ABSTRACT
Marketing communication practice is noticeably moving in a digital direction. The study is primarily designed to appraise the use of digital marketing strategies in the promotion of private higher education in South Western, Nigeria. The study investigated the digital marketing tools private universities deploy to promote their institutions and their level of engagement on the universities’ social media profile. Findings reveal that private universities predominantly make use of owned digital marketing tools such as school website and organic social media marketing, although not all of the universities are active on social media. Also, the universities complemented their digital marketing initiatives with advertisement in the mass media. Participants reported limitations with their resources and lack of dedicated teams for marketing. The study recommends the continuous integration of both offline and online channels for integrated marketing communication. Also, the universities should make deliberate efforts to dedicate employees that will be in charge of the digital channels of their social media profile. The study provides both theoretical and managerial implications for researchers, university managers, and policymakers.
