An interactive campus map is a valuable tool for driving college enrollment. When set up correctly, prospective students can use it for more purposes than finding their way around campus. You allow your audience to engage with others and experience campus life from the comfort of their home.
With these simple steps, learn how to incorporate a campus map into your college's website to increase enrollment.
1. Begin with Features Your Campus Map Offers
A campus map should include various features that engage prospective students and provide the information they want. It should offer more than a traditional map. You can incorporate multiple elements to tell the story of your college and highlight its selling points.
The features you might consider with your interactive campus map include the following:
- Multiple layers – You can create a customized experience for different audiences. Tailor the map to meet your prospective students' unique needs.
- Interactive navigation – A 3D map allows visitors to tour your campus from their mobile devices. They can experience what it will feel like to attend your school with 360-degree images, embedded videos, and detailed descriptions of the sights.
- Important landmarks – You want to show more than the lawn and sidewalks. Prospective students should see the academic buildings, athletic fields, and other locations they'll spend their time if they enroll.
2. Highlight Upcoming Events
Directing prospective students to areas of interest on your campus map is only the first step in recruitment marketing. You can include embedded links in the map to highlight campus events your audience might be interested in attending. If you worry about reaching out-of-town students, it isn't as complicated as you might think.
You can offer virtual events to increase attendance. Potential applicants can engage with other attendees in an entirely virtual environment. Embedded content and video vignettes will allow them to interact on demand without setting foot on campus.
3. Expand Your Audience
Multiple offices across campus can use the interactive campus map to draw new students to your college. Using the platform, you can introduce prospective students to professors, administrators, and other faculty by creating engaging and informative content.
Your school can benefit from recruitment efforts by various offices, such as:
- Athletics – The athletics department can direct traffic to your campus map by showcasing the facilities, current athletes, and student involvement at major sporting events.
- Admissions – The admissions office can use an interactive map to communicate your college's brand and alert prospective students to upcoming events.
- Facilities – The facilities office can use the map feature for internal communications about need-to-know topics, such as weather, traffic changes, and construction.
- Alumni office – The alumni office can showcase campus life with interactive maps, highlighting the beauty of the grounds, buildings, and other structures.
4. Create an Editorial Calendar
An editorial calendar specifically for your interactive campus map can help you plan and track interesting features you want your map to offer. You can use your schedule to strategize how you'll get the message out about your college during enrollment and when the academic year begins.
Your editorial calendar should include campus events. However, other features, such as a self-guided tour, allow you to make the most of your campus map. Self-guided campus tours are common, with technological advances and more people opting out of in-person visits. Additionally, you can include historical information about your college, showing images of "the old days." Including all these features in your editorial calendar will boost the efficacy of your interactive map.
The local community could be included in your map, as well. Your calendar could include interesting restaurants, hiking trails, other points of interest for students, and more.
Campus Visit Experience is an innovative campus tour app allowing prospective students to see the campus from anywhere in the world. You can showcase unique aspects of your school, such as historic buildings, brand-new facilities, and classrooms with the latest technology.
5. Analyze the Data
Integrating helpful features like a campus map into your website isn't the only step in recruiting new students. You must analyze the data to ensure your efforts are paying off. If you don't consistently update the content and create new and exciting features, you can fall behind in recruiting prospective students.
You should discover parts of the map visitors spend the most time on, whether anyone clicks on links to other digital marketing features, and how long each person stays on your website. Tweaking your digital marketing to meet your target audience's needs is crucial to driving traffic and increasing enrollment.
Leverage Your Campus Map as a Recruitment Tool
When used correctly, an interactive campus map tells a powerful story about a college, the faculty, academics, and more. You can improve your digital marketing strategies by implementing the features prospective students look for while considering where to apply.
StudentBridge can help you take your recruitment efforts to the next level. Check out our Case Studies to see how we helped other educational institutions achieve their goals.
Contact us at (678) 824-8181 to learn more about our services or request a demo.
