Effectiveness of Marketing Activities in Attracting Students from Lublin Universities

Population decline has become an increasingly significant issue impacting the situation of universities. The decline results in the drop in the number of applicants. Due to the market being saturated with public and private higher education institutions, the level of competitiveness has increased. As a consequence, the need for marketing campaigns has become more pressing. Such campaigns aim at the dissemination of information regarding educational offer, reaching and developing communication with the candidate with the ultimate objective of expanding the student body. The aim of the present paper is to examine the effectiveness of marketing campaigns undertaken by Lublin universities in order to gain new students. The study was conducted among students of public universities in Lublin by means of an online survey and in the course of the analysis of available databases maintained by state institutions. The results proved that the opinion of friends and family exerts significant influence upon the selection of the university to apply to. In addition, it was observed that promotion campaigns conducted in certain months are more effective than in others, thus, maximizing the effort in this particular time is worthwhile. The shift from traditional advertising to its online equivalent has also been observed as an emerging trend. The study proved that, even if intensified, the application of hitherto tools in marketing campaigns does not serve its purpose properly. As a consequence they have been replaced by modern, trendy and novel ones. Last but not least, the impact of social media upon the recognition of the university’s name and reputation and the swiftness of reaching and communicating with the candidate they offer has also been acknowledged.