In 2017, 66% of admissions directors in higher education missed their enrollment goals, heating up the race to engage and convert prospective students. To reach the finish line, higher education marketers need to grow awareness for their programs with prospects as well as convince them of the value of their degrees—something not easily done in brochures, print ads, and other traditional tactics.
Higher education marketers are aware of this and have adopted modern marketing practices like content marketing, search engine optimization, social media marketing, and more to grow awareness among candidates. However, only a small percentage of them are doing it well.
To help higher education marketers generate high-quality leads and employ marketing tactics that work, we created Mastering Lead Generation: 14 Tips for Engaging Higher Education Candidates on LinkedIn.
Download Mastering Lead Generation and find out how to:
- Engage prospective students
- Target your ideal candidates
- Boost lead generation
Using real-world examples from leading institutions, we will walk you through 14 lead generation tips that provide real results. For example, your institution can generate more leads through helpful content, A/B testing, lead generation forms, conversion tracking, and more.
For more ideas on what to expect, check out three valuable best practices from our guide:
1. Deliver Value
Most schools and institutions only share program information on their social media channels. But this misses a huge opportunity for schools to differentiate themselves among other programs in the marketplace.
Instead, help your prospective students by offering valuable career development insights. This will differentiate your programs and institution from the competition and establish your credibility as a source for career growth—something your prospective students yearn for.
To help get you started with content ideas, try these topics that candidates find valuable:
- Leadership and productivity advice
- Industry research
- Relevant business trends
- Job search tips
If this feels overwhelming, don’t try to go it alone. Build a team of content creators by collaborating with your school’s esteemed faculty, career services team, or public relations department. Then, continue to think of creative ways to repurpose content you already have in new and imaginative ways to keep prospective students coming back for more.
2. Re-Engage Website Visitors With Retargeting
Once a prospect has visited your program page, they become a potential lead prime for retargeting. And while your traditional retargeting campaigns will appear across the web pages they visit, that doesn’t mean they will show up on their social media sites. With the average person spending over two hours each day on social media, that is a big missed opportunity.
Fortunately, you can still retarget them on LinkedIn.
Copy and paste a simple LinkedIn Insight Tag onto your website to begin collecting data on your visitors from all channels. Then, in LinkedIn Campaign Manager, you can target visitors with custom content that directs them to the specific program page they visited or any other unique landing page. This has incredible results with some organizations seeing a 30% increase in CTR when using LinkedIn’s Website Retargeting.
3. Amplify Content With a Mix of Solutions
Because LinkedIn members use the platform at different times and follow different schools, not everyone will see your University Page updates. Using a healthy mix of LinkedIn Marketing Solutions helps connect your message with more prospective students, regardless of when they’re active or not.
For example, using Sponsored Content and Sponsored InMail in tandem improves engagement rates for both tactics. If your Sponsored Content isn’t generating the traffic you’d expect, consider supporting it with a longer InMail campaign where you have more real estate to tell your story and promote your program. In fact, Florida International University paired Sponsored Content and InMail together and doubled their InMail open rate.
Marketing to prospective students doesn’t have to be a guessing game. Engage prospects while they’re developing their shortlists and drive enrollment by downloading Mastering Lead Generation: 14 Tips for Engaging Higher Education Students on LinkedIn.
