20 Ways of Marketing to College Students
Marketing to college students can be a highly profitable activity providing you have unearthed great techniques to influence them!
Students take time to change irrespective of the quality of product you are offering them. Marketing to college students should be taken as a moral obligation to guide them to a better tomorrow and not just from a profit motive.
‘College Writer’s Club’ from Blogs & Courses, the content division of Opteamize Cloud Solutions Private Limited, Chennai, India is a new platform for student writers to connect with fellow students, conquer the fear of blogging and to get their posts published. Write.Learn.Earn is our tagline. Based on our previous experiences with getting students to connect with us, I put together a list of action items that could generate traction for marketing ‘College Writer’s Club.’
So let’s get started with the top 20 ways we think ‘College Writer’s Club’ can be marketed to College students in India.
1. Get them involved
Involving students in the creation and development of marketing collateral, product trials and in brand positioning discussions helped us a lot to understand their likes or dislikes of writing. We are looking at recruiting student ambassadors who are passionate about writing as this fuels them to use their contacts for targeting other students.
2. Embrace segmentation
When we understood more about the student’s background and interests, we were able to create separate messaging, send relevant emails and set up landing pages that shows they are meant for students. It also helped to get greater understanding of the competitive marketplace, as everybody is fighting for a slice of the same content writing or blogging pie.
3. Get the product right before bragging about it
College students may be some marketer’s dream but we should also remember that all attention may not be positive. Since students always need new conversation topics, anyone who likes or dislikes a product or service quickly garners attention when they speak eloquently in favor or against the product or service.
4. Unique & original content
Content should be relevant, original and uncommon to increment its marketing because if makes less sense for students to pay attention to stale content. Of course, there are some topics that can be flogged to death like Kohli (cricket), Kabali (movie), Kashmir (dispute), etc.
5. Messaging in a simple but honest way; get to the point
The best way to reach a student is to keep it short and to the point, so the idea behind it may be easily understood. All student groups demand honesty, and brands that are true to them about their product performance and features have longer staying power.
6. Micro-targeting
We may create separate landing pages, social media accounts and use mobile apps to segment our message but we may further off the mark. We plan to use A/B testing to ensure that we keep tweaking our messages and arrive at best-fit focus on the target student.
7. Mobile marketing
In today’s technology-run world, do not expect college students to settle down to a routine. The best way to catch them after college is by mobile marketing. It is a great strategy to target a large portion of college students on the go.
8. Engage through Social media
Places where students have their own online community may prove to be helpful in influencing them. The most popular is via Facebook and websites frequented by students looking for help in passing exams, career options, fashion blogs, Goodreads & blogging forums, etc.
9. Provide a real inducement
Some websites provide free job and internship posting services and exam guides to students. Others offer free interview tips and mock technical and soft skill tests. Some others offer discount coupons on their products. Our prime focus has been on providing better writing guidance, internships and content writing opportunities. We just want to make sure that there are real incentives for students to try the ‘College Writer’s Club.’
10. “Free”
Some words that students like to hear are “cancelled”, ‘’no test today’’ and “postponed” but the most attractive word of them all is “free”. This word creates excitement in them whether it’s a free software trial or anything where someone can get a discount or save some money. So we hope to throw in some freebies along the way. Free writing critique, free guidebook, classes, certifications, mentoring, etc.
11. Campus posters
The time tested ways of traditional posters and fliers can be mixed with students in cool themed t-shirts “walking billboards” in high-crowded areas around campuses to create the required buzz in the undecided students’ mind.
12. Funny does it
The attention stretch for an average college student is about 30 seconds. If it isn’t interesting, it’s not going to make them stick on for a long time either at a website, the introductory lecture or at the notice board. Funny things are always a hit with them and makes them retell the joke or the news clip or cartoon.
13. On and off- campus tabling
It may help to formally showcase ideas and creativity in a discussion or a meeting to create a serious impact. Incentives to the campus ambassador and college business leaders for such activities are required.
14. College Kiosks and Hangouts
We know college students have their own hangouts at malls or coffee shops. Outdoor advertising may offer us a great chance to be in high-traffic areas to reach out to more students. Partnering with mobile recharge kiosks near colleges may be another option to check.
15. Campus event sponsorship
Event sponsorship is a great way to show support for the work being done by students. Sponsoring a Writing Contest with the help of a student organization and getting a statement of recognition by the university may create goodwill for us.
16. Working with Placement Cell
I work closely with the placement cell by offering various training programs and workshops on blogging, content writing, career development, and software coding courses that our parent company Opteamize, an IBM Coding School teaches to students in IT & Computer Science streams.
17. Don’t interrupt good times!
Always remember that our marketing efforts should not clash with their good times because if it happens frequently then the students get restive and it’s then an impossible task to get back their attention.
18. Organizing fun contests
Considering that college students often think of winning or taking part in a contest as fun, it may not take much effort to get them started an offering them opportunities to win prizes may fascinate them. Make contests interesting and grabbing their attention is always be a good approach.
19. Limited budget & parent influence
Many students are on a limited budget which means that we need to maintain a leash on pricing. If perceived as too expensive or not enough value for the amount paid, they just may not be able to afford it. Convincing students along with their parents is a potential way to target them.
20. Class and organization talks
Arrange talks where students may ask questions and know more about the company and the product. In return offering them insights into their future career may create more awareness among them.
For more about ‘College Writer’s Club’, check us out at blogsandcourses.com.
With inputs from Amritha Priya, Final Year B.Com, Mount Carmel College, Bengaluru, India.
