Prospective students are incredibly insightful when researching colleges and universities. They typically know precisely what topics, programs, and financial considerations they are interested in, and to search for these key terms. When they find that a university addresses these topics online in a way that is informative, lively, and timely, prospective students often remain engaged with that school. This type of dynamic engagement is best accomplished with the use of video. University video marketing captures prospective students’ attention and delivers effective messages about your institution. Specifically, video-enhanced lead generation is a highly effective strategy for student recruitment.
If your university is focused on how to increase college enrollment, your admissions office can benefit from using this effective tool. Video-enhanced lead generation turns interested prospective students into applicants and, later, students. To convert prospective students, your university must present an authentic, thorough, and accurate impression of your school, its campus, and its programs. Video content is the most effective medium on which to create this multifaceted impression.
The process of visiting, vetting, and applying to colleges is both exciting and daunting. While students are often encouraged to cast the net widely, there are a variety of reasons that a student may need to narrow their scope to just a few schools. For example, application fees can be cost-prohibitive, distance from home may be a deciding factor, or specific programs or opportunities are being sought.
All these criteria may make a student’s list of schools quite short. To make the cut, your institution must provide content that encourages students to see themselves on your campus as active citizens of your university. Video-enhanced lead generation performs precisely this role. This marketing tool supplements video content with a call to action that engages prospective students. It is effective in both meeting prospective students’ desire for more information about your school and in establishing ongoing communication that increases the likelihood of those students applying for admission.
Video marketing campaigns allow your school to design content that showcases a wide variety of its distinctive features. This content can be widely shared directly with your target audience. Video content creates a multidimensional impression of your university that can stimulate engagement among prospective students. A central advantage of this content is the ease with which anyone can share it across multiple platforms, including social media sites. This wide distribution gives your university even more exposure among potential students. The impression these students receive from video content is nongeneric; it gives an accurate and dynamic portrayal of your unique institution. StudentBridge has years of experience creating the kind of video content that provides both compelling narrative and concrete opportunities for further engagement.
A survey of high school students found that a college’s website is the most influential resource in deciding where to apply. Typically, prospective students take a multichannel approach in their college search. They visit the website first, but complement their search with information from email, social media, video, and texts. Since your university’s online presence is typically the first and most important contact with potential students, it should include digital material that makes a strong impression and provides meaningful information about your institution.
Video-based content allows you to meet high school students’ expectations for online content that provides the data they need to make application decisions. In addition, when students see your university’s video content popping up on other sites, it raises their awareness of its unique attributes. More information in more places increases the chances that more students will be inspired to view your video content and establish an ongoing relationship with your institution.
Your school has its own unique culture, academic profile, and student body. This distinctive character should be emphasized in your school’s marketing materials. Video-enhanced lead generation allows your admissions department to create student recruitment materials that are specific to your institution, and which create a rich picture for prospective students. Your video content should not be interchangeable with that of any other university. Rather, it should make clear to prospective students that your university is the best possible fit for them.
StudentBridge’s customizable Video Viewbook platform allows you to create a distinctive presentation of your school that features dynamic video content. The immersive digital presentation gives prospective students insight into what their experience might be like on your campus. With StudentBridge’s Video Viewbook, you can showcase your school’s distinctive brand!
The vast majority of students searching for college admissions materials are deeply immersed in social media. Social media has increasingly become a visual medium for students, so it is critical for campuses to post content that uses images, videos, and other visuals to engage students and convey key information. In other words, effective student recruitment requires high-quality social media content that is primarily visual. Adding a video-enhanced lead generation campaign to your efforts meets this requirement.
This tool allows prospective students to easily find the results of their search terms, and to learn more in a lively, impactful way. This prompts students to search for and view other videos on your site or on social media, which deepens their understanding of your school and its offerings. As they do so, students share and repost your university’s video content. In this way, prospective students themselves act as online ambassadors for your university by directing other prospective students toward more information and opportunities to engage with your school. If your video content is compelling enough that students pass it along to other online networks, the result is increased—and more organic—engagement with your school across multiple platforms.
In order to convert prospective students into applicants, your university needs to present an authentic, thorough, and accurate impression of your school, its campus, and its programs. This impression needs to be accompanied with a call to action that initiates a relationship between these prospective students and your university’s admissions team. Video-enhanced lead generation is highly effective at achieving these tasks. StudentBridge understands how important it is for universities to have an online presence to create conversions. Our video production team has 20 years of digital storytelling expertise you can leverage to create video content that effectively showcases the unique aspects of your institution. Let our video production experts help you amplify your most valuable asset—the story of your school, its faculty, and its students. As we assist you in marketing your university, we seek to create rich and meaningful impressions of your unique institution for every online viewer.
We provide flexible video production options. Whether your admissions team wants to self-produce your content, or you’re looking for a full-service video production team, StudentBridge can help. Our Video Viewbook offers immersive digital experiences that provide both stimulating content and concrete information. We can help you create visual and video content that enriches viewers’ knowledge about your school and about ways to stay engaged with your university online. Our team can help your university tell its story in a way that aids student recruitment. Contact StudentBridge today to learn more about how to increase college enrollment with effective use of our video production tools.