Video Marketing for Universities, Colleges and Schools

Having spent years producing videos for Universities and Colleges, Sally has also been a student at three Universities too, so understands both sides.

Gen Y Video Marketing

Whatever educational institution you’re from, you’re likely to be aiming much of your video marketing at generation Y, aka millennials. We know that 60% of them would rather watch a video than read something, so video definitely should be on your agenda. But don’t rush into spending your video budget. All too often video is slapped onto a marketing plan as a separate entity – an addendum to other activities, but we advise that more planning and consideration goes into:

• Where the video is going to be distributed (platforms of various descriptions, emails, online adverts)
• How your audience will watch (mobiles, tablets, PCs, laptops etc)
• How you’re going proactively attract the attention of your video (via Twitter, Facebook, email, Instagram etc)

We’ve worked with clients that have tucked videos away in a discreet corner of their website and stuck in on YouTube, and then wondered that is hasn’t pulled in the traffic. Honestly, it won’t do it on its own. Good integration of the video with your SEO plan is key, so the URL, the metadata, transcriptions and tags all work in harmony with your content.

Messaging & Content

Once that has been thought about, you can move on to messaging and content. This is where we have a discussion on your broader and more specific goals, for example, your broader objective might be to promote:

• Reputation of the institution, home and abroad
• Student recruitment, home and abroad
• Staff recruitment
• Courses aimed at professionals & businesses
• Non-academic topics: commercial & employability services
• Fund-raising
• Or share information about: accommodation, student loans, freshers’ week activities, student services, grad school, library, clubs, campus tours, course content etc.

Encourage an Action

After that, you might think about a more specific goal. Perhaps you want to effect a change in behaviour or encourage an action. You might want audiences to:

• Come to an open day
• Apply to a course
• Sign up for an event

Final Thought

After analysing the 100 most shared videos online, StreamSafe found that ‘inspiration’ is the emotion most likely to encourage viewers to share a video. So, as young people are keen sharers, keep the idea of giving your content a level of emotional tone in the back of your mind.

There’s lots more to say on this, so contact us to find out how we can help you use video production to communicate with student audiences.