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].

 

Despite the fact that sweepstakes and contests have been around for many years, the latter has seen substantial growth on the social web as a Digital Marketing tool and, as a result, its use is now far more prominent in the Online Marketing Sector. Online contests have become extremely attractive, due to peoples desire to socialise, interact and form social relationships with others who share similar interests, and thereby establish a sense of community (Hutter et al 2011).

Running online contests can be extremely beneficial to businesses, as they allow them to build and engage with their fanbase and empower their consumers to market for them. Through the entry process, businesses can learn a lot about their consumers; A favourite product of theirs, how they learnt about the promotion. This provides the business with a rich source of data.

Ensuring Online Contests are successful

Prize and Incentive

The first stage of planning a contest is deciding on what to offer as an incentive. This could be a product, service or just exposure. The incentive should be creative and excite the target audience. It doesn’t have to be the most expensive thing in the world, it just has to make entering worthwhile for participants.

One of the main reasons behind the success of Citizen Eco-Drive’s online competition during the 2011 U.S Open was the industry related prize on offer.

Type of Competition

There are a variety of different online contests businesses can implement in order to increase engagement, reach and followers:

Vote Contest

Putting on a vote contest is a great way for a business to listen and interact with those who have an interest. They can be easily set up on a Facebook or Web page and have a low barrier to entry. The What’s the NAME? campaign, created by Chaguaramas Water and Amusement Park  is an example of a vote contest.

Photo Contest

Photos are some of the most viral content on social media platforms. Almost everyone wants to pick up a camera, take a photo and share it. With the introduction of smart phones, this is easier than ever. Shoeboxed’s, ‘The messy desk contest’ was very successful for the business and is a great example of a photo contest.

Photo Caption Contest

These kind of contests receive a lot of online interest. This is not surprising, as they can be a lot of fun for those entering, and for the business that is running it. They involve little to no effort to set up, with low barriers to entry.

In 2016, National Geographic ran weekly photo caption contests, with the winner receiving a free annual subscription.

Essay Contest

Essay contests ask a lot more out of those that are entering. Entrants are asked to express their thoughts and opinions on something. The benefit of this kind of contest is that it gives those entering a chance to have their voice heard. Interac created an essay contest, asking people to explain how their business makes shopping easier.

Video Contest

Video contests, much like essay contests allow entrants to show how passionate they are about the particular topic. It gives them a chance to show off their ability with a camera, or their ability to edit a video to make it look attractive. VerveGirl’s video contest allowed participants to demonstrate their makeup abilities to a huge audience.

Contest Length

Before publishing an online competition, businesses need to settle on the contest length. Getting the right time frame will bring out the best results. If a contest is ended too early, then businesses will miss out on extra sign ups. End the contest too late and they fun the risk of there audience losing interest.

Advertisement

Businesses need to be proactive in promoting their contest before and during it. Contest success largely depends on a businesses marketing efforts. They cannot rely on a well designed webpage or highly desired prize to bring in traffic. Businesses can promote the contest through email, blogs, social media, forums, internal links and, if the money is available, ads.

Tracking Results

Monitoring the contest will be crucial in obtaining accurate results. It is incredibly important for businesses to track how popular there online contest is so that they can measure its success. This helps them decide whether to do more or not. Luckily for businesses there are so many analytical sites, like Google Analytics, that offer this.

Post Contest

Once the contest is over, the prize needs to be awarded to the winner. Businesses need to make a big deal about this as it will generate a lot of online social activity. One way to do this would be to host an event where the winner is invited to receive their prize. This allows them to share their experience online, which should bring more traffic to the business.

Yang et al (2009), found that contests with a higher award, longer duration, lower time costs and higher popularity attract the most people.

These three articles had some excellent information on how to successfully run an online contest. They are worth checking out:

1. https://kickofflabs.com/blog/step-by-step-guide-on-runnning-successful-contests/

2. https://www.matthewbarby.com/running-online-competitions/

3. http://www.supremestrategies.com/how-to-run-a-wildly-successful-contest/

Problems with Online Contests

Online Trolling

Due to the low barriers of entry for the majority of online contests, almost anyone can enter and share their opinion. A large issue with this is online trolling. Trolls can quickly turn photo and video contests in to a negative environment just by the comments they leave on the entry. In addition to this, contests that require participants to email in are also vulnerable as the trolls can create fake accounts and spam the contests email address. When organising an online contest, businesses need to recognise the potential of trolling and look for ways to mitigate it.

Time Consuming

Some online contest types require judging. Photo, video and essay contests are examples of these. It can be very time consuming for those running the contest to select a winner from all the entrants. What businesses need to understand, is that the longer they run their contest, the more entrants they will have and so it will take longer for those judging to decide a winner.

References

Hutter, K, Hautz, J, Füller, J, Mueller, J. and Matzler, K, 2011. Communitition: The tension between competition and collaboration in community‐based design contests. Creativity and Innovation Management, 20(1), p.6.

Yang, Y, Chen, P.Y. and Pavlou, P, 2009. Open innovation: An empirical study of online contests. ICIS 2009 Proceedings, p.1.

With the number of Social Networking users increasing, more companies are looking to find a way to display all their online activity in one unified location for consumers to easily access. Social Media Hubs are a unique way for companies to do this, allowing consumers to keep up to date with the latest news and events going on within the company. Companies that heavily rely on advertising through the medium of Social Media could really benefit in building Social Hubs.

Advantages of Social Media Hubs

Increases User Engagement

The era of SoLoMo has arrived. Online users are now more social, local and more mobile. Social Media is on the rampage. More people are on their laptops, tablets and smartphones. Social Media Hubs deliver this exact experience, allowing consumers to socially interact with the company through the website Hub.

Builds Social Trust

A Social Media Hub builds a companies brand image, meaning that consumers gain a feeling of confidence when interacting or purchasing from the company. With products in particular, consumers opinions and reviews have a huge influence on others.

Growing and Sustaining a Social Reach

Having a Social Media presence is huge, especially among the younger generations. Being unknown to the online world makes it difficult to sell your product, even if it is a ‘million dollar idea’. Social Media Hubs give companies the ability to set up a fanbase. If the content is great, users will follow you. If the product is great, consumers will follow you. Building and sustaining connections and followers is a key step in selling a product.

Guerilla Marketing

Through the integration of guerrilla marketing executions with the Social Media Hub, such as through pre or post-campaign promotions via the social media platform, a firm is ultimately able to multiply the effects of the guerrilla program (Castronovo and Huang, 2012).

This blog had some really helpful information on the advantages of Social Media Hubs. Check it out: https://www.contentplum.com/blog/top-5-advantages-of-a-social-media-hub/

Effective use of Social Media Hubs

Manchester United Football Club (MUFC)

MUFC’s recently created Social Media Hub has assisted in them being the most followed club on Social Media in the Premier League. The Hub page collates information from their Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and Instagram accounts, allowing those that visit the site to interact and share the content.

One of the main reasons for MUFC’s Social Media Hub being so successful is due to the fact that they are so active in posting on all the Social Media platforms where they have a presence. As a result, worldwide they have around two million users visit the page a month (2.4 million for January 2017).

In addition to this, the Hub page has been built using responsive design, meaning that it is also optimised for mobile. Seeing as smartphones are now the most used method in browsing the internet, this feature makes MUFC’s Social Media Hub very effective.

Team Titleist

The golf brand Titleist use the term ‘Team’ on their Social Media Hub to show that it incorporates all users that visit the page, in order to get as many people as possible to ‘Join The Conversation’.

The Hub page collates information from Titleist Blogs and their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. With Titleist being less known than MUFC, they don’t have two million visitors to the page a month, instead they receive around 150,000. Despite this being a lot less, it still shows the site is successful as they still receive a large amount of traffic.

The Team Titleist Social Media Hub is powered by the Telligent platform, a software company who pride themselves on creating platforms for companies who want to build a community. The Team Titleist community is a fantastic example of an all-encompassing customer content Hub.

When visiting the Social Hub page, the content users view is default sorted by what is currently trending in the world of golf. Through the page, users are able to interact with Titleist by commenting on their blog posts and tweeting them, with it also offering links to the companies Social Media pages. In addition to this, users can generate their own content through forums, sweepstakes and games.

For more examples of some effective Social Media Hubs, check out this blog: http://www.toprankblog.com/2013/06/brand-social-media-hubs/

Critique of Social Media Hubs

Translations

When creating a Social Media Hub page it would be wise to allow those who visit the site to be able to translate the Social Media activity in to other languages. The five most spoken languages in the world are English, Arabic, Mandarin, Spanish and Hindi. Even if companies gave visitors to the site the option to translate the content in to these five languages, they would immediately reap the benefits.

Social Media Content

Companies need to ensure that the content they are publishing on their Social Media will attract users to follow them. A Lovejoy and Saxton (2012) study found that a lot of organisations are using Twitter as an extension of information-heavy websites and are not using the platform to its full potential as a community-building and mobilisation tool.

Negative Feedback

As with any Social Media Marketing, companies will need to be prepared to receive bad feedback. Having a Social Media Hub page will make it easier for consumers of products to leave negative feedback on the companies Social Media pages. As the Hub collates all the information on to one page it allows those leaving the feedback to easily post on all the platforms.

References

Castronovo, C. and Huang, L., 2012. Social media in an alternative marketing communication model. Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness, 6(1), p.117.

Lovejoy, K. and Saxton, G.D., 2012. Information, community, and action: How nonprofit organizations use social media. Journal of Computer‐Mediated Communication, 17(3), pp.337-353.

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