As a marketer in Higher Education Space, you cannot use traditional digital marketing tactics for the education space because the ‘modern students’ expect a different experience when going through their research to determine if your program is right for them. You have to rethink the whole idea of marketing to ‘digital natives’ in order to effectively attract and convert them on your website. There are many areas that you need to focus on, but in this article, we are going to discuss what Call To Action is and how you can use them in your favour in the higher education marketing space.
What is a Call to Action?
Now you may be thinking what is a call to action? So, a call to action not only tells our users what we want them to do but it tells them when we want them to do it. In traditional marketing that's a 'Buy Now' and 'click here' type thing, what's the difference in education because we may not know what those differences are? Within higher education specifically, marketers are using a mix of value officers as well as deadlines to really resonate with students at whatever stage they're in the decision cycle.
CTAs are an essential part of student recruitment
Call to actions on your institution’s website are an essential part of student recruitment and are meant to inspire prospective students especially, to further engage and convert them.
They also play an integral part in driving visitor flow, from a prospective student to an enrolled student. So let’s discuss some of the best practices that higher education marketers are employing in CTAs in driving website conversions.
If they're higher up in the funnel, offer something like a class profile to see if they might be a fit for the program.
For those students who are really just kind of putting their feelers out there and trying to learn more about the different programs, offer something such as a class profile. This allows them to see a little bit more about the program your university/college is offering and determine whether or not they'd be a good fit.
Lower level in the funnel
For someone who is what we call ‘lower level in the funnel’, some good examples of the calls to action for that can be the use of a deadline. Your institution can use these regarding value offers such as application fee waiver, or you can use it around scholarship deadlines and the program application guidelines. The key takeaway for marketers out there in the education space is to understand that they are not supposed to keep things general with their prospective students. Rather, they are supposed to have a conversation with them and let them know if this program is good for them.
