In an age of dazzling presentations, high-speed internet, and lightning-fast processing capabilities, the digital world has been able to connect audiences with what they are looking for at a speed that conventional media can never hope to achieve.
A random post on Facebook has the potential to move beyond a carefully thought out advertising campaign and that awareness is what advertisers are waking up too quickly. Although we haven’t reached the point where digital marketing has fully, eclipsed traditional marketing, the Indian context offers a promising premise, particularly if we take the educational industry as an example.
But why does digital marketing take on such intelligence in the education industry?
This is what you know about your target audience
While older generations gradually become accustomed to the idea of digital marketing, the younger generation has grown to know only about digital channels for information gain. With the primary advertisement audience for the education sector being the youth, digital marketing Is growing steadily in importance, only accentuated by its popularity and increased acceptance by educational institutions.
Keeps yourself 24×7 in front of the audience
Studies have shown that 93% of Indian students have internet access and the average time they spend on the internet ranges from 3.4 to 4 hours (laptops and mobile respectively). 83% of students sue the internet when commuting, and while advertisers are trying to get the billboards, TV ads, and newspaper articles to reach their audience, they are highly likely to access the internet by trying to find information about a course or college. Although traditional marketing platforms are not completely shut off from the younger audience, advertisers have an infinitesimal ability to use television, radio, and print media to communicate with their audiences.
On the other hand, digital platforms provide much easier access to Indian youth, who do not go online but live online literally, making them more important and significant to the context of the education industry.
Also Read: Content Marketing Benefits for Small Business.
Rather than sell, it tells
Most traditional marketing strategies either sound like sales pitches or have an insightful sound setup. The youth has neither the commercial garble endurance nor the duration of attention for an infomercial. What they want is information in the form of relevant and engaging content which provides them with a basis for making decisions. 91% of students in India use the internet for research courses / educational institutes both in India and abroad, according to research. 4 out of 5 Indian students consider the internet their key source of information related to college/course, while 3 out of 4 students find the internet to be a full source of information for their college searches. Using digital marketing tools, advertisers can incorporate engaging content and technology to ensure that the right kind of information is delivered to the right audience at the right regularity, helping them make the best choice. For example, a digital marketing strategy focused on engaging content on social media platforms (blogs, tips, correct practices, and video) would be combined with search engine ads to get users who queried your search terms into your content. It offers a much wider funnel to educational institutions and far more enrollments than a traditional marketing approach.
Provides infinite opportunities to reach the audience
The possibilities for digital marketing are practically endless. Imagine a situation where marketer created a video aimed at graduate students seeking admission to MBA courses on tips for selecting the best MBA class’. This video can be hosted on the Youtube-a platform where more than 85 million users consume video content every month, as well as sharing it on social media such as Facebook, where students spend an average of 2.4 hours every day. Not only that, it is possible to use show and banner ads along with the video as well as behavioral re-targeting that can aid influencing the students who have already viewed the video or advertisement. Search engine ads linked to the video can also be leveraged as more than 80% of students use Google to start their search for a course/college. This is just a small example, but the ways to reach out to the audience are nearly endless with digital marketing as opposed to traditional advertising, making digital marketing more effective and significant in the context of the education sector.
Far more cost-efficient
The amount of planning and logistics involved in structuring a traditional marketing campaign is far larger than the amount needed to make a digital campaign go viral. Compared with the exorbitant prices that a print campaign entails, it hardly costs a fraction of an e-mail campaign or a series of posts on social media handles. And making a comparison between youtube video ads and TV ads is simply blasphemous.
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