5 Simple Ways To Market To Students

Marketing products and services to students is a very competitive marketplace. It’s not just an age-based target audience you are looking at, but one with its own unique sets of lifestyles and driving forces.

So what do you need to take into account when marketing to students and how can you improve your campaigns?

Build your buyer personas carefully

Refining your target audience is vital to successfully marketing your products. But when it comes to marketing to students, there are many different factors that affect how you should market. For instance, though they are studying at the same university, student’s can come from a vast range of economic backgrounds which will affect their buying behaviours. Many universities also have a significant percentage of students from other countries. These students are perfect to target if your service allows you to send money to the Phillippines or provide moving and storage services, but you will have to research just how much of your target market these students make up.

Be prepared to pivot your channel strategy

Two years ago, the world didn’t really know much about TikTok, but now it is an important platform to consider when you’re marketing to Gen Z and below. Always be ready t adjust your strategy to follow your target market and whatever channels they are using.

If you are using more traditional channels like a website, then make sure that they are entertaining and interactive. Have clear CTAs and ensure that they can contact you when they need to.

Nail your socials

The average student spends hours every day on social media. That’s where you need to target them. Research to find out where your particular student market spends their social media time and dedicate your resources to this area.

YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat are the most popular at the moment so investing in ways that students can access your products directly from these platforms is a great idea.

Use influencer marketing

While Gen Z is notorious for its lack of brand loyalty, thinking nothing of swapping to a brand that better fits their particular set of values, they do tend to place a lot of trust in influencers online.

Developing a solid influencer strategy can be very cost-effective for this target market. Even with a fairly modest budget, you should be able to use micro-influencers on various social media channels to drive product awareness.

Keep creativity at the heart of your marketing

Students are absolutely bombarded with messages from all angles every day. Cutting through this noise is difficult and a run of the mill campaign will get you nowhere.

Cutting edge, creative content is the key to getting their attention so don’t be tempted to cut corners in this area.

Final thoughts

The competition to reach students is huge for almost all product niches. With many brands trying to land the student pound, it is really important to know your target market inside out and produce strong, omnichannel campaigns