Today's higher education marketers must engage prospective students with more precision than ever before given the high degree of competition and seemingly endless communication channels to reach them. This includes AI integration with 38% of higher education marketers utilizing AI daily to support their respective marketing efforts. To better understand undergraduate student engagement trends and preferences' relationship to higher education marketing team priorities and tactics, LaneTerralever (LT), in collaboration with sister agency Convince & Convert, conducted a multi-faceted research study that yielded some surprising findings.
PHOENIX, June 13, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Today's higher education marketers must engage prospective students with more precision than ever before given the high degree of competition and seemingly endless communication channels to reach them. This includes AI integration with 38% of higher education marketers utilizing AI daily to support their respective marketing efforts.
To better understand undergraduate student engagement trends and preferences' relationship to higher education marketing team priorities and tactics, LaneTerralever (LT), in collaboration with sister agency Convince & Convert, conducted a multi-faceted research study regarding:
- Student communication preferences, research behaviors, motivations and media habits (N = 1493 students) and
- Higher education marketers use of channels, tactics and resources (N = 203 higher education marketers).
The result is the 2024 Higher Education Marketing Report: Bridging the Gap Between Student Needs and Marketing Strategies that offers key insights for optimizing student outreach and achieving strategic outcomes.
Major themes are:
- Gen-Z desires transparency and is willing to do more research and ask more questions. They default to traditional digital channels that include search, websites and email, and also rely on social video channels for deeper research with YouTube serving as the prime medium.
- Students prefer user-generated video content that includes YouTube, Instagram and TikTok and want to hear from "students like me" — the content sweet spot for recruitment. Colleges and universities, on average, underinvest in this tactic.
- Higher education marketers are using AI in their work in four key ways:
- Personalized website content (47%)
- Ad creative (41%)
- AI chatbots (38%)
- Content creation (35%)
Further distilling these major themes results in key takeaways broken down by prospective students and higher education marketers:
Prospective Students:
Student data provide critical insights:
- Searching the Internet is the preferred method for researching college (34%).
- Counter to conventional thought, prospective students prefer email communication during the application process, even more than texts (55% email vs. 33% text).
- Students trust YouTube as their social video communication channel (45%).
- Teachers (67%) and peer ratings (62%) are students' most trusted information sources, with influencers/creators (38%), the least.
- Students need marketers to provide better content about degrees, financial aid and careers.
Higher Education Marketers:
While most marketers may not consider budget an impediment to success, they do regard lack of time (44%), resources (34%), expertise (33%) and strategy (30%) as roadblocks.
The top three marketing challenges are:
- Content marketing strategy (23%);
- Reaching target audiences (15%); and
- Competition and differentiation (13%).
How Does AI Play Out?
- AI WILL NOT help tell advanced student video stories – one cannot replicate well-produced and well-edited user-generated content from the source.
- However, AI will help with user experience improvements that include website and email personalization and AI chatbots, as well as content production optimization, but high- quality execution is key.
Findings from this report suggest that to better help marketing teams with AI integration, they should:
- Introduce Leading Practices Training: Host an internal team training with use cases to help one's team understand opportunities with AI, as well as what to avoid.
- Model Leading Use Cases: Define leading practices through specific examples.
- Provide Quick Policy Guidance: Develop guidelines outlining the tasks the team can and cannot use ChatGPT to accomplish and incrementally update these.
- Who Is in Charge?: Define a Center of Excellence (CoE) team that will provide leadership, leading practices, research, support and AI training.
- Use Cases for Generative Marketing AI:
- Analysis: Extract ideas and patterns from large data sets to inform marketing efforts.
- Drafting Outlines: Produce content outlines and project scopes.
- Editing: Check for consistency, grammar, spelling and tone.
- Ideation: Brainstorm content solutions.
- Research: Gather and summarize inclusive types of information.
- Summarizing: Condense lengthy documents, reports, or meeting notes to save time and effort.
- Training: Provide real-time Q&A support for your team's skill development around key marketing know-how that includes content creation, data analysis, the use of AI and other skills.
To ensure personal and organization ethics and credibility, higher education marketers should not use confidential or personally identifiable information in content shared with publicly available AI tools.
LT and Convince & Convert will co-host a webinar to describe major highlights from the report's findings:
From Data to Action: Five Key Findings from the 2024 Higher Education Marketing Report
Tuesday, June 25 | 10AM PT/1PM ET
Registration link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_jizbg0USTc-gjN9IqEHtMQ
ABOUT LANETERRALEVER (LT):
LaneTerralever (LT) is a full-service marketing agency that creates meaningful customer experiences based on deep strategic insights. They have experience conducting leading-edge consumer research across several industries including higher education. From personalized student recruitment campaigns to immersive virtual campus experiences, LT leverages the latest digital tools and technologies to help colleges and universities stand out in a crowded marketplace.
CONNECT WITH LANETERRALEVER (LT)
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ABOUT CONVINCE & CONVERT:
Convince & Convert is a digital marketing consultancy that serves as a strategic partner to the world's most iconic organizations. With a proven track record of success and a team of seasoned experts, we understand the unique challenges and opportunities that universities and colleges face in today's digital landscape. Whether it's crafting compelling social media campaigns that resonate with Gen-Z, or implementing data-driven content strategies that drive enrollment, we specialize in delivering tailored solutions that yield tangible results.
CONNECT WITH CONVINCE & CONVERT
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Media Contact
Matt Charles, DPA, APR, LaneTerralever (LT), 1 434-203-6313, [email protected], https://www.laneterralever.com/
SOURCE LaneTerralever (LT)
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