Five rules of student engagement for effective university marketing
Can marketing help in tackling falling university applications? John Newbold offers tips on attracting your target audience

Establish a link between interests and careers

The end goal of most prospective university students is not attending lectures for a few years; but eventually to embark on a career and, more specifically, a career they are passionate about. Recent social media coverage has emphasised the point that career success and happiness comes from pursuing what interests you, rather than what might seem a good idea from other people's perspective (teachers / parents / politicians). One video currently doing the rounds on Facebook simply asks the question: "What if money was no object?"

When marketing to potential students, universities should draw this link between student passions and potential careers. Higher education institution Birmingham Metropolitan College's latest campaign achieves this well, with the strapline "Let what you love become what you do". Similarly, Staffordshire University has this week launched a new graduate campaign spanning TV, cinema, press, radio and digital advertising. The idea is to show students that Staffordshire University is committed to their success beyond graduation.

Don't talk down to prospective students

Avoid falling into the trap of applying your own experiences of university to today's students, even if your university days were only five or 10 years ago. The way students access and engage with brands is constantly changing. For many marketing professionals, Facebook didn't even exist when they were at university, but young people between the ages of 16 and 24 have never lived in a world without the internet.

The trend of talking to students as equals will continue to grow as more universities learn how to speak to young people