As we’re approaching the end of this semester, it’s time for higher education institutions to start gearing up for the next semester. Naturally, this means securing more enrollments and getting as many students signed up for classes as possible. The problem? Doing so seems to become more difficult with each passing year. The higher education industry is already a densely populated market, and with the added competition of more budget-friendly e-learning platforms popping up seemingly every day, it can be difficult to set your institution apart from the rest.
So, how can you cut through the noise and engage your ideal audience? By showing prospective students what makes your institution unique, why it matters, and why they should attend.
One of the best ways to do this is by using a proven marketing framework to help you clarify your message so your target audience listens and to help you use your messaging consistently and effectively throughout all of your marketing efforts – from admissions calls and emails to paid ads, social media, and your website.
So, what exactly is this framework, and why does it matter? Here’s everything you need to know.
What Is the StoryBrand Framework?
The effective messaging and marketing framework we recommend (and utilize with all of our clients) is called the StoryBrand framework. It was created by American author and entrepreneur Donald Miller in 2017 with the release of his book Building a StoryBrand. The book details methods for any company or institution to clarify their marketing strategies and better hone in on their target audience, with a focus primarily on the words they use.
Rather than talking about your college’s history, milestones, and prestigious awards, colleges using the StoryBrand framework will instead seek to tell the story of their audience, making their students (and prospective students) the story’s main character. Centering your marketing message around your target audience helps you to show empathy and authority, and connect with your audience without making it a bragging session all about you.
After all, everyone wants to be the hero in their own story. So if you can show your audience that you’re here to help them become the best they can be, they’re more likely to engage with your message to see how your programs can help them succeed.
So, how does this play out in your marketing? Miller suggests that every great story– and thus, every great marketing strategy– contains seven components:
- The hero- As we mentioned earlier, this is your target audience (not your institution).
- A problem or desire- While your target audience will come from all backgrounds, statuses, and walks of life, one thing unites them– they’re looking to solve a problem they face. Whether they want to start, advance, or entirely change their career, they’re interested in your school because of the potential for change that it offers.
- The guiding figure- In most stories, the protagonist meets a wise guiding figure who mentors them and gives them wisdom. Here, that guiding figure is your college or university. Think: you’re Gandalf, your students are Frodo. This where you can talk a bit about yourself to show authority.
- A plan- As the guide, you have a plan for your students to follow in order to succeed. In this case, this “plan” is the education that will allow them to make the changes and advancements they’re pursuing.
- A call to action- With a plan in mind, the hero sets off towards their goal. Here, you should make a clear call to action to encourage your customers to enroll and start on their journey, following your plan for success.
- Failure to avoid- The plan helps your audience to avoid the risks and pitfalls they may encounter. For example, if you want to market your institution’s affordable tuition and robust financial aid programs, you would help your hero avoid the pitfall of an expensive education (especially for a degree they don’t end up using to meet their goal) and mounting student debt (that leaves makes it harder to reach their goal or makes it less satisfying when they do).
- Achieving success- Of course, it isn’t good enough to simply avoid failure– your protagonist must also achieve success. Make a list of what your students will gain from your programs that will help them succeed in life and their future careers, and back your claims up using evidence from successful alumni.
When followed appropriately, the StoryBrand framework can help you create advertisements and other marketing collateral that speak to your target audience on a highly personal level, using the power of storytelling. Rather than just another brand that’s trying to sell a service, your institution takes on the image of a wise mentor who can help students achieve their dreams. You’re no longer just a part of the crowd; you stand out to your audience and make yourself an extremely appealing option for their higher education needs.
Having covered the general concepts of the framework and why they matter, let’s get into some of the more specific strategies we use with our higher education clients, applying elements of this effective framework for the best results.
Targeting Your Audience More Effectively
Many conventional advertising strategies rely solely on getting the same message out to as many people as possible. While this does put a lot of eyes on your institution, it doesn’t give them much reason to care. Using a framework, like the one from StoryBrand for higher ed solves this problem. As we mentioned above, it makes your institution seem much more relatable and able to accommodate your student’s needs.
Start with your primary audience and create content that utilizes all or a combination of the seven elements above. Then, consider how you can target groups and subgroups more specifically – it could be different audiences for different programs, or multiple audiences for one program. After you’ve identified a few other audiences to target, create content (again, using the seven elements above) to speak more specifically to each group. This process may require more time and effort but you’ll end up with fine-tuned messages that speak to each audience where they are in life, in progress to their goals, and along the consideration journey.
This means that more prospects who come into contact with any of your marketing assets will be immediately interested and engrossed by the possibilities your organization could open up for them.
Maximizing ROI of Your Marketing Efforts
When it comes to determining whether or not a marketing campaign is effective, there’s one measure that’s king– return on investment. A high ROI indicates a highly successful campaign, while a low ROI indicates the opposite.
Let’s return to the example of non-StoryBrand vs. StoryBrand marketing. With non-StoryBrand marketing, your message is far less personal and likely more focused on your organization than placing the student at the center, meaning the audience who sees your ads or social posts, is less likely to relate to what you have to say and therefore less likely to click and visit your program pages. And those that do get to you program pages are likely struggling to understand whether you get them and can really help them.
However, utilizign the elements of story (while placing your audience in the role of the hero) in your marketing makes the audience care… because now it’s about them. So, no matter how big your ad spend budget it is, how many followers you have on Meta, or even how great your website looks, you’ll get more bang for your buck because the words are engaging more of your audience and leading more qualified prospects through your enrollment funnel.
Social Media Outreach
One of the most important parts of effective marketing is learning to meet your target audience where they are. You’re supposed to be the wise mentor helping the protagonist along their challenging journey, so finding you shouldn’t be a challenging journey in and of itself. That’s why it’s important to know your target audience, know who and what they listen to, and know where to find them.
Fortunately, life in the digital age has made doing this easier than ever before. As an institution of higher education, your primary target audience is most likely fresh or recent high school graduates who were born and have grown up in the era of social media, influencers, and short-form content. Thus, one of the best ways to reach them is through popular social media platforms like Instagram, Meta, and TikTok using popular figures and cultural phenomena that will appeal to a young adult audience. You can supplement this digital content with personalized nurture emails sent to interested students.
Of course, this can be tweaked if, for example, you’re promoting a continuing education program aimed at older adults, but the core principle remains the same– reach out to your audience in the places they frequent, and make sure they feel seen and heard through your marketing campaigns by implementing a marketing message that speaks to their goals and interests.
Helping Prospective Students Envision Their Future
One of the elements that makes using the StoryBrand framework so effective for higher education is that it helps your prospective students to envision a future at your institution. By helping them see themselves as a student at your institution, you allow them to imagine all the opportunities that will come during and after their time with you. Once they’ve seen all of the possibilities you have to offer, they’re much more likely to register with you, giving you the enrollment numbers you need going into the next semester.
Using words (and even imagery) in your marketing materials to help students have a clearer vision of achieving their goals at your institution allows them to have effective conversations with counselors and academic advisors to create a plan that encompasses all of their needs and wants for their academic careers. Not only that, but the goals they have for life beyond the degree begin to feel more achievable, further encouraging them to enroll with your institution to achieve their dreams.
If you’d like to learn more about marketing frameworks, strategies, and tools that you can use to attract more students to your institution, we at Greenstone Media can help! You can visit our blog today to learn more about higher education marketing as a whole, or download our ebook that walks you through, in more detail, how to craft a story that engages and enrolls more students.
