The Essence, Evolution, and Role of Digital Marketing in Higher Education: a Comprehensive Analysis

This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the concept, historical evolution, and practical role of digital marketing in higher education institutions (HEIs). The research demonstrates that digital channels (SEO/PPC, social media platforms, email marketing, websites, mobile applications, and video platforms) offer measurable outcomes, personalization capabilities, and real-time optimization advantages compared to traditional communication methods. Using an extensive literature review, the study assesses the strategic importance of digital marketing in student recruitment, brand strengthening, international visibility expansion, and environmental mega trends implementation in resonating data-driven management practices amongst HEIs. Using a combination of systematic observation of KPIs (traffic, CTR, CR, ROAS, LTV, CAC), comparisons and conceptual framework diagrams. By 2025, statistics show that the high adoption rate of digital marketing practices across HEIs has made the highest use of artificial intelligence/chatbot technologies and video content a major trend in digital marketing. The results irrefutably prove the existence of a statistically significant positive association between competitive institutions and those who employ digital strategies and data-driven management approaches in terms of overall operational functionality (CI), marketing capability (MI), student experience (SE), and resource allocation (RA) in the current environment of intensifying global competition in higher education.