Abstract:
Digital marketing is becoming more popular and has been used by many
organizations, including universities in Indonesia. This thesis aims to analyze the
influence of digital marketing towards students‘ decision-making process of
university selection. Three digital platforms were studied, namely social media,
website, and display ads. Data for this thesis were collected from 150 undergraduate
freshmen from various majors of X University, a private Indonesian university.
Quantitative methodology was adopted in which the acquired data were analyzed
using multiple linear regression analysis and other statistics to ensure that the results
and conclusions drawn later on are valid and true to the reality. The findings
discovered that the X University‘s social media and website have a significant
influence towards X University students‘ decision-making process while choosing
university. Further, it is found that the university‘s display ads do not significantly
influence the students‘ decision-making process. Interestingly, the findings also
suggested that these three digital marketing tools simultaneously have a significant
influence with adjusted R Square of 0.318, which implies that 31.8% of students‘
decision-making process is explained by social media, website, and display ads. This
thesis provides useful insights for universities or higher education institutions in
Indonesia that hopefully are considered to be implemented into their digital
marketing strategies.
