Prediction 1: Marketing channels and interactions are dramatically shifting to digital channels.
It's a platitude that our rising high schools students are digital natives and their information gathering behavior is centered on digital activities and channels. College education is by far the biggest investment and purchase decision high school students will have made so far in their lives. Online research, social media interactions and information gathering will be at the center of their research. The Google Research chart below shows the current resources used by prospective students. Five of the eight most frequently used resources are digital.
Source: Think with Google - Education Trends Through the Eyes of Consumers, 4/2012
For more information see Intead insights: http://www.intead.com/education-trends/
-
Universities must be cutting edge in their digital know-how, information gathering, social listening and their digital marketing interactions. I believe that in-person contact including college tours, high schools visits, and interviews will continue to be of great importance. Yet students will be so much better informed and they will have many more layers of information on the actual atmosphere on campus, learning experience, job prospects and outcomes available prior to coming to campus. That is, if they still come after what they learned.
College sites such as collegeconfidential.com are already powerful engines to influence the reputation of colleges. Chart X shows that sites such as collegeconfidential.com and collegeprowler.com reach more students than collegeboard.com. These are just the destination sites as opposed to general comments on Facebook or other social networks affecting universities’ reputations and perceptions.
From the international perspective, we have found that catchdream.com and RenRen in China and Vietabroader.com in Vietnam have a great deal of credibility as sources of information.
The social network impact will increase in the future. Search engines are integrating social searches, which means your trusted network of friends will be ever present in your information gathering. These will be powerful factors for educational decision making.
These digital trends will require even more sophisticated digital marketing skills within university admissions and the marketing organization.
Monthly unique visitors based on Compete.com (retrieved October 2012)
Go to prediction #2: Universities are expanding their marketing to broader geopraphic areas:
