College students are a wonderful target audience for any marketing strategy. They are young, flexible, and open to experiments and trying new things. All of that is a great base for the continuous influx of customers who can potentially become your regulars over the years. However, there are challenges to attracting students.

For one, many of them have limited income and would prioritize spending money on a textbook over a new product. The same goes for having enough time to shop in the first place due to the crammed schedules during the semester. But these obstacles can be overcome. All you need to do is follow these six simple marketing tips to attract students as your customers.

Be on trend

One of the most important things for students is staying relevant. This is a young audience that grew up with the rapid changes introduced by the internet, where it is possible to get a solution to an essay writing service in seconds. So, you have to accommodate your marketing campaign to the current tastes and interests of your target audience.

Spend time researching what is on trend at the moment. Whether it be a TV show, a specific meme format, or a song frequently used on TikTok, make sure that you know that and find ways to incorporate that in your marketing strategy. Pay attention to the tone of voice and make sure that you truly speak the same language as your target audience does.

Be careful about not overdoing it. If you use meme references mindlessly, you’ll risk becoming a meme yourself. And even though it will attract students’ attention, they are not likely to become your customers in this case.

Polish your social media

Social media is vital for targeting students. These platforms will be your main source of attracting customers if your target audience is students. It is much more likely for students to consider the best research paper writing services if they see the ad on their Instagram feed or googling “pay to write paper”. Thus, you should not take your social media following for granted.

Work on creating a brand image on social media. Study how others do it. For example, DuoLingo Owl has a cult following and whole lore around it. Think about how your product or service can be represented most appealingly on your socials. Work on design and copywriting materials carefully

Of course, it’s an easy goal to achieve in a short span. So practice consistency with your social media content. Even if some posts do not do well, do not be discouraged. Remember that merit is only achieved through trial and error.

Involve relevant influencers

Another tactic that would be quite beneficial is to involve influencers that are popular among your target demographic to promote your product or service. Probably, someone among the thousands (or even millions) of their followers will give your brand a shot. Hence, do not overlook this option, and make sure to do your research on relevant influencers.

There are plenty of people who do study-related content and whose main audience is students. Reach out to a few of them with sponsorship suggestions. You can send out your product for free and suggest they try out your service. However, be careful in your choices and make sure that said influencers are not involved in scandals that can harm your brand.

Reach out to student representatives

Besides influencers with a large following, involving student representatives is a great way to get an insider for the promotion of your product or service. For once, they can offer more liability than influencers.

If your product or service is directly related to any aspect of a student’s life, it would not be an issue to work with student representatives for its promotion. You can always engage with each other on social media platforms and get a win-win deal for everyone’s marketing strategies.

Discounts are key

The main reason for students to withhold spending money is having a limited budget. Most college attendees already have to pay off their student loans and spend tons of money on study materials. Thus, the main persuasive tactic for students becoming your customers is a good discount.

There are several ways to organize discounts that could work for students:

• Seasonal discounts. You can always do a “back to school discount” that will last a month. Or it can be a discount related to a holiday or local event. Plus, since it’s not a seasonal one, you can make it quite generous (up to 60%), which will definitely attract students.
• Run a social campaign. Students tend to be active and socially engaged. Hence, it is a good idea to have an event dedicated to a social cause and give out discounts to the participants. You would not be able to give out a huge discount, but you will attract students and establish a positive reputation for yourself.
• A special student discount. You can always cater your services to students by offering discounts for them as a group. This is something that gyms often do by having discounted membership for students.

Free trials

Finally, a great way to address the limited income issue is by offering a free trial option. A lot of services exercise this with their subscription system. You can offer a free trial for a week or a month to try out the service. Even though some will cancel after its expiration, there will be people who stay and become regular customers.

Another tactic you can adopt is offering free samples of products with your first purchase. For instance, if you’re selling natural deodorants, you can add free samples to the customer’s first order. Thus, they feel appreciated instead of being aggressively pursued to buy more from you.

Wrapping up

And that’s about it. Know what is trendy among your target audience and use it wisely in your campaigns, work on your brand’s social media presence, involve relevant influencers or student representatives for promotion, make sure to devise good discounts, and offer free trials. Use these tips, and you will have loyal student customers in no time.