Marketing in education: Mindset and Execution 

 

Education marketing is witnessing a big change in the way of thinking and doing because academia is no longer the only thing that parents aim for. "Comprehensive development" from physical, mental to spiritual is what they want their children to develop.

And some prejudices that say that marketing in the education industry is "boring", or is it still appropriate to just run ads on a few channels to attract customers?

I. Marketing education in Vietnam - Either change or "die"

1. Comments on the education market in Vietnam

Before diving into thinking and how to do educational marketing, let's take a look at the current Vietnamese education market with SanMedia.

Back about 10 years ago, the market only had private units and focused heavily on after-school education (English classes, private lessons,...). In recent years, the investment segment has not only limited to after-school education, skills development and private investment, but also expanded to formal education (K-12: Preschool to High School 3) , edtech.

According to data from Tracxn Technologies recorded by the beginning of 2023, our country has up to 260 educational technology brands (Edtech) and 22 universities providing distance learning programs with E-Learning teaching methods. Vietnam is also a country with a significant investment budget in the education market, accounting for 18% of the total national budget.

This has not only promoted the development of the Vietnamese education market but also created ever fiercer competition for this industry.

Source: Overview of the education system in Vietnam from Education in the Digital Age - Facebook

2. A new "game" needs a new "way of playing" - Educational marketing mindset

From the past to the present, many educational enterprises do marketing simply focusing on developing and introducing products, a few doing better can invest in designing more images for the brand associated with teaching services. learn. This approach is somewhat effective in communication because it builds the top-of-mind in the hearts of customers and the word of mouth effect.

However, this approach is considered obsolete for a number of reasons:

Changes in psychology and behavior of learners

Different from other industries, Consumer (service user) is completely different from Customer (service buyer) in the education industry, especially for K-12 products. If in the past, parents put their children there, now students can participate in purchasing decisions.

The reason comes from the development of information technology, the early encounter with the internet makes the ability of learners to receive information is also diverse and complex, no longer completely dependent on the opinions of parents.

The needs of target customers are increasingly fragmented

In the K-12 market, families have different tastes and interests. Some families are interested in academic subjects, while others are interested in developing soft skills, English, physical, technology, etc. Although this target customer group has common demographic characteristics such as age and income, but businesses can still find some educational needs in them.

Customer demand is increasingly fragmented

The definition of educational product quality is changing

Previously, when talking about the definition of the quality of K-12 formal education products as a child who studies well and has high rankings, now the quality scale is no longer limited to academics but to personality development. overview. Mental, physical, foreign languages, life skills and ethics are given more attention. This largely depends on the change of a new generation of parents with a more modern mindset.

II. Changing the way you do Marketing in the education industry

1. Mastering thought

Since the development of digital technology and Digital Marketing to the throne, in the industry there is a competition between two schools of Marketing: Branding and Performance. These are also two popular marketing strategies, and not except for the education industry.
So how is Branding different from Performance:

- Brand marketing is understood as brand marketing, its main job is Branding or brand building. The goal of brand marketing is to create awareness, trust and build brand associations in the hearts of customers.

In essence, Performance marketing is a branch of digital marketing, which can be simply understood as performance-based marketing. Performance in performance marketing is measured by specific goals that marketers want to achieve, such as clicks, views, number of orders, etc. To be clear, performance marketing means you spend money. to increase popularity on many different channels to achieve the desired profit.

2. Change the way to do Branding

2.1 Changing the way to understand customers

The leading factor determining the success of the education industry is still Branding because education is a high-end, high-involment product. At the same time, the relationship between educational institutions and parents is not simply a normal buying-selling relationship, but rather a trust-receiving relationship. So for businesses to build enough trust in customers, understanding parents' insights is indispensable.

Basically, the criteria for understanding customers are the same as in other industries. These criteria include: Demographics, behavior, habits, psychology, lifestyle, ... But the thing to note here is how to collect data, how to "dig" customer insight.

Usually, a quantitative research method will be used, but for education SanMedia recommends that you follow a qualitative research method. The reason is that during the qualitative survey, businesses can deepen the information with open-ended questions, this is the best way to know the parents' criteria for choosing a school for their children and also an effective solution. for the problem of fragmented customer needs.

Qualitative survey

2.2 Deployment and Execution Change

As mentioned, the traditional way of Branding of the education industry is mainly PR, word of mouth, running discrete ads,... To adapt to the changes of the market, especially the change in awareness of the market. Parents, businesses also need new ways of doing Branding to be more compatible. Some new activities such as:

- Use KOLs / KOCs: Here, be it famous parents or students, use simple articles to spread on social networks. At a higher level, we can create a series of content that revolves around the school life of parents and students. With this approach, businesses or educational institutions can orient to "sell" an excellent model of family or student that the target group of parents wants to aim for.

Sponsor a TV show: The goal is to associate the brand with an image that the brand wants to convey. For example, TV shows such as: Talking Youth, Teen School, Road to the top of Olimpia, Alo Soldier,...

- Organize seminars: Businesses need to have high-quality content and invite many leading experts to talk about professional content or about the education industry. This approach, although it seems "old", still needs to be implemented, and the difference lies in the implementation content. From there, businesses can enhance their professional image and connect the school's image with education professionals.

- Cooperation with organizations that share the same value chain: This practice is often seen in the group of private universities. The goal is that in addition to learning, the school also provides other values - typically career guidance, employment. For example, UEH has a student exchange program with the University of Queensland - Australia, Huflit University of Foreign Studies has a 2-month experiential study program at a university in Beijing for students majoring in Chinese,...

3. How to do the best performance in education?

Successful branding will create a file of potential customers and in order to "Convert branding into conversion", businesses need more thinking about Performance to optimize the conversion rate.

Customer Journey

Based on the AIDA model (Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action) applied to the education industry, we have a more detailed model, specifically:   from Awareness -> Interest -> Consideration -> Trial -> Conversion

- Awareness: %Reach pool, Frequency, Social discussion

- Interest: Engagement rate, Brand search volume, Websitetraffic, Time on site

- Consideration: Qualified lead (Qualified rate)

- Trial: Number of participants in Open Day / School Tour / Try out 1 lesson with your child

Morris International Kindergarten Enrollment Day

- Conversion (Enrolment): Number of people paying tuition

Important factors in Performance Marketing in the education industry

- Target Audiance: Determining insight and customer journey is extremely important in the process of finding potential parents. We need to understand the structure of customer behavior to know what are the right touchpoints, what to trigger them, how to combine data to optimize efficiency.

- Creative: The education industry is not only competitive in the number of participating businesses, but also on the media front. Therefore, the creative element is something that businesses need to pay special attention to to create highlights and attract the attention of customers. Images/videos/content should always be fresh, unique and relevant to the target audience.

- Website: This is an often overlooked factor - With educational products, the integrity of images, text, authenticity (authentic) and Case Studies (student images/physical evidence) students' ability) needs the highest attention. In addition to the content factor, factors related to UX / UI, page load speed also need to be optimized to enhance the customer's information search experience.

Website example | Morris International Kindergarten

- Budget allocation: In addition to the afterschool product groups, the K-12 educational product groups all have enrollment seasons during the year. Therefore, it is necessary to have a reasonable budget allocation between Branding and Performance activities, to promote Branding in the appropriate period and effectively utilize it to convert quickly to lead/qualified lead, to ensure the building brand with the right awareness, no redundancy, and optimized conversion during the enrollment phase.

Conclusion

Marketing in the education sector is now dynamic, not inferior to other industries such as F&B, fashion, entertainment,... Enterprises/Educational organizations also need to deploy new "hits" to be more suitable. If you are looking for a companion to help you master Game Marketing, SanMedia is confident and ready to stand by you.

See more:

> Newspapers and lessons on improving advertising effectiveness 2023

> TVC advertises Vietcombank - The art of 60 years of storytelling with only 30s