Top three tips to make your digital marketing stand out in 2016

Three key themes were apparent at the conclusion of the Digital Engagement in VET conference as delegates shared their key learning’s.

Streamline and differentiate

Consolidation of social media platforms was a consistent message across several presenters with Laura Sullivan, Social Media Advisor from The University of Melbourne posing the question: “Do we really need 9 social media channels for each of our 12 departments?”

Samadhi Thomaz, Digital Strategist Communications & Marketing from TAFE SA encouraged others to embrace the benefits she experienced when consolidating hundreds of social media channels to only 15.

• Larger audience reach and increased engagement
• More successful, stronger and optimised channels
• Targeted to the correct audience demographics
• Consistency in messaging
• Queries are correctly answers within set limits
• Increases brand trust
• Control
• The need to differentiate content from advertising was also stressed, with much discussion centred on the practice of adding calls to action to content pieces… the consensous was simply; don’t. 

 

Invest in systems

The potential impact of effective marketing automation was a key learning from the two day conference. Michael Crump, National Marketing Manager from Upskilled outlined how marketing automation enables organisations to nurture prospects and convert them to enrolments. Michael Bird, Chief Executive Officer from Social Garden agreed, telling delegates marketing automotion technology allows VET’s “to create personalised conversations with future students that fit their buying stage.”

Connect

Having heard of the innovative methods their peers are using to engage and retain students, delegates were geared up to experiment with new ways to connect with students.  The use of personalisation was one such method which can be simply implemented. Rob Brown, Group Marketing Manager – eMarketing from Navitas outlined how providers can use existing data such as student’s dates of birth and event RSVPs to create personalised content for deeper levels of engagement.  

Having unfulfilled her childhood dream of becoming an international spy, Ellise is loving her position as Conference Production Manager at Akolade. Her favourite thing about the role is that it allows her to stay abreast of the latest news across a variety of industries while constantly learning from experts in their field.