If you’re reading this, I assume you’re either a student or an instructor at an online academy. Maybe you’re both! If so, then you’re well aware of how important marketing is to the success of a business. Even the best products can’t sell themselves. You need to get the word out there about your product and show people why they need it. This is where online academy marketing comes in.
What exactly is online academy marketing? Simply put, it’s using online platforms to reach and connect with prospective students. While there are plenty of offline methods to find students (websites, phone books, etc.), online marketing allows you to target individuals based on keywords and interests. Moreover, you can track the results of your efforts in real time. With this in mind, let’s dive into the various roles of an online academy marketer and what each one means.
Digital Marketing Strategist
The first and foremost responsibility of any marketer is to identify the marketing goals and targets for the company. To do this, you’ll want to work with a digital marketing strategist who can map out a long-term plan incorporating SEO, content marketing, email marketing, and more. A successful digital marketer will be responsible for creating valuable content that attracts, engages, and converts visitors to leads, which in turn, develop into paying customers.
Inbound Marketing Consultant
An inbound marketer is a blend of an SEO specialist and a content creator. To truly understand inbound marketing, you must know what SEO is. Simply put, search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of designing content that appeals to users and then feeding that content to the web for the spiders (crawlers) to find. Once the spiders (crawlers) find your content, they ‘vote’ for it by visiting it frequently. This, in turn, helps your content appear closer to the top of the search results.
The inbound marketing process begins with a clear understanding of what the customer wants and needs. This aspect is heavily focused on user needs, rather than product requirements. Inbound marketers work with the web design team to create a user-friendly experience that incorporates all of the necessary features and functions. Moreover, the content creates confidence and encourages the reader to take action.
SEO Specialist
SEO specialists are responsible for the technical aspects of SEO. This includes things like creating keyword-rich page titles and body copy, setting up automated alerts for content that’s been listed, and more. An SEO specialist should have a thorough understanding of both the technical and the non-technical aspects of SEO, and be able to apply their skills to both.
Content Creator
Content creators are responsible for creating and/or editing content that’ll eventually be used by the digital marketer. This could include things like infographics, web banners, e-books, blog posts, white papers, etc. A successful content creator will be someone who can take a brief idea or concept and put it into a coherent piece of content that’ll engage an audience.
Email Marketing
Like any other type of marketing, email marketing is a form of advertising through which you can add an email address to your mailing list. The only difference is that you’re marketing a product or service to someone who has already shown an interest in your organization. With email marketing, you don’t necessarily need to target students based on their location, as you would with traditional offline marketing. Instead, you can target users based on their interests or keywords. Moreover, you can use email marketing to communicate with potential customers without having to break the bank by paying for ads.
Paid Marketing
Paid marketing is simply advertising that doesn’t represent an educational institution. This could include things like paid ads on social media platforms, display ads on webpages, or sponsored posts on blogs. When utilizing paid marketing, you’ll want to work with a highly experienced digital marketer who can get the best return on your investment. Moreover, you’ll want to make sure that you spend as little money as possible while still achieving the same marketing goal. For example, if you’re looking to gain followers on social media, you may want to consider paying for sponsored posts. These are popular options amongst online marketers because they’re usually cost-effective.
Web Analytics Analyst
Web analytics analysts are responsible for collecting and analyzing data about website visitors. This includes things like tracking visitors’ behavior on your website, identifying the most popular parts of the site, and more. A successful web analyst will be able to take raw data and transform it into information that’ll help you make better decisions about your website’s future.
Online Marketing Manager
An online marketing manager is responsible for coordinating and implementing all of the marketing activities for an online academy. This could include things like SEO optimization, content creation, and social media campaign. An OM can also help with performance marketing, event management, and more.
Overall, the responsibilities of an OM are similar to those of a digital marketer, with the additional responsibility of managing the marketing activities of an online academy. A good OM will be an expert in all areas of marketing, and will be responsible for setting policies and procedures, creating budget estimates, and measuring the success of the marketing plan.
Summary
Hopefully, you’ve gained some insight into the different responsibilities of an online academy marketer and how each one fits into the scheme of things. Once you have a clear picture in mind of what exactly you’ll be doing, you can move forward and begin applying for jobs.