How To: Effectively Use Marketing Automation in Higher Education

By DANIEL LUISE – May 20, 2018

Higher education institutions are employing technology, like marketing automation, to simplify processes, attract prospective students, and keep alumni engaged. Through marketing automation, many higher education marketers are building better relationships with students.

But, how exactly can you execute these efforts in an effective way? Here are a few specific areas colleges and universities can benefit from marketing automation:

Create Better Workflows

Each college or university can create customized workflows to streamline current processes and make them simpler to execute. First, workflows allow admission teams to nurture leads based on where individual prospects are in the enrollment process. For example, students who have recently visited the website might be sent a targeted follow-up e-mail based on the pages visited

Further, automated reminders save time and ensure that targeted notices are sent at crucial progress points. Either set the automated reminder or set the automatic touch point so you make sure the right message is sent to the right student at the right time.

Another effective workflow involves creating eNewsletters or announcement emails for individual programs or departments. Let students sign up for news and updates about the areas they are interested in.

Attract Prospective Students

Marketing automation enables colleges and universities to personalize the admissions experience based on student interests and behaviors. Many prospects are searching for colleges using specific keywords that reflect their career interests or desired degree. Which means, having a targeted social media ad or post can reach prospective students that match degree interests or other relevant criteria.

Landing pages are an important piece of marketing automation. They can be developed for specific programs or departments to match student interest areas. With the right tool, you can point students to these specific pages. With the ability to track visits, clicks and more and having effective sign-up forms, you make it possible for marketers to gather more information about the students visiting their websites.

Lastly, a big part of the enrollment journey is learning about the opportunities outside the classroom for a specific field. Marketing automation allows you to effectively provide updates, such as recent current student achievements or internships, to the prospective student.

Engage prospects

Marketing automation helps marketers at colleges and universities engage with students as they make decisions about furthering their education.

Marketing automation helps marketers respond to students in real time, for example, following up with a phone call or email about internships after a prospect visits a certain careers page.

E-mail campaigns can share additional information, ask for feedback, or suggest further resources and opportunities for prospects to connect with admissions. Marketing automation makes it possible to utilize many different channels to connect with students including videos, white papers, photos, phone, chat and web conferencing. Those workflows can be customized to include unique responses based on student interaction as well.

Instead of being overwhelmed with the ways that individual students are seeking information, higher education marketers are utilizing marketing automation to harness these channels. As a result, they can more effectively target prospects that are more likely to apply and complete the admissions process, helping them reach their enrollment goals.