Every year, about 5 million new students join the freshman class at colleges and universities all over the United States. Colleges and universities are very concentrated bodies of hyper social and creative individuals. This makes them ideal targets to market to. Here are a few ways that your company can market to college students:
Consider Their Budget
Typically college students have a tight budget. That being said, it’s important to be aware of your prices. A great way to get their attention is to offer special deals exclusively for students. Here are a few companies currently implementing this strategy:
- Amazon Prime: Amazon Prime offers a special package for students. This strategy has been extremely successful. According to Money CNN, Amazon Prime now reaches nearly half of U.S. households.
- Spotify Student: Spotify offers a student discount that’s half the price of a regular subscription.
- Apple Products: Apple offers special student deals for a large range of products. Make sure you inquire about these deals when purchasing a new Apple product.
Remember, lowering your prices won’t equate to less cash flow if done properly.
Customer Service
College students are typically hard-working individuals, but at the same time they’re lazy. If there is a problem with a product they purchased from your business, odds are they aren’t going to try and troubleshoot it themselves.
Make sure you provide a seamless customer service experience. College student’s are very social and will definitely tell their friends if they were impressed. On the contrary, if your service is lacking your reputation will go down very quickly.
Go Mobile
Whether you’re selling the product on campus using mobile payment technology or you’ve built the next greatest mobile app, if you haven’t made the switch to mobile you’re selling yourself short. Millennials are always on-the-go and on their phones. If you want to tap into the college demographic you need to be mobile compatible. Here are some ways to go mobile on campus:
- Mobile Payments: If you’re selling on campus, equip your reps with mobile card readers on their devices. What better way to make a sale than on your way to class?
- Localization: Offer special localized deals of your products that can only be accessed on mobile devices.
- Think about the PokemonGO craze, it beautifully combined mobile gaming with localization.
- Social: Create social aspects. This doesn’t mean you should try and create the next Facebook, but allow your users to connect with one another on your app.
- Venmo is a great example. The social aspect was a large reason why it grew so fast.
Use these three strategies to get on campus quickly and start selling!
