Increasing Applications by Attracting Qualified Students Online

Does your school face one or more of these admissions challenges:

Not enough qualified applicants
Excessive numbers of “stealth” applicants
Little to no visibility into the admissions funnel prior to application
Difficulty consistently (and relevantly) engaging with the sheer number of inquiries

If so, there’s room for improvement with a new technology called inbound marketing that enhances the personal, engaging and informative brand qualities of your website, making it a more effective part of your admissions process. Indeed, the latest research shows:

More than 77% of high school juniors and seniors say that college websites are a top influential factor when researching colleges
Nearly 60% of seniors and over 70% of juniors finding answers to their questions on college websites

To reach new applicants, schools must provide compelling content on their sites to get found and build relationships with prospective students.

That’s exactly what inbound marketing does.

New to inbound marketing?
Check out our guide: Inbound 101

At Innovative Marketing Resources, we’ve built our agency helping private schools, career training institutes, colleges, and universities increase applications, improve engagement with prospective students, and gain deep insight into the admissions funnel.

To learn more about our experience in education marketing, check out our expert advice and client stories on our Inbound for Higher Ed Blog.

A proven inbound marketing strategy for schools

Inbound marketing works when you understand what your prospective applicants are looking for online and what content can help them. With every education client, we research their prospective applicants to create a content strategy that speaks to their wants, needs, questions, and concerns.

Our schools marketing services include:

Detailed applicant personas based on our interviews with admissions staff and real students
A customized yearlong content marketing strategy built using our exclusive Content Marketer’s Blueprint™
Website optimization using the latest SEO best practices, prioritizing content prospective applicants care about most

Great content to attract great applicants

Our inbound marketing strategy for schools is driven by valuable, shareable content students can find online – blog posts, checklists, guides, videos, virtual tours, you name it!

We help schools:

Attract visitors by creating and publishing content on the topics prospective applicants are Googling
Increase prospects by creating content, like checklists and eBooks, students can access in exchange for their contact info
Build relationships with prospects with automated emails that lead them to take the “next step” to inquire about your school, sign up for a tour, or apply

Testing, monitoring, and improving

We don’t think set-it-and-forget-it inbound marketing works. We’re constantly testing different topics, communication channels, and content formats. We aim to increase the overall quantity of leads, as well as the quality. If our efforts don’t generating more applications, it’s not a win.

For every school client we:

Track prospective students through every stage of the admissions funnel, from prospect to inquiry to application to enrollment
Monitor site behavior, email engagement, and blog performance
Track marketing ROI by content campaign, channel, and more

Learn more about our unique approach to inbound marketing for higher education.

Is your school ready for inbound marketing? Find out for free

Fill out the form below and we’ll contact you for a free inbound marketing assessment.

Your assessment should only take about 15 minutes. In the same amount of time it takes for you to organize your office lunch order, we’ll share:

Your school’s current state of inbound readiness based on your responses to 5 key questions.
Tweaks you can make to your website right now to increase visitors and inquiries.
Feedback on your blogging and content efforts, with ideas for reaching a wider audience of qualified applicants.
How your school can benefit from a custom-built inbound marketing strategy based on the Content Marketer’s Blueprint.
The answers to any questions you might have about inbound marketing or working with our agency.

Inbound Marketing for Schools