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How Online Education Institutions Can Get New Students
Learn how to attract more students as an online education provider with this compilation of our team’s most effective tips — based on thousands of hours of experience in the education space.
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insights from 61,900+ hours of higher education marketing experience
In an ideal world, you could create a top-notch website for your online school, optimize it with the right keywords, and students would enroll to capacity.
But the marketing process for your online school is not that simple. Generating leads for your online school takes effort and patience, not to mention consistent effort.
Today, it’s more important than ever to reach prospective students early because the vast majority haven’t decided on a school when they begin researching. If you want them to consider you next to all of your competition, you have to make contact early. And it’s crucial to employ a variety of strategies.
Let’s take a look at some of the best strategies for lead generation for online education. You can also explore the current education industry statistics to gain insights into education market trends.
1. Give away useful and engaging information
It’s stressful for prospective students to find the online education that’s right for them.
Online college offers many benefits, so you should highlight those advantages in your marketing efforts. You should also use aim to help students in a way that reaches beyond trying to get them to enroll.
Offer them useful, in-depth information about the application process, financial aid, and maybe some detailed tips for how to succeed in a virtual setting. Aim to meet their needs without blatantly advertising to get them to enroll.
As you provide useful, engaging information, you will build trust with potential students. If they learn to trust your brand and look to you as an industry leader, they’ll be more likely to continue a relationship with your school — and that leads to enrollment.
Not sure what kind of information to share with your prospective students? Here are a few tips:
- Webinars. Webinars are online lectures or presentations that prospective students can view online. You have the potential to reach thousands of people with one product, so it’s a low-cost way to showcase your expertise and share helpful information with people who can become leads. You can create webinars on any topic that would interest and benefit your audience.
- Downloadable content. You can offer various forms of downloadable content, such as ebooks or helpful guides. In exchange for that information, you can get email addresses in exchange for the download, so you can create a line of communication with people interested in your online school.
- Newsletters. Consider asking people to opt into an email newsletter from your online school. You can cover a variety of topics in the newsletter, which is helpful for a few reasons. Your readers will enjoy getting helpful news and information directly to their inboxes. It saves them time, and quality newsletters further continue to build trust with the people who want to hear from you.
- Infographics. Lots of schools publish infographics today, but they’re not all similar in quality. The best infographics couple interesting information, statistics, and tips with attractive images. Infographics are great because they keep readers’ attention for longer periods of time. The content is easy to digest and memorable.
2. Conduct independent research
Conducting independent research is an excellent way to position your online school as an industry authority.
It takes time to conduct surveys and gather data, but doing it can benefit you. If you have the resources to do it, consider surveying students as they enroll, so you can discover how to better target prospects like them.
This data is a goldmine of original information that you can use or even publish to improve your lead generation.
3. Use clear call to actions
Your lead generation strategy should utilize clear call to actions (CTAs) at all times.
Your goal is to find people who are possibly interested in your online school, and then give them a way to express their interest. You’re basically telling them what to do next, so they can get one step closer to becoming students every time.
For example, let’s say your online school publishes a downloadable ebook about things to do to prepare for an online education. The person who downloaded the ebook is deciding which schools they want to apply to.
After reading your ebook, you can safely assume that they’re close to applying to your institution.
But if your ebook doesn’t provide a CTA at the end, the reader won’t know what to do next, and they could go looking for other online schools. That’s why a CTA is so important to increasing the quantity (and quality) of your leads.
A solid, high-quality piece of content is not as effective as it could be if the readers don’t know what to do when they’re finished reading it. Provide them with a simple way to locate more information about your school, whether that’s through your filling out a form on your website or placing a phone call.
WebFX is an expert lead generation agency
At WebFX, we have a full team of lead generation specialists who know exactly how to get your online education institution more leads. We’ve worked with colleges and other online educators in the past, and we know what helps students decide the school and classes they want to attend.
When you partner with us, we’ll help you capture as many of those leads as possible, so you can continue offering premium-quality education to your students!
Contact us today to determine a lead generation strategy for you!
We Drive Results for Online Ed Websites
- 188+ education industry experts
- Renowned for our communication and transparency


We Drive Results for Online Ed Websites
- 188+ education industry experts
- Renowned for our communication and transparency


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Solving key challenges for online education
We’re not driving enough traffic to our school’s website
Need to get more prospective students or even alumni to visit your website? Our team will help you increase your website’s rankings in the search results when potential students search for your courses online, alumni look for the latest news, and more.

We’re opening a new campus
Set your new campus (or even program!) for success with revenue-driving digital marketing strategies that boost your new school’s online visibility and spread the word so you can fill your building with new students.

We’re not attracting new students
Need to grow enrollment rates? Get access to highly targeted advertising campaigns and effective marketing strategies that reach your target audience where they spend their time online and encourage them to become students.

We’re struggling to secure funding
Not securing enough funding from alumni or donors? Our experts can help get your school in front of prospective donors’ eyes so you can secure the funding you need to run your school and classes.
