With fewer students applying and even less showing up on campus, plus increasing operating costs, education institutions have numerous challenges to overcome in the next few years. These institutions face unique marketing challenges, including the need to diversify student and faculty ranks, and address areas such as access, affordability, student support, innovation, diversity, inclusion, and community.
Marketing doesn’t have to be one of them. Kuno has worked with large universities to attract more potential students to their websites and generate leads for more information about online degree options and freshmen sign-ups. As one of the specialized higher ed marketing agencies, we offer services such as digital marketing, advertising, website design, and strategic consulting tailored to the needs of higher education institutions. We’ve developed a proven process for this massive undertaking, including comprehensive market research to address the unique challenges faced by universities and colleges. Can your institution afford to wait?
Higher education marketing services help institutions modernize their website design with a focus on user experience — creating clear pathways through the site for generating prospective student leads by leveraging content marketing and traditional methods to create enrollment marketing campaigns.
A comprehensive marketing strategy that includes both traditional and digital methods is crucial for maximizing reach and engagement. Paid media is also an important component of digital marketing strategies to drive student enrollments.
Search engine optimization has also become an imperative way to drive students through the (physical or digital) doors of your college or university. Kuno has helped universities drastically improve search engine rankings, driving organic traffic and leads who may have not applied to the institutions otherwise.
In such a competitive industry, it is imperative your higher education institution’s website appeals to digital natives (Gen Z). Higher education marketers face the challenge of making their websites accessible and engaging to this tech-savvy audience. Selecting a higher ed marketing agency that understands the unique needs of higher education institutions is crucial. Personalized communications are crucial in engaging prospective students, as the new generation expects highly segmented, personalized messages.
Without a clear plan for driving relevant organic traffic, converting prospective students into leads and providing the right information at the right time to higher education clients, your institution may not be able to overcome the numerous challenges facing colleges and universities in today’s educational landscape.
We’ve been longtime partners with higher education organizations because of our level of expertise, ability to process data, and, most importantly, our reputation for delivering results for higher ed marketers. As one of the top higher education marketing agencies, we understand the unique challenges of targeting students at different levels and achieving specific goals like enrollments and alumni donations. Student engagement plays a crucial role in achieving these results, ensuring better performance and outcomes in online learning and content production. Our digital marketing strategies also include leveraging a leading student portal to engage students effectively. See how we are helping them succeed with digital marketing strategies.
Understanding the market and the value it could provide students of all types, this university set a goal to increase awareness of their online degree programs. They partnered with Kuno to first redesign their website, consolidating content onto a single domain, thus improving the user experience. After launching the new website, the team focused on growth-driven design, advanced SEO services, and search engine marketing to improve search results. Heartland Community College also benefited from a challenging site relaunch, which significantly enhanced the user experience for its diverse audience.
Over a 12-month period, the university achieved a 190% increase in new contacts, 45% increase in website traffic and a 39% increase in top 100 keyword rankings.
Over a 12-month period, the university achieved a 190% increase in new contacts, 45% increase in website traffic and a 39% increase in top 100 keyword rankings.
One university worked with Kuno to move its website to HubSpot, which helped accomplish its goal of making it easier to manage the site and its content. Higher education institutions face unique challenges in attracting students and faculty, making it crucial to blend traditional and digital marketing strategies. The importance of university marketing in optimizing lead generation cannot be overstated, especially in the competitive admissions landscape.
Through our discovery process, UX recommendations and technical execution, we were able to help them conserve existing SEO equity and increase contacts and conversions. After the site launched, the team spent the next year further improving SEO and UX.
In one year, the higher ed institution generated 89% more contacts through the website, increased blog traffic by 61%, improved its SEO health score 29 points, and saw organic overtake direct as the top source of traffic. The University of North Carolina School of the Arts also achieved significant improvements in lead generation and SEO.
In one year, the higher ed institution generated 89% more contacts through the website, increased blog traffic by 61%, improved its SEO health score 29 points, and saw organic overtake direct as the top source of traffic.
While the organization had past success with traditional marketing tactics, customer acquisition costs (CAC) were still high. With plans to expand service to additional metropolitan areas, it was necessary to move budget dollars from traditional marketing channels to digital channels with a focus on content marketing and targeted advertising on search and social platforms. The combination of demand generation and content marketing proved to be extremely successful.
Analyzing year-over-year (YoY) comparisons, there was a 42-month decrease in the sales cycle with half of the new sales, a 24% decrease in customer acquisition cost while services were expanded to three new locations, and a 95% YOY increase in bottom-of-funnel sales offers.