We started an IT college in South Africa offering IT qualifications only and have been struggling to attract students. When we do get students, mostly don't qualify to enroll for the programmes according to the National Qualification Framework.
I come from a software development background and have no marketing experience which has made it difficult to market the institution.
We have a very limited budget and need simple but effective ideas to implement for our marketing strategy. We have used social media but it has not translated into the leads we need.
Looks like you have already defined your ideal customer;
Next
You need to find out where the potential students spend their time - Online & Physically - and meet them there.
I'll start with the option, which I think has the most potential:
and the answer is NOT online - do not underestimate the value of networking; going to meetup's - interest clubs - sticking adverts on buildings, bus stops etc. with little rip-off pieces.
Online:
- do they spend time on facebook? probably the most undervalued forms of marketing
- quora
- you can do a very narrow targeting through Google Ads, but you did mention a very low budget.
Hope this helps
Sylvia
What you plan to do is not destructing and if this is what you plan to do, you need to know whether is there really a market can afford to pay you money to attend the class?
I strongly suspect your challenges are:
1. whether it really available market that can pay
2. lack of publicity and public education of such needs
3. insufficient brand name/ reputation to give confidence to the students and local educators to support
There are many alternate approaches available:
1. Check this out https://byjus.com/ (but you need very rich investors)
2. post your training into a web platform with the good market place (e.g. www.udemy.com).
3. look for a good mentor who is very experienced in startup business like yours
4. don't start marketing unnecessary when you cannot answer the 3 challenges above ...
The above are my comments based on my over 20 years of experiences as an entrepreneur and management consultant- hope it is of some help.
The first thing you will need to do is set up a website. The website should have a clear brand image and it must have a landing page where prospective students can find out more about your college. You will also need an email marketing platform, which allows you to send emails to prospective students at the right time and place. You can also use social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to promote your college. You need to mention that the institute encourages students to use https://fixgerald.com/ and other educational tools for better learning. Finally, you may want to consider setting up an ecommerce website where students can purchase academic materials like books or course materials.
