Branding strategies are valuable for colleges. They communicate your school's notable features and set you apart from other educational institutions, and you can customize your brand through compelling digital storytelling. Storytelling humanizes your brand and creates a connection with your readers.
Before incorporating features into your website to tell your college's story, you must understand the difference between customization and personalization. Customization is for you. It is the brand you want to show your target audience with content that reflects your vision, values, and mission. Personalization is for prospective students. It gives visitors an experience tailored to their preferences.
Below are tips to customize your brand and attract prospective students through digital storytelling.
1. Use Branding to Communicate Values
When you build a brand for your college, determining what you want people to recognize you for is essential. Storytelling helps to communicate a school's values, policies, and missions in a way that resonates with prospective students and their parents. You shape your institution's brand legacy.
From a young age, students are influenced by the cultures around them and the values others introduce into their lives. Because your college can contribute to your students' futures, communicating your values clearly by establishing branding strategies is crucial. You can accomplish this by highlighting the history of your college, previous students' experiences, and other aspects of attending your school.
2. Establish Trust with Credible Stories
Honesty is a fundamental aspect of storytelling. You must tell factual stories. Otherwise, prospective students won't trust you.
You can establish trust between your college and prospective students by determining who your target audience is. You should consider the type of student you want to attract and the values and experiences you want your readers to identify with.
Your digital campaign can focus on testimonials and other features from current and former students. It's an authentic way of telling prospective students about real experiences people have had at your school.
Post videos from various students about their daily lives to show prospective students they could have a place in your community. Let former students talk about multiple programs your school offers and how they helped shape career achievements. You can also connect current students with prospective students using social media, real-time chat features, and other forms of digital communication.
3. Connect with Families
Parents want to know how an institution will benefit their children before investing in a program. They consider the school's reputation, culture, campus experience, and other impactful elements before deciding. In other words, they want to find the ideal match. The fit between school and student is a determining factor in choosing one school over another.
You can capture a family's attention by using effective storytelling tactics. You must think of ways to obtain an emotional reaction from parents while they look up information about your school. It comes down to persuasion. Articulating your college's background, strengths, and goals without stretching the truth highlights what parents can expect their children to experience on campus.
4. Stand Out from the Crowd
You must be clear about your school's priorities. Storytelling isn't only about engaging your reader. It also requires articulating the attributes that separate your college from others. You should include creative content while providing the information prospective students want.
A well-structured and unique website isn't only informative. It's interactive and immersive. You can get your story out there without writing pages of traditional content. Storytelling is more engaging when readers can view photos and videos that bring your brand to life. They can picture themselves on campus without visiting in person.
5. Tell a Memorable Story
Stories can resonate with people. They're attention-grabbing and communicate a message. Providing information about your school is necessary, but it doesn't have the same effect as sharing an engaging story. Prospective students are more likely to remember your college if they feel part of the community while browsing your website.
You want to customize your brand to each person who navigates your site, so they feel like you're speaking directly to them. Memorable content allows readers to paint images in their minds about what you promote. They want to revisit the story again and again because it taps into their emotions, dreams, hopes, and desires.
Learn More About Customizing Your Brand with Storytelling
StudentBridge has over 20 years of experience helping educational institutions customize their brands to engage prospective students and convert them into applicants. We offer various digital features to take your website to the next level and engage your readers, such as Video Viewbook and Interactive Campus Maps.
Call us at (678) 824-8181 or request a meeting to get started on customizing your college's brand with unique and effective storytelling.
