More and more colleges and universities are looking to make the lives of their students’ easier by providing them with a campus app. A considerable amount of manpower, time and money is invested in developing the app, aimed at simplifying university life and driving student success. However, to actually benefit the end-user, it’s paramount that students download and use the app.
The trick, when offering any sort of campus app, is to effectivity market it to your student base in order to get the best adoption rate possible. With that in mind, here are some tips that you can use to encourage the students at your college or university to make your campus app a part of their daily lives.
1. Word of mouth can be an excellent way to start. Choose a group of students to test the app, reward them for their participation, and then incentivize them to spread the word among their peers in-person as well as online through social media sites like Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.
2. Create a virtual scavenger hunt of sorts by hiding an emoji of your campus mascot somewhere within the app. Then, offer a reward to the first 20 or more students who find the emoji mascot within a specified amount of time.
3. Offer students incentives for using the app to mark their daily attendance and activities. By encouraging them to make the app a part of their daily routine, your school will have a better chance of solidifying its use among your student body.
4. Because students are so often strapped for cash, one very effective way that you can encourage your school’s student base to make use of a campus app is by offering regular users a discount at places around campus like the bookstore or the cafeteria.
5. Form partnerships with nearby businesses whereby your school gives them free advertising within the app and, in exchange, they provide your students with perks and discounts when they shop at these local stores. Through this marketing initiative, your school will be able to drive users to the app and spur your schools nearby economy by encouraging students to shop local.
6. Enlist your school’s professors to help you with driving student engagement by having them list assignments and post grades in the app or even by having them offer access to extra credit assignments that are exclusive to app users.
7. Every month, randomly choose a handful of app users to receive a selection of college-themed swag. Adopting this promotion method is beneficial for two reasons. Firstly, it will drive more students to use the app. Secondly, by giving them college-themed apparel, they will increase the awareness level of your school by acting as walking recruiters.
