Small or large, companies have clearly understood that The Internet had revolutionized our way of making decisions. 

They are increasingly turning to Inbound strategies to meet the new expectations of individuals, whether they are applicants or consumers.

The bad guys in this story? Schools and universities!

While some higher education institutions are leading by example, this behavioral shift has not completely changed the way higher education is promoted.

How can colleges and universities stand out from the competition in this market largely driven by rankings and other charts?

Here are 9 questions to ask yourself if you want to improve your higher education institution's visibility through Inbound Marketing.

1 - Is your website mobile friendly?

According to Deloitte, younger people appreciate the clarity that the desktop version of a website offers, but they are a majority to begin their searches on smartphones.

And as they say "You only get one chance to make a good first impression"

You must therefore design your website so that it provides the student with an optimal experience and this, regardless of the model of smartphone or the browser used.

2 - Does your website represent a content-rich resource?

Your potential applicants (and also their families) are looking for information about your institution, its values, your courses, the opportunities you offer, as well as news about you and your students.

To effectively convey this information, your institution should have a blog, much like the large corporations that offer employer-branded content on their career sites.

In addition, creating content on a regular basis and in a variety of formats allows your blog, and therefore your establishment, to gain visibility on search engines through SEO.

3 - How to use SEO effectively

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or search engine optimization, aims to improve the positioning of your website in the results of search engines (especially Google, which is used by 93% of French Internet users).

To put it simply, your goal is to create quality content around the keywords your potential candidates enter into their favorite search engine bar.

To find the right keywords to position yourself on, it is essential to create detailed profiles (called Candidate Personas) listing the characteristics of your targets. 

Rendez-vous visible par le plus grand nombre grâce SEO

4 - Do you use 2D video to explain your trainings?

Among the many content formats you can create, there is one whose viral nature cannot be ignored: video!

In addition to being the most shared format on social networks, video is an engaging, dynamic format that is highly valued by younger generations.

With Motion Design, you'll be able to explain your school's academic advantages in less than a minute.

According to a study conducted by Buffer and Social Media Week, 85% of respondents position video creation as a priority for their Content Marketing strategy in 2018.

Will your institution follow this trend?

5 - Do you occasionally use paid search engine optimization?

Using search engine optimization or SEO is a great way to gain visibility over the long term.

Paid search or SEA (Search Engine Advertising) allows you to appear in search engine results for a given list of keywords.

Your sponsored ad will be exposed at the top of the list, above the organic results, provided you follow some good practices.

Paid search is ideal for boosting your school or university's visibility in the short term, especially during the active student search period.

6 - Do you reach out to prospective students on social networks?

As you know, younger people are overwhelmingly present and active on social networks.

But did you know that networks were revolutionizing the recruiting industry?

For your institution, this is an additional way to increase your visibility and opportunities to be contacted. 

Reach out to students on social media to build a relationship quality

Use Facebook to engage parents, create your LinkedIn page to give your school credibility, invest time on Twitter to develop relationships with businesses, and broadcast your image and daily life on Snapchat or Instagram.

Take advantage of previously created content to feed your social networks, grow your community and redirect them to your website.

7 - Are you setting yourself up for conversion? 

Increasing traffic to your website is good, getting contact information from potential students is better!

Your efforts to create quality content that will be shared on social networks must meet a specific goal: conversion.

To do this, you need to design a user journey, consisting of Call-to-actions (call-to-action buttons) and Landing Pages (landing pages), on your institution's website.

The Internet user will be able to fill out a form (for a request to get in touch or download a free offer).

The more forms your site contains, the more likely you are to convert traffic into leads.

The more forms your site contains, the more likely you are to convert traffic into leads.

Telling a story around your brand is an effective marketing lever to capture the attention of your audience and present your offering in a natural way. 

Telling a story around your brand is an effective marketing lever to capture the attention of your audience and present your offering in a natural way. 

9 - Do you analyze your results in order to improve your strategies?

The Inbound methodology is nothing without analysis and monitoring of the results of your actions.

Each campaign is regularly evaluated, the impact is analyzed and adjustments are made after identifying areas of improvement.

HubSpot the very complete SaaS platform designed and developed to implement Inbound for its site, allows among other things the real-time monitoring of the evolution of traffic and conversions.