9 Hacks to Covert Quality Student Leads for your University
22.07.2021
Steve Jobs once said, “Master the topic, the message and the delivery.”. As an institution, you should always know who you are, how you want students to see you and most importantly, how you deliver it to your target audience.
It is obvious that every university has a different appeal towards using online platforms as a means to attract students and convert them into potential enrollments. But the fact lies straight, your university website is your greatest marketing tool.
Let us understand how.
If we talk about numbers, there are over 760 universities and 38,000 colleges in India. These numbers clearly show how fierce the competition for student enrollment is. Also, in an era which is accelerating with technological advancements, it is very important for every university to speed up their communication.
Students today live on their smartphones and over 50% of the website traffic is usually driven from mobile devices. Therefore, making your university website is the most essential tool for marketing.
Two things that majorly help in online marketing procedures are-
- The number of visitors your website attracts from your target audience.
- Your ability to convert those visitors into leads.
What is a lead?
Also known as a prospect, a lead is generally a person who reflects interest in your institution in some way or another.
“Generating good leads is the bread and butter of every establishment.”
Following are a few ways in which you can attract a pool of visitors on your university website and turn them into potential leads-
- Make Google Analytics your best friend.
We have always heard the quote “A friend in need, is a friend indeed.” Google Analytics is that one friend you have, when it comes to online lead generation.
Google Analytics helps you in various ways, from understanding the traffic you are getting on your website to monitoring your lead generation engine. It not only tells you what’s working and what’s not, but also simplifies your understanding of the visitors’ behavioral patterns.
It also gives you an understanding of the location, demographics and areas of interest of your visitors.
2. SEO is an asset. Invest in it.
Search Engine Optimization, better known as SEO is a way of gaining exposure for your brand (institution) through organic search results. SEO gives you the understanding of what people are looking for online, the answers they seek, specific words they use to initiate their searches and the type of content they wish to consume.
Did you know? 75% of the researchers start their searches on Google and for the fact, the first 5 links on Google get almost 67% of all the clicks.
You may have also heard the phrase, “The best place to hide a dead body is on the page 2 of Google Search Results”. By quoting this phrase, we simply understand how important SEO is.
How to implement SEO in the online lead generation process?
SEO is a two-way street; On-Page and Off-Page SEO.
On-Page SEO- In simpler words, determines the optimization of your website content according to the search engines.
Since on-page optimization involves a lot of keyword research, defining your page metadata, setting attractive page titles and proper HI Tags, it easily helps your website go up in search rankings.
Off-Page SEO- The activity primarily focuses on building respectable external links to your website. For example, getting featured by a higher education portal on their blog/article.
“Content is the reason search began in the first place.” Therefore, your content strategy should be on point, regular and keyword driven specially crafted for your target audience.
3. Create an Impact with Social Media.
Today, we use a pool of social media platforms to promote our university. But do you really know what is required to promote more leads from your social media channels?
To up your social media game, you should have a defined strategy of the content that gets pushed out of each channel. The more relevant the content is to your target audience, the more leads your channel tends to produce.
4. Ask yourself, Are you in the mobile mindset?
“If your plans don’t include mobile, your plans are not finished.” It is important to upgrade your website into responsive to any kind of screen. Earlier, our internet search was limited to computers, but today we have a diverse range of gadgets that should support your website.
Did you know? Approximately 51.3% internet users log into the internet through their smartphones, therefore making it crucial for your website to run seamlessly on mobile devices.
5. Venture Strategically in Online Advertising.
Online Advertising is a tactical marketing tool that can be effective if you use it correctly. This includes various ways of driving traffic to your website like newsletter advertising, banner buttons, etc. Consider it if you have specialized academic programs, for e.g., Online MBA.
6. Design is Functional. Upgrade your Website.
“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” Therefore, make sure you flatten your website design and construct it for freshers. Your university website landing page should be clean, informative and precise,
A lot of researches also show that students often tend to drop a college from their possible list, if they don’t find the information they need.
A great way you can optimize your website according to the students is, by creating a landing page that focuses mainly on admissions. This way, you can direct students easily towards filling up a form or giving in some detail for further inquiries.
Look at how these institutions have come up with a great landing page targeting admissions-
Manchester Metropolitan University
Your communication design should attract and address your audience’s minds, providing them information that is appropriate to their search. This will in turn capture your visitors and convert them into prospective leads.
7. Target on Conversion Events.
What are conversion events?
These refer to the various specific points that you integrate onto your website to capture visitor’s information.
Each page on your website is important and can convert potential visitors into leads. Your website’s major goal is to convert leads. Therefore, it is suitable for you to add interactive videos, chat agents, information request forms, documents, newsletters, e-books, email lists, campus visits, etc., to facilitate registrations.
8. Hit the Sweet Spot. Bring your Visitors a Step Closer.
As I said earlier, it is important for you to show who you are, what belongs to you and how students can benefit from it. It is essential that you help visitors with relevant content on your website.
a. Make sure your website has informative articles that highlight the value of further education in securing a job.
b. Show how your university has been a boon for its alumni in helping them secure their dream jobs.
c. Publish research pieces on academic programs offered by your university and the future scope of completing these courses.
d. On-boarding guest experts who will act as an influencer(s) for students and write blogs that can help you become thought leaders.
e. One of the most important points is to publish your content on other popular web content platforms.
f. Make visitors focus on the CTA (Call-to-Action) button.
g. Use platforms like Quora and Reddit to create an influence. These two platforms are a great buy for marketing tools. Also known as Black Hat SEO, these platforms are an indirect way to grab some eyeballs on your university.
9. Make Use of Technology. It Will Do You Good.
Technology is pacing, and so are we. Hence, it is important to shake hands with the new era innovations and plan your move ahead.
One way to make use of technology is to invest in open virtual days.
It can be the best bet around in such grave times, where students don’t have the access to visit your campus and know more about the university.
In fact, virtual tours like the 360 degree tours provide an all round experience that is unique and is a helpful source to convert visitors into leads.
At the end of it all, your major interest is to understand how to convert leads and a barely surviving enrollment success means that you’ve been acquiring irrelevant leads all this time.
