Engage. Consider. Convert.

Education Marketing

Having spent some time in the education space, I thought it might be useful to share the thinking behind "Winning the Race to Rapport;" an approach to the marketing of education, with emphasis on graduate degrees. I chose this industry to illustrate how strategic thinking and analytics yield insights.

Successful marketing strategies focus on understanding how people make a particular choice. By pinpointing what information would help prospects choose we can improve both the engagement and consideration stages. Consider the following:

Where to go to school is a social decision. High-school students have different priorities than working-adults. Prospect needs vary across Associate, Bachelor and Master's levels. The competition for high-quality applicants is stiff. And when the considertion set is full of equals in terms of the three main drivers of program, cost and location how do you win?

Questions everyone has: Lead generation, admissions, and remarketing strategies need to prioritize and execute against all the questions.

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What Could We Do?

Very often the answers to the questions posed above remain in a form made popular early in the last century - standard documents. Today, prospects find, consume and share content in a myriad of ways and effective marketing strategies need new tactics for content distribution and consumption.

To get in the consideration set means understanding why and how people make a particular choice.

• What do they expect or want a degree to do for them? (beyond the non-differentiating 'career')
• What content is important to them?
• How do they consume information?
• How do they engage and share?

And to get from the consideration set to the decision requires an emotional bond - this is why it is a literal race of time to get prospects on the phone first. Enrollment counselors, if nothing else, are there to build rapport.

For more on on ways content can be leveraged in marketing see: Curriculum Marketing.

For more on on ways to segment inquiries based on how a degree will help them see: How Prospects Choose.

 

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