Article Contents
Introduction to Digital Marketing
We are all breathing in the 21st century, things are moving digitally and technology is heading with lightning-fast pace. Each and everything is brewing the growth potion through the cup of technology and growing globally.
Brand building, Advertising, and Marketing are the three pillars, that a brand stands its ground on. If you fail in either of them, there are high chances of you collapsing as a brand.
Digital Marketing, a revolutionary change in the arena of marketing that changed the way you can market your product/service, drastically.
India started embracing Digital Marketing from 1998. Google was also introduced the same year and hence the year is noted as a Golden year in the history of Digital Marketing.
Today when we look back, it’s very astonishing to see how this Digital aura has flourished around us. It has refined the marketing constraints and highly affected the output values that the conventional marketing tactics used to bring in.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing, also referred as Internet Marketing.
An amazing technique that helps bridge the gap between consumers and services, efficiently.
On the contrary to the primitive marketing techniques, here we focus more on inbound strategies.
Inbound refers to inviting the targeted audience that is a group of would-be consumers to our Digital Channels such as Website, Social Media Channels or simply invoking them to reach out to us through the shared point of contact.
Simply, Digital Marketing is the technique that efficiently utilizes digital mediums such as websites, social media platforms and web to market your service or product.
Is Digital Marketing effective for Educational Institute?
The education industry, an immortal giant in the service industry that will never go off the trend; till the time people believe in earning wisdom.
As the survey conducted in January 2019 says, India has around 900 universities and 40000 educational institutes. India produces over 30 lac graduates every passing year.
The numbers spell off the magnitude of the education industry, clearly !!!
Now, let’s figure where do you stand in the crowd of institutes.
There are three simple thumb rules to identify your position in the market;
Which region/city your university/institute belongs to?
This geographical factor helps you pull a lot of public as it is very much important for the students while making a decision about their admission.
Accessibility to life things, industries opportuning future perspectives; these are some geographical facts that act as a magnet to attract students towards your region.
What differentiates you from your competitors?
Well, every institute teaches that “ Earth is round in shape”, what makes you stand out?
Bottom line, have your Unique Selling Point defined that differentiates you from your competitors.
How well did you position your brand?
Your educational institute could be well-known to the population around the city you serve from. In the other case, let’s consider that your institute might have influenced the district you belong to.
But, how about the state?
What about the rest of the country?
Have you positioned your institute as a brand that everyone knows and talks about?
Yes, it is important to create awareness and spread word in order to experience the boomerang when you seek a great number of admission for your educational institute.
How Digital Marketing Strategy will work for your Educational Institute?
Well, we have just been through three thumb rules to rectify your position in the sector.
In line with the same facts, here’s how we can attract more students towards the university or educational institute.
Geographic Parameters
A region has a lot to deal with when a student decides to shift from his/her hometown for the sake of an admission.
A student thinks with a future perspective, whether he/she would be able to fit in the culture, would he/she be in close proximity to the industry where he/she can expect to get placed and so on.
To account and convey these surreal facts about your region/city, Digital Media is the most prominent medium in terms of reach and awareness.
Beat the competition
There are chances that your competitors are using Digital Media to divert the flow of admission towards their institute or probably they might not!
In both cases, it is a win-win situation for you and your educational institute.
How? Let’s get there….
Case 1: If your competitors are using Digital Marketing Strategies, you can build a stronger one than theirs and pull the trigger of flow towards your institute.
Case 2: If your competitors are lagging and not using Digital Marketing as a weapon to accelerate; you should switch the gears and pace up to succeed in the run.
Brand Positioning
What is a brand?
It’s an image, an impression that shows up to people’s minds when they think of a certain product or service.
How to make people think of your brand?
Keep them posted regularly, it’s that simple !!!
What to post?
What do you do for them?
What are you planning to do to improve your services?
Relate the things with some interesting facts.
Next, how to reach them every time?
Digital Media, the one key to all your What’s and How’s !!!
Digital Marketing vs Traditional Marketing
Welcome to the masterclass!!!
Digital Marketing is sailing high with the flow nowadays, but we can’t just ignore the pros that Traditional Marketing has been offering us for years now.
Digitalization was not so cool then when Traditional Marketing had our back and helped us meet the desires in terms of reach, conversions and reputation management.
Well, rather than taking this as a debate, let’s hear out to the potential points that both of them contribute to making an educational institute successful.
Digital Marketing: Hey Folks, hope you all are enjoying the digital freedom!!!
Proud to be a part of this process and I hope I am doing enough to benefit you all.
Traditional Marketing: Ahhhuhh..(Coughs)…Hey Friends, How are you all?
You all seem caught up with technology.
I hope you all remember this old friend.
Well, I understand the pace of time has changed the means of marketing, but as we all know
“Old is Gold” !!!
Digital Marketing: Hey Oldie, did you take your potion for up-gradation?
You do not seem to be in the pink of health.
Traditional Marketing: No lad, I am good. Keep the potion to you, you might need it.
The things that start off faster, need not maintain the pace throughout. Fair chances, you might be out of trend soon!!!
Digital Marketing: Hey! Why so nasty?
Man, I have huge respect for what you have done to bring the industry this par. I am standing my ground on the basics that you have defined.
Traditional Marketing: Really? I would never loot people in the name of promotions and marketing.
I would never ask for excess budget once settled and locked for a time-frame.
You seem to be limitless and greedy when it comes to spending budgets over marketing.
Digital Marketing: Hey it’s not the truth!!!
I run on the strategies and I never leave the path once chosen.
I target the right people, with the right interest and yes I demand more budget but only in favour of the marketer.
If I can see the people being attracted to the advert I am doing, it’s my duty to stand still the buyer’s interest is alive.
Traditional Marketing: Well, then what do you think I do?
I stand still unless the time-frame assigned ends. And during the stipulated time, I make the advert reach thousands or lacs of people.
Digital Marketing: Well, can you tell how many of those thousands and lakhs are prime buyers or would-be customers of the advertiser that you are standing up for?
Do you have any measures or records in place?
Traditional Marketing: Huh…what do I need to do with that?
My job is to advertise and spread brand awareness. I shouldn’t be concerned about who buys the service and how many conversions happened.
Digital Marketing: My friend, this is what I call up-gradation !!!
See, I stand the advert that I have been paid for. But, alongside I keep track of all the things such as likes, comments, dislikes, shares, conversions, etc.
And the main part is, I have a road map defined in place that helps me to reach the right people, who would actually be interested in buying the product or service that I am marketing.
Traditional Marketing: Well, that is fine. But when I rank an advert, the coverage is broadened and the people tend to interest in the service or product that I market.
With some of my channels, I step into their homes and excite them to buy the service that I introduce.
Digital Marketing: Again there is an up-gradation man!!!
I have introduced the marketer with a strategy called Inbound Marketing; wherein I intend to reach out to people and invite them to visit the marketer’s profile and check out the additional information about the product/service.
This way, it is easier to make the buyer’s comfortable and help them understand what the marketer intends to sell.
I just try to value the prospect buyers by understanding their interest, showing them the right product/service that compliments their interest.
They like it that way!!!
Traditional Marketing: Hmmm…well this sounds great. But, I am definitely not crunching the pockets of the marketers. I charge them with a right cost at once and I do the job for the selected time.
Digital Marketing: Friend you are going to the same lane again.
Okay, let me explain it to you. Clearly, I never cost the marketer too much. I try to execute the campaign under the budget offered and I utilize the budget efficiently for the right targeted audience.
I help the marketer with the interests of people so that he/she can create a roadmap.
Apart from this I also offer the freedom to target people depending upon the region, gender, profession, qualification and so on.
This way the marketer saves a lot of cost with optimum expenditure, irrespective of blind targeting.
Traditional Marketing: You seem to be embracing the strategies so well. I am impressed !!!
Digital Marketing: Well, I have learned this from you only big brother. You initiated and framed a skeleton to market, I am just following your footprints and improvising.
Traditional Marketing: Let’s help the world to market with strategies and to buy with the interest.
Digital Marketing: Cheers!!!
What Digital Marketing Strategies to be used for marketing your Educational Institute?
Well, we have just seen the two dimensions of marketing.
Now, we are going to explore the Digital means of marketing with a palate full of channels to exploit the right interests.
Let’s begin !!!
SEO - Search Engine Optimization
Well, Search Engine Optimization is the most promising channel that Digital Marketing offers.
It’s just like the Mango tree that you decide to plant in your yard. Once sowed and nurtured, you can embrace the sweet, pulpy and juicy treat all over your lifetime.
SEO is just the same job to do!
You need to sow the seeds that are the keywords.
You need to water the plant regularly that is you need to keep an eye on the keywords that you have opted for and make the modifications whereas needed.
You need to feed fertilizers on the peaks, having known that the plant needs it; that is you need to make the necessary changes on your website and generate backlinks that help your SEO nurture well.
You need to monitor & protect the plant from inhuman activities; that is, you need to monitor your SEO chart, you need to keep an eye on the competition and their moves to take you down from your rank.
After a worthwhile gardening routine, you can embrace the delicious mangos from your garden; that is, after spending a worth time on analysis and adaptations to rank yourself high in the run, you can enjoy the leads flowing in your favour.
Philosophy is fun but now let’s touch the ground to map a perfect SEO strategy for your educational institute.
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization is a technique that attempts to improve Google Search Rankings.
Google displays links to a particular website that voices a service/product category that it considers most relevant and authoritative to the search term typed by the user.
In other words, SEO is a set of changes that are suggested to be done to your website in order to make it more attractive and search engine friendly. So, Google can display a link to your site when a user searches for relevant service/product.
The ultimate goal to do SEO is attaining higher rankings in Google Searches.
What are the types of SEO?
There are namely two types in which SEO can be divided.
On-Page SEO: This is all about the changes that occur on your own website in terms of links, content, images, HTML and overall structure.
Links: Internal linking on your website plays a vital role when you aim to dominate the web.
You need to have a solid proportion of internal linking in place if you wish to enhance the rate of engagements for your visitors.
Apart from this, make sure the links are not misleading or confusing the user. This can downgrade the quality of the links
Content: Content is immortal!
Tomorrow you might not be there to see what the content you produced did for you, but your content will always stay, it’s immortal.
Content is just a hardcover to the book, it has many chapters such as Textual Content, Graphic Content, Video Content, etc.
You just have to be sure that the content you produce is of great value and superior quality. It’ s the prime weapon in the web arena to win the interest of your viewers.
HTML: HTML is a part of coding though, but it has got some legs into On-page SEO.
You need to make a few changes in the HTML tags for your website subject to the keywords that represent your service/product. These changes can help you dominate the Search Engine Result Pages with high margins.
Structure of your website: The website is just like the face of your business. It has to be attractive and magnetic so that it can pull the interest of users searching for relevant services/products.
While doing On-Page SEO, website changes are a must do the thing that one should take care of. Not only the look and feel but also the technical components demand attention.
You have to make sure that your portal is attractive and lightning-fast if you wish to retain the interest of your users till the conversions.
Off-Page SEO: This is all about the changes that occur off your website, which refers to external sources that point towards your website through backlinks.
There are a lot more factors like the campaigns that you execute to outreach the audience, creating shareable content, writing guest posts and many more.
Creating Backlinks to your site: A backlink acts just like an anchor tied on the boat. It can pull the things along and get them on the boat.
Backlinks work in the same fashion. They hyperlink a text and when a user attempts to click on the hyperlink, it drives the user to the site that has planted the backlink.
Guest Posting: You need to be sure about your niche when attempting for Guest Posting. It’s the most generic way to earn an entitlement for making a guest post on a site that has great value and good ranking in Google searches.
Suppose, as we are talking about the educational niche, you should opt for a website or portal that has a potential reach and complement your niche.
You can request for a guest post and add up some backlinks in the post that can drive the interested users to your web portal.
Social Bookmarking: Social Bookmarking is an elegant inbound marketing strategy that helps to create a buzz around, about the product/service that you are willing to offer.
There are numerous Social bookmarking sites who allow you to register and do the talking.
When some user searches for something that falls under your niche, your stuff would be suggested and this is the doorway to bridge the user directly with your web portal.
SEM - Search Engine Marketing & PPC - Pay Per Click
What is SEM?
We have just seen the organic side of the coin; now, it’s time to unfold the inorganic that is paid side of it. Search Engine Marketing is nothing but SEO, just that it’s a paid version of SEO.
Search engine
marketing, or SEM, is one of the most effective ways to grow your organization
in this highly competitive marketplace.
Within this competitive run under one nutshell, it’s never enough to be fast; you have to faster and smarter than millions who are trying to break it and exploit the outcome.
In other words, Search Engine Marketing just helps us engage the boost to our efforts that we are pushing to rank top in the Google Search Result Pages.
Basically, Search Engine Optimization is something that one is rewarded with for the most relevant and engaging content.
Wherein, Search Engine Marketing helps to achieve the top rankings, even above the organic that is SEO search results. Because one has to pay Google for putting them above all.
This billing is probably done per click or impression that tends to encounter on the link presented in the top searches.
How does SEM work?
Before I answer this, let’s have a deep discussion around the basis of it.
There are millions of niche out there, then how Google must be figuring out the appropriate things for every niche?
Well, here comes the Keyword into action!
What is a Keyword?
The keyword could be any set of words or a query that a user keys into the search engine when he/she wants to gain information about some product/service.
In other words, keywords are the words used by the user while searching for any product/service on the search engine.
How it actually works?
Keywords, a prime weapon in the world of Search Engine Marketing. These keywords work as a boomerang for a product vendor or service provider who wishes to advertise his/her product/service.
The Search Engine empowers both, the buyer and seller with equal set of authorities.
On one side, the buyer can type in the queries that express the product/service he/she has been looking for. In return, Search engine manages to retrieve the most relevant and helpful content links that can help the buyer in the most prominent way.
On the other side, it empowers the seller with capabilities to target the potential buyers with the right ideology that is nothing but a set of keywords, that a buyer can use while typing in the query to search a particular product/service.
The seller has to bid on these keywords and has to pay the Search Engine per click or per impression on the link/image/video result displayed on the search result pages.
Bidding takes place for each and every keyword that is being searched for a particular niche. To beat the competition, the best bid has to be made.
The one from a particular niche, who bids for the right keywords with the prominent amount, gets the top rank in the search results.
Content Marketing
What is content?
A story, being told with simple words and a smooth storyline.
An informative conversation between two or more people that voices out some sense.
Content is anything that is used to express an event, an incident through any possible medium such as textual, graphical or video, in order to attain the state of contentment of the viewer.
In simple words, content is anything that is used to expresses a situation, an incident or an emotion.
