Leveraging Virtual Tours

When contemplating different colleges and universities, one of the first considerations for prospective students is experience. Can they envision themselves living there? What sports and activities does the school host? What types of amenities are available?

Traditionally, these questions have been answered when students and their families traveled to the institution for an in-person tour. For many families, these visits can be unrealistic, considering that the average cost per visit ranges between $1,000 and $3,000.

Innovations in digital technology have empowered an alternative growing in popularity — the virtual tour. By offering virtual tours, colleges can allow more prospective students to explore campus without needing to make the trip. Discover more about this digital asset and its impact on higher education marketing.

Understanding Virtual Tours

How do virtual college tours work? Potential students enter a digital simulation of the campus and investigate all it has to offer. Virtual tours go beyond images and videos, although these assets are often incorporated. They deliver an immersive and interactive experience to understand the college as if they were there in person.

The main goal of virtual tours is to provide a glimpse into what their life might be like at the school. Prospects can view different buildings, including lecture halls, residence halls, athletic facilities, and student unions. It may also detail the different programs and activities held in these locations.

There are multiple types of virtual tours colleges and universities use, such as 360-degree, video, and interactive. Most schools make these assets compatible with computers and mobile devices, and some have even gone as far as to use virtual reality (VR) for prospects with headsets.

Why Use Virtual Tours for Education Marketing?

Virtual tours may seem like a no-brainer in today’s digital world, especially as the audiences for higher education institutions skew younger. However, the benefits go beyond keeping up with technological developments and providing potential students and their families with convenience. Check out the following benefits virtual tours can deliver:

  • Making tours more accessible for students who otherwise might not have the time or budget to travel for an in-person tour
  • Allowing prospects to explore areas of the college that wouldn’t be covered in an in-person tour
  • Providing students with more immediate access to the information they most demand
  • Enhancing efficiency for admissions and freeing up budgets for other projects
  • Conveying a school’s credibility by showing its commitment to innovation and an exceptional student experience, in and outside the classroom
  • Increasing engagement, which can boost application rates
  • Helping colleges and universities stand out against the competition in a saturated market

Is Your School Prepared to Offer Virtual Tours?

Given the many benefits of virtual tours, higher education marketers are eager to implement them into their campaigns. To make the most of your efforts, make sure to think about the following when devising virtual tours:

Accessibility

Just as virtual tours can create more equity for lower-income or minority prospects, they should also create more opportunities for students with disabilities. Virtual tours should be equipped with the capabilities necessary for optimal accessibility, such as assistive technology and captions and transcripts for videos.

Cost

Will virtual tours bring an adequate return on investment? Even though the costs are significantly less for virtual tours than the in-person alternative, there are several expenses, including software programs, equipment, labor, and expertise, for a successful launch.

Quality

Visual content should make a virtual tour feel like the prospect is on campus. They also ensure an accurate depiction of the campus. With crisp, vivid visual materials, thorough descriptions of programs and activities, and mention of unique aspects of the campus, schools create a high-quality virtual tour students won’t soon forget.

Invest in Creative Services to Market Your Institution

Ready to add virtual tours to your higher education marketing efforts? If you’re not sure where to begin, a great place to start is with marketing solutions from MassLive Media Group. We offer a range of creative services schools can leverage to design virtual tours to connect with prospective students, such as video production. To learn more about our marketing services, contact MassLive Media Group today.

 

 

References

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/how-to-make-the-most-of-virtual-college-tours

https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2022/05/virtual-college-tours-continue-expanding-opportunities-k-12-students

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/how-to-make-the-most-of-virtual-college-tours

 

 

Manufacturing Recruitment Strategy

Worker shortages in manufacturing industry is real. Highly skilled positions remain open as a significant portion of the manufacturing workforce is nearing retirement age. For manufacturers, building and maintaining a robust and skilled talent pool is key for both short-term and long-term hiring success.

Recruitment Marketing as a Relationship Builder, Not Just Candidate Sourcing

Don’t wait to be present until a position is open – consistently position your brand in front of both passive and active job seekers. Consistent branding creates a talent pool who is familiar with your company, benefits, culture and therefore more likely to consider you when looking to make a career change. Top of the funnel marketing tactics such as video and display make your brand presence known.

Build A Connection By Understanding Your Best Potential Candidates 

Develop personas, marketing strategies and campaigns specific to your common open positions. Different positions attract different types of candidates. Understanding the nuances allows you to more directly content with job seekers, to communicate your company story and to welcome them into your culture with a personalized approach. Seek out a recruitment marketing partner with a deep data bench, capable of developing audience segments, media placements and creative to speak directly to specific candidate audiences.

Enhance Your Job Board Presence with Display & Video

Placements on job boards are effective in reaching those actively seeking a position. However, other traditional marketing methods like targeted display and video allow companies to share their full story. More visual formats let prospective candidates see your benefits and experience your culture. Both elements that can cause them to choose you as their next employer – over your competition.

SUCCESS STORIES

Healthcare Recruitment Strategy

A growing aging population, pandemic burnout and a ramp up of traveling nurse opportunities have put a strain on healthcare recruitment. Nurses are in high demand – with an abundance of employment options to choose from. How does your healthcare facility standout in this mad dash for employment?

Invest in the Community You Serve

Healthcare is essential to the community. Consider supporting the community you serve by sponsoring local events, job fairs and awards to keep your organization top-of-mind. Not only will these positive associations bring your organization front and center, it will also generate positive word of mouth among the community – reaching friends and families connected to potential candidates.

Showcase Company Culture

Give a glimpse of what its like to work at your organization on any given day. Show the people who work there, the halls to be walked and the benefits to be had. Video succinctly communicates positive culture through virtual tours, testimonials and more. Written testimonials and other content featuring current employees lend authenticity to your showcase.

Replenish Talent Pools with New Grads

New graduates are critical in helping to fill staffing gaps and to replenish talent pools. Utilize highly targeted strategies to reach new graduates, while still on campus, where they are spending their time. Hyper local mobile targeting puts your organization front and center among soon-to-be-graduating adding you to their consideration set for post-graduation employment.

SUCCESS STORIES

Education Recruitment Strategy

Like most categories of business, education providers are facing faculty and staff shortages. Finding experienced and passionate educators and faculty continues to be a challenge. Education institutions should look beyond salary and benefits to larger strategies to drive interest and applications for the upcoming school year ahead.

Build Your Talent Pool with Year-Round Strategy

Primary education recruitment season begins at the end of the previous school year, with many schools starting from scratch every year. Establishing a year-round recruitment marketing strategy, allows you
to reach faculty and staff considering a change throughout the school year, adding them to your talent pool as the year progresses. Having a year-round plan also puts your institution front and center, outside of the more cluttered traditional recruitment period.

Utilize Your Community As A Recruitment Tool

Your community has the potential to be a unique selling point for your institution. Consider highlighting the quality of life – showing prospective employees the community you serve. Community events, local activities, cost of living and more can have pull over prospective employees looking to make a move or to enjoy a way of life your community offers. Partner with local events, local organizations and even your convention and visitors bureau to generate content about your community.

Job Fairs Help Build Awareness of Your Institution

Passive and Active job seekers join job fairs to learn more about prospective districts and institutions. By merely being present, among your competition, you can ensure that your district or institution is in the consideration set for educators looking to make a career move. Both in-person and virtual career fairs provide additional visibility and awareness for your institution.

SUCCESS STORIES

Warehouse Recruitment Strategy

Warehouses are experiencing unprecedented growth thanks to a shift towards online shopping. As growth continues and timely shipping remains critical, warehouses face a continual shortage of workers.

Tout the Benefits That Make You Stand Out

Warehousing jobs are not historically known for good benefits and upward mobility. With changing demand and increased competition, more warehouse companies are adding long-term benefits and job training to their offerings. As an employer, tout benefits like 401Ks, employer matching and paid training as part of new hire packages. Talk about your openings more as long-term careers vs. short- term or holiday employment for additional appeal.

Get Connected In the Community

Grassroots community efforts and word of mouth tactics still hold strong in warehousing recruitment. Sponsoring local community events and job fairs raises brand awareness in the community, spreads positive sentiment about your organization and jump starts word of mouth. This simple activation makes your organization more likely to be noticed by potential job seekers and considered as a stable, future local employer in a future job search.

Local Jobs, Local Placements

Warehousing recruitment pulls most applicants and new hires locally. Very rarely to companies hire outside of their immediate market. Tap into the local job seeker scene through local job boards, job fairs and other local job posting opportunities. Local job seekers continually use these outlets to find new employment opportunities.

SUCCESS STORIES

Trucking Recruitment Strategy

Facing an aging workforce and increased competition for new talent, the trucking industry struggles to keep recruitment pipelines full and trucking routes staffed. Trucking industries should look to implement full-funnel marketing strategies to not only attract active job seekers but it keep talent pools fresh with new prospects.

Address Trucking Industry Myths

Increase top-of-the-funnel prospects by introducing the benefits of a trucking industry careers to passive job seekers. Address potential concerns head-on, including hours, mileage goals and living conditions while highlighting employment benefits such as 401K matching, healthcare and time off. Video and written content are both great vehicles to communicate this information.

Stay in Touch with Prospects

Deciding to change careers can be a lengthy process for passive job seekers. Keep your talent pool active with periodic communication about your business, job openings and career benefits. Set up an email calendar, reaching out to a list of emails from those who you met at job fairs, submitted an inquiry or sent a full resume. Frequently post about your culture, the trucking industry and openings to keep your followers engaged.

Job Boards Are Important

Trucking applicants remain tapped in to local and regional job boards. A presence on local job boards and job aggregator sites provide you business with bottom of the funnel presence – reaching those interested in the truck industry and actively applying now.

SUCCESS STORIES

Professional Recruitment Strategy

Finding outstanding talent that fits your culture is a concern for any business. Make the most of your time and resources by attracting qualified candidates that can hit the ground running and succeed within your organization. Identify quality talent and cultivate your talent pool with leading recruitment marketing strategies perfect for professional businesses.

Showcase Your Company Culture

Tell the story of your business, your history, your employees and more. The more a prospective employee knows about your operations and culture the more they are able to determine whether they are a match for your organization. Office tour videos, employee testimonials and other visuals can help to show daily life within your company.

Tailor Communications to Open Positions

Instead of deploying blanket recruitment ads for all positions in your company, consider developing custom creative and campaigns for each position. Messaging should focus on key benefits and operations of that role, showcase photos and videos of that segment of your business and speak directly to those candidates. Specific communication, drives more qualified applications – increasing your odds of finding a match while building up your talent pool - than general recruitment ads.

Use Job Boards to Reach Active Job Seekers

Job Fairs, local job boards and job board aggregators remain critical bottom-of-the-funnel tactics in securing applications for open positions. While other flashier tactics will fill the top of your funnel, these more nitty-gritty media elements provide a place for active job seekers to seamlessly apply for the positions they want – now.

SUCCESS STORIES