Bah, humbug!
For many people this is a glorious season filled with holiday cheer, family traditions, food, and fun. For others, it’s simply a time of maxed-out credit cards and the hustle and bustle of travel, with a touch of drama at every stop. But whether you’re a Scrooge or a saint, this is also an important time of year for leveraging your admission marketing strategies.
Here are some solutions we’re recommending our clients pursue this season as the New Year approaches. Trust us—you don’t want to be miserly with these marketing tactics.
Mobile
The iPhone 6 and the many other shiny new smart phones and tablets out there no doubt make excellent stocking stuffers. And between all the family gatherings and school vacation downtime, students are constantly talking with family and friends about where they want to go for undergrad or grad school (often much to their chagrin). Thus, the holidays provide a peak opportunity to boast your upcoming application deadlines, info sessions, and more, as people settle in to play with their new devices. We recommend you run a mobile display ad campaign, and make sure your site is mobile-ready for these prospects.
Video
For those of you who’ve been under a rock in the past three years, YouTube is no longer just an entertainment destination. It’s the second-largest search engine in the world and a growing resource for news, references, how-to’s, and even college research. Beef up your institution’s YouTube channel with fresh content highlighting your campus, student testimonials, program accolades, and more. You can ensure your videos are present during relevant searches through paid search. And with pre-roll video, you can also be present during those not-so-relevant searches, like the funny cat videos we admit are still a (major) reason people go to YouTube.
IP Select
Using any list of addresses, you can send banner ads directly into homes, businesses, community colleges, and more to reach anyone on a device associated with that IP. This is an effective approach to reaching audiences you know are your likeliest prospect pool, with customized messaging based on their level of interest. Don’t have a solid list of addresses? We can create one for you through our look-alike model: using a list of your current students, recent alumni, or any other population of addresses that reflect your student profiles, we’ll create a new custom list of addresses that mirror those households. Layer this in with Audience Select to get a robust, highly targeted IP campaign into those look-alike homes within zip codes with the highest proportion of prospective students.
To hear more about these strategies and find out what’s working for other independent schools, colleges, and universities, talk to your Regional Director or a Digital Specialist at Carnegie. And meanwhile, we wish you a happy, safe, and decidedly un-Scrooge-like holiday season.
Follow Angie on Twitter @AngieMayWard