Best Practices for Education Advertisements in Newspapers

There are certain ad categories which get a lot more preference compared to other categories in case of display newspaper advertising. A tremendous competition exists among these industries which in turn increases the need for advertising. One of them is the Education ad sector of India. This is a booming sector of the country and it keeps growing in spite of any setback to the economy at any point of time.Education Display Ads

More and more people are becoming literate as is evident from the sharp rise in the literacy rate of India which was around 12% at the time of independence and now stands at a soaring 74.04%. This is also an indication of rise in the population in the country which was about 3.45 lakhs in 1947 and is now around 122 crores. Rising population refers to an increase in the need for Education leading to a rise in the demand for education institutes.

Such a demand has opened up a whole new sector for business in India which not only helps earn money and make profits but also ensures that more and more people have access to education. Many of you may be wondering that education institutes advertise only during the admission season.

But that isn’t completely true. There are many institutes that promote themselves and try to create awareness about their existence and contribution to the society. So apart from advertising during the admission season, education ads are frequently published throughout the year.

Let’s evaluate what is necessary for an education advertisement to get the attention it seeks:

Realizing the Objectives

At first, the objective of advertising must be clear whether it is for branding purposes or simply getting the attention of as many students as possible. The next course of action is dependent on the objective.Newspaper Education Ads

In case of Branding, there is no fixed timing. The advertiser needs to stay in touch with the potential target audience so as to drive them later to taking admission in the institutes. In case of admission notices, the timing is of prime importance which needs to be strict during the before and during the admission period.

The choice of newspaper is also quite significant in both the cases since it is based on the intended reach. Based on availability of seats and boarding or hostel facilities, the advertiser can choose an English newspaper with a nationwide reach or else regional language and regional English daily are feasible options for a limited reach.

Deciding the Budget

Budget is a deciding factor for reach since newspapers with higher circulation and readership have higher advertising rates as well while the regional dailies which are fairly high in circulation have lower ad rates than their national counterparts. Although the reach of national dailies is higher and spread across different parts of the country, but depending on the demographics of the target audience and scale of the educational institute, the newspaper may be selected.

For Instance, an institute such as IIT Kharagpur can prefer to advertise in a newspaper such as the Times of India since it has the capacity to house thousands of students at once and also since the popularity of the institute appeals to students all across India.

Creative Demands

Creative demands of education display ads are conditioned by the objective they intend to serve. For brand awareness advertisements, the logo of the institute in question must be clear, simple and well designed so that it gets imprinted on the minds of the readers.Education Display Advertisement

In case of admission notices, the call-to-action, which in this case is to get admission forms online or offline and apply for admission needs to be mentioned boldly and clearly alongside the name of the advertisement. At the same time the images used in the advertisements need to be relevant to the field or fields of study that the institute offers. For example, if an institute like the NUJS (National University of Juridical Sciences) announces its admission session, the image accompanying the ad should include a young lawyer’s image. An organisation dedicated to only women, must have images of young girls if it decides to advertise in the newspaper.

Apart from this, correct information about the institutes must also be a crucial part of the newspaper ad. Such information must include contact information, start and end dates of admission, fields of study or the highest standards/grades in a school, infrastructural benefits (if any) and even the board or University affiliation.

These 3 points are a must-remember thing for all education advertisers. So keep them into consideration before initiating your next education advertisement campaign.