When broken down, education is a product just like the others on the market. Like all products, clients nowadays seek out online reviews from past customers before investing in your school. According to a 2017 Influencer Marketing Hub study, approximately a third of marketing managers view endorsements and peer reviews as the best client acquisition method online. Your alumni association can become the leading means of client acquisition for your educational institution when incorporated into your digital marketing strategy.
The following are some tactics of using your alumni members for your digital marketing strategy.
Turn Them into Brand Ambassadors
Your alumni network members with positive experiences can become the best brand ambassadors for your educational institution. Have an online platform on which members can share their experiences with your institution to encourage others to register for courses. As brand ambassadors, your alumni association members will also have high engagement rates on your social media platforms and in your activities.
Ask Them for User-Generated Content
User-generated content puts a human face on the information you include on your educational institution's online platforms. This content includes a social post from the members of your alumni network, a video of the network's activities, or a blog post from your members on the experience at your educational institution. Some institutions now also use Snapchat and Instagram for their alumni to document their daily lives to showcase how much choosing a particular school impacted them.
Use Members in Video Marketing
As expected, videos are among the leading options for engagement on online platforms, with more than 45% of people spending an hour on YouTube or Facebook videos. Video marketing can be used as an alternative to Facebook groups for driving engagement among your alumni members and would-be clients. You can include your alumni members in the videos to showcase the benefits of your institution, share success stories, and paint your institution as the best pick for particular courses.
Include Them as Respondents in Surveys
Your alumni association can offer some much-needed insight on what you should improve in your institution or what people wish to know about your institution on digital marketing platforms. Include them in periodic surveys on the areas of improvement in your digital marketing and overall institution operations. Alumni members will feel like essential parts of your institution's running when you ask for their opinion rather than only contact them when raising money. This increases their engagement.
Invite Them for Community Projects
Most people now also tie their decision to invest in different places on an institution's impact on the community. Engage your alumni association in your community projects to show would-be students that they will get the chance to contribute to the community. Other than improved brand awareness, including your alumni members in CSR activities boosts their engagement in your institution's projects.
The above tactics do not just work for digital marketing strategies for educational institutions but will also be the best choices for engaging past employees in the corporate world. A study by the Society of Human Resource Managers revealed that most companies maintain contact with past employees to use them for their brand advocacy and have seen a positive impact of this practice. The use of past students and employees for digital marketing paints your brand in the best possible light among the vast online market.
