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Edtech presents a unique problem where the buyers and consumers are different. This is why EdTech digital marketing strategies need to be varied since the aspiration and appeal are different for both groups.
In order to market to all target groups, need to think about who your initial customer is. You might begin by offering free plans to teachers and students but your ultimate goal might be to sell a paid version to parents. Whatever the case might be, your digital marketing strategy needs to target your initial customers first, who then, can turn into advocates for your EdTech product and earn you sales through referrals.
Here are 10 of the best digital marketing strategies for your EdTech startup.
SEO
Search Engine Optimisation or SEO is one of the most cost-effective methods. SEO means taking a piece of content and optimising it so that Google shows it at the top of the page to people searching for it. Your best bet is to tune your website or business for Google Search Engine Optimisation as 75% of online searches are made on Google by users.
Edtech companies must focus on SEO to get noticed faster by decision makers like schools, teachers and educational institutions. There are several levels of search engine optimization you can do for your business. For example, keyword research and on-page optimisation which means optimising content within the website such as meta-description, title-tags and improving the content critical for success.
Next in the line are backlinks, which has been touted by Google themselves as one of the two most important factors (the other one being content) in ranking websites. Backlinks are links to your website from third party sources. The more trusted the website, the better the value of the link. SEO backlinks help to push your website ranking higher, increase your trustworthiness, send referral traffic to your page and are one of the ways Google finds new websites.
Email Marketing
Time and again, email marketing has been referred to as one of the most important strategies for your Edtech digital marketing strategy. Email marketing campaigns are one of the most cost-effective methods for Edtech startups. It delivers the highest return on investment (ROI), which comes to around 40 times more than other digital marketing strategies.
Sending personalised emails to the interests and problems of your customers and result in higher engagement and response rates. You can use email services providers (ESP) to automate email marketing campaigns, manage email creation, delivery, list segmentation and lead generation forms. They also offer in-depth data on email marketing performance.
Email marketing is a technique you can use before the launch of your actual product or company.
Video Marketing
If you want your Edtech company to skyrocket and your digital marketing strategies to flourish, you need to consider video marketing as a tool for your business. In a video marketing survey posted on the Hubspot blog, more than 60% marketers claim video to be the top metric that brings leads. Even more important, more than 90% of marketers feel that the pandemic has made video important for their digital marketing strategies.
While designing a video content marketing strategy for your Edtech business it makes sense to use Facebook and YouTube as your primary platforms seeing as they account for more than half of the user base when it comes to consuming video content. YouTube marketing strategy has been the pivot on which major brands like Flipkart, Hyundai, Aisna Paints, Pepsi and Coupon Dunia have grown their businesses.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is a highly effective strategy for your EdTech business. They say content is king, and it is true. More than 90% of EdTech businesses use content marketing campaigns to grow their businesses. It is a cheap way to build your brand name, a strategy big brands like Unacademy, Upgrad, Byju’s and others have utilised to the fullest, simply because content marketing works like magic in the education industry. However it can take time to see results. While designing your content marketing campaign you need to pick out keywords and be smart about it to attract your target audience.
There are a few tips to keep in mind while designing a content marketing strategy for your EdTech business. The first, is to always provide value to your audience. Find what you can deliver and offer it. If you focus only on making a sale, your audience will grow tired and leave. Second, focus on quality over quantity.
Today there are thousands upon thousands of content online for the Edtech audience so you have to find a way to deliver value. Good content ranks higher in web searches on Google. Third, keep it relevant. Pick a niche and stick to it. In order to be seen as relevant and gain traction in your field, it is important to stick to a subject where you are seen as the master.
Pay Per Click Advertising
Pay Per Click advertising or PPC advertising is a type of advertising where you, the advertiser, can place bids on high ranking keywords for your site or business to attain a higher ranking in the sponsored links section that appears on top of the search page.
Pay per click is a strategy you use when your website is not creating enough leads organically. There are many PPC advertising companies with Google AdWords being the most popular among them. When you are planning your digital marketing strategy using ppc advertising, keep in mind the target audience for your brand including the timing and location of your ad placement.
There are certain advantages of using ppc advertising for your EdTech business. First, they are easy to track. You can use Google analytics to track how your ad is performing in real time and what changes you need to make to optimise it. Second, it can give you high exposure easily and almost instantly as ads are accepted within the day by most platforms. Third, it can help you reach your target audience easily. And at last, it is a great tool for new players in the EdTech market.
Social Media Marketing
Then we come to social media marketing, one of the simplest digital marketing strategies out there. Social media marketing has immense potential to turn your Edtech business into a profitable brand but you need to first understand it to use its potential to the max. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube remain the most popular social media channels for Edtech businesses. For best results understand what each platform can deliver for you and use all channels at your disposal.
Here are a few tips to use while designing your social media campaign. Pick the right username, they are remembered most by the users and maintain a consistent handle across all platforms. Use a professional profile picture for your brand as this reflects trust in a brand. Choose your followers carefully. And last, share good content. These are always valued by users.
Inbound Calling
When phone calls are made to a company’s customer service or support team initiated by the customer, it is referred to as inbound calling. Here calls are handled by the team’s call center or help desk and function to address any queries, complaints or requests. This is a key process you need to fit in your digital marketing Strategies because responding to inbound calls is crucial to enhancing the customer experience.
An inbound telemarketing strategy involves waiting for the customer to make first contact. Customers will interact with you when you see an ad, attend a webinar, or through other marketing strategies. This is one of the most important digital marketing strategies you need to fit in for your EdTech company’s growth.
Press Release
Press Releases are a public relations (PR) marketing tool that help augment the brand name and advance sales. It helps manage public sentiment by putting out information that affects the understanding of your company and the sentiments of the public towards your EdTech brand. Press release distribution is the process you need to go for.
It is when you circulate or send out press releases to journalists, publishers and members of the press to provide updates on your company’s products or services, projects, new acquisitions, changes in structure and more. This is also called press release marketing.
Press release distribution or marketing can help your EdTech company. First, it can boost your SEO. Press release distribution can help you land your coverage on high authority publications with huge coverage. These sites might also allow backlinks to your site which can boosts search engine visibility for your brand. Second, it can help boost sales. If you are talking about a new project or edtech product, it can help drum up interest in your brand. Press release marketing is a valuable strategy to implement for your digital marketing needs.
See also: Top 10 EdTech Startups in India
Webinar Marketing
A webinar is a great tool for your digital marketing strategies. Webinar marketing allows you to spread information with your target audience in real time. You can also consider teaming up with an influencer in your niche to boost registrations and sales for your EdTech product. You can hold a paid or free webinar depending on whichever suits your digital marketing strategies requirements better. Communicating with your audience through webinar marketing will establish you as a credible name in your field and help your audience remember you.
While hosting your webinar there are a few things you need to keep in mind. You need to start out with giving actual benefits your audience can use. People are not going to waste an hour or more of their lives on a webinar that does not provide them anything in return. In addition, you need to make your presentation engaging. Your content needs to be short and to the point. Too much data and numbers will only end up driving people away from your webinar. Last, add a Q&A session at the end or if you lack the time, host one later.
These are a few of the digital marketing strategies you can use for your EdTech business. There is a huge opportunity for those in EdTech who want to reach more customers. Education is one of the few industries that has a direct impact on the lives of people growing up. It is a new industry and it will take time for customers to understand its benefits fully before making a decision but the potential is still out there. You just need to grab it.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is a great tool which most EdTech businesses are using to drive up sales and brand recognition. While building your brand from scratch, you can focus on education focussed influencer marketing. An education focussed social media influencer will be a person with credibility in the education field and usually with a niche focus. Influencers with particular niches are also called micro-influencers as they dominate a particular field only.
Education focused influencers might be teachers, education enthusiasts, EdTech experts or social media content creators. Social media is hands down the best place to find people for your influencer marketing strategy. However, the influencer’s branding and messaging needs to align with yours otherwise you just wasted a lot of money on nothing. If you use social media influencer marketing strategy, you can reach out to these content creators directly on social media through their preferred means of contact.
If you are just starting out your EdTech company, you can try considering micro influencers for your brand. Many are doing so. The more famous an influencer becomes, the more removed from their target audience they are, this is why using micro-influencers with a particular niche can be a useful strategy for your digital marketing needs.