Why Work with a Digital Marketing Agency?

What challenges do institutions face in 2023?

The global pandemic created a laundry list of issues that institutions are still dealing with today. While some of these issues have been resolved, a handful of them have only become more prominent. We’ll highlight many of those issues in this article and how working with a digital marketing agency can help you through them.

Increased Competition 

The problem: There are several competing factors wrestling for a student’s attention:

• Other countries that were friendlier to international students during the pandemic 
• Rival schools that are also looking to build their digital presence 
• The rise of self-study, online certificates, etc., that aren’t affiliated with official institutions   

The factors that keep students from searching for your school are not limited to other schools — they’re everywhere, and they are here to stay.   

How we can help: It takes more than a brand name or good content to get students’ attention — they want to engage with brands they resonate with. Here at Study in the USA, we’ve grown our brand to be just that — a trusted resource for students and someone they trust to connect them with the RIGHT school. This is evidenced by:

• The largest social media presence of any digital marketing agency in the industry, with 600,000+ followers 
• 7.6 million visitors annually on the StudyUSA.com website
• Millions of students worldwide tuning into our Facebook and Instagram Live sessions in just the last year 

Study in the USA helps your school separate itself from the competition by extending that personal touch to everything we do for you. Do you want to reach students in a particular country? We’ll provide translated versions of your school profile so they’re native to your target audience. Are you unsure of your ability to stand out amongst the sea of online information? That’s fine. We’ll deliver our world-class magazine with your school included straight to their doorstep. 

Tight Marketing Budgets

The problem: As we’re in an economic downturn, marketing budgets have been the first on the chopping block. This isn’t news to you, but it is the reality of higher education. Fewer resources and a one-foot-in-one-foot-out approach have led to industry-wide burnout, diminished campaign results, and fewer international student enrollments. 

While other schools wait for the “right” time, this is your chance to get ahead. 

How we can help: Marketing doesn’t have to break the bank, and letting our skills and team complement yours can reduce your burden. Study in the USA’s packages are budget-friendly and save you anywhere from $1,700 to $17,000+, depending on your chosen package. 

You’ll establish your brand and reach a massive international student audience while staying within your budget — far more affordable and effective than relying on your presence alone.

Reduced Staffing

The problem: According to InsideHigherEd, 13% of the higher ed workforce had been laid off just a year into the pandemic. Marketing campaigns require brainstorming ideas, producing a high volume of content, creating quality content, scheduling, gathering insights, and making informed decisions. To expect your marketing department to accomplish these goals with just a handful of people is unrealistic, especially when marketing might not be your specialty.

How we can help: Study in the USA is comprised of members that specialize in marketing skills across the spectrum. You can count on any number of experts, including those who specialize in:

• Creating content tailor-made for your target audience
• Designing graphics to help you stand out among the crowded higher ed space
• Analyzing data and sorting through your campaign results to create detailed reports, perfect for presenting ROI to upper management
• Developing state-of-the-art technologies that connect your school with qualified students through our SmartMatch technology

If you need a team to fill the gaps created by staffing cuts, you can count on us, and if that means covering every aspect of your digital marketing campaign, we can do that too.

Unclear ROI

The problem: How do you improve your marketing if you can’t discern what’s working? Traditional marketing makes convincing management to invest in your marketing department difficult. Even with digital marketing, seeing the data is one thing, but making informed decisions that affect the bottom line is another. 

How we can help: With Study in the USA, gathering data is made easy. We’ve developed several methods for collecting and distributing data so that you can stay on top of your marketing performance. We do this through: 

• Smart Dashboard: You get your own English profile on StudyUSA.com as well as optional translated profiles. Your Smart Dashboard gives live, up-to-date feedback on page viewership, where students are viewing from, how many students have inquired, and much more! 
• Campaign reports: For every social media post, email blast, live session, or sponsored content you distribute through our channels, we’ll create in-depth reports that give you all the crucial information you need to provide to your management. 
  
• Tracked custom auto-responder: It’s a story we hear all too often — students reach out to a school, but they move on because the school doesn’t reach back. Our tracked auto-responder automatically sends an email to any student who inquires about your school on our site. Not only will this build a stronger brand/student connection, but it also reduces the chance that a prospective student slips through the cracks.
  

Emerging Student Markets

The problem: The international higher education market looks different in this post-pandemic era. If you looked at pre-pandemic statistics, you’d find that Chinese students dominated the list of international students attending U.S. institutions. If you look at those same charts updated for 2023, they paint a completely different picture. 

New markets are rising up from every corner of the world, from South Asia to Africa and everything in between. What may have worked for you pre-pandemic might not be as effective because of the new landscape of international education.  

How we can help:  The first step in attracting new markets is identifying where they are. Because of StudyUSA’s array of tracking tools, we’re able to discern who’s opening your content and what kind of content they’re drawn to. Since student preferences differ from one region to the next, it becomes all the more important to have flexible strategies, mediums of transmission, and scalable content to reach every student.  

You will get access to numerous marketing strategies, all of which meet the unique student audiences you have at varying stages of the marketing process. These include: 

• Targeted social media campaigns: We’re able to target your student audience with social media ads that align with their interests. 
• SEO-friendly webpages: Remember when we said that you could translate your school profile into any language you want? Having a native, SEO-friendly webpage targeting untapped student markets is just one of many ways you can increase future enrollments. 
  
• Print magazine ads: What about the students and parents who aren’t as technologically savvy? Or those without a reliable internet connection? We’ve distributed 1.4 million magazines worldwide, reaching student markets that are untouched by anything we share online.  
  

Truth be told…

These aren’t the only factors that your institution might face, but they reinforce the benefits of partnering with a team of experts who you trust. If you find yourself facing any of the challenges we’ve just listed, we’re here to offer our skills, experience, industry know-how, and support.

To learn more or get in contact with us, reach out!