Audience-Centric Enrollment Marketing 101
Have you heard of being audience-centric? If not, it’s time to
talk about audience-centric enrollment marketing so you know how
much of this growing philosophy to integrate into your
marketing.
Lately, I’ve been reading about a growing conversation around
“audience-centric marketing.” I’m glad this important topic
is gaining more prominence, because marketing is changing.
Audience-centric enrollment marketing calls on education
marketers to center their strategic planning, brand messaging, and
content creation around the needs and wants of their
audience(s).
In previous posts, I lay out my reasons why enrollment marketers
should begin their marketing strategies with a marketing
and brand audit and a review
of your marketing performance.
But once you’ve done this hard internally focused work,
everything afterwards should be focused on the experience your
audience will have with your
educational brand.
Audience-Centric Enrollment Marketing vs. Org-Centric Marketing
Org-centric marketing is the way education marketing was done
for years. It goes like this:
- What do we have to offer?
- How does what we have to offer benefit students?
- How are we better than our competitors?
- How can we convey to our audiences that we’re better?
At first glance, this looks good. Benefits, features,
differentiation – these are the fundamentals of marketing,
right?
Back in the day when marketing was a one-way
stream of messaging from education brands to potential
students, this was a great strategy.
But not anymore.
Who’s Looking for Whom?
Before, education brands were on the hunt for prospective
students. It was all up to you and your marketing team to get the
word out and build
brand recognition.
But now, prospective students and their parents are more in
control of the enrollment process than ever before. Now, they are
the ones who initiate the search for the right school.
In today’s education market, your audience is looking
for you.
They are looking for answers to their questions so they can
make the right decision for themselves and their families.
This is why audience-centric enrollment marketing makes so much
sense. If you start by answering the questions your audience is
likely to have, they will find you.
But if your marketing messaging only talks about your
organization’s great features or how you’re different than your
competitors, you’re likely to be ignored.
No School is Right for Everyone
Org-centric marketing also hurts your marketing results because
it makes you think your organization is right for everyone.
If you begin with the academic, sports, science, environmental
(campus, classrooms, dorms, etc.), and prestige benefits that your
educational institution has to offer, how could you not come to the
conclusion that your school is the best choice anyone could ever
make?
But when you begin with what your audience wants and needs,
you’ll soon find the areas of your private college, university,
or independent school that shine and which areas need improvement
or closing.
Prospective students aren’t coming to your school
because of how great you are. They come because of how great you
are for them.
So how do you do Audience-Centric Enrollment Marketing?
The first step is to start listing your target audiences. Here
are a few of the common education
marketing personas I listed in an earlier post you should
consider:
The “Customer”
- The traditional student
- The non-traditional student or adult student
- The graduate student
The “Influencers”
- Moms and Dads
- Siblings
- Coaches
- Youth Pastors
After listing your target audiences, you should start crafting
marketing personas for each one of them. For more on how to create
effective marketing personas, check
out my post here.
As you craft your marketing personas, brainstorm the various
questions that each of them would have about the topic of choosing
the right school for them. In other words, what questions do they
have about…
- Financial aid?
- Career planning?
- Starting life as a college student?
- Student finances?
- Making new friends?
- Packing for dorm life?
- Growing personally or spiritually through the college
experience?
Obviously, there are many more questions you can come up with,
but this is a good start.
Once you’ve got your list of questions, concerns, desires, and
goals written out, get your
marketing team started on developing content that answers
those questions in different ways.
And while you’re creating content, avoid going on long
tangents about yourself.
So when should you talk about yourself?
There are moments when you should present your education brand
as the solution to the problem or as a caring partner on the
educational journey.
But this needs to come after your audience knows you are
committed to their best interest.
Audience-centric enrollment marketing isn’t just about
attracting prospective students to your marketing messages, it’s
about building
brand trust.
Answer their questions first before presenting what your
organization has to offer. This really is the bottom line of
audience-centric enrollment marketing.
Is this going to last?
In marketing, there are all kinds of fads that come and go.
Audience-centric enrollment marketing isn’t one of them.
Being audience-centric is more than a strategy. It should be a
way of thinking about everything in our work.
Does your content answer questions your audience has or does it
simply add to the noise in their life?
Do your banners, landing pages, and other calls to action have
an audience-centric value proposition? Or do your value
propositions only talk about how great your school is?
My friend, it’s time to make the conversation
about them.
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Featured image by fizkes via Adobe
Stock
This post was originally published at:
https://www.caylor-solutions.com/audience-centric-enrollment-marketing/
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Audience-Centric Enrollment Marketing 101 appeared first on
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