3 Creative Ways to Market Your RTO

Promoting your RTO requires creativity. You need to have a quick, innovative strategy to attract the right people to enrol for your courses. Your digital marketing plan should appeal to the “needs” of your target audience, integrate SEO elements on your social media platforms, and have a content structure rooted on the inbound methodology. 

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Be sure to take the right steps before a rival company steals all your attention. 

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Focus on establishing your online reputation first. You need to have consistent, well thought-out plan on the content type that will appear in your follower’s timeline. Adding a bit of humor to your posts gives the impression of approachability and makes your voice seem ‘real’, which is a huge bonus to talk to a millennial audience. Alternatively, if your target audience is a professional, middle-aged group, then switch your tone to a more business-like approach. 

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Remember: You need to have a great understanding of who your “buyer persona” is, so that you will be more effective in creating a meaningful experience for them. If you are able to identify who your target customers are, what their pain points are, and how you can fix them, then you’re on your way to speaking the language your buyers want to hear.

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Here’s a list of creative ways to market your RTO: 

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1. Memes 

If you login to any social media account, let’s say on Facebook or Twitter, you can instantly find fun and witty memes on your homepage. In fact, millions of memes are being shared and posted daily. 

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Memes, with its random yet fun imagery, is actually a brilliant way to connect with your younger audience, mostly for the millennial and Gen Z age-group. What seems to be a funny inside joke could be effective content to get your message across the right people. 

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If your college is targeting students in their 20s or school leavers interested in scholarships, then memes can be your golden bridge in reaching out to them. 

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The key here is to making your posts relatable to their age level.  

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Find the perfect image to use as your meme, or you can choose on any meme-generator tools online. Your graphic designer skills won’t be stretched far in creating memes as you simply have to overlay huge-sized texts on your preferred photo, then… tadaaa! You have created yourself a meme! Make your post more entertaining by using a short and witty caption to go alongside your meme. 

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Remember: No good joke is fun if you spend more than a second to get it. The simpler the post – and the more relatable it is, the better chance you’ll get the best results for it.

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Now, go have fun making memes and boost your branding with this next-generation marketing style! 

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2. Vlogging 

Video blogging, known for its shortened term “vlogging”, has become a popular marketing strategy among brands.  

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As videos produce more engagement than texts or photos, focus your marketing strategy on creating video entries (or vlogs) that connects your audience to your brand.  

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The great thing about vlogging is that anyone can do it!  

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You can have a D.I.Y. setup by holding your mobile phone as you speak to the front-facing camera, or standing your camcorder on a tripod as you record yourself.  

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If you are in a team, have someone else hold the camera for you as you tour around the campus or discuss the essentials of your online course. You can even hire an influencer (for example, a famous vlogger with 10,000 follower base) to guest on your vlog if you’re not on a tight-budget. 

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Tip: Start with uploading 3 to 5-minute videos on your YouTube or Vimeo account, then cross-post it to your social media accounts to get more views. The higher the traction, the more likely your video appears on your homepage; thus, increasing your online presence. 

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Another reason why vlogging is marketable is that it connects to your audience on a personal level. 

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By talking in front of a camera, you are connecting with your viewers eye-to-eye. You’re not in the video to sell your online course nor appeal to your audience to enrol in your RTO, but to share your thoughts on why getting an online qualification is beneficial to their lives – just like how a friend would give them advise. 

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Remember: Promoting your course offer is the target, but the key to securing that application is relating to your audience needs and providing long-term solutions that are hassle-free and budget-friendly.

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Be creative with your vlog and make it as visually-entertaining as possible – get your viewer’s attention in the first 15 seconds of your video or else they’ll quickly move on to the next video on the list. 

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Pro tip: For your vlog to be successful, consider the video length to be uploaded on each social media platform.   

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The recommended duration for a most-watched YouTube video is at 10-20 minutes, while Instagram users view the same video for about 30 seconds only. In-feed videos on Facebook get optimal views for 24-90 seconds, while your video could run much longer in LinkedIn, for example for 5 minutes and gain high viewing success. 

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In YouTube, be sure to include SEO elements on your video such as keywords, meta tags, optimised titles and captions to boost your visibility in the search results. You may also want to run an ad campaign, through Google Ads, by inserting short ads to your video or putting in notification cards. 

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3. TikTok

TikTok is the latest marketing trend among brands. You can use this platform to showcase your talent, share your ideas, or promote your business. 

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Create a 60-second video content and add in artistic elements such as music, texts, stickers, filters, and effects to make your TikTok entry more entertaining to your audience. 

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Be creative at your own right! 

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Include TikTok in your marketing strategy and reach out to a younger audience in promoting your courses. Strike the balance in producing academic, highly-informative content while still talking to your customers in a way that suits them.  

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Remember: For your marketing approach to be successful, you must treat your customers as a “person with emotions” rather than a mere sales target. Present your brand as an entity that they can trust, consult, and learn from. Relate to their experience and create a narrative that suits best for them – only then will they entrust their hard-earned money to your product.

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Marketing is all about taking the right steps, the right way, at the right time.  

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Yet, you can still spice it up with a dose of creativity. 

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Promoting an online course, could have something as enticing as offering access to a free class. 

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Whatever ways you use to market your RTO, though, don’t forget to add in a touch of creativity, whilst keeping in mind how your target audience will absorb the message and respond to it. 

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Explore various ways to get your customer’s attention – even if it means getting in on the latest trend or starting a new one. 😉 Either way, align your content strategy to what, where, and how to make your customer’s tick.

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