Content marketing for educational institutions: two key lessons

a) Take advantage of the stakeholders:

For any educational institution, there are three key groups of people- current students, alumni (past students) and its faculty. Approach and encourage members of each of these groups to create content on their learning or teaching experiences, and there will be no dearth of unique content as each individual can bring his/her own unique perspective.

Another opportunity that the institutions must consider is leveraging the content created by students as part of their assignments. For example, the institution could publish the best case studies or papers written by students on a given topic on the institution’s website. The student gets visibility and so does the institution. We are quite surprised to see very few institutions willing to take this up.

b) Take advantage of the curriculum:

Too often, educational institutions narrow their content creation efforts to one or two topics (may be because they are thinking about- or have been made to think about- some high-level keywords). However, by simply taking on a broader perspective based on the wide range of topics that forms part of their curriculum, they could add significant breadth to their content. For example, let’s say the institution offers a degree in HR management. The curriculum for this course is likely to feature topics like Labour Relations, Employee Management, Staff Motivation and Engagement. Each of these topics offers considerable potential in creating content, which in turn will help in generating visibility and leads from those looking for courses in HR management.