New Higher Education Study - Reaching Students and Prospects Digitally

Universities must continue to digitize communication and marketing. Today's students expect a digital university, as they can no longer imagine a world without the Internet. In the battle for the brightest minds of tomorrow, institutions in the tertiary education sector are therefore constantly facing new communications and marketing challenges.

The Covid19 pandemic caught most universities cold at the beginning. Students suddenly had to stay at home and could hardly be reached. In the meantime, a wide variety of distance e-learning offerings have been able to establish themselves. Depending on the current pandemic situation, many universities also offer combined, hybrid formats that combine classroom phases with digital offerings. 

Many new offerings have also proliferated in university marketing. For example, there are now digital "open days" with virtual 360-degree tours that allow future students to get to know their university from home. Applicant fairs and job fairs for graduates and students can now also be easily implemented as virtual or hybrid events. 

The upcoming +Pluswerk university study, which will be published later this year, examines the status quo of digital university communication and shows those responsible at educational institutions what decisions they need to make now and what options are available to them to do so.

• Digital Accessibility - Making university websites 100% barrier-free.
• Responsive e-learning - Effective distance learning on smartphones and tablets.
• Search Engine Optimization - Can prospective students find your university?
• Conference solutions and event platforms - What is the best platform for whom?
• Social media presence - Often the first touchpoint with a university for younger people. 
• Use of content management systems (CMS) - So that university employees can put new content online themselves

Valuable information for those responsible at colleges and universities 

The +Pluswerk higher education study shows those responsible for marketing and communications in the education sector the new, ever-changing possibilities in the digital toolbox. Still-emerging platforms such as TikTok and Twitch, as well as trends such as social audio, complement previous classic social media presences such as on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram or Twitter. But which application will prevail in the long term? Where do I find my target group? How much benefit can I achieve through what effort?

In addition, there is technical pressure from regulatory measures such as data protection and accessibility. These are coupled with the entirely justified requirements of search engine operators for the digital presences of education providers with regard to the technical nature of websites, which constantly cause new efforts in the digital presences of universities. As a multi-award-winning digital agency with over 20 years of experience and 160 employees, +Pluswerk provides universities with holistic advice on all aspects of digital communication - both conceptually and strategically as well as operationally.