Lead generation techniques for Colleges & Educational Institutions

Just like any other business, the educational institutes also require quality leads to ensure that their seat quotas are filled out before the beginning of the school year. The students and also their parents usually do a thorough investigation about various institutes and the courses they offer before making a final decision. With new education institutes being approved every year, the competition has become tighter since many students would end up opting for their preferred courses available in commuting distance from their homes.
Generic advertising campaigns and application processes may not be adequate anymore.
One can obtain more leads by leveraging a combination of email workflows, social media ads, website CTAs, engaging content,and other technological tools such as chatbots on their individual websites.
Receiving good quality leads is the need of every company and universities are no different. Besides, It is imperative for universities to receive a large and diverse applicant pool in order for them to be selective with their students. This would help them to raise their level of competence in terms of graduation percentage and overall value. There are numerous Digital marketing Companies in Kerala that help out with successful lead generations. Many methods are utilized by Social Media Marketing Companies in kochi and below mentioned are few proven ones to generate valuable leads for your institution. 

Website Optimization: Any marketing campaign aims at bringing people to a common landing page. The website needs to be professional and up to date in order to capture the interest of the younger generation. Clarity of expression is very important since confusing placement of elements on the website can stop prospective applicants from taking any action and increase bounce rate. The website needs to be optimized with on-page and off-page SEO and use Google Analytics to note visitor details like key areas of interest, location, demographics, etc. 

Social media Campaigning: Social media is the new search engine for millennials. Engaging in discussions, building a good rapport with the visitors, keeping your posts fresh and informative can go a long way to build potential leads. Almost all the younger generation with access to a smartphone spends huge amounts of time on social media daily and targeted ads efficiently placed on various social media platforms can capture their attention. Also concentrate more on lead ads which capture the details on the same page itself without redirecting them to a second page. This method really helps to improve the success rate of lead capturing. In Facebook lead ads, the user’s name and email is automatically populated, making it even easier for them to submit an enquiry or brochure request.
Lead ads are provided by all the major social platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, offers the same ad formats as Facebook, such as video ads, carousel slideshows. Also Instagram stories Ads which get more views will give higher education institutions plenty of opportunities to generate new student leads. LinedIn is majorly used by working professionals. Almost 700 million professionals use LinkedIn regularly and promoting post-graduate programmes to further their careers can help with quality lead generation for courses like MBA, PGDA, etc. A dual approach using LinkedIn InMail and Sponsored Updates is usually adopted for better results.

Offer free webinars/courses: Popular topics like applying to MBA colleges, job opportunities, financial aid, life after graduation, etc. attract more visitors. So it would be wise to offer free webinars on introductory chapters which will encourage more visitors and potential sign ups. 

Innovative contents: With countless universities trying to grab the attention of prospective students, standing out from the crowd requires new and innovative ideas. Applicants turn to the university websites in search of guidance on the perfect course which they can relate to. So many times, they are either unaware of the available courses or might be spending too much time on researching the ones that do not suit their perception. An interactive quiz which helps students to figure out the perfect course based on a few inputs to different scenarios could narrow down the options, making it easier for them to make a decision. Other fun interactive contents are also being employed by many universities as it helps to retain the interest and the time spent on the website for longer periods.

Chatbots: Before starting an application, prospective students would certainly have thousands of questions relating to the course content, fees, accommodation, placements etc. Although this information should be easy to find on your website, many prefer to reconfirm personally. That is when the chatbots come in handy to interact with the applicants and share preset answers to frequently asked questions. Chatbots are utilised by almost all lines of business nowadays and educational institutions are no exception to it.

Retargeting: it is the method by which online advertising is targeted to consumers based on their previous internet searches and preferences. Retargeting tags online users by including a pixel within the target webpage or email, which sets a cookie in the user's browser. It is known to be particularly effective since the audience exposed to the ad is already familiar with an educational institute and possibly has already interacted with it. 

Coaching institutions: Coaching institutions and tuition centers cater to a lot of students every year and will be able to provide more insights about the various courses that they can pursue in future. Print forms or online links can be shared to capture quality leads. Also involving parents can help since they are looking out for the best options for their children always.

Lead generation is easy but quality lead generation is another ball game itself. So choose the Digital marketing Company wisely to get the best results. Intersmart Solution is a leading Social Media Marketing Company in Kochi with more than 10 years of experience dealing with various top educational institutes in and out of India.