Experiential marketing, the strategy that focuses on reaching the target market by providing an immersive introduction to the brand product or service being promoted is catching on in the current era of business. This immersive introduction typically involves a campaign that engages the audience fully, in many instances offering a sampling of what the brand has to offer. This marketing strategy is particularly suited to the education niche and as a result almost every top level higher education marketing agency includes it in the offerings it makes available to clients.
Perfect for the Higher Education Industry
The education market is uniquely poised to reap the benefits of experiential marketing. People seeking to improve their level of training and qualification, the primary target of this industry, are typically interested in getting a ‘full picture’ of what education organizations offer before committing to enrollment. This target market is also a rapidly evolving one. It therefore takes an experienced and proficient marketing team to reach and engage them successfully. Many marketing pros agree that experiential marketing is the ideal tool to achieve this.
Additionally, since the popularization of online learning, triggered by the COVID19 pandemic and its accompanying lockdowns, more institutions have emerged. This means the level of competition in the industry has increased. Another reason experiential marketing is necessary. In many cases it is experiential marketing that distinguishes a higher education institution, giving it a competitive edge.
What the Education Industry’s Experiential Based Marketing Strategies Look Like
Sample lessons (which may include recordings of past lessons or even actual free introductory lessons), physical or virtual campus tours and audio-visual testimonials are among the tools found in an experiential based marketing strategy for a higher education institution. Other tools include webinars, web forums, other live streamed events, open campus events or fairs designed to introduce the institution to the target market.
But the strategies espoused by corporate entities can also be used to successfully grab the attention of prospective students. These include digital billboard ads, advertisements displayed on vehicles and sponsorship of events. In a nutshell, higher education institutions that use experiential based marketing, strive to captivate the target market and build a relationship with them– a relationship that ultimately results in the conversion of prospective students into enrolled students.
Market Response
When experiential based marketing techniques are applied strategically and successfully, the institution benefits from improved enrollment numbers, and of course, income. This is because a fully engaged target market is more likely to respond favorably to marketing and recruitment strategies that are experiential based than others. Essentially prospective students become attached to the institution before they become enrolled students and it is the strength of this attachment that really determines if a prospective student becomes an enrolled one.
This favorable market response has prompted experts in the field of marketing to predict that experiential marketing has a pretty sturdy future in the global education industry.
Experiential based marketing strategies have proved to be quite effective in improving market engagement and by extension sales. Naturally therefore it has become quite popular among entities that offer higher level education related services and products.
