Why Targeting Students is an Effective Digital Marketing Strategy? The Benefits, Drawbacks, and Methods that Businesses can use

The 18-30 years old demographic is one of the most coveted for businesses looking to sell their products. The Student Market comfortably resides within this bracket, making it an especially desirable target market. The emergence of technology has had a huge impact on Students purchasing behaviour, with the introduction of smartphones and tablets making it much easier for them to find what they are looking for.

The benefits of targeting Students online

Computer and smartphone usage

Whilst Students are at University working on assignments, they are more often than not, doing so on their computers and laptops. Students spend so much time on these devices, that it is a missed opportunity not market towards them. Some spend more than five hours browsing the web daily. Kuss et al (2013) found that those aged 18-25 in particular are the most addicted to the internet.

Students are not only browsing on their computers, but smartphones as well. Eight in ten Students regularly use a smartphone (Poll, 2015). Almost 20% look at their phone immediately after waking up, and within 30 minutes, 70% of Students are up to date with the events of the previous night. The amount of time Students spend on their smartphone has resulted in some doctors worrying for their mental health.

Smartphones are now the most popular way to browse the internet. As a result, businesses should ensure that the websites they use for marketing online are optimised for smartphones. This will make the experience of navigating through the site better for the visitor.

Loyalty

Targeting Students whilst they are at University can lead to acquiring their brand allegiance once they have graduated and started working. Whilst Students are not recognised as having a lot of money when studying, they do have the potential to graduate and move in to a job where they will earn.

Businesses need to ensure, however, that their brand is attractive to Students. Students are known for wanting material gain (free products, a good discount or a winnable competition), or to be entertained. By targeting them now, businesses will be rewarded in the future.

Methods used to target the Student Market

Social Media

Using Social Media as a form of Digital Marketing can help businesses grow their brand. As it happens, Social Media Marketing has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate than outbound Marketing. It is now a very popular form of marketing for businesses, with 84% of B2B marketers using Social Media to market, in some form. In 2005, just under 10% of Students (18-29 year olds) used at least one Social Media site. Now the majority of Students do. In a study by Pelling et al (2009), it was discovered that over half of University Students made four or more unique visits to Social Networking sites per day.

Wagamama set up a campaign in 2011, where they use smartphone technology and QR codes to drive interaction with their brand. This was all supported and promoted on the restaurants Facebook and Twitter pages.

Student Discount

One of the greatest things about being a Student is the ability to get a discount on a lot of things. Walking in to a store or a restaurant and finding out that they do ‘Student Discount’ is one of the best feelings. Student Discount on products and services are so sought after, that there are even websites, like Unidays, tailored to finding those who visit it the best deals.

If businesses advertise online that they offer Student Discount, then they are highly likely to get a lot more traffic.

ASOS, the clothing brand that operates solely online, is recognised for being excellent at advertising Student Discount. Students can opt in to receive emails, advertising the latest offers  They are sent this from the ‘ASOS Students’ email address.

What businesses must be wary of when targeting the Student Market

Ethics

Students are not just one homogenous group. They have different attitudes and opinions to one another. Businesses must profile and target properly so that they understand how Students think and feel about certain things.

The  Student population are now much more aware of environmental and human right issues than they used to be, with almost all of them saying ethics is important in a brand. Whilst this is the case, there are also Students who don’t pay as much attention to ethics. Nonetheless, it is important for businesses to ensure, that if they are targeting Students, their brand does not heavily feature in the news for negative reasons.

Attention

As mentioned earlier, Students get very distracted very easily. If something does not stand out to them, then they are more than likely not going to be interested in what is on offer. Businesses need to ensure that if they are targeting Students, their online advertisements are creative and therefore catch the eye of those viewing it.

References

Kuss, D. J, Griffiths, M. D, & Binder, J. F. (2013). Internet addiction in students: Prevalence and risk factors. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(3), 959–966

Pelling, E.L. and White, K.M., (2009). The theory of planned behavior applied to young people’s use of social networking web sites. 1st ed, [ebook] CyberPsychology & Behavior, 12(6), p.6. Available at: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/29193/1/White_the_theory_of_planned_behaviour.pdf [Accessed 7 May 2017]

Poll, H. (2015). Pearson Student Mobile Device Survey 2015. 1st ed. [ebook] Pearson Education, p.9. Available at: http://www.pearsoned.com/wp-content/uploads/2015-Pearson-Student-Mobile-Device-Survey-College.pdf [Accessed 7 May 2017].

 

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