College students connect with each other a lot, whether within the campus or outside of it. They network even when they are on holiday and even after graduating. Many successful businesses take advantage of the network that college students have to market their products. Most of the time, you will find students in their interactions talking about different brands of products in the market, comparing them with others, and often seeking advice from each other on what product is worth investing in.
It is for this reason that marketing your brand to college students would expand your profits. Dealing with college students as a way of marketing your brand is the easiest and does not call for a lot of capital input. If your product is worth the investment, the word will automatically spread in and out of campus. You have to, however consider a lot of factors so that you can carefully strategize beneficial ways on how to market to college students.
Consider their Budget
Not all products are fit for marketing to college students. Some are way above their budget. You cannot market to a college student a valuable product that can only be afforded by the working class. Your product must fit the budget of an average college student; they must find it affordable and worth investing in for them even to recommend it to others.
However, you can make a smaller package of the same product that may fit the college students’ budget. For instance, if you open a restaurant, perhaps near a college institution, you can create a specific menu with affordable food for the college students. This way you can have customers from the college and from the general public, thus increasing your profits. The students will bring their friends over, and after some time your restaurant will be known to many of the college students.
Reach Out to a Few Students
As stated earlier, college students tend to speak to one another about various products that they find appealing. You can reach out to a few of them to help you market your products. The ‘tell a friend to tell a friend’ technique could get the whole campus talking about how great your product is. You have to ensure that the students you choose are talkative and quite convincing. You can issue them with printed newsletters so that they can hand it to their classmates and friends.
You can also send them the newsletters in their electronic gadgets so that they can forward it to other people. Give the students a few samples of your product so that as they market, they have practical evidence of how beneficial your brand can be to them as college students. The services can be paid for or exchanged with a reward of the product itself.
Sponsor College Organizations
College institutions have a lot of organizations; student organizations, support staff, etc. sponsoring these organizations will help market your product in that the organizations will advertise your product. You can sponsor different organizations, especially when they have or are hosting events that will be attended by many people.
This will give you an automatic platform to advertise your product to many different people. You can make videos that advertise your product so that they can be aired on-screen during these events so as to enlighten the people in attendance about your brand. You can also work closely with the heads of the organizations to directly help you market your product.
The exposure will be beneficial to your brand and will also build your reputation as a student-friendly business. You can sponsor the events by providing capital or by giving free products to be used during the vent or the party. A printing company, for instance, can provide free flyers in an advertisement for the scheduled event.
Use Social Media for Marketing your Product
Social media is a great marketing platform. It is the ultimate strategy on how to market to college students. In a techno-advanced world, marketing in social media platforms will expose your product to a lot of people. The benefit of using social media is that it is almost effortless.
You can use platforms familiar with college students like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. to advertise your brand. When you use persuasive language, and if your product is worth it, you will definitely get people interested in it. College students are very fond of social media, and the platforms are a sure way of getting them enlightened about your brand.
You can reach out to people who handle the social media platforms for the college so that they can post your products for the students to see. Students also keep small class groups these days and their own general interaction groups in media platforms. These can also be used to market your product as you can reach out to the administrators to help you with the same. Word in social media spreads so much so that at the end of the day, your brand will be known to your intended target.
Host Giveaways
College students sometimes hold parties or competitions in which the winners are given gifts for a challenge they undertook. The students love the parties and competitions, and you can be assured of a large number of them attending, this means you will get more audience for your advertisement. You can liaise with the organizers of such events to sponsor or give them the gifts of your product for use during the competition. This will expose the students to your product, and they can get curious enough to want it.
You will automatically get a wide audience for the marketing of your products. You can as well have the giveaways on your own social media platforms and invite the students to participate and get free products from your brand. For instance, you can challenge the students to like your social media page, invite at least five friends also to like the page then share it for them to get the giveaways. This way, you will get more likes for your platforms, which means more audience for your product, and at the same time, the giveaway will help expose your product to many people.
Get Creative with Trends
Creativity in marketing is an essential strategy you can use if you want to know how to market to college students. Social media exposes us to many trends; there is always something trending occasionally on the platforms. College students are at the part of an age group that easily go with the flow of trends. This can be a great opportunity to get people talking about your brand. You can make your product trend on social media platforms by using influential people on social media to help you market the product.
Students who are famous on social media platforms for one reason or the other can easily get people to buy your product. Simply posting your product on their social media and convincing people to buy it can expose your brand to a large number of students. You can also dive into already existing trends and creatively advertise your product. When something trends on the platforms, you can incorporate creativity and flow with the trend to get your brand exposed.
Young people always take every matter to social media, and with time you will find it trending. You can make creative advertisements while exposing your product, for example, in a trending topic. If the media is blowing with talk over a movie, advertise your snack product saying how convenient it would be to watch the movie with a snack. Be up to date with the trends and be creative enough to convince your possible customers how suitable your product is.
Use Traditional Advertising
People are so caught up in social media, but traditional marketing strategies can still sell your product to many people. You can have a street distribution team to hand out a printed advertisement for your product. You can also get a few students to have stands in the college compound with your products to market them and to give a few samples to the students. Such stands always attract the attention of the students, and once they are enlightened about the product, they will let their counterparts know. The cycle will continue until a large portion of the students knows about your brand.
How to Market to College Students
You can also place advertisements on campus magazines that get in the hands of many students. You can talk to the people in charge and pay a small amount of money for advertising on the campus magazines. College students sometimes have radio stations which you can also use to advertise your product. Another traditional method that can guide you on how to market to college students is through face to face interaction. You can visit the colleges to advertise your product physically. The direct interaction is a more convincing way to convince the students that your product is suitable for them.
