Insights from the Higher Ed Experts

BY Anthony Campisi | November 30th, 2023

What you need to know about higher education content marketing

Content is king when it comes to promoting a university to a target audience – but just how do you go about higher education content marketing effectively?

By creating and distributing engaging and useful content tailored to your target audience, you can do everything from building brand awareness to boosting conversions to educating prospects about the key details of your programs. Ultimately, all of this can play a crucial role in increasing enrollment, but the trick is doing it effectively. As prospects are bombarded with content online, via social media, email, and other channels, creating content that really stands out and reaches them is imperative.

To that end, here are a few strategies and ideas for creating content that truly stands out and engages with your target audience!

Optimize your blog

Blogging is a crucial tool at your disposal for effective higher education content marketing. Topics could include your program’s history, campus culture, the benefits of enrolling, interviews with professors and alumni, and much more.

To optimize your blog, be sure to take search engine optimization (SEO) into account and conduct thorough keyword and topic research beforehand. Establishing a content calendar to publish content on a steady cadence is another good idea to stay accountable and keep tabs on key metrics like views, dwell time, and conversions.

Create valuable longform content

Longform content like eBooks, guides, and whitepapers are great for bringing more in-depth information to your target audience efficiently and effectively.

Topics for longform content could include campus life, your school’s local community, career options, and the like. Another advantage of longform content is that it’s easy to distribute via email or social media and can also be gated, making it useful for lead capturing.

Leverage case studies and testimonials

Case studies and testimonials from students and alumni are an excellent way to humanize your school’s programs and add a more personalized touch. By highlighting real-life examples of students and alumni, schools can help prospects imagine themselves in your program and boost the odds of their enrollment.

When creating case studies and testimonials, focus on the success stories of students and alumni profiled and relate them directly back to your program. Also, remember to share this content on social media and email to increase its reach to prospective students.

Create engaging videos

Given the popularity of social media channels like YouTube and TikTok and the changing nature of how content is consumed, video marketing has never been more important than right now.

Embrace this trend and leverage video marketing to its fullest potential. Some ideas include video case studies and testimonials, campus tours, interviews with faculty, campus events, and more. Keep in mind that shorter videos tend to convert at a higher rate and that sharing on social media is crucial.

Share useful infographics on social media

Finally, don’t overlook the power of infographics.

They’re a great way to communicate key information in a visual, simple, and engaging way. Before creating them, create an outline for each one that focuses on telling a relevant story, and be sure to make it visually appealing with the right colors and fonts. After creating an infographic, share it on social media channels like X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram to ensure it reaches as wide an audience as possible.

Boost your higher education content marketing strategy today

The bottom line is that content marketing is crucial for promoting your school, and its programs. Interested in optimizing your content strategy? Contact GPRS today to leverage our resources and experience in this area.

Insights from the Higher Ed Experts

BY Anthony Campisi | November 15th, 2022

Take pressure off your marketing and admissions teams

If your marketing and admissions teams are currently trying to do more with less budget, staff, and time, you are not alone. Many schools right now are facing budget cuts and resourcing issues that can make it difficult to create and maintain enrollment momentum. Taking pressure off your marketing and admissions teams could be the answer.

A lot has changed (and continues to change) for the teams responsible for enrollment over the last couple of years. Some of your staff may still be working remotely. Your recruiting team may be smaller with more work to do. Your marketing budget may be lower than in previous years. Even if your entire staff isn’t waving the white flag, it’s likely that you are feeling the strains of a post-pandemic environment where there is still a bit of uncertainty and constant change.

If you’re struggling to create new leads, keep up with your funnel or strategize new innovative ways to do more with less, we have some ideas to help. By working with an experienced digital agency like GPRS, you will benefit from our over 20 years of experience in helping higher ed institutions just like yours.

Recruiting assistance

Many schools are starting to realize that depending solely on traditional recruitment methods to meet the 24/7 demands of today’s prospects is unrealistic. To connect with prospects on their terms, and within their timeframe, you need more scale. This is where a centralized contact center can become your support system. At GPRS, we can provide inbound or outbound support that is in alignment with your brand. We can also help pre-qualify leads so your staff can be more effective with their time.

Email nurture campaigns through your CRM

Although personal follow-up is extremely valuable, communicating individually with every prospect can eat away at your recruiting team’s time. When you create nurture campaigns that send automated emails through your CRM, you are ensuring a continuous flow of valuable information so you can stay top-of-mind with prospects while also relieving the pressure on your team. There are several ways you can create an email campaign that works for your team, starting with the segmentation of your audience and a targeted build of information with an automated schedule. By doing the work upfront, you can create an “easy button” for communicating with prospects and reduce the stress on your team to be constantly available.

Get strategic help from a qualified firm

Industry and strategic enrollment experience, mastery of lead generation, and technical measurement platforms for optimization and ROI tracking are some of the most important factors you should consider when hiring a firm to support your recruiting and marketing teams. If you’re looking for a firm that has higher ed strategic experience, can prove their results, and has worked with your peers, GPRS can be a great partner to help you.

If you need help taking the pressure off your marketing and admissions teams, GPRS can be an extension of your recruiting and marketing staff. We can assess your needs, fill the gaps and find ways to bolster your team so they can do what they do best – find and connect with students. We have worked with over 60 schools nationwide, and have insights into digital marketing strategies and how to leverage your school’s unique selling points to enhance communications with prospects. Contact us today to start the conversation.

Insights from the Higher Ed Experts

BY Anthony Campisi | October 27th, 2022

Why employment data matters in your marketing

In a recent survey conducted by GMAC, it was reported that 86 percent of 2022 U.S. business school students were employed immediately after graduation, which is up from 80 percent the previous year. This rising employment rate for graduates is promising for higher education as a whole, even as we enter a recession because it showcases the sustained value of the skillsets a business degree offers.

In addition to employment data, it was also reported that for students seeking a career change or promotion as part of their degree plan, a majority (57 percent) achieved this goal post graduation. So what does this mean for business and graduate program marketing? In addition to a closer focus on career data, schools can also highlight their career coaching and placement services, student testimonials, and corporate partnerships.

Here are a few ways your program can amplify its messaging surrounding employment and career data to help you stand out from the competition.

Showcasing promotion and career advancement

Whether prospects are looking to move up the corporate ladder, or they’re looking to switch industries all together, they may see an MBA as the key that can open the door to their next career move. Finding a way to position your program as a trusted partner along the journey to a rewarding promotion or management role is critical. You can showcase the value of your program through the lens of career growth by sharing alumni testimonials, including promotion data, and reinforcing how a broadened perspective can help students speak the language of business.

Career Services

Allowing your students the opportunities to explore career options while in school and ultimately set goals that are the right fit for them requires coaching and guidance. If your school offers career services, now is the time to highlight the process so it can help prospects understand how you’ll help them compete in the business world and forge their unique path.

Consider pulling together data for the past 2-3 years that showcase the industries, firms, and titles of students hired from your school. You can include metrics such as internships, job offers post-graduation, salary, firms, locations, and job types. This gives a well-rounded view of the results of your program as it relates to the end goal – a job that will provide a solid return on investment and pay dividends for the future.

In addition, try highlighting other key aspects of your career services including corporate partners, leadership development, and even employer and alumni profiles to highlight success stories.

If you need help determining how well your marketing plan covers the career and employment aspects of your program, GPRS can help. We have worked with over 120 schools and have insights into digital marketing strategies and how to leverage your school’s unique selling points to enhance communications with prospects. Contact us today to start the conversation.

Insights from the Higher Ed Experts

BY Anthony Campisi | October 18th, 2022

How well is your website equipped for helping your school meet enrollment goals?

Your website is your number one vehicle of communication with prospective students. It’s the first place they land when starting their research and it’s the last stop on their journey toward creating and submitting an application. Although there are many other touchpoints throughout the admissions process — personal conversations, campus tours, events, etc. — your website is the key to communicating your brand and helping you meet enrollment goals. As a result, it’s important to treat your site as a critical team member and make sure it has all of the resources it needs to accomplish the task at hand — landing your next seated class.

Within your website, the active enrollment pages that contribute to your prospects’ decision making-processes need to be top performers. Here we will examine the ways that you can evaluate and optimize them (at least on a monthly basis) so they can help you achieve your goals.

Engagement

The true test of how well a page is performing is related to user engagement. The longer a prospect stays on your page, the better because this means they are engaging with the content. In addition, you’ll want to track how many (and which) links they click on and their scroll rate if your analytics allow it. Some platforms even give you the ability to apply a heat map to a page so you can see which areas, sections, and menus are the most used.

Another test of engagement is bounce rate which is defined as the percentage of people that visit your page without taking an action or entering your site and then immediately leave. Often this is measured on the site’s main entry points like the home page or admissions page, however, you can also track your pages that are intended to spur action. If you see a high bounce rate, for example, on your application page, it could signal that people need more information from the previous page before making that decision.

Traffic

Traffic to your site can be deceiving. In addition to ensuring that your reporting dashboards are set up to capture accurate information, you always want to evaluate the data you receive in the context of your marketing campaigns, your spending, your recent optimizations, and market trends.

Daily, you’ll want to capture page views so that you can view your trend line over weeks and months and also capture any spikes that may be related to campaigns. Be sure that you’re examining your total page views, unique visitors, and new visitors. You’ll also want to review the data on how people came to your site – organically (through search-optimized content), or through paid media, email campaigns, digital marketing, referrals, or direct links.

Functionality

Just like you might tidy up your house before inviting your friends over for a dinner party, the same applies to your website. Although this may seem obvious, it’s not always a step that schools take before launching a large campaign or creating an email flow that links to your site. It’s a good practice to review your site’s functionality reports at least monthly to ensure there aren’t major 404 errors or problems with load time that could be easily fixed by cleaning up backlinks or reducing photo sizes.

If you need help determining how well your website is optimized to help you meet enrollment goals, or need assistance with SEO, GPRS can help. We have worked with over 60 colleges and universities and have insights into site functionality and how to leverage your site’s data and analytics to ensure peak performance. Contact us today to start the conversation.

Insights from the Higher Ed Experts

BY Anthony Campisi | September 29th, 2022

Leveraging storytelling to enhance your school’s digital online presence

Lately, it may seem as if the term “storytelling” is everywhere. Influencers are using it to showcase their glamorous lives while selling products, and brands are using it to create a connection with potential customers. So how can your school make the most of this marketing tactic to boost your content’s value?

In a recent blog post, we discussed using your school’s blog to tell your story and increase traffic. Here, we’ll dive into why storytelling is relevant in higher education and different ways to use it (beyond your blog) to highlight your school’s key differentiators.

Defining storytelling

Storytelling in marketing quite simply means developing a deeper connection with your audience. A recent Forbes article outlines three reasons that marketers should prioritize storytelling:

Stories unite humans through authenticity and relatability.
Storytelling is a powerful tool that enables brands to teach and prospects to learn through shared experiences.
Stories can cut through the clutter and engage consumers in a fragmented world.

When you are considering utilizing this method, you can think of it as using stories to help prospects see themselves at your school while connecting their personal and professional journey to your program’s offerings.

Who can be a storyteller?

When creating your strategy, be sure to select the right representatives of your brand so they can accurately convey your key messages. Although anyone can be a storyteller, it’s important to lean on your marketing and admissions department to identify what stories need to be told and by whom. Your greatest impact can be found with authentic, original content that conveys realistic perspectives and often vulnerability.

Here are a few methods to incorporate storytelling into your marketing strategy:

Student stories – these can either be formal write-ups or pieces of content created directly by students discussing what it’s like to participate in classes and clubs and be part of your school’s community.
Faculty stories – these can chronicle a class project, discuss recent research or highlight a philanthropic venture.
Alumni stories – these can showcase success stories as told by alumni themselves.
Other content creators – try tapping your admissions or marketing team members to create stories as they are likely in tune with what prospects are looking for.

How to showcase your stories

Regardless of what story you’re telling, or who you’re using to communicate your key messages, there are multiple ways to showcase your final product. You can post them on your website, utilize them in social media or include them on your blog. You can also include snippets in email campaigns and marketing materials. Additionally, don’t forget about the value of video storytelling for its emotional connection and relatability.

If you need help determining how to create rich content and utilize stories to enhance your school’s online presence, GPRS can help. We have worked with over 60 graduate schools and have insights into program branding and how competitive schools are using digital advertising to position themselves in the market. Contact us today to start the conversation.

Insights from the Higher Ed Experts

BY Anthony Campisi | September 15th, 2022

What do updated search algorithms mean for your school’s content?

What impact do Google search algorithm updates have on your school’s online presence? The answer is, “it depends” on how unique, credible and relevant your existing content is and how you plan to enhance it in the near future. Recently, Google announced that it would be launching a search algorithms update, enabling people to find high-quality content. The Google Helpful Content Update will include new ranking improvements that aim to reduce low-quality, duplicate or unoriginal content presented in search engine results pages (SERPs) and give users more credible and original information. It also aims to focus on “people-first” content and encourage content creators to put more time and effort into creating usable content for their customers.

In a recent blog, we discussed how content marketing can create a robust online experience for your school. Content formats include your website, SEO, email marketing, social posts, videos, podcasts, infographics, blogs, online panel discussions, and webinars, to name a few.

These elements all work together to showcase your school and reinforce your value proposition in order to engage prospects who are in the searching phase of their journey. Carefully created and curated content can collect leads and guide them through the funnel toward becoming seated students.

The rewards of creating content

Creating content is hard work – it takes marketing dollars and time for people to create. But if it’s done right, your content can then turn around and do work for you. It’s almost as if you’re creating a machine (content) and then automating it to go out into the world and find your next class. And many types of content marketing can actually be less expensive (in the long run) than paid digital advertising because it doesn’t need to be refreshed or monitored as often. Once it’s created, the momentum builds as it gains more and more viewers and enhances your site with rich SEO gains.

How search algorithms work

This brings us to how the Google search algorithms affect your school. Every time Google updates its algorithm (which can be quite often), it is in the interest of the user. Google wants its searchers to be rewarded with what they are seeking quickly and accurately. This most recent update aims to connect users with sites that have deep, relevant content. Content that is unique and not duplicated anywhere else. Therefore, if your school’s site is short, to the point, and favors bullet points, you’re going to lose out. If your site includes editorial content that goes deep into a topic, original storytelling pieces, and a rich media experience, you’re in luck.

How does this change how you create content? Here are a few tips:

Ensure your content is unique to your school and originally created
Gather credible facts that can be specifically associated with your school’s programs
Include compelling storytelling elements that are tied to search termsv
Include a variety of content types

So, how do you optimize search?

It’s impossible for a marketing or admissions professional to keep up with Google’s continuously shifting algorithms and digital marketing trends. It can help to partner with a specialized digital marketing firm that understands the intricacies of content marketing and tracks trends to ensure your strategy is up to date and performing at its maximum capacity.

If you need help determining how to create rich content for your school’s online presence, GPRS can help. We have worked with over 150 graduate programs and have insights into content and SEO best practices, and how competitive schools are using these tools to position themselves in the market. Contact us today to start the conversation.