7 Education Marketing Strategies to Build Your Email List

You’ll always need traditional forms of advertising to attract students who aren’t looking for you, but more and more students are doing their own search: looking for schools with desired majors, activities, locations, etc. A rich inbound marketing strategy improves the odds that your name will pop up in the search engine when they’re searching, and it makes sure these students find attractive content and offers when they click on your name.

But great content isn’t enough. You need to convert these seekers into applicants and, ultimately, enrolled students.

Experts agree…

The most important thing you can do to increase conversion in your inbound strategy is to capture the email addresses of your site visitors.

When someone asks to be on your list, they’re literally asking you to send them marketing messages. They’re giving you their implicit permission to add them to your lead nurturing list and send them more valuable content to influence their decision over time.

On the whole, people check their emails more frequently than their social media sites.

This means your email has WAY more chances of being read than your latest tweet. In fact, some estimates say the average person checks their email every five minutes!

Why do people check email more often than social media sites? This has a lot to do with the fact that the typical user is active on multiple social media sites, making it difficult to check their various social inboxes. Email, however, has a unified email inbox that’s easy for them to see all of their email messages at once.

Email is personal.

It’s directed straight at the person you sent it to, and with most email service providers like MailChimp, Awebber, and Constant Contact, you can merge the recipient’s personal information into every email. With this level of personalization, you can greet every recipient with “Dear Sue” rather than “Dear Facebook friends.”

Email is also direct.

Each email goes to the person to whom you sent it, and, unless the message bounces, you’re assured that your email arrived in their inbox. Contrast this to the fickle social media algorithms that only publish your posts to a certain number of your followers, and you’ll see why I’m telling you to build your email list.

Start to build your email list today by implementing these 7 list building strategies…

1. Set up popups to capture email addresses on your site.
2. Create quality newsletters with content your audience wants to receive and is authentic to who you are. Your visitors will give you their email addresses in exchange for these resources.
3. Create information products your audience can really use and offer it to them in exchange for their email address. Ebooks are a great option.
4. Collect emails from attendees at your next event.
5. Use your direct mail appeals and other direct mail communications to collect email addresses.
6. Put on a contest and give away a prize to someone who gave you their email address.
7. Encourage alumni and other recipients of your newsletter to share your emails with others.

Make building your email list the No. 1 priority for your content marketing strategy and watch how your conversion rates begin to rise.

Need help building your email list?

We help educational institutions optimize their websites, clarify their social media strategies, and improve their newsletter content which results in healthy, growing email lists. Contact us today!

Looking for Enrollment Marketing Content that Works?

You’re in luck! We’ve curated 25 awesome ideas inspired by top higher ed institutions across the country and put them in one handy guide: 25 Ideas for Great Admissions Content.

In this brand new resource from Caylor Solutions, you’ll get…

• • 25 enrollment marketing content ideas you might never have considered before
  • Guidance on how to use each one for best results
  • Brief discussion on why they work to help you sell these ideas to your team

Get inspired.
Get enrollment results.
Get 25 Ideas for Great Admissions Content.
Download your copy today!

Featured image by letuve via Adobe Stock