Graduation season is a pivotal time for colleges and universities, filled with moments of pride, achievement, and celebration. The culmination of years of hard work, these events generate a treasure trove of compelling content, including videos, photos, stories, and quotes.
Even though graduation season is behind us, the content it produced remains invaluable. How are you utilizing this rich content? Have you perhaps overlooked the marketing ideas that could come from graduation-related content?
When done right, graduation content can significantly enhance your website’s appeal and engagement long after commencement ends. Incorporating these elements into your content strategy is a powerful tool for recruiting prospective students and maintaining the interest of alumni, current students, and other stakeholders.
Because who can tell your story better than your alumni?
From efficiently updating your website to using graduation content off your site, this guide will help you make the most of the media and stories from graduation.
Selecting the right graduation content
After graduation it’s likely you’ll have a virtual mound of content to go through. While it can be overwhelming, it’s important to remain strategic with your graduation marketing ideas. What content can you use year-round, and what is something that you may want to hold until the spring?
Look for content that not only showcases the event, but also resonates with your audience and aligns with your institution’s goals. Here are some specific graduating marketing ideas to help jumpstart your content strategy:
Identify Your Goal
Consider what your goal is with this content. Before the event, you were likely focusing on promoting it, so you would have been highlighting the graduation itself, celebrations, and speakers. However, after graduation, it’s time to use the success of the event to tell your brand story and ultimately encourage prospective students to apply.
One of the big values of having graduation content is that it illustrates to prospective students that college is possible for anyone. Graduation is an opportunity to give the prospect a picture of that proud moment of completion—and it is most impactful if there is a story about the journey shared along with it.
Use these storytelling opportunities to highlight the challenges students face (that prospective students might also be facing) and how the school supported them and the student ultimately achieved their education.
According to the seminal book on psychology of persuasion, Influence, the concept of “social proof” shows us that we respond positively to products and services that others see as beneficial. We often take cues from others to determine what is “correct,” and can make buying decisions based on those perceptions.
And not only do people respond to positive reviews from others (see Google/Amazon reviews, word of mouth, etc.), but prospective students may respond best when they hear stories from people like themselves.
The author of Influence, Robert Cialdini, writes, “the principle of social operates most powerfully when we are observing the behavior of people just like us.”
So, make sure you find a variety of stories to tell—and use them strategically throughout the year to align with your campaigns.
Evergreen vs. Timely Content
Evergreen content remains relevant over time. This includes inspirational stories and faculty impact pieces. This type of content is versatile and can be used across your website, social media, and emails.
When you’re considering marketing ideas for your campaigns, evergreen content from graduation is ideal. Because the stories stay relevant, they won’t need to be manually updated or removed from your website anytime soon.
Weaving this type of content in the form of stories, quotes, videos, and stats throughout your website helps to tell your institution’s story and demonstrate the values and benefits of your school.
You’ll also have some timely content you can use in strategic ways. Use images and stories that capture the immediacy and excitement of the graduation ceremony to showcase it as a recent success. These can be used across platforms such as social media and email.
When it comes to featuring timely stories in your CMS, consider posting them as news items. This way they are highlighted when they’re relevant and won’t need to be manually updated or removed.
Storytelling Ideas
Just because it’s graduation doesn’t mean everything has to be strictly a “graduation story.” Look for content that underscores different aspects of your institution and use them in both your evergreen and timely content. Some graduation marketing ideas include:
- Alumni and Feel-Good Stories: Highlight stories of recent graduates, focusing on their achievements and future plans. This demonstrates the tangible outcomes of an education at your institution.
- Faculty Impact: Share stories about how faculty members have influenced students’ journeys. This can include mentorship, research collaborations, and classroom experiences.
- Commencement Speaker: Feature quotes and highlights from the commencement speaker, especially if their message aligns with the school’s values and mission.
- Narrative Content: Combine bite-sized content with longer narratives. For example, create in-depth profiles of standout graduates or detailed accounts of impactful projects.
- Student Support Services: Share stories about support services like food pantries, counseling, and academic advising. Highlight the positive impact faculty and staff have on students’ lives.
- Preview of What’s Next: Many students begin their education with a career in mind. Are there any students who are living this success story? What did this degree help them do, or how did the College help get them there?
Tips & Best Practices
- Use graduation content in your marketing efforts to combat summer melt and keep prospective students engaged and in the enrollment funnel.
- Emails sent to prospective and enrolled students are typically filled with practical details and actions, however, integrating graduation content can add a personal touch and boost engagement. For example, in an email encouraging students to sign up for on-campus housing, share a story about a graduate who was highly involved in the campus community.
- Social media thrives on local engagement. While general posts about graduation garner good interaction, sharing individual student stories throughout the summer can drive even stronger engagement from their local communities. By spotlighting individuals, you encourage tagging from friends, neighbors, and area students, creating a direct connection between your institution and the local community.
- Make sure your departments are collaborative in their efforts. This will help ensure common messaging and a smooth user experience without overlapping or duplicating content.
More Opportunities to Advance Engagement
Whether you’re updating your website, enhancing your social media presence, or crafting compelling emails, graduation content offers versatile and impactful ways to tell your institution’s story.
Remember to balance evergreen and timely content, highlight individual achievements and stories, and plan your content releases strategically. This approach will help you maximize the value of your graduation content, keeping your audience engaged and reinforcing the strength and vibrancy of your institution.
For assistance updating your higher ed website or content strategy, contact iFactory.