Role of Online Marketing in University Admissions: Indian Students’ Perspective

Universities all over the world are familiar with the use of digital marketing as a strategic tool in their marketing campaigns. An imperative issue for research is to comprehend how digital marketing influences potential students and what its role is in the decision making process of selecting a course of study or a university. The core aim of this study is to review the extent to which private universities in the national capital region (NCR) explore social networking sites by way of innovative marketing and promotion communications tool, and the extent to which they leverage through this medium to engage with the students. The research is based on the primary data collected through circulation of questionnaires among students in NCR in the study area, to test the exploratory factor analysis; responses have been analysed. A self-administered questionnaire was outlined, knowing students’ perception about the factors impelling effectiveness of digital marketing on university admissions. The results reveal that efficiency of digital marketing hinges on influencing factors like students’ videos on the web page, hashtags, reviews of alumni, event page, mobile marketing, virtual tour, blogs, use of Pinterest and WhatsApp. The study proposes findings that can be used by private universities in order to manage their admissions and also contributes to the literature of digital marketing, by proposing an advanced methodology in addressing student’s admission by analysing mutually exclusive indicators pertaining to current and future opportunities for the organisation.