key to success. The best athletes and artists take into account their past improvements when planning their future advances, and so should your enrollment marketing team. What strategies have worked the best in the past, and how can you continue to vary and build on them in the upcoming year?
One of the best ways to build on an already successful strategy is to ensure accessibility. If you have a beautiful website that looks great on a computer and is bringing in enrollments, you should check that it is equally effective on mobile. All digital marketing, from websites to emails to social media posts, should be just as visually appealing and easy to navigate on phones and computers.
If you’re looking for a worthwhile investment for your end-of-year enrollment marketing budget, selecting an update for a tried and true engagement strategy, like email outreach or a seasonal social media campaign, can be an effective way to make the biggest enrollment impact for the next semester.
Practice Ongoing Optimization
It’s never a bad time to assess and update your current marketing campaigns. The world of online communication is changing fast, and a truly effective enrollment marketing campaign is constantly evolving to keep up with the changes.
One way to test your enrollment marketing effectiveness is to utilize A/B testing for your messaging and designs, in order to identify which formats connect best with your target audience.
Connecting with your audience is a crucial part of marketing outreach, not just your visibility. There’s a distinct gap between applying and enrolling in higher education institutions, and a truly successful higher education marketing strategy will overcome that gap with an authentic connection to the future student body.
Summer can be a great time to put your higher ed marketing budget to work by experimenting with different marketing strategies before you’re swept up in the busy season of the semester.
Ask an Expert
Each institution of higher education has its own enrollment marketing journey, just as developing a skill is a unique journey for each individual. However, people learning new skills can also turn to experts for advice and guidance on their journeys, and the same is true for higher education enrollment marketing teams.
Here at Greenstone Media, we have put together our Enrollment Marketing Blueprint, which is a comprehensive assessment of any current enrollment marketing strategy that leads to the design of a customized enrollment marketing solution. Our years of experience with helping higher education institutions of all sizes have made us experts in the field, and we’d be happy to help you transform your marketing strategy into its most effective format.
You can choose to partner with an expert at any time during your school year, but the summer is a great time to start. We’ll have time to perform several in-depth marketing audits and discuss your vision for a truly effective enrollment marketing campaign for the next school year.
Are You Ready to Use Your Budget for Enrollment?
Learning how to budget for enrollment marketing efforts is a skill, and like any skill, the best time to “use it or lose it” is now. If you’re ready to take action and make the most of your enrollment marketing efforts, we’re ready to help.
Your future enrollment marketing success starts with you. Schedule a strategy call with us today, and find out how you can make the most of your higher education marketing budget.
As a business owner, you’ve probably asked yourself, “Do people still subscribe to newsletters?”
Unfortunately, the answer is no, at least for the most part. A recent LinkedIn article said that the average person gets over 190 emails in their inbox per day. With that number of emails cluttering up their inbox, your customers are going to be reluctant to sign up for a new mailing list, and even if they do your email will have to be impressive to get their attention.
Fortunately, we’ve put together a quick overview of why newsletters don’t work, and how to change your email marketing strategy to get customers’ attention.
Are Newsletters Obsolete?
The two main problems with most newsletters are focus and format.
Focus
Your newsletter’s focus includes all of the content in your newsletter. For example, many newsletters include business updates, service changes, and price declines. If this seems like a lot, that’s because it is. If you’ve ever opened an email to see a massive wall of text and just sighed in frustration, that’s exactly how customers will respond to long newsletters.
Though it can be tempting to include a comprehensive update on everything that’s changed in your business, most of your customers won’t be interested in the little details. Keep your focus narrowed in on the most important things, especially the things that affect the customers’ experience, and you’ll be more likely to keep their attention.
Format
Your newsletter’s format includes how your text’s organization and appearance. Your customers are busy, and they want to know the most important information first. Generally speaking, you have the first two sentences to get your customers’ attention before they decide whether to read the whole thing or delete it. So don’t leave the new product announcement at the end for a dramatic reveal – put it first to get people excited!
5 Newsletter Alternatives
Now that we know why newsletters don’t work, we can start looking at our top five alternatives (that do).
1. Change the Language
One of the major problems with newsletters is that they can describe a wide variety of content. If you really want to step up your email marketing efforts, use your heading or call-to-action text on your website to tell your customers exactly what they’ll get in exchange for their email address.
The call-to-action of “Sign up for our newsletter” is easy to ignore, but the call-to-action that says “Don’t miss out on our latest product announcements and deals!” lets customers know exactly what they’re missing out on.
2. Narrow the Focus
What is an alternative to a newsletter? Having several focused newsletters. Part of the reason that newsletters can get so long and overwhelming is that businesses try to put in something for everyone.
Rather than telling all of your customers about every new update, split your customer base into groups that receive personalized content. For instance, if you’re a higher education institution trying to increase enrollment, science-interested prospective students will have very different interests and concerns than liberal arts-interested students.
3. Offer Unique Content
Email marketing is all about increasing trust, and trust doesn’t only come from knowing what your business is about; it also comes from seeing what your business can do.
If your business is a kitchenware supplier to family-owned restaurants, you could send out an eBook with “3 Best Practices for Cleaning Kitchenware to Help It Last”. Though this may not help your customers learn more about your business model, it will show them that your business is invested in helping customers succeed.
4. Customer Success Stories
People love stories, and customer testimonials are a great way to get emails read and build trust with your business.
Think of it this way: would you rather read about the many features of an electric mixer, or would you rather read about how one specific feature helped a baker save a wedding cake? Stories are much more memorable than lists, and they’ll show new customers that your business works.
5. Event Invitations and Product Updates
The last way to make email marketing exciting is to give the customer something to do. Reading an email about how your business has expanded to another building can make a customer ask why it matters to them. Reading an email about how you’re having a 25% off event to celebrate your business’s expansion gives your customers something to get excited about.
Another way to add value to your customer’s inbox and get them excited to receive your emails is to include a product sneak peek or VIP event invitation. Or, for those in the higher education industry, upcoming dates for Student Weekends or virtual tours.
Greenstone Media Can Help You Transform Your Email Strategy
Are you ready to transform your email marketing? Greenstone Media’s experts can help.
Schedule your free strategy call with our team today!
Or, if you’re interested in reading more about sales funnels and effective customer communication, download one of our eBooks: Creating an Effective Sales Funnel or Creating an Automated Enrollment Funnel.
The sales funnel is the transformational tool that turns your website’s visitors into customers. It’s one of the most crucial elements in an effective marketing strategy, and today we’re going to cover how to make a sales funnel, and why it works.
What is a Sales Funnel?
The sales funnel is what captures leads when they come onto your website. Think of it this way: If you have an engaging ad campaign and a visually pleasing website, people will visit. But they have to do more than just visit: they need to engage with your website.
A good place to start assessing your lead-gathering success is to look at your website’s traffic data. If you have a lot of people accessing your website, but significantly fewer becoming customers, then you have a sales funnel problem.
A sales funnel is made up of two key things:
1) Premium Content
First, it offers a piece of premium content in exchange for an email. If you’ve ever pulled up your favorite fast-food website and seen a pop-up window offering a coupon if you enter your email, you’ve seen the start of a sales funnel.
The key to an effective sales funnel is that both parts of the exchange have to be benefitting the customer. The premium content – whether it’s a coupon, eBook, or consultation meeting – should help the customer achieve their goals, and you should also let them know that by entering their email they will receive access to future benefits, like sales or information. As a business, you want to develop a positive relationship with your customers, and sales funnels are a great way to help you do that.
2) Automated Sales & Nurture Emails
After you get the email address, the sales funnel is set up to send emails to that address on an automated schedule. The emails should typically be set to go out at least once a week, and they’re designed to help your lead overcome the obstacles that keep them from buying. These emails can include things like the sustainability features of your product, the benefits of your product, or satisfied customer testimonials.
All of these emails will help them overcome any remaining questions or doubts, and they’ll soon become a customer. But, if they don’t become a customer, client, or student (depending on your organization) by the time they go through your automated sales email sequence, that’s where ongoing nurture emails come in.
Nurturing emails are sent on a weekly, bi-weekly, or sometimes monthly basis, depending on your business model and sales cycle, and they are typically less heavy hitting than the sales email. Nurture emails are designed to keep you top-of-mind. You can use anything from recent blog posts, your youtube videos, relevant quotes, sales reminders, upcoming event announcements, and more as content for your nurture emails.
The Benefits of Sales Funnels
Without the sales funnel, companies have virtually no way to turn website visitors into customers, especially the ones you are still on the fence. With sales funnels, companies have the ability to capture emails, run email sequences, and turn website visitors into customers. Plus, they’re on an automated schedule, which helps ensure no lead is left untouched, while go about your busy day serving your clients. It’s almost like having a sales rep in your back pocket!
Companies need sales funnels because most website visitors aren’t ready to buy on their first visit. It can take between 8 to10 interactions with a brand before a lead will feel confident enough to become a customer. That’s where a sales funnel comes in – your lead emails will build brand familiarity with the customer, and give them the confidence they need to buy.
The sales funnel model is currently helping thousands of businesses increase revenue. Are you ready to become one of them?
Getting Started with Your Sales Funnel
Greenstone Media is here to help you take your marketing strategy to the next level. Our team can help you find the sales funnel content and emailing plan to maximize your customer transformation.
You can check out the full vlog discussing sales funnels here.
Or you can download our Guide to Creating an Effective Sales Funnel eBook to get a full breakdown of how to build your sales funnel.
For more marketing insights that will help you increase revenue and decrease inefficiencies, check out the Greenstone Media Vlog to hear the Greenstone Media team talk about what marketing tips we’ve learned over the years!
In the realm of effective storytelling one crucial element stands out: setting the stakes. Just like in Star Wars, where the fate of the galaxy hangs in the balance, your customers need to understand what they could gain by choosing to do business with you and what they could lose by not choosing to do business with you.
Understanding the Crossroads
You don’t want to be all doom-and-gloom, but your marketing message should include elements that remind your customers of what is at stake based on whether they do business with you or not. Why? Because it reminds them of the need they are seeking to resolve and the importance of getting that problem solved.
This is where setting the stakes becomes paramount. Just as Star Wars illustrates the consequences of choosing between the light and dark sides of the Force, your business narrative must paint a clear picture of the outcomes your customers face. In turn, your customer’s need to get their problem solve will drive them toward the next step, whether that’s scheduling a consultation, booking an appointment, or enrolling in a course.
The Importance of Foreshadowing
What happens to your customers if they don’t do business with you? Answering this question is critical to telling a customer-centered story. Think about iconic characters like Frodo or Batman – the stakes are clear. Frodo must destroy the Ring to save Middle-earth, and Batman must undergo training to protect Gotham.
Foreshadow the stakes so your customer knows what can be won or lost depending on whether they do business with you or your competition, or no one at all. Think about what makes your product or service better than that of your competitors. Is your potential customer likely to experience more issues or need to purchase a replacement sooner if they go with your competition vs you? Do they stand to gain superior customer service and a product quality guarantee if they choose you instead?
Examples of Stakes in Business
Here are some examples of common failures and successes your customers may encounter. We hope these get your marketing message juices flowing!
Failures:
- Customers lost to competitors
- More money wasted
- Less revenue
- More cavities
- No financial plan
- No retirement, college, education, dream job, etc.
Successes:
- More customers
- More leads
- More sales
- More revenue
- A beautiful smile
- A financial plan
- The retirement you’ve always wanted
- An inexpensive education
- A dream job, and so on
Crafting Your Brand Message
Use both failures and successes to craft a compelling brand message. Remind your customers that there is something to be gained or lost based on their decision to engage with your business. Paint a vivid picture of the success they could achieve by choosing your products or services and don’t be afraid to talk about failure! Success is so much sweeter when you know you’re avoiding failure.
Empowering Your Brand Narrative
By setting the stakes, you empower your marketing narrative with clarity and purpose. Your customers understand the risks and rewards, making it easier for them to make a decision. With a clear brand message in place, you can embark on effective digital marketing strategies that drive revenue growth and customer satisfaction.
Free Resources
At Greenstone Media, we’re passionate about helping businesses tell their stories in a more effective way. Our team can help ensure your narrative resonates with your target audience. Check out the full vlog here, or you can download our handy eBook “How to Tell A Story that Turns Visitors into Customers” here.
To further discuss the essentials of a marketing message and website that work to bring you more quality leads that drive revenue growth, book a free strategy call with us here. We’re excited for you to join us on this journey toward effective storytelling and digital marketing success!
What makes a successful higher education marketing strategy?
As any instructor will tell you, you can only teach the students who show up. But getting students to walk through the doors is a harder task than simply getting a student’s email.
The Challenge
Too often, the number of applications your school receives is far higher than the number of actual enrollments. A recent survey found that many colleges lose between 30 to 60% of students between the application and enrollment stages. That’s quite a gap!
The gap between applying and enrolling is a prevalent problem, and a truly successful higher education marketing strategy will do more than just get students’ attention. A good strategy needs to capture students’ genuine interest to get them from ‘applied’ to ‘enrolled.’
The Solution
Once you’ve gotten a potential student’s email, you need to provide them with useful and engaging information about your institution that answers their questions and addresses their doubts. You need to build a relationship with potential students that shows them they can trust you to help with their educational goals.
Partnering with an experienced enrollment marketing team can help you identify and address the causes of the gap between your applications and your enrollments. Your marketing partner can help you reflect, revise, and restart your current marketing strategy by looking at your brand messaging, website accessibility, and more.
A good starting point is to place yourself in the shoes of your potential students – does reading your marketing material give the student valuable information and a clear course of action? If not, that’s an excellent place to start updating your messaging.
A Successful Partnership in Action
To see what an experienced partner looks like in action, check out this case study of Greenstone Media’s partnership with Limestone University:
After a thorough research and discovery process, we identified the gaps in Limestone University’s digital marketing strategy that let potential students slip away. We implemented SEO strategy, social media marketing, and location-based ads to reach the strongest leads, and the difference was clear:
Limestone University doubled its new student enrollments for its traditional programs, and it saw a 50% increase in online and evening programs.
Close the Gap with Greenstone Media
The data is clear: there’s an enrollment gap between student applications and student enrollments. However, that gap can be closed with strategic digital marketing and an experienced partnership.
To bridge the gap between applications and enrollments with Greenstone Media’s expertise, schedule a strategy call with us today!
Everyone wants a new start in the New Year: you, your prospective students, and even your enrollment marketing strategy. It’s the perfect time to start fresh and reach for even greater success.
The first step for a successful New Year’s new start is looking backward. Take the time to reflect on last year’s enrollment marketing strategy. Did you reach your enrollment goals? Did you have a clear plan in place, and was it executed well? The second step is to revise your strategy in line with your new goals for the new year, and the third step is to get started with your new enrollment strategy!
Today, we’ll go over all three of these steps, and what they might look like for your educational institution.
Reflect
Your enrollment marketing is responsible for showing your prospective students that your school is the ideal place for their new start. You’ve chosen the field of education to help people learn, but you can’t do that until you turn prospective students into current students. Is your enrollment marketing accomplishing that?
Take a look at your enrollment funnel from start to finish to see where you might be losing prospective students.
- Does your overall branding style and messaging portray the student as the hero of their own story, and your institution as the guide to help them achieve their goals?
- Do you have engaging content and lead generators that will attract people to your website?
- Is your website easy to read and viewable on both computers and mobile devices?
- Do all of your marketing materials (including your emails, website, and ads) display a clear call-to-action?
Revise
Once you’ve reflected on what strategies succeeded and what strategies needed work, then you can take the time to plan a new strategy that will help you reach the students who need the programs and degrees you offer.
Greenstone Media’s Enrollment Marketing Blueprint can help you find strategies to address the gaps in your enrollment marketing. Instead of a one-size-fits-all enrollment plan, our Blueprint is a way for our experienced team members to apply new strategies to your specific enrollment marketing gaps. If you already have an easily accessible website with a clear call-to-action, great! That improves your user experience and increases your chance of converting more traffic into enrollments. With that taken care of, we might then focus on maximizing your SEO keyword usage and expanding your email campaign strategies to get more people onto your website.
Alternatively, if you’re investing in a strategy like pay-per-click advertising, the Greenstone Media team can advise you on how best to focus those strategies in ways that reach audience members.
As a general rule, specificity is always good when advertising your institution. Your pay-per-click advertising should target keywords related to your institution’s specific strengths, like “Sports Management Degree,” and Facebook ads for a traditional college enrollment may have a higher enrollment rate if you focus on reaching students in local and nearby areas.
Restart
You’re ready to get started once you’ve created your new enrollment marketing strategy that builds off of your past successes and addresses any past challenges. Navigating the digital landscape of enrollment marketing can be tricky, but with student-centered messaging and strategic inbound marketing, you can connect with your future students.
To see the change that Greenstone Media can help your institution achieve, check out our partnership with Toccoa Falls College!
Toccoa Falls College is a four-year independent liberal arts institution that provides degree programs to individuals who may otherwise have difficulty accessing higher education. They wanted to increase their enrollment numbers to reach and help the students who needed them most. Our Greenstone Media team helped them reflect on past enrollment strategies and developed a custom digital marketing strategy that would address their admissions goals.
We helped them design Google, Facebook, and Instagram ads to drive leads to their lovely website, and the results speak for themselves. With their custom marketing strategy, Toccoa Falls College was able to generate 232 enrollment leads, 9,544 new visitors to their website, and achieve a 15% overall increase in enrollments.
Let Greenstone Media Help You Achieve Your New Year Goals!
Accomplishing a new and effective enrollment strategy can seem daunting, but that’s where Greenstone Media can help. Our experience in higher education enrollment marketing gives us the tools to design and implement a clear and effective strategy in the new year.
Are you ready to reach your enrollment growth goals?
It’s time to reflect, revise, and restart your enrollment marketing strategy. Leap into your new start by scheduling a call to discuss your enrollment marketing needs today!
BACKGROUND:
At Greenstone Media, we take pride in helping businesses like yours shine online. Recently, we had the pleasure of working with BEM Custom Builders, a company committed to crafting luxury homes with state-of-the-art features. They approached us with a vision to elevate their online presence and showcase the excellence of their projects.
A Stunning Website Transformation
In collaboration with BEM Custom Builders, we identified a sophisticated look and feel for their website redesign that not only reflected the luxury of their homes but also incorporated modern elements and messaging to showcase their smart home capabilities. The focal point was their website home page, which we designed and developed. To ensure a seamless and visually appealing experience we carried elements of that design throughout the rest of the new site.
Telling A Story with Images
The interactive project portfolio gallery, a key feature of the new website, allows BEM to properly show off their finished builds. We worked with BEM to curate their extensive photo library to tell a compelling story. By featuring their projects in a way that guides potential clients through the building stages and feature options to assist with decision-making, we not only enhanced their online presence but also built trust with their audience.
The addition of a user-friendly zoom feature highlights the meticulous attention to detail that BEM Custom Builders invests in each and every project. This gallery not only showcased their beautiful project photography but also emphasized their commitment to quality and innovation.
Modern Living with Smart Home Technology
Clients interested in taking their dream home builds a bit further can visit their dedicated Smart Home page to learn more about smart home capabilities and options. BEM Custom Builders provides premium services and cutting-edge modern design by leveraging the latest Smart Home technologies. From indoor temperature control and lighting to outdoor pool systems, security, and sound – their website now serves as a testament to their commitment to modern living.
Pay-per-click advertising isn’t cheap, but it can be a powerful tool for conversion. Getting your higher education institution in front of the students who need your programs is a critical step to increasing your enrollments, and PPC helps you get their attention.
Here are 7 PPC tips for enrollment marketing that allow you to reach your ideal audience.
1. Your Branded Terms Already Generate Traffic
It may seem counterintuitive, but bidding on your own brand terms isn’t always the best strategy for reaching new students. Sure, it may help increase brand awareness for your institution or program, but it can also be an inefficient use of your budget. Why? Existing students who click on your paid ad to access your website every time they need to set up an advising appointment will result in you spending a lot of money on an audience who has already converted.
In addition, if prospective students are already googling your institution’s name, your website should appear organically on the search results for them to access. Because of this, save the branded terms for your search engine optimization efforts and get better results with your paid ads budget.
2. Speaking to a Specific Audience Gets Results
As with any advertising campaign, building your ads around your audience is the key to successful conversion. High school students start their college search with the help of advisors and family members, so they’re doing less general digital research where keywords might come into play. In some cases, the best way to reach high school students is by targeting their parents. Parents who want to help advise their teens on potential colleges will likely do research on their own, to confirm what college experience will be helpful for their children.
Your continuing education audience, on the other hand, might not know where to start when they’re looking for a place to continue their studies. That audience will be more likely to search for “online certification for [X]” or “degree program with flexible time management,” which are specific PPC keywords you can target.
No matter which audience you’re targeting, you want to make sure that not only are your campaigns targeting the right keywords, but that your ads themselves, and the landing pages they link to, utilize words and imagery that speak to your ideal audience. Getting the right message in front of the right audience will ensure a better conversion rate for your PPC efforts.
3. Speaking about a Specific Program Gets Results
Specificity is the key to getting results. Keywords like “college degree” or “master’s degree” are so general that your results will get lost in the shuffle of degree programs. You’ll be more likely to reach an interested audience if you use words that relate to specific programs or courses that your institution offers and the problems they help your audience solve if they enroll.
For example, in Greenstone Media’s partnership with Shorter University, we focused their advertising on audiences interested in Christian Studies, Human Services, and Sports Management. That specificity allowed them to connect with prospective students who wanted to study those programs, and who were closer to conversion thanks to their program interest.
4. Target the Right Audience with the Right Messaging
The journey to turn a prospective student into an enrolled student has several different steps, and it requires different types of messaging at different stages.
When prospective students click on your PPC keywords, it’s important that you have a clear brand message throughout the enrollment funnel. From ad, to landing page, to lead generator, to followup emails, a clear and consistent message will help engage your audience and build trust with them as they go from lead to enrolled student. Greenstone Media’s Clear Brand Message service specializes in ensuring that the words you use, whether in ads, social posts, or on your website, speak to the problems your audience is facing, and position your institution as the guide to help your audience get what they’re seeking.
5. Timing is Everything
In an enrollment funnel, timing is everything. Prospective students clicking on your website for the first time don’t want an “Apply Now” message before they know what your institution is all about. Figuring out exactly how this timing works is tricky, which is why Greenstone Media offers an Enrollment Funnel service that ensures that the content you put in front of your audience matches their stage of the enrollment process.
For example, prospective students who see your PPC keywords are usually at the top of the funnel and not always ready to enroll right away, but will respond positively to relevant and useful content that helps them in their search. Once you’ve engaged them, you can build their interest with nurture emails and information sessions before encouraging them to apply or enroll, thus increasing the chance that they will enroll instead of moving on.
6. Everything Should be Phone-Friendly
Mobile usage is only going up, which means it’s more important than ever for your digital marketing to be optimized for mobile access. You can quickly check this right now: search your institution’s website on your mobile device and see how everything looks. Is the font readable? Can you still navigate it with ease?
In terms of PPC, with mobile usage going up, mobile PPC bids can be a worthwhile investment for gaining audience attention. Consider the audience you’re trying to reach. Are you wanting to reach potential students within a 100-mile radius or students across the globe? If you’re trying to reach an audience closer to you, consider how they might be using their mobile devices to search for what you’re offering and tailor your ads strategy and landing page designs to accommodate those mobile searchers.
7. Keep an Eye on the Time
Just like the school year, PPC has an on-season and an off-season. Utilizing these PPC tips for higher education is most effective when you plan your marketing campaigns for the times when your audience is actively searching for education programs.
For example, a few months before enrollment opens may be the time when people have their education plans in mind, and are looking for programs like yours.
While off-season ads may be cheaper (less competition = lower bids), Investing in high-traffic times can guarantee that you reach an audience who is actively looking for what your institution offers, is more likely to “buy”, and can help you beat out the competition in the process.
Greenstone Media Can Help Your PPC Enrollment Marketing
Are you ready to increase your enrollments with more effective marketing? Learn more about how to reach potential students through higher ed paid ads and other enrollment marketing strategies on our blog. Or, if you’d like to chat with us about how we can help you use these PPC tips for higher ed, pick a time to meet here!