Introduction

Here’s an anecdote about one of Mediagarh’s, digital marketing agency for educational institutes, clients: the institution was a local hit. However, no one seemed to remember the institute in the longer term. We were quick to assess the client’s situation and immediately concluded that the matter was concerned with the brand’s identity. This might be a story that numerous educational institutions will resonate with. Accordingly, this blog will discuss the importance of having a brand identity for educational institutes and how to build a strong one.

Brand Identity & Its Importance

To reflect on the importance of brand identity, we must first understand the meaning of it. Brand identity, explained in the simplest terms, is the face of a corporation, firm, business enterprise or an educational institute in our case. This is generally the brand presentation in the form of visual branding with the use of trademarks, product design, advertising, public relations, etc., using the instruments of corporate title, logo and other supporting devices. Now that we know about brand identity from a layman’s perspective let’s highlight its importance.

1. Trust & Credibility: Let’s discuss the shorter unit of India to understand this point effectively. India is a society of low trust where only a few entities with a high concentration of trust can establish their position in people’s minds. Brand identity is all about cementing a place in people’s minds, which consequently means trust forms in the party’s mind. To tackle such societal dynamics, creating a brand identity is very important.
2. Differentiation: Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is a very important factor when it comes to differentiation in the modern market. Establishing a product differentiation might take a lot of work in a capitalist market. However, the word “unique” in USP is the jist of the term. A brand identity that reflects your excellence in virtue might be the only USP you’d need to maximize your differentiation benefits.
3. Consistency: Consistency in branding looks aesthetically pleasing. And what looks aesthetically pleasing is what works. Consistent messaging along the platforms of communication of the institute and the target audience sends a single signal through and through. This fosters trust and makes your institution memorable.
4. Student/Parent Engagement: A brand identity is enacted with proper communication. And proper communication leads to meaningful engagement. The end goal for your educational institution is to maximise your platform engagement to help book more inquiries and conversions to enrollments/admissions.

How to Create a Strong Brand Identity for Your Educational Business

Step 1: Define Your Purpose and Audience

Setting goals and defining your target audience is the first step in all marketing efforts that you put in. The same goes for establishing a brand identity. Start by defining your target audience, why you want to target them, and for what intention. Why does this help? This helps to craft messaging specifically to aim at your target audience and craft it according to the goals you want to achieve.

Step 2: Visual Branding

Give it a thought: When you buy most of the brands that you use, do you look for them with their name or with the colour and logo associated with them? The answer is usually the latter. The colours and images associated with the brand become the brand identity. Take our agency, for example; we chose the colour blue for our brand because that reflects one of our core values, which is trust.

Step 3: Brand Voice and Content

Content is the breath of branding. Everyone, from a child to their parent, consumes content in one form or another. Accordingly, including content as a key instrument in branding is a logical subsequent step to take. This also allows you to allot a brand voice to your institution. This helps establish authority in your communication with your audience. For example, if you’re a progressive learning centre, you should adopt an innovative and future-focused voice. Meanwhile, a traditional institute might pick up a more formal voice.

Step 4: Online Presence

When we are discussing digital branding, an online presence has to be used without any questions. Building an online presence is the first step. Get on every social platform that your target audience uses. You want your audience to find you everywhere they’re spending their digital life. The next step would be to enhance your online presence. Put out content with consistent messaging on every platform to develop your online presence to the next level.

Step 5: Consistency

Ensuring that consistent messaging is put out across all platforms is the last but the most essential step in building a strong brand. We already defined our audience and purpose in the first step. The task now is to just work on the same outline we underlined at the beginning of the process. Tailor your message and goals to your audience and keep them consistent across all platforms. You are good to go.

Conclusion

The whole piece wants to convey the importance of branding for educational institutions. How using a simple 5-step process can change your institute’s branding and consequently your numbers too. However, the task can be daunting, especially when you have your core tasks to look after. Consider hiring the top ed marketing company so that they can manage this while you work on making a greater impact.