7 Secrets to Successful Video Marketing in Higher Education

Apr 06, 2022 | 3 min

Kati Terzinski

The first step in the content marketing delivery process is to choose the right medium for distributing the content. What will your audience respond to? What moves them further down the funnel?

How will you encourage contacts to move through the buyer’s (or in this case, student’s) journey, turning from awareness to consideration, and then from consideration to decision? In higher education, video content can make a huge difference.

It is noted that 66% of teens in the US watch online videos every day. Moreover, 99% of Institutions incorporate videos for learning. No matter how enthusiastic you are or how opposed you are to this practice, its use has become commonplace. Marketing and admissions professionals at colleges and universities are taking advantage of this growing market and honing their production skills to edge out their competitors. With these 7 tips, stay on top of your higher education video marketing.

7 Tips for Your Higher Education Marketing Videos

1. Tell a Story

No matter the type of video you plan to create, share a story. Potential students will respond much more to a compelling narrative with poetic delivery than they would to an informational slideshow.

Whether it’s student testimonials or snippets from rousing speeches from your ceremonies, use your best resources – what do you know best? Consider offering potential students a virtual tour. More time is spent watching videos when the content is inspiring and informative.

2. Focus on Your Audience

Are you targeting content at potential students, parents, or alumni? Ignite excitement and promise potential for prospective students and parents. Create a sense of nostalgia for alumni. Remember that a quick-paced, looping admissions office reel will need a different type of content than a longer, sweeping campus highlight video.

Or, are you launching a new fundraising campaign with a gala for alumni and influential community members? With precise preparation, video is the best way to get your event off to a great start. Share your clip on social media afterwards to create a shared experience for your attendees. Your reach will expand as well as the impact of your content.

3. Consider Your Offer

Your videos should incorporate a call-to-action (CTA), which should indicate an offer of some sort – for prospective students, this offer could be information about early enrollment, an application guide, a financial aid guide or contest entry for a free university t-shirt. The offer must be promoted via a landing page that includes a form the contact will fill out. Ensure your landing pages are engaging and explain your offer clearly.

4. Segment

Segmentation is a technique often used to identify popular aspects of something and feature them prominently throughout a highlight video – in this case, aspects of your college or university that you want to showcase. You’ll probably want to show the students interacting with each other, enjoying their time on campus, and taking advantage of the school’s best features. This type of visual will give your recruitment video an edge over generic shots of campus landscapes.

If the recruitment isn’t your intention, consider stacking your content. Create a series of short videos demonstrating the different ways donors impact the campus environment. Adorn your archives with a spotlight series on the tenured professors who comprise the university’s faculty. These videos replicate the familiar nature of television content in small bursts. Keep the videos short in length and heavy with valuable information.

5. Optimize

Include long-tail keywords and attention-grabbing (a far cry from click-baiting) titles. Harness your SEO prowess to make sure you’re ranked on the first page. Luckily, according to some studies, videos are about 53 times more likely to show up on the first page of Google search results.

6. Make Use of PPC

By using paid advertising, marketers can utilize a method more akin to a sniper than the standard shotgun approach to broadcasting their content. Though video content is more likely to naturally appear in top search results, paid advertising will serve to further supplement your reach and gather a wider viewer base. Make sure you know the keywords your target audience is searching for and optimize your landing page content, as well.

7. Crowdsource

Give crowdsourcing content from the student body a try. Millennials love user-generated content, and collecting videos from your current students or from the faculty and staff will give you free content to work with that is both fun and relevant. Also, reach out and get direction from strategic higher education marketing experts who are aware and mindful of industry trends.

The utility of this medium is undeniable. In terms of marketing, video is so effective because it can captivate an audience and appeal to multiple senses. Instead of the independent experience that textual information offers, it provides a communal experience.