Distance education has gained momentum in the last decade. More and more people are getting certified with online courses and programs. That is why we see fit to talk about Digital Marketing for the Distance Education sector and discover how marketing through digital channels can boost the sales of educational institutions.
Digital Marketing Potential in the Distance Education Sector
Although it is true that applying Digital Marketing in the Distance Education sector means encountering several challenges, such as having to appeal to a different audience each year, it cannot be denied that marketing within the online environment has several reasons. why invest in it.
The first is the most important, and that is that the online consumer, in general, is turning to the Internet to start their purchase process, and for the Distance Education sector it is exactly the same.
Tutors and students consult the websites and reviews before approaching the institutes. So it is helpful to master the strategies, techniques, and convenient means to start applying Digital Marketing for the Distance Education sector.
So, understanding that students also research on the Internet to start taking careers or distance courses, it is worth considering the potential of Digital Marketing strategies for the Distance Education sector:
Read More: Virtual Reality: The Next Big Thing in Educational Technology
1. It makes it easier for you to manage your online reputation
For institutions within the Distance Education sector, it is extremely important to take a space within the digital environment and give a sample of what they are and how they have worked to promote academic training successfully.
There are different ways to achieve the reputation you want through Digital Marketing for the Distance Education sector, for example, the production of quality content, which allows you to position yourself in the top position of the search results. Among the required content on your website are the positive testimonials of former students who have successfully completed their academic training.
As well as the promotion of positive news that supports the reality of your institution. In other words, Digital Marketing for the Distance Education sector provides endless convenient resources to improve online reputation.
2. Allows you to promote yourself from paid channels
Online reputation is an effect that is achieved through content that is real, that is, that demonstrates your virtues as an online trainer. But direct promotion about your services must be done from other channels.
Creating and promoting paid advertisements through Ads is another opportunity of Digital Marketing for the Distance Education sector to generate a solid presence within the online field, mainly because with the targeting options, your ads can be directed to an audience that has all the possibilities and characteristics to enroll in your institution.
One of the keys to generating potential leads is knowing what type of keywords to program paid ads with because the idea is to use words that are relevant within the audience you are targeting.
3. Boost your digital presence
When you execute the appropriate strategies to apply Digital Marketing for the Distance Education sector, you have the enormous benefit of starting to take your own space within the digital field, taking into account that hundreds of people turn to the Internet to consult information and guide their decisions. shopping.
4. Generate real opportunities to drive high conversion rates
The attractiveness of Digital Marketing for the Distance Education sector is that it is present and active in channels where the students and audience you are targeting are also present.
That means, if for example, you run a paid advertising campaign from Social Networks, you have the opportunity to generate qualified traffic and willing to sign up for some of the courses you teach and that obviously brings a natural consequence for savings. investment and ROI.
5. Lower cost of student acquisition
What happens with Digital Marketing for the Distance Education sector is that acquisition costs per student can be reduced because digital resources are used strategically.
In other words, of all the digital channels, we have the opportunity to know which of these are the most convenient and most profitable, so more accurate decisions are made and guided to reduce the cost of acquisition.
Digital Marketing for the Distance Education sector improves profitability
When you use the appropriate channels to generate highly targeted messages to a market segment that is interested in your services and also gain more business opportunities, that is, more students wanting to enroll in your courses, the entire recruitment process of clients (in this case students) naturally return profitability.
Because it means that you are executing actions that will actually make you obtain more students with the intention of enrolling, and in turn, you will not have to invest in more techniques that are not returning positive results.
Best Digital Marketing Trends for the Sector
If we refer to the student as another customer who goes to the Internet to consult the information about their doubts or questions, high-value content becomes a key piece in building a reputation within the digital environment.
Content Marketing
People like to consume content, for many reasons, for example:
-
They like to hear or read good stories.
-
They like to read or listen to extremely useful content.
-
They like to read or listen to content to feel identified with something or someone.
-
They like to get content that allows you to guide their purchasing decisions.
Everyone at some point in the day goes to the Internet to consult information related to our future purchases! And it is more than proven that the Distance Education market is no different.
When building a Content Marketing strategy for Distance Education companies, consider that your Buyer Persona can be made up of two types:
-
Young recent graduates.
-
Parents of minors wanting to start a course or career.
You must guide both of them to start the purchase process with your institution, so the recommendation is that you consider three types of content:
-
Contents for parents.
-
Contents for students.
Content for those who are in the discovery stage, in consideration and decision. That is, the idea is that the content can help you convert prospects to customers (enrolled students).
Understanding that you have several types of Buyer Personas within the audience you are targeting, consider that students are looking for a study house that tries to satisfy their extracurricular needs, that nurtures their knowledge and that helps them enter the workplace.
On the contrary, parents could be focused on other points, such as the cost of tuition, the value that Distance Education gives to their children, and above all the assurance that this modality will be able to cover the basic needs of their children.
Thinking about these influencing factors, ask yourself how to create a Content Marketing strategy that converts?
Read More: How this pandemic will affect Indian Education System
There are tons of resources that can help you drive conversions, and we mentioned that to you at the beginning.
For example, for both Buyer Persona, the video content that brings together the experience of former students is magnificent because it is seen and heard from real clients, what they obtained after studying through Distance Education. the rest of the formats.
The key here is to know which are the terms most used by the audiences you want to target and create content based on those keywords. That will not only help you to approach them naturally, but you will also be adding points to the organic positioning of your website.
Keep this in mind: try to be social and not promotional. The promotion of services can be done from other channels, which we will talk about later.
Inbound Marketing
Inbound Marketing is a sales methodology that is conveniently synchronized with the current behavior of the online consumer (including students when they start their research process) and in fact, 75% of professionals who use Inbound Marketing affirm that their strategy is effective.
We explain what it is about with a practical example to see how it works:
Suppose you are Juan, a young enthusiast who has decided to learn about Digital Marketing, you go to Google and ask “why should I do a postgraduate degree now?”
In the search results, Google shows you an article from Coursera, a website dedicated to the Distance Education sector, in which it shows you some reasons why you should start your postgraduate degree now.
In the article, they show some estimates of what you would spend right now if you decided to start and what you could start to earn when you finish your graduate studies. It also tells you about the costs of an online distance school, while comparing the costs with a face-to-face school. (this is the material from a real Coursera article )
In short, you liked the article and you decide to sign up for the Coursera newsletter. At the same time, the Distance Education school sends you a series of emails, with more content similar to the one you read on their blog, you still find it interesting and you continue to interact with each of their emails.
As time goes by, you decide to register for one of its courses, because you considered:
“If the content is good, it has given me a key lesson and it has also allowed me to clarify the subject of Distance Education, and it has left me material about Digital Marketing, then it is very likely that its courses are the same.
At that moment you decide to enroll and start studying at a distance from their courses. You have gained the advantage of taking your time to decide when to start while building yourself with quality content, and Coursera has gained a client (student).
This imaginary situation is what happens every day in real life for companies that apply Inbound Marketing as a sales philosophy and lead attraction.
Read More: The Importance Of Sensory Play : child development
Inbound Marketing has as its cornerstone the use of high-value content and properly segmented so that the process of lead generation and customer acquisition is given, naturally, as you saw in the example.
It is about preparing the potential client (in this case student) so that at some point when they decide to buy, they consider you as the service provider. It’s great for several things:
-
Segmented marketing actions.
-
High-value content for the lead.
-
Direct sales are not forced, we generate closeness to be by his side, for when he decides or is ready to buy.
Social media
We bet that as an educational institution you have already been applying certain Digital Marketing strategies for the Distance Education sector, among many, the generation of content under social media, and that is fine because in addition to an elegant, intuitive, responsive and That invites you to stay longer, it is great to motivate visits.
But Social Networks should not be neglected or left in the background, in fact, it is an ideal channel to generate quality traffic.
If you feel that you are stuck with this point, before starting with new strategies consider taking things step by step so that this time, you can achieve positive results:
-
Current position: You are probably already on several platforms, but what about the rest where you are not? Are you posting frequently? How is your competition? What is your audience doing? At this point, it is worth doing an audit of your Social Networks.
-
Redefine your audience.
-
Set new goals and metrics.
-
Define the roles of the team: Like any other business, when using Digital Marketing for the Distance Education sector, you have to define the roles of the team that is in charge of the social media strategy, mainly, if after the audit, You notice that you are not getting what you expected.
-
Create a listening process: Social Networks are great for knowing what your audience is talking about, so when you are ready to start on a renewed social media strategy, do not forget the mechanisms to measure, listen and talk with the audience.
Paid Ads
Paid ads are another important part of executing a Digital Marketing strategy for the Distance Education sector that is capable of bringing many business opportunities to your website.
According to a study by WordStream, companies that use paid Facebook ads far outnumber companies that do not include it in their marketing strategy:
● 77% more fans of the page
● 96% more page clicks
● 126% more page impressions.
● 225% more subsequent impressions.
● 90% more fans reached.
● 111% more friends of the page’s fans reached.
Due to its specific way of understanding how to target and segment audiences within its community, Facebook has positioned itself as the king of paid ads, so it is advisable to master 3 keys to improving the effectiveness of ads:
-
Try different types of ads.
-
Take advantage of remarketing.
-
Concentrate on creating campaigns guided to achieve your goals.
Tips for doing Marketing in the Distance Education sector
1. The first thing you have to think about is identifying your Buyer Persona, because how are you going to execute Digital Marketing strategies for the Distance Education sector if you don’t know who you are going to direct your actions to?
The Buyer Persona gives you a much more complete vision of who the person you are addressing is, so, for example, you can know how they search the internet, what they search, what type of content they like, what are the websites they visit regularly to read information of interest, among other things.
Read More:Career Options for Mathis-Science Students after 12th – Complete List
2. Whenever we execute marketing actions, whether online or offline, we must do a deep analysis of the environment and as an online trainer, you should not skip this step.
You are a trader like any other, you have competitors, and you have a market that is telling you about market trends, their desires, problems, concerns, etc.
Pay attention to what this tells you and take ideas to refine the details of your Digital Marketing strategy for the Distance Education sector.
3. Like any other merchant, your ideal customer goes through a process before buying. This is a bit of the practical example explained above. That is, your next students go through an education process that depends on several touches to naturally complete a purchase process.
In Inbound Marketing we have determined it as Buyer Journey, to explain the process through which a consumer goes through before making a purchase decision. So that you can fine-tune your marketing actions, you need to understand what your sales funnel is like, what stage of the Buyer Journey your next students are at, and based on that send personalized content.
The idea of executing actions within Digital Marketing is to take advantage of its resources to reach potential clients in a timely manner, which in your case are people wanting to take a course or any type of distance study.
Whatever you decide to do to get closer to the student body, do it with the intention of getting closer to them naturally, not to execute purely sales actions.
