Enrollment Marketing for Higher Education

There is no denying the power of video, especially its influence on teens. Video is visual, emotional, interactive, and it’s the content that resonates most with this demographic. But what makes video dynamic and how can video best align with your institution’s paid media efforts?

Here are seven tips to make video a more effective part of your enrollment marketing mix.

1. Know your budget and plan accordingly
Campaign planning is more useful when approached as a component in a long-term strategy. That way, your video assets can have a longer, more useful life. But, first, you need to answer some questions. How will your video be used? How much quality video do you already have? How much additional video will you need? The right partner can scale production to your budget, but your budget will be more powerful if you include that partner in the planning stages.

2. Know your target and message effectively
The goal of any content is to engage the audience you’re trying to reach. In enrollment marketing, that means prospective students and their parents. The key to reaching students is authenticity. Many of them are content creators themselves: They can immediately detect pandering or disingenuous messaging. They want an honest, often lo-fi, sense of the campus experience. Parents, on the other hand, will respond to slicker presentations addressing educational quality, ROI, and campus safety.

3. Know your channels and create authentically
Too many institutions create content then simply reformat it for various channels and audiences. Instead, create content and stories for each specific channel and audience. Do so in a way that feels like it’s coming from your institution, while being an authentic part of that specific ecosystem. Prepare for this by having your strategy and content plan in hand before shooting.

4. Know your ad platforms and invest purposefully
As general rules, video lifts campaign performance, and advertisers who don’t use video are spending more than they need to. Offering platforms a mix of static and video ads gives those platforms more flexibility in achieving lower costs across the board (cost-per-click, cost-per-conversion, cost-per-impressions, etc). As a bonus, engagement levels for video are higher than for static ads.

5. Track your results and adjust adroitly
Disciplined data analysis is your superpower. The right partner can make sure that you are fully tracking, analyzing and attributing your media performance so you can make informed decisions throughout the enrollment cycle and beyond.

6. Know your partners and collaborate willingly
The right partner will bring experience, know-how, and the ability to fulfill a holistic vision of the overall consumer experience across all touchpoints. They can provide the connective tissue that creates a seamless journey between a student’s first interaction with your institution’s brand to their first day as a student.

7. Know Paskill and increase enrollment
Paskill has been advancing institutional enrollment since 1986. When it comes to use of video, that can mean taking your institution’s video assets and enhancing them graphically or even using stock to build out stories. It can also mean shooting additional footage to convey the look, tone, and messaging you seek. Bigger picture, it can mean enhancing your team by broadening your capabilities and expertise, be that with branding, content planning, creative execution, production, media placement and analytics, or staff training. Reach out to us. We’re ready when you are.