Marketing in 2020 is easier than ever, since there are countless channels to choose from. At the same time, this makes it incredibly difficult for novice marketers and business owners. What marketing channel should you turn to, what offers the biggest return on investment and what is a good long-term marketing strategy?
Among the latest and greatest growth hacking trends, there’s one that’s been around for a good while – scholarships. While sponsoring a scholarship has been around for decades, the marketing benefits of scholarships became apparent only recently. Here are a few reasons why investing in a scholarship may be your best money spent on marketing this year.
Scholarships bring lots of SEO benefits
People share all types of content on their social media channels. If you’ve created an ad for your latest product, the chances of anyone sharing your ad are minimal, unless it features someone really famous and good looking. However, people will share content that is helpful to others – such as scholarships, which can help transform a student’s life.
Getting your scholarship shared has much more value than just simple PR. In the world of SEO, links are the main currency, and the more links that you can get, the better your SEO performance will be. We’ve written a lot about it in our previous blog, but the one thing you should know is that running a scholarship will get you a healthy amount of links from highly credible sources.
The effects are long-lasting
If you’ve ever run ads on Facebook or Google Adwords, you know how effective they can be. However, the moment you stop throwing cash at them, they stop bringing in new leads and new business. On the other hand, scholarships have a more lasting effect. Think of it as something memorable like having a vanity phone number.
The links and publicity you earn from scholarships will last beyond the date when you award it. Moreover, scholarships create a positive brand identity both with students and your target audience. Even if the student does not get the scholarship, they will have positive associations with your brand.
It is an excellent hiring tool
Finding new employees has always been difficult, but nowadays when the unemployment rate is lower than ever, it’s proving to be quite a hassle. Great employees already have a job, and getting them to leave a position to come work with you is rarely an option. Luckily, there is an easier way to recruit.
Scholarships are an excellent way to tell your brand story and show off your employer brand. You can show potential employees how awesome it is to work for you and what kind of benefits they may have. And in the end, by running a scholarship, you show yourself as a company with a socially responsible culture that cares, and who wouldn’t want to work for a company like that?
Finally, you can use the list of scholarship applicants as your list of potential new hires. Since you’re the one who gets to set the requirements for the scholarship, you can make it so that it’s similar to a job application. Only those students who check all the boxes can apply. In this way, you can get access to a large pool of talent – potential employees who are still in college and ready for a new job as soon as they graduate. Not only will you help them out with a scholarship, but they also get a shot of working for your company after graduation.
You can get an incredible return on investment
With most of today’s marketing methods, there are pretty reliable ways to track return on investment. With the exception of content marketing, you can tie the money you spent on marketing to specific outcomes. For example, a certain amount of money spent on ads will yield a certain revenue. This has become even easier thanks to marketing automation tools.
With scholarships, you make a single investment with multiple returns. First, you get brand recognition from students and potential customers. Second, you get noticed by universities and you’ll get PR coverage. Third, you will get lots on inbound links and traffic to your website. Fourth, you will get free social media exposure for the length of your scholarship application period. Fifth, final and most important, you make an investment in someone’s future, which will pay off greatly with their education.
Wrapping up
While there are other marketing methods that can give a more direct effect, scholarships remain the top choice for many small businesses and marketing professionals. They have a high return on investment and their effects last long past the date when the scholarship is awarded. No matter what kind of industry you’re in, it’s worth giving scholarships a try as a way to get new customers and spread awareness about your brand.
