insights | 24.11.2025

18 ways small businesses can attract Buckingham Uni students

18 ways

Host student events
Encourage Referrals
Offer a student discount
Demonstrate your social responsibility
Use social media
Build a student-specific email marketing list
Create engaging videos
Collaborate with student influencers
Use OOH advertising
Optimise for local SEO
Launch a loyalty programme
Implement highly targeted advertising
Advertise with the Students’ Union
Ask for reviews and testimonials
Offer free merch
Collaborate with a student society
Distribute flyers
Think outside the box

Did you know that the University of Buckingham specialises in accelerated degrees?

These degrees concentrate three years of learning into two, meaning students save money and get that all-important qualification faster!

This unique selling point is what draws over 3,000 students to the town.

If you’re a small business in Buckingham, advertising to students can be a fantastic way to turn a profit, especially if they stay on in the town after their studies have ended.

Get ready to discover 18 ways you can use digital and traditional marketing to encourage students to buy from your business.

(While these tips are geared towards businesses in Buckingham, you can use them wherever you are in the UK!)

1. Host student events

An easy way to make students aware of your business and encourage them to visit you is by hosting events.

What type of event should you host? It depends on what your business does – what can you do to solve students’ problems and provide value to them?

For example, if you run a coffee shop you can provide a study session with free coffee and discounted snacks. If you sell homewares you can run a session showing students how to style their accommodation on a budget.

Make it fun, friendly, and welcoming, and encourage students to post on social media – user-generated content is fantastic for amplifying brand awareness!

2. Encourage referrals

If you already have engaged and loyal student customers, they’re more likely to recommend you to other people.

Take advantage of this by running a referral programme. A student recommends you to a friend, the friend makes a purchase, and both parties receive a reward.

Your customer wins, their friend wins, and you win too!

3. Offer a student discount

When you have a limited budget, a discount can incentivise you to shop in a specific place. 95% of students look for discounted deals on fashion, and 90% on food and drink!

Offering an in-store or online discount can make you stand out from your competitors.

If you run a brick-and-mortar store, ask to see proof of university enrolment, like a NUS or ISIC card. If you operate online, you can use a verification service like UNiDAYS or Student Beans

4. Demonstrate your social responsibility

The Gen Z cohort (which the majority of undergraduate students are a part of) wants brands to stand up for what they believe in.

Over 60% of Gen Zers prefer to buy from sustainable brands and are most likely to make purchase decisions based on social and environmental values.

Showcasing your values can increase your visibility and make students interested in what you offer. Promote your values and mission on your website and through your marketing and, most importantly, show you stand by them through your words and actions.

(Greenwashing is never a good look!)

5. Use social media

Social media is a fantastic way to appeal to students, with 99% of those aged between 16 and 25 in the UK using social media every single day.

Interestingly, younger people are moving away from search engines like Google and using social media to answer their questions. Three-quarters of Gen Zers now use TikTok for search, meaning it’s the perfect place to answer prospective customers’ questions!

If you’re new to social media, here’s a quick-start guide to get you up and running.

6. Build a student-specific email marketing list

If you have an email marketing list, you can use segmentation to split it up into smaller groups. This allows you to send targeted content to people, increasing the odds of them buying from your business.

If done right, email segmentation can increase your revenue by up to a staggering 760%!

When you collect customer email addresses, whether on your website or in-store, ask customers if they’re students. You can then send them special offers, invites to exclusive events, and the occasional treat!

(You can use these emails in another way too… Keep reading to find out more.)

7. Create engaging videos

Did you know that over 90% of students use YouTube to accelerate their learning?

It’s no surprise that videos are so popular with students – they’re easy to access, highly memorable, and can be viewed on mobile devices.

From a business standpoint, it’s never been easier to create videos. You can record and edit them with any smartphone, and quickly upload them to the platform of your choice.

Use them to showcase your products, provide viewers with a behind-the-scenes look of your business, and promote reviews and testimonials from happy customers!

8. Collaborate with student influencers

Influencer marketing is no longer the remit of celebrities with millions of Instagram fans – people can be influencers even if they only have a handful of social media followers!

If you’re a business with a minimal marketing budget, you can use smaller, localised influencers to promote your product or service.

Search local hashtags and keywords on your social media platform of choice to identify potential influencers you can work with. Then, reach out to them to see if you can work together.

9. Use OOH advertising

Out-of-home, or OOH advertising, is any advertising that you see in the physical world. For example, billboards, bus shelter ads, posters, and point-of-sale displays.

(Plus leaflets, which we’ll cover in more detail later.)

These types of ads get a lot of footfall and customers tend to remember them better than they do digital ads. OOH ads have the second-highest recall levels outside of television adverts, making them an excellent way for students to learn about your business.

The key to good OOH advertising is strategic placement – you want to put your ads where students work, live, and enjoy themselves. For example, on bus routes that students use to get to campus, or near popular restaurants, cafes, and bars.

10. Optimise for local SEO

Local search engine optimisation (SEO) is slightly different from traditional SEO. Rather than trying to appeal to customers scattered across the UK, you’re focusing on customers in the Buckingham area – perhaps even a specific suburb or street.

As a result, local SEO is more effective, and typically less expensive.

Ways you can carry out local SEO include:

Creating a Google Business Profile
Researching local keywords and optimising your site for them
Adding your business name and address to local directories
Partnering with other local businesses
Promoting your business in the local press

11. Launch a loyalty programme

It’s far easier to sell to an existing customer than it is to find a new one.

Creating a loyalty programme is a great way to encourage your best customers to buy more from you and foster a great relationship with them.

Loyalty programmes work both offline and online. If you have an online store you can tie loyalty points to a customer’s account, and if you have a brick-and-mortar store, you can offer a loyalty card, for example, through Google Wallet.

12. Implement highly targeted advertising

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising may not be ideal for every business. However if you have the skills and the budget, it can be fantastic for raising brand awareness and driving students to your store.

A good strategy for appealing to students (while not running out of money) is to use targeting.

Depending on the platform you use, you can target customers based on their location, or if they’ve put the University of Buckingham as their place of work or study.

If you’ve built a mailing list (see point 6), you can upload your list of emails and show ads to those customers. Alternatively, you can create a lookalike audience to appeal to people who are similar.

13. Advertise with the Students’ Union

A Students’ Union represents students at a university – and is independent from the university itself.

As Students’ Unions fund themselves, they typically use advertising to generate money to support students. This could be anything from allowing businesses to have a stall at the fresher’s fair, to advertising in the student newspaper, to sponsoring events.

Some Students’ Unions share their rates on their website, but others will be more than happy to discuss costs if you send them an email.

14. Ask for reviews and testimonials

It’s all well and good to tell students how great you are, but they’re more likely to be convinced by other students who have bought from your business before.

93% of people say that online reviews have influenced whether they buy from a business or not, with 80% saying that they find reviews for local businesses helpful.

Ask customers to rate and review your business online, either through your own site or a third-party site like Google, Facebook, Tripadvisor, or Yelp.

(And don’t worry if you get the odd negative review – people are more likely to trust businesses with a 4.2-4.5-star rating than they are a 5-star one.)

15. Offer free merch

Free merchandise, or ‘swag,’ is a cost-effective tool if you want to appeal to students.

By providing students with a mug, pen, or hoodie, you’re offering them something practical that they will use regularly. This not only increases their awareness of your business but also increases the awareness of the people around them.

89% of those who receive free merchandise will remember the brand name not just now, but a year later!

16. Collaborate with a student society

The University of Buckingham’s Students’ Union has a wide range of societies, from degree-specific societies to hobby and interest-related ones.

You can get in touch with a society related to your business and ask if you can partner with them. For example, you can offer to give a presentation, host a get-together, or provide resources.

17. Distribute flyers

Flyers may seem old-school, but they work. 79% of people keep hold of flyers they are given, pass them on, or at the very least, take a look at them.

Plus there are lots of ways you can distribute them. You can hand them out outside the Students’ Union, leave them at related businesses, or even do a leaflet drop in areas with a high student population.

We recommend adding a unique discount code to your flyer. That way, you can identify how successful the campaign is.

Note: If you want to distribute flyers in the street, check with your local council first. While Buckinghamshire Council doesn’t require you to have a license, some councils do.

18. Think outside the box

And finally, remember that students respond well to unusual and quirky campaigns.

As long as your marketing is authentic, engaging, and targeted to the right audience, it has the potential to do well.

Think of Coca-Cola’s Happiness Machine, which gave out presents to unsuspecting students!

Ready to target the right customers?

By getting students’ attention and trust at the start of their academic career, they’ll be sure to buy from your business for the whole of their time at the University of Buckingham.

If you still need help getting your digital marketing in check, we’re the local agency businesses in Buckingham trust. We’re based in Milton Keynes, so we know the town well, and are dedicated to growing the economy in the Buckinghamshire area.

Because when one business succeeds, we all do.

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