This shift is not without its challenges. Despite the digital transformation they have undergone, change is very often a slow process in higher education and many universities are still behind the curve in terms of their digital advertising understanding and capabilities.
So, what do they need to do and understand to make the shift?
The importance of data
For digital advertising to be effective, universities need to understand as much as possible about the people they want to speak to and how to reach them in the different digital environments. They need to understand how to effectively change consumer behavior, with the right messaging at an opportune time, and, because the digital marketing is done on an auction basis, how much that person is actually worth to them.
To do this at scale and at speed requires a level of technical maturity. That means understanding the platforms that can be used to target their audience(s), as well as the role of data science and machine learning in doing so. They also need to understand how to talk to each audience at each point along their sign-up journey, and how and when they interact with the university as well as how to effect change in their behavior.
Like any industry, there are going to be some that are ahead of the curve and some that lag behind. In the US, there are few out of thousands of higher education institutions doing it well. This means there is a big opportunity for universities to get ahead of the curve and gain a competitive advantage by making their digital advertising as effective as possible (or working alongside an agency that can help them get there.)
Connect the message to the moment
One of the key marketing lessons learned as the pandemic changed our lives was that the winning brands were the ones that adjusted and met the new reality with new solutions. They changed their creative approaches and messaging to match what was happening. This will continue to be true moving forward. Consumers react positively to communication that matches what they are experiencing and who they are. This means that universities need to ensure their communications are not tone deaf and reflect the experiences and realities of the audience they are speaking to. Targeting and relevance are key to unlocking engagement.
Universities need to be able to pay close attention to the behavior of their target audiences and social listening tools can really help them track how attitudes are changing. This information then needs to be able to be fed back into their communications, and this process must move fast to connect with the way markets are behaving.
This requires having a well-defined story and value proposition – knowing what makes their university different – as well as how that needs to change depending on where prospective students are on their engagement path. For example, knowing at the start of the process that communications need to target much more specific information about courses, whereas at the end when they are close to making their final decision, messaging needs to be more focused on what makes their experience at a given university unique.
Finally, while you can have live dashboards that show you how your digital marketing is working in real-time, there is no substitute for having the experience and knowledge of the sector and its seasonal fluctuations–for example, knowing that there is a magic window just after New Year’s when prospective students are suddenly very focused on starting the journey, or that many schools run out of budgets in mid-April. Knowing where surges are can help higher education institutions plan their digital ad budgets accordingly to ensure they raise and lower them at the right time.
Schools and universities largely survived the pandemic intact. This came with great effort and resources, plus a willingness to meet and adapt to each new moment as it came. Some of the changes will remain and some will become even more important. To thrive in a post-pandemic world, schools and universities must find a way to embrace digital marketing to not only attract the best students, but to keep them.
Ed Camargo is the Managing Director US for Incubeta.
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