Education Marketing in China

Education Marketing in China is now the best way to attract Chinese students in International School and University.

The Golden Age for International Education in China

China’s education market is entering in a “golden age.” Government policies, capital flow, frequent cross-border business, and technological innovation are driving China’s education market toward some major transformative trends. By 2003, the Law of “Education Facilitated by Social Organization” allowed private organizations and individuals to manage for-profit educational institutions. The private education industry, after a phase of very rapid growth is now in a phase of consolidated development. Education markets are complex and include many different players such as public and private sector providers, publishers, policy makers, regulators and learners.

In 2015, China education market represented nearly RMB 1.6 trillion (US$240 billion), and this market is projected to double to RMB 3 trillion (US$450 billion) by 2020. Education is the number one priority for parents to allow to their Children get ahead in competitive & modern China.

Currently, China has long been established as world’s largest market for international student recruitment. The private education sector is characterized by constant cash flows and abundant profits, able to attract investments from both domestic and international investors.

Huge opportunities for Online Education in China

China is the world largest connected country, with nearly 900 million Chinese internet users. They do everything online and spend their daily life to browsing online.

That’s very interesting for all companies, which want to enter in the educational Chinese market, it’s important to really understand  where and how students and parents are searching online for information before to start targeted marketing of your schools and courses for the most qualified and relevant prospective students.

Universities and colleges are seeking to manage leads directly to their admissions team and build the brand image of the school in the minds of students & their parents.

With the right strategy, institutions will have more control over the way they are presented online in the largest students market in the world.

Search Engines (SEO/SEA)

The first step for the majority of Chinese internet users who want to have more information about schools or universities, is to search on ‘Baidu‘. Baidu is the China’s largest search engine, with nearly 82% share of market. If they cannot be found you in this way then you are simply invisible in China, regardless of your reputation outside of the country.

Chinese Website

Having a Chinese version of your site optimised for Chinese search engines is important, also the content must be translated into simplified Mandarin Chinese. A good quality Chinese landing page and version of site is crucial. This should be optimized for search engines and hosted on a local server in China for faster loading. All sites in China need to be optimized for mobile as the vast majority of online users browse on their smartphones, there are now 550 million smartphones. Mobile content can also be optimized for ‘WeChat’ China’s largest social network.

Online Reputation

Why Reputation? Infact, for all Chinese, reputation means a lot. Every Chinese who want take a decision about an International school, will be always interested by your online reputation. If you have a bad reputation online, they never send their children in your school. Otherwise, thanks to good comments, good reputation, they will easily trust and choose you.

Monitoring the reputation of your educational institution in forums and social media is crucial. Chinese Forums are blooming and the feedback of others is very important, particularly the feedback of their immediate friends and peers. It’s important to promote positive comments on social platforms and forums in order to manage the reputation of your business.

Social Media

The Chinese social media is very different to western social media. the use of social networking platforms such as ‘WeChat’ or ‘Weibo’ in order to sell products and services is a poweful weapon for any digital marketing strategy in China. The education sector must also take advantage of these communication channels

Every International School should create an official subscription account on ‘WeChat’ and use their page to present information about their key courses for the Chinese market. It is the perfect platform to generate content, start conversations and answer questions for potential students.

It is a great opportunity for you to present rich Chinese content and articles that can be shared amongst their peers and fellow WeChat users in order to generate more interest in your institution.

For more details about how to market on social media read this article.

GMA, an Innovative Education Marketing Agency in China

 

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