Dive deep into audience engagement and ensure the best campaigns for your college or university

Standing out and engaging your target audience is key to an effective marketing campaign. With prospective students and businesses inundated with information, often from a range of institutions, it’s more crucial than ever for colleges and universities to deliver more sophisticated marketing strategies. By utilising insights from expert data and marketing companies, can empower institutions to create more compelling campaigns that not only capture attention, but also foster lasting connections with businesses. Here, Adam Herbert, educational data and marketing CEO of Go Live Data, explains.

Audience engagement in the context of higher education relates to the strategies and interactions that institutions use to not only attract students, but to form new and lasting relationships with the business community. Effective engagement therefore goes beyond mere communication and involves creating meaningful interactions that resonate with businesses and organisations, which will take on students as apprentices or to take part in important graduation schemes. Building business relationships will also enhance the potential of new R&D programmes as well as potentially attract funding and support, which is extremely important for education and industry at large.

The role data plays

Data is the cornerstone of any successful marketing campaign so it’s vital to delve deep into what your marketing data is telling you about your audience, to ensure that the marketing aligns with the specific needs and interests of the business. For example, there’d be little point contacting a firm of engineers about a cohort of catering graduates, or law firms with details of art and law students. Blanket communications no longer work, tied in with Google tightening its rules on how many emails a recipient can now receive, it’s even more important to be as targeted as ever.

Analysing data from various touchpoints such as social media and website analytics is another important way for educational providers to gain a respectful understanding of their business audiences and to gauge what or who they’re preferences are.

Ethical marketing

Having implemented an industry first ‘ethical frequency rule’ within their email marketing technology, Go Live Data as an example, will only allow one email per day to be distributed on behalf of their educational institutional clients. If they have three such clients, the company’s unique technology will ensure that only one email is distributed in any one day, by a college or a  university, to avoid bombarding the business recipient.

Alongside this ethical approach, the company provides a service using AI, to clean, validate and replace data every 30 days which is far quicker than the industry standard of every 18 months that most data companies follow. This has a huge impact on clients resulting in a significantly higher ROI and response rates for them.

The Key to effective engagement

As already mentioned, a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach is no longer enough and only leads to poor response rates or unsubscribers, depending on the purpose of the activities. Personalisation is therefore essential in crafting messages that resonate. Go Live Data’s expertise in data analytics allows colleges and universities to segment their audience based on various factors – such as industry interests aligned with those of the institution, geographic location and engagement history. This level of segmentation allows for the delivery of personalised content that speaks directly to businesses, fulfilling the businesses’ requirements.

Multi-channel marketing

With the scope of channels that exist, marketers should know that effective audience engagement requires a multi-channel marketing strategy. These are of course and not limited to, social media, email campaigns, content marketing, attendance at events and so on. Go Live Data advises clients that to maintain a consistent and cohesive message across all channels, adapting content to suit the medium is essential, to ensuring a return on the investment in the marketing and data services.

Instagram and LinkedIn offer various opportunities to connect with businesses. Communicating with short, engaging videos, testimonials, and behind-the-scenes of business operations that capture the interest of businesses. While email campaigns allow for more in-depth communication, providing information about specific departments, and benefits of partnering with their university, over another.

The power of storytelling

Stories can really humanise institutions and create important emotional connections. By sharing authentic stories, of say current apprentices and graduates or any other business partnerships, colleges and universities can illustrate what they achieve. Go Live Data will always encourage the importance of storytelling in marketing campaigns, advising establishments to highlight journeys, the successes, and the unique experiences that define their community.

Measuring success

No marketing campaign is complete without measuring its effectiveness. Key performance indicators (KPIs) such as engagement and conversion rates provide valuable insights into what’s working and what needs improvement. Go Live Data’s area of expertise is in measuring in-depth, to really understand a recipients end-to-end journey and encourages institutions to adopt a continuous improvement approach, by using data to refine and optimise their strategies.

For instance, if an email campaign is generating high engagement but low conversions, it may indicate a need to revisit the call-to-action or to provide more compelling content. Regularly reviewing analytics allows institutions to stay agile and responsive to the evolving preferences of their business audience.

The future of higher education marketing

In an era where the community, including businesses are more informed than ever, colleges and universities must rise to the challenge of engaging in more meaningful ways. By diving deep into engagement and leveraging the expertise of data and marketing experts, they can ensure campaigns are not only effective but that they truly resonate. Today it’s possible to pave the journey from potential business partnerships to real ones, through connections and inspirations driven by personalised, data-driven strategies. And with the right tools and insights, highly effective campaigns are within reach.

By Adam Herbert, CEO and Co-Founder, Go Live Data