How educational institutions can build a strong online presence

27-Apr-2016 11:24 AM Digital Marketing

Unlike any other business venture, education is a niche domain. You must not follow a commercialized approach while reaching out to your audience. You must add a personal touch or else your are sure to strike the wrong chords. With this core thought in mind, any professional institute can tap into all the digital marketing strategies and build a strong online presence.

Captivating website that ranks well and is mobile friendly

In today's world, branding makes a whole world of difference as to how people would perceive you. Packaging your content in a manner that captivates your audience is the key to success of any website. Rather than having your website cluttered with information, statistics and facts, have them neatly laid out.

The website should be structured around how the institute is going to cater to the pain elements of the students, for instance, identifying the right course for themselves, how is it going to hone their skills and provide them with the confidence to carve out a niche in this competitive world? How is it going to bring out their hidden talents and leadership qualities? Scouring through the content on your website, it should provide them with a gratifying and personalized experience. The content should be weaved in a manner that clearly brings out the credibility of the institute, show what it stands for, and how it gives flight to the dreams and aspirations of its students. Last but not the least, today's youngsters are hooked to their mobiles. So, it's better to be ready with a mobile-friendly version of your website so that it reaches to the right users soon.

Aptitude tests and skill assessment

Providing a credible means for students to assess themselves on an array of academic services which would help them identify their strengths and weaknesses so that they can pick the right courses and put their hidden fears to rest. You can have tie-ups with skill assessment agencies to provide free online tests and online counseling services for students visiting your website.

This can be achieved through interactive chat sessions, video conferencing and student-trainer interactions. Prospective students should be able to avail these services for free. If your are able to give a personalized experience, you are sure to tap into their circles and drive in more traffic to your website.

Online certification programmes and cloud campuses

Things are rapidly shifting to a realm where students are preferring distant education programmes and online certifications to actually enrolling to institutes and attending classes. The ever-expanding digital media space and the internet penetration, especially on mobile devices, have transformed the way we impart and seek knowledge. We have cloud campuses sprouting up and mushrooming like never before. This is an option especially for students who want to scale up the corporate ladder without taking a break from their current jobs and taking a hit on their income. The cloud environment is robust, secure and scalable and tapping its potential should be your key strategy.

Alumni interaction

You could have a platform integrated on your website for alumni interactions which would provide a means for all alma mater of your institute to drop in their feedbacks, testimonials and to participate in forums to exchange ideas and interact with each other. These forums should be a means to garner insights for new joinees and prospective students to gauge and benchmark the institute.

Webinars, CBT, WBT modules, video courses

E-learning has come a long way ever since its inception. An engaging video is a powerful means of communicating thoughts and ideas in a better way. You could dish out an array of webinars, online training course materials like CBT, WBT training modules, where you could start providing a few modules for free and then provide access to the remaining after the student gets registered for a full version. By this approach you can not only gain insights on student preferences, you can measure how impactful your course content and seminars have been. When all this material circulates through the web it will bring in more traffic to your website and will, in turn, spike your online presence.

Email outreach and leveraging the power of social media

You can entice your students by sending out snapshots of key events and workshops via email campaigns and newsletters asking them to subscribe to your YouTube channel. Have a well thought out Facebook page and ensure it is constantly updated with key events including backlinks to your blogs, news feeds which will, in turn, link to your website.
With all these strategies in place, you are going to reach out to a global audience and have admissions for your online and offline programmes to increase exponentially. But you might be wondering as to how you are going to implement these well-knit strategies in a skillful and mindful manner. How are you going to optimize your website so as to rank top on the internet?

Here is where Verbinden would like to step in to cater to your requirements. Get in touch with us today!