5 Ways Brands Are Failing to Engage College Students

5 Ways Brands Are Failing to Engage College Students

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Let’s be realistic: the number one aim for all brands is to grow revenue.

In the business environment, marketers try to reach potential clients who may increase sales. They keep a sharp focus on their target audience and depending on the niche, there might be a need to interact with college students to promote their products and services.

It’s no secret that modern college students are digitally savvy and spend a lot of time on the web. Thus, having a heavy presence online is a perfect way for brands to engage with college-age customers. However, running websites or having brand fan pages is not a guarantee of success. So, where do brands tend to fail when it comes to marketing to college students? Here are 5 things to consider if college kids are in your marketing demographic.

1. Your Content Doesn’t Cause a Buzz

Have you ever thought about the number of posts that are published every minute? Recent research puts that number at about 2 million blog posts per day! You can do the math to see how many that is per minute!

Millennials are spoiled with the amount of information that is available online. So, you need to be creative, useful and interesting if you want to engage your audience.

If your content doesn’t cause a buzz, you’re failing. If you publish content that evokes emotions, you’re poised to win. Young people love sharing emotional posts that go viral but you need to know their needs and expectations first. Doing an audience analysis is a must.

2. You’re Not Responsive to Customers in Direct Messages

Here’s a modern-day truth: College students don’t like to talk on the phone.

However, it is convenient and comfortable for them to contact brands on social media, pose a question, and get a reply via text message. However, students are typically time-pressed. If you don’t quickly reply to their direct messages, they’ll give up on the idea of collaborating with you.

Consider using chatbots to help improve the speed of answering your incoming customer service inquiries. It makes the process of communication easier as you don’t have to moderate your messages 24/7. Let the modern technologies help you stay in touch with your audience.

3. Your Website Isn’t Mobile-Friendly

Around 85% of millennials in the U.S. own smartphones.

If your website is not mobile-friendly, it’s more likely to have a high bounce rate. To interact with college students, you need to optimize your website to make it comfortable for them to surf it on the go.

4. Don’t Overdo Paid Ads

You’re wasting money if you spend it on paid ads to reach college students.

Young people don’t trust paid promotion. In fact, only 6 percent of millennials in the US consider online advertising to be credible.

You can get more engagement if you promote your brand using opinion leaders as young people rely on their experience, knowledge, and preferences.

5. They Don’t Chase Modern Trends

College students keep an eye on modern trends, and they’re changing with them. If you don’t use trends in your marketing strategy, there is a little chance you can succeed.

Eye-catching trends for college students:

• use emojis
• post 360-degree photos
• streame live videos

The digital marketing is fast-growing and its main principle is to go hand in a hand with trends, so be risky and give them a try if you want to interact with the youth.

Wrap it Up

Even if you have a perfect marketing strategy, never forget to seek out ways in order not to fail while engaging college students. If you know how to interact with your target audience, they will never forget you which means building authority and earning respect online.

Have you ever failed engaging college students? How did you overcome it?

About the Author

Lale Byquist is a savvy student who learns media communication, so she studies a lot about social media and its impact on youth. She also runs PresentationSkills.me website where Lale shares her ideas on improving these skills.

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May 22, 2017 at 02:46AM