Follow the below steps to completely miss your 2023 admission targets.
A lot has changed since yesterday! If you don’t change a thing, you will spend more and get lesser leads this year. The goal should be to improve every week, month and year. What, you did great and beat all your previous year’s records, that’s awesome! Now it’s time to keep that momentum. Eg. If you had segmented your audience in 3 buckets, it’s time to segment further. If you had 5 great testimonials from students last year, do 7 this time. Don’t be the same, cause your competition will be doing that this year and you always want to be a step ahead.
Every phone call I get, starts with, we are working with a digital marketing agency and doing a lot of things, but we are not happy and want to try you guys. Well, chances are you will not be happy with us or even if David Ogilvy himself took over your account. Are you supporting your agency with the right arsenal before deciding to switch? Your agency can only do wonders if you cooperate. 9 out of 10 strategies that work for our clients require them to do a lot of leg work and dedicate time. If you are not ready to do that, don’t change your agency. This year will suck too.
Google Search worked last year; this year let’s spend only on Google Search. Jay the entrepreneur thinks like this and Jay the marketer says – NO CHANCE IN HELL!! Your marketing, online and offline, are complementary. While all platforms have their pros and cons, none of them are great if used alone. A 360 plan is what you need and your offline and online need to talk to each other. Even your Google Ads and Facebooks Ads need to talk to each other for the best results. No parent/student will take admission on the basis of a Google Search or a video testimonial on Fac. They are all small pieces of a larger canvas.
You’ve been sitting on a tremendous amount of data. Look at it, the actual numbers, don’t go by hunches. Break it so it makes sense – Pincode analysis, gender analysis, parent income analysis, creed analysis. Back up your hunches with numbers before you build a strategy.
The first place I start is application analysis – no. of people who started the application to no. of people who finished and then dig into reasons. Marketing cannot have all the answers but will have most.
If you didn’t have landing pages last year, then please go ahead and make one. If you did then check the conversion rates of each of your pages – can you add more pages and make them more specific? Can you build more value into the Thank You page? Will ‘Download Brochure’ give you more leads that Apply Now? If you had a heat map on the landing page built in, then you can see the traffic movement. If you didn’t then make a landing page that is similar to the current page with minor changes and test it out. If your current page was rational build a page that has an emotional appeal. See which one works better. There is so much you can do.
If you did not send curated emails, WhatsApp, and SMS to nurture your leads then please do. If you did then think about how you can improve and personalize it further. Eg. A student with financial concerns should receive messages on scholarships. A student looking for an incredible experience shouldn’t get the same mail.
Co-founder of Extraaedge, Abhishek Ballabh and I discuss lead nurturing in detal
Bulk Whatsapp and cold calling is being obsessive. It’s time to be smart, and use a lead management tool to understand the interests of your lead. Build personalized communication (go back to point 6). When the leads are a lot, excel is not going to cut it.
Yes, spending on leads seems like the best thing to do. But it’s like buying a Mercedes and refusing to buy fuel. Automation, marketing tools, and copywriters can increase your ROI. What’s more, they usually don’t cost a lot.
You are a school – why can’t you tell your story? You have teachers, who are by nature great storytellers. But all we do is write ‘Admissions Open’ and call it a day. 30% of the batch scored above 90% in CBSE does nothing but “Jay overcomes the fear of testing to score the highest ever marks he has achieved in any exam thanks to Mrs. Dutta’s guidance” is a message many will want to read about. And don’t tell me your school doesn’t have great stories.
Dedicate a wall and draw out the journey of a parent/student. Every step he will take from the first touch till he/she will walk into your campus as a student. Spell out every communication. Make it visual for your team and you. Enjoy the aha! Moment.
80% of you reading this right now already know this but can’t put it in place because it is hard and unglamorous work. The fact is if you don’t do it, nothing is going to change regardless of how good your institution is. Stop being lukewarm.
September - 6,2022 | Posted by: Iosignite
