THE INFLUENCE OF DIGITAL MARKETING TOWARDS STUDENTS’ DECISION-MAKING PROCESS OF UNIVERSITY SELECTION (A STUDY CASE OF X UNIVERSITY)

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.