Along with marking the start of the holiday period, Black Friday is one of the biggest days for businesses and consumers alike as sales and promises of strong purchasing behaviour has everyone rushing to take advantage. However, with every brand and retailer trying to maximise their profits on this day, marketers need to be extra conscientious to ensure their efforts stand out amongst an over-saturated market.
While Black Friday isn’t as big of a deal in Australia, there’s a similar situation happening as educators vie for the attention of school leavers while an important day approaches – the ATAR release date. It’s essential that universities, private colleges and other education providers up their marketing efforts to ensure they’re being considered as students start to make long-lasting decisions about their future.
By focusing on the wins and successes of various companies during the Black Friday period, we can apply these insights to ensure our marketing cuts through the noise and reaches the people we need it to reach. There’s a lot of parties trying to get their message heard and in that environment we can’t afford to stay silent, but how we position ourselves as we enter the conversation will be key in engaging potential students.
Mobile optimisation is important
This year’s Black Friday sales defied our expectations with a huge showing of youth at physical retailers, but that doesn’t mean it was the only way to get a bargain. The 23rd of November was the first day in history to see over $2 billion in sales from smartphones, representing 33.5% of all e-commerce sales. Consumers – and young people in particular – are using their phones more and more in nearly every facet of their lives, so it’s important that your website and other advertising assets are optimised for the mobile experience. Students will be on their phones when they receive their ATARs and you’ll be losing out if they don’t have access to your messaging on such an important day.
Advertise in the spaces that youth already populate
You wouldn’t put up a billboard in a nursing home if you were marketing to young people and in the same way, you wouldn’t advertise in platforms that they don’t already naturally use. Gen Z are the first true digital natives, which means they don’t remember a time before smartphones; their use and reliance on technology is most typified by the fact that more than 80% are influenced by social media when it comes to their shopping. Education providers should heed this information as well and make sure they make use of these valuable platforms when marketing.
It takes longer to prime customers for purchase
Businesses can’t expect to be successful simply by throwing up some ads on Black Friday morning – in fact, 74% of shoppers prepare by researching ahead of time. Similarly, education providers need to be nurturing leads and fostering their relationship with potential students long before ATAR results even come out so that they can be properly considered as an option before a decision has to be made.
Throughout our work at Year13 we are very deliberate when it comes to timelines. We introduce our audience to clients early on in campaigns with indirect articles that touch on more general themes, such as anxiety over marks or excitement for the future. We later address this theme directly and with more urgency, or perhaps with a specific solution to the initial problem – ways to study without an ATAR, for example. However, this hard sell would only turn away potential students if not for the initial introduction.
Content is king
87% of Gen Z are influenced by content when it comes to their holiday purchases, compared to just 68% of baby boomers. This remains true even as Gen Z are recorded to be the most advertising-resistant generation, even those that are digital in nature.
The key here is to make sure your marketing provides value beyond making people aware of your brand. This is best done through content, where you can create stories that are informative, entertaining, funny, inspiring – or all of the above.
Year13 are effective in engaging youth because we have an effective content strategy. We ensure our articles either Educate, Motivate, or Resonate with young people and this purpose drives our engagement.
If you want your ATAR results day enrollment to look like a viral Black Friday video, then drop us a line or download our latest Media Kit.
