The very vital part of every business is the collection of leads, same for the educational institutes, schools, colleges, universities. In the educational field, leads are mainly the prospective students or their parents.
Who is referred to as a “Prospective Student” or a “Prospective Parent”?
A prospective student/parent is that student/parent who is interested in your institution’s program and is at some level of student journey funnel. It is very important to understand the needs of a student or a parent and their search intent at every level of the funnel.
What are these Prospective Student’s or Prospective Parent’s search intent?
Search intent according to the different levels of student journey funnel:
1. Those students/parents who are confused and have no specific idea of what to pursue for them/their children in higher education.
2. Those students/parents who are aware of the higher education courses but have not decided what to choose for them/their children.
3. Those students/parents who have clear clarity about what courses they/their children want to pursue and are considering related institutions.
How to reach these “Prospective groups” online?
1. Optimize your website by Search Engine Optimization(SEO)
Make a list of keywords related to the search intent of your prospective students and include the most impactful keyword in your titles, content,image alt tags, image names, urls, blogs etc.
For example, for a keyword or a search intent like “ best German schools in Dubai ”, try including these words in your title, URL, content, image alt tags, image names, blogs etc.
2. Blogs
Blogging is one of the key things that can help you attract those prospective students again with SEO. Sharing articles about the achievements of students or awards received for teachers in your particular institute can create impacts.
3. Social Media
Social media is one of the key things that will help you to attract more students. Student community is very active on social media and they are trying to see the content associated with the educational institute. Post on pages and groups on social media where your prospective students have a chance to visit and provide them with free eBooks, seminar links to generate leads.
4. Alumna Engagement
Engage with your alumna group so that they recommend you to their other audience.Sent regular emails on the happenings of the institution to enhance the engagement. In order to get things from alumni you need to keep them informed about the various happenings associated with the institute.
5. Digital Admission Process
Admission process is the key touch point for the prospective students. Their first level of interaction starts with the admission process. So if you are going to have a simplified online admission process where a student or parent would find it very easy to fill an application form from any location or any device, that will help them feel that this particular institution is taking care of the prospective students/parents.
6. Video Marketing
According to data, more than 80% of internet users prefer videos over other content. There are a lot of tools available that will help you to easily create videos related to the institution that will help to improve the brand building of your educational institute.
7. Provide scholarships to bright students.
Providing scholarship facilities to high performing students will attract more number of prospective students. By providing sufficient scholarship assistance, we can enable greater success in your institute, providing backing for deserving students who want to pass with flying colors and give back to society.
How to convert these leads to admissions?
- Set up a Customer relationship management (CRM) and lead management tools.
- Give score to different leads using lead scoring tools and scale their activity and engagement.
- Share your institutional news and updates through text messages, Whats-app text and through emails.
- Make a separate list based on details like fresh leads, interested, follow up, campus visit, filled form, not interested, invalid etc.
- Schedule meeting and career guidance sessions for your leads.
- Direct contact to prospective leads
- Set up live chat on the website to clear queries of interested leads.
These lead generation techniques and admission techniques are a cyclic process. You need to continuously work on these to generate quality admissions.