why content marketing is key to higher education reputation and revenue

The explosion of content marketing is great news for higher education institutions trying to build reputation and increase revenue streams. For two reasons:

1. We have lots of content. Sure, it may take more effort to encourage and help faculty blog about their research and teaching, but the information they can share is the stuff that starts conversations. We also have students doing incredible things like experiential learning and community volunteering, and we have successful alumni who have wisdom to share about their industry. The effort spent by university marketing and communications folks on building editorial calendars, sparking ideas, and editing articles written by our stakeholders is so much more effective than simply reporting on faculty or alumni success. Articles and blog posts written by the experts themselves are genuine and they elicit discussion, advocacy and action.

2. It's cheaper than traditional marketing. Most universities don't have the budget these days for advertising, so it's beneficial to us that our target audiences pay attention to social media marketing. According to Hub Spot's 2013 Report on Inbound Marketing, inbound marketing-dominated organizations experience a 60% lower cost per lead than outbound marketing dominated organizations. What's more, social media and blogs are proving to generate real business, not simply brand awareness, delivering "54% more leads into the marketing funnel than traditional outbound leads." 

So what do we need to do? 

First, we need to enhance our digital and social presence and find out what channels our target audiences are using.

Second, we need to encourage our faculty, students and alumni to provide us with content about the experience and knowledge they have gained, either directly or indirectly from being associated with our institution. We need to help them understand the payoffs for them -- writing credits and experience, but more importantly, reputational gains that will lead to long-term new revenue invested back into the school, which only boosts their work and credentials even further. 

Finally, we need to direct traditional marketing budgets and human resources into building mobile friendly sites and acquiring data analysis tools and training so that we can become even better at content and inbound marketing. 

Higher-education institutions are ahead of the curve when it comes to content marketing. Let's take advantage of that to build our level of success. 

To inspire your team, take a look at the great infographic on the anatomy of content marketing, from Content Plus.