How Branding Can Help Establish Your RTO

For an RTO, building a rapport with students is an imperative component in ensuring a successful educational experience. And the same could be said for potential students: by establishing a positive connection with interested learners, you will be able to build a sense of trust that can be maintained through their entire learning journey with you.

But with so many touchpoints to keep track of, it can be hard to maintain control over the way learners perceive your institution.

Develop a Brand Identity

By creating a set of style rules for your institution, you’ll be able to maintain a sense of consistency across all your touchpoints, and control the way students connect with your brand. It’s as simple as getting some designers on board to develop a style guide, which will create a consistent personality, and help learners feel familiarity when engaging with you.

Follow Great Examples

Gather inspiration from other institutions to see how they use branding to communicate their message with their learners. New York University has extensive design and language guides to control their communicative outputs, and the University of Delaware also utilise a brand style guide, describing it as “an efficient way for the university to communicate with key audiences.”

Although some of the style guides developed by large companies can seem overwhelming to a small institution, it’s amazing what difference a few rules can make in distinguishing your brand from that of another training organisation.

Collaborate and Implement

Start small. Maybe determine a distinctive tone of voice to use in your emails or website. Come up with a few consistent colours to use in all your print and digital media, to help learners associate content with your organisation. Choosing colours and fonts which reflect your philosophies will speak your company values in every communication with both present and future students.

Once you have decided on a few rules and styles, put the information in an easily accessible place. Get everyone on board, and see how the implementation of your style guide will help attract new learners, and maintain a strong connection with your current students.