An important part of any business or career college is to pay attention to new trends.
That includes adapting to new Internet marketing techniques that can help you grow your career college and get your message in front of prospective students.
In a piece for The Business Journal, Peter Roesler offered his 4 emerging Internet marketing trends that all businesses – and career colleges – should monitor.
“If you care about your company’s future, you must pay attention to emerging trends and get a head start on the next big marketing craze,” Roesler wrote. “The first businesses to use the Internet, social media, and other online tools for marketing gained huge advantages in fast-paced industries. (It will be a while before a company dethrones Netflix, Amazon, or Google from their top spots in their industries).
“The way people use the Internet changes with time, and it affects other forms of media and marketing. Here are four emerging internet trends business owners should keep an eye on.”
Because the role of the Internet is evolving, career colleges should also evolve. The first emerging trend Roesler identifies is the growing importance of apps and mobile websites.
“When mobile phones first entered mainstream usage, many marketers thought that SMS marketing would be the main vehicle for reaching text-happy owners,” Roesler says. “While there’s still a place for SMS marketing, the most important tools going forward will be marketing on mobile websites and ads on mobile apps. According a recent study from Nielsen analyzing smartphone usage trends, the average American spent 7 hours and 4 minutes more time per month using smartphone browsers and apps in the first quarter of 2014 than they did in the same period a year earlier. In other words, mobile web traffic is trending up.”
That means your career college needs to have a website that is not just mobile friendly, but allows users to easily communicate with your school and access additional information while on their phone or tablet.
The second trend is that More consumers are getting video entertainment online. “One of the most dramatic changes that the Internet has fostered is video streaming,” Roesler said. “In the early days of the Internet, videos were low-quality, extremely short, and often had to be downloaded first. Now more consumers watch online video and less cable TV than ever before. The Nielsen study notes that Americans watched 3 hours and 47 minutes per month more of Internet videos in 2014 than they did in 2013. Plus, the average American watched 34 fewer minutes of live TV per month. Instead, consumers use DVRs or watch shows on sites like Hulu.”
It could be important for your career college website to have video features that captivate today’s generation of Web users.
“For marketers, this shows that there is a huge market for online videos that businesses can fill with their own content,” Roesler said. “With a little effort, small business owners can make quality videos about their area of expertise. This trend also means that traditional TV advertising will become less valuable in the future. Local marketers may reach more viewers advertising on YouTube than paying premium prices for ad space during primetime.”
The third emerging trend for Roesler is that Mobile payment and mobile coupons will grow in importance. “Besides being communication devices, gaming platforms, and cameras, mobile phones are now being used as tools for payments and coupons,” Roesler said. While mobile coupons might not be a part of a career college’s strategy, this reinforces the idea that Internet marketing is an valuable tool these days for all types of businesses and organizations.
Finally, Roesler writes that digital marketing will affect all industries. “No matter your industry, pay attention to online sales,” Roesler writes. “Five years ago, the idea of ordering online from a restaurant (other than a pizza chain) seemed ludicrous. Now many restaurants use apps to offer faster service.
“Similarly, according to a different study from Nielsen, 60 percent of all U.S. consumer packaged goods sales will be digitally sold or influenced by 2017.
Be innovative: Finding a way to offer services online will set businesses apart from the competition.”
Your school doesn’t sell food, but it does sell a brighter future and its important for you to have an Internet marketing strategy that is relevant to today’s emerging trends.