Inbound for education - in less than 5 minutes

Here are the essentials of inbound marketing and admissions, with 5 actionable quick wins - short enough to digest on a coffee break.

What is the inbound methodology?

Inbound is all about providing your prospects and customers with what they need, when and where they need it. Providing as much value as possible at every stage of their journey with you.

What does this mean for education marketers?

In education, inbound marketing is about attracting students (and their parents) to your school or college by creating valuable content and experiences tailored to them. It's about solving problems for your customers and personalising their experience from stranger to enquiry and beyond.

The ultimate purpose of inbound marketing is to attract new prospects, engage them with insightful and relevant content, and delight them with a high level of service; all without annoying or interrupting them.

What does this mean for admissions?

The customer experience does not end when a prospect enquires, signs up for an open event, or applies to study at your school or college. Admissions teams should continue to provide the highest level of customer experience to students moving through the funnel. Continuity of this experience is key, and although marketing and admissions teams in schools and colleges can be separate, it is important to remember that the prospect is not on two separate journeys - this is one process for them and we need to make sure our communications reflect this.

Top 5 quick wins for education inbound success

1) Get the attention of your audience: Attracting your target students and their families through inbound methods means looking at your buyer personas and creating the content they want to see. Start by publishing content — such as blog articles, content offers, and social media — that provide value.

A few examples of content that you could provide:

A guide on how to choose the right college
A blog post to share homework tips with prospective students and parents

2) Provide marketing content to build trust in your brand: authenticity is key, education marketers should highlight the things that matter most to prospects. Sporting achievements, artwork, 'day in the life of...' videos, happy success stories of progress and small milestones of students - all make for great content. The big stories matter too, but don't overlook the everyday moments.

3) Answer your prospect's questions before they even ask - share FAQs on your website where they can be easily accessed, consider making the experience even easier for your prospects by having a searchable Knowledge Base and automated chat bots to help them find exactly what they are looking for.

4) Provide value at every stage of the funnel - get your marketing and admissions teams together to map out the entire customer journey. Look for opportunities to provide added value, personalisation and thoughtful touches. Here are some free worksheets to help you with your content planning.

5) Have information in multiple places - allow your prospect to find what they need in the way they choose to access it. Too often, we see websites that direct visitors to 'contact us' and do not offer vital information in any other format, this will put some prospects off and could lead to missed opportunities for capturing a student's interest earlier in the journey.