By Holly Stayton

Marketing trends come and go at a rapid speed, and higher education isn’t immune to these shifts.

Especially at a time when college enrollment is down, higher education institutions must evolve, innovate, and leverage new strategies to attract and engage students.

If you want to stay ahead of the curve, look no further. Here are the top 12 higher education marketing trends of 2023.

1. Short-Form Video

Short-form video is taking the social media world by storm, and higher education can (and should) join in.

Short-form videos capture the attention of today’s digitally savvy students and provide a creative outlet to showcase your campus culture, events, and news. Consider leveraging platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and Snapchat to deliver bite-sized content like campus highlights, behind-the-scenes content, and even faculty and student interviews.

Take a look at this example from the University of Utah:

2. Conversational Marketing

Conversational marketing uses an interactive approach to engage an audience in real time. In the context of higher education, where prospective students want personalized experiences and immediate responses, this strategy is an effective way to accomplish both.

For example, the University of Kentucky engages with students on social media by publishing polls and questions via Instagram Stories. By utilizing these interactive features, the university involves its audience in conversations about campus life, academic preferences, and more.

3. Video Landing Pages

Among the top-performing landing pages, 30% incorporate video. What’s more, embedded video content can increase conversion rates by 86%.

For higher education institutions, video-friendly landing pages can offer a virtual campus experience that static images and text cannot match. But the advantages go beyond just aesthetics.

From a technical perspective, videos can increase the time spent on a page, indirectly benefiting SEO rankings. If you already use video as a part of your marketing, incorporating it into your landing page strategy can also help enhance user engagement and drive conversions.

Image Source

4. Student Ambassador Programs

Who better to speak about your institution and its greatness than your own students? This is what makes student ambassadors so compelling.

You can think of this strategy as a mix of influencer marketing and word-of-mouth marketing. Student ambassadors offer a genuine and relatable perspective that resonates with prospective students. They can share firsthand insights about campus life, academic programs, and the overall student experience – like in this example from Quinnipiac University:

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Source:: HubSpot Blog

Author: Aaron