You are a social media manager in higher education. Your job is to communicate a variety of messages to a broad audience, while contributing to the bottom line. You have limited resources and a budget. How can social media be used to your advantage in higher education today? Higher-ed video marketing is an excellent solution for colleges and universities.
Video is a flexible, affordable way to reach audiences around the world.
Are you ready to take your marketing for higher education to the next level?
Get seven tips on how to transform your strategy for social media with video marketing. You can also get some actionable advice to create a plan of content.
This article was inspired by the webinar on college video marketing.
Why colleges need video marketing
You’re responsible for reaching the target audience of your college or university throughout their journey when you manage social media marketing. You need to develop a marketing plan that targets:
Students who are considering their options for higher education. Current students who wish to gain the most from their experience. Alumni whose testimonials could influence other’s decisions. Faculty who seek opportunities to advance their careers.
Video content, when executed well:
Create a positive image for the university. Help prospective students and teachers imagine themselves as students or faculty at the school. Communicate essential information to students and faculty.
Video marketing is a powerful tool because it can reach so many people. From Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube to TikTok. Video is easy to share and can help you reach a wider audience.
Most social media marketers aren’t satisfied with just increasing reach and brand awareness.
Your higher education marketing strategy should prioritize recruitment.
Video marketing has become increasingly important in college recruitment due to its effectiveness throughout the entire student or faculty journey. Video is cited as a major factor by 68% of prospective college students.
Video content can be easily repurposed across multiple channels.
Your team can create engaging videos by combining stock footage, interviews, on the scene footage, and still images. These videos will connect with your target audience and generate real results.
7 Ways to Create a Video Marketing Plan for Higher Education
How can you integrate video marketing into your social media budgets?
It is possible to make it both affordable and efficient with careful planning.
Here are seven ideas (plus one bonus idea) to help university marketing teams create marketing videos that have an impact.
1. Higher-ed marketing video idea: Student recruitment
Virtual campus tours are popular among prospective students long before they visit your school or consider enrolling. You can drive recruitment by delivering a compelling video experience.
These videos allow prospective students to get a feel for the college and community. These marketing videos are almost as good as a visit in person for local students. These videos may be the only chance for international students to “visit.”
In order to create campus tour videos that attract students, you should highlight the best features of your university in an authentic manner. Mix interviews, behind the scenes content and high-quality video to create an experience that feels authentic.
The following video from DePaul University shows a campus walking tour. With the help of some student tour guides, this higher-ed video marketing creates a real experience.
Videos that highlight the history of the college can also be used to recruit students. These videos are great for introducing students with historical facts and timelines that they may not have known before, as well as establishing credibility.
University history videos are more effective for marketing than campus tours when they use high-quality images and footage. Add voiceovers or subtitles to the video for a story.
The video of Harvard University above, for example, highlights six buildings that have shaped the history and development of the university. The stories are told through historical photos, voiceovers and interviews in the long-form video.
2. Video marketing idea for brand awareness
Brand awareness videos can be used to show current and potential students the uniqueness of the institution.
Explainer videos are great for highlighting programs, clubs and scholarships. Content of this type can be used to communicate the culture and values of the college, establishing its brand.
Use creative cuts when combining photos and videos to effectively express and communicate the university brand. Your brand awareness videos will be more effective if you add emotional music.
3. Idea for a higher-ed marketing video: Thought leadership
You can also enhance your college’s marketing strategy by adding thought leadership content. These videos can be used to highlight research and other major initiatives that are important for the future of a university.
Interview subject matter experts to maximize the impact of thought leadership content. Encourage them to make these projects come to life, and to make them accessible to students as well as the general public.
The Cornell University video shows a project of the veterinary school. The video, although short, includes chapters explaining what the research is about and why it is important.
Thought leadership does not always have to be centered around a large-scale research project. You can also interview faculty about their publications or research. This type of content can be used to introduce professors and engage potential faculty.
Even though faculty interviews are great as long-form or short-form videos they can also be better as interactive content. Invite professors to take part in an Instagram event where they can ask me anything and then share it across all channels.
The following DePaul University video features a faculty profile. The video alternates between footage of the professor’s important projects and an interview. Students get a comprehensive overview of what she has done.
4. Higher-ed marketing video idea: Student communication
Want to improve attendance or share updates on policy? Videos are a great way to share timely information and updates with students.
Video content allows you to communicate messages in a way that is easy to understand, and also easy to remember.
It’s helpful to post these marketing videos on digital displays around campus in addition to posting student communications to social media. Format the marketing video for higher education correctly to ensure that you get your message across.
5. Higher-ed marketing video idea: Event promotion
Even events such as football games and commencement ceremonies are important to most students. Video marketing allows you to promote events by showing attendees what they can expect in terms of energy, crowd and experience.
Add animated text, frequent cuts and upbeat music to your video marketing to capture the energy. Include key information, such as dates, times and speakers, in both the on-screen text, and captions.
For example, in the Washington University convocation summary above, several cuts at a fast pace are used to convey the energy of the students. In a voiceover, the chancellor’s speech is heard to tie together the video.
6. Higher-ed marketing video idea: University fundraising
Social media marketers working in higher education have many avenues to generate revenue. Recruitment is one of them. Fundraising is crucial to the future of many universities and should be a part of college marketing.
Most effective fundraising videos help donors imagine the future of their university and make them want to become a part of it. Fundraising videos are best when they have strong narratives and inspiring themes.
Consider using your fundraising videos in social media campaigns that are paid. You can reach more people by promoting your videos to a targeted audience.
The video below, for example, announces a fundraising campaign to ensure that the mission of the institution lives on. The university created a channel called ND Loyal to provide fundraising content.
7. Higher-ed marketing video idea: Alumni relations
The future of the university can be greatly impacted by alumni. Alumni who are successful can be role models to current and prospective students. They inspire them to follow their footsteps.
By sharing their stories through video content, alumni are able to become advocates for the University.
You can automatically increase your reach by highlighting alumni who are particularly well-connected in your marketing videos for higher education. Their connections will likely share their connections with their own network.
You can choose to make a scripted video or a casual one.
If you choose the first option, work closely with your alumni to create compelling stories.
Consider creating short question-and answer videos if you choose the second option.
Bonus idea: Content repurposing
Videos can be used as standalone social media content to help you reach your goals at every stage of the funnel. They can also be used to amplify the impact of other formats. This can help you stretch your marketing budget.
You can, for example, turn blog posts about university life into videos. You only need stock photos, videos and text overlays. You can then share the videos on social media to give your audience a new way to consume content.
Higher-Ed Marketing: Tips for Streamlining Your University’s Video Marketing
You know now what type of content you should create. How can you create a marketing video for higher education, get it approved and measure the results, without spending too much money?
These tips will help you to optimize your video marketing strategy.
Storytelling is a great way to weave a story
Storytelling is essential for social media, whether you are creating long-form or short-form videos. Plan out your story before you begin creating the video.
When planning your college marketing strategy, it’s helpful to begin with the end goal. Do you want to encourage alumni to give money or recruit new students?
Create a simple storyboard that outlines what should be included in the video. Create multiple videos at once to streamline the process.
What are the best video editing apps?
You can often use the editing tools in apps to create short-form videos like TikTok or YouTube shorts. They have all the tools you need, from video filters and audio tracks to text overlays.
You need a third party app to create long-form material (and to add some extras to it). With an app such as PlayPlay, for example, you can produce professional videos within minutes.
PlayPlay is a simple tool to create video content. It includes templates, dynamic elements, branding, and stock footage. PlayPlay can be used to storyboard your content. This can save time in the planning phase.
Video content can be scheduled and batch-processed.
You’re now ready to publish your video content. It is best to balance planned content with publishing in the moment. The first saves time, but can also drive engagement.
Agorapulse allows you to publish content on any channel, no matter how or when you want it. Agorapulse is able to publish on all channels, including TikTok and other video marketing platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube.
Upload your content and write a brief description. Then, select the channel settings. You can choose to share TikTok videos or Instagram reels through a mobile notification. You can then choose to publish immediately or at a later time.
Create a workflow for approval
Do you need the approval of certain stakeholders before publishing video content? Agorapulse allows you to build an approval workflow that ensures content isn’t published until all stakeholders have signed off.
Select the Assign option in your Agorapulse dashboard to approve video content. Add all internal or external stakeholders that need to review content, and then click the Assign button.
You can also create a shared Calendar if you have many stakeholders that don’t need to be seated in Agorapulse. A shared calendar allows external colleagues to review, approve or request content edits.
Repurpose video content across channels
Why limit your video content to one channel? Your video content can often drive views, reach and conversions across multiple channels.
You can easily post videos to multiple channels when you publish content through Agorapulse. Choose all the profiles you wish to post on, then select the best time for each channel.
You don’t need to publish exactly the same content on each profile. You can customize individual posts and toggle channel specific settings.
Get involved in your community
You don’t want content to be managed by multiple apps? Agorapulse’s dashboard allows you to manage comments and direct messages. Saved replies can be used to give more efficient responses.
Agorapulse’s inbox allows you to build relationships with the community. Agorapulse creates profiles for anyone who comments on your account or sends a DM, so you can track how engaged each person is.
These user profiles can be customized with labels and internal comments, which will help your team stay on the same page. You can, for example, label current students, potential students, alumni or faculty to frame responses accordingly.
Track metrics and progress
Agorapulse allows you to track social media metrics regardless of your goals. The dashboard pulls statistics for all supported social media accounts, so you can see quickly how your short-form and long-form video are performing.
Agorapulse ROI dashboard allows you to track conversions and website traffic that originates from social media. The ROI tracker allows you to group metrics by channel profile campaign and individual video. This data will help you determine which social media channels and campaigns work best for your college, so you can focus on those.
The Learnings from Using Video in Higher Education Marketing
This type of content is a must-have for all college marketing campaigns, whether your university is just getting started with video or has been using it for a while. Video can impact your college’s bottom-line in many ways, from recruitment and brand awareness to fundraising and alumni relationships.
Sign up for a free demo of Agorapulse to see how it transforms your social media marketing in higher education.
The post 7 Ways Video Can Transform Your College’s Social Media Strategy appeared first on Affiliate Marketing Buzz.
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