Understanding the international student recruitment journey

Transcription

1 Understanding the international student recruitment journey UK Annual Holly Rich NARIC Conference 2015 Higher Education Client Partner

2 Net Natives 2 netnatives.com / We Get Students The UK's Leading Education-Specialist Digital Marketing Agency

3 Understanding the International Student Journey Awarene ss Enquir y Applicatio n Enrolme nt I m thinking about university but I don t know where to start my search Where should I study? Why UK? Is it safe? What are the financial support options? I ve found University of Fibchester, now I want to ask specific questions about their offer What courses can I do? What are the entry requirements? Why University of Fibchester? How do I apply? Where will I live? Will there be others like me? What are the visa/application deadlines? I ve made my choices - why is University of Fibchester better than the others? What makes University of Fibchester special? Am I likely to get the best career afterwards? Where do I go to enrol? When does the course start? What personal support will I get around my studies?

4 International Teams Biggest Woes. We cant track everything? We cant evidence ROI on our activity? We don t know what language to run our digital campaigns in? We can t integrate data into our CRM system? We don t know how to make ourselves stand out?

5 Facebook Activity The graph below shows when UK universities are posting on their international profiles during the last 6 months. It also highlights which months are receiving the most engagements from the students. On average each post received 105 engagements, with June reaching 275 engagements per post Facebook Activity

6 Social Media Activity The graph below depicts the times and days in the last 6 months which received the most engagements. The larger the circle the more content was posted, the greener the circle the more engagements. The best engagements on Facebook were seen during the evenings Friday Tuesday.

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8 Twitter Posting Activity The graph below shows when UK universities are posting on their international profiles during the last 6 months. It also highlights which months are receiving the most engagements from the students. Posting on Twitter was far less frequent than Facebook, on average each post received just 1.1 engagements. However, interactions correlated highly with posting activity Twitter Activity

9 Social Media Activity The graph below depicts the times and days in the last 6 months which received the most engagements. The larger the circle the more content was posted, the greener the circle the more engagements. Posting across Twitter was far less than Facebook, but the majority of posts saw at least some engagements.

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11 EduRank is the Education Sector's source for digital performance metrics across Web and Social

12 Nigeria

13 NARIC Conference 2015 Key Google Search Terms for Universities in the UK for International The pie chart below shows the key search terms for International Students searching about UK Universities in 2014 in Nigeria and the percentage associated to each key search terms in relation to the Average Searches per Month. 26% Engineering Key Terms Searched (January 2014December 2014) 23% Science 22% IT 15% Architecture

14 NARIC Conference 2015 Search breakdown by device for UK universities in Nigeria The pie chart below shows the Search Breakdown by device for UK Universities for International Students in Nigeria by comparing to , highlighting the increase in the use of Mobile Devices compared to Computers and Tablets

15 Word Cloud This word cloud depicts the most common themes spoken about from Nigeria. The words in green are associated with mainly positive comments, grey neutral comments and red negative comments.

16 Facebook Top Post Virtual Open Day

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19 Nigeria Strong affinity with the language Importance of in-country events Motivated by career progression when they return home Conversion to application ratio is notoriously low so ensure you are qualifying as much as possible

20 Brazil

21 Device Distribution - Brazil 3% 20% Laptops & Desktops Mobile Phones 77% Mobile grew 109% in 2014 Tablets Top 3 Online Activities Social Media Browse & Video

22 Facebook Top Posts - Video

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25 Brazil 3G coverage is high meaning video works particularly well remains strong in Brazil, so focus on data capture for later conversion activity Social media & browsing are popular, but monitor the efficiency of the languages you are posting content in

26 India

27 Device Distribution - India Mobile grew 9% in 2014 (desktop declined -19%) Laptops & Desktops Mobile Phones Tablets Top 3 Online Activities Social Media Music

28 Twitter Top Posts Campus

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31 India Mobile dominates the digital landscape and music is in the top 3 most common online activities, pointing towards a market that has a strong recreational sway when it comes to digital. Where high rankings and prestige aren t possible, draw on student experience Like Nigeria, be aware that India is a click happy nation, so focus on rigorous targeting and qualification by copy in all ad campaigns to improve the quality of response.

32 CHINA China

33 Why China? China is by far the world s largest source market for international students with 1 in 3 new international students in the UK coming from China. China also boasts the world s largest digital audience, with more internet users than the US, India and Japan combined. Chinese students are considering universities in countries including Canada, Australia and the USA making having an effective online presence in china more important than ever. 618m 25hrs Internet users in China 81% On the internet every week 430m Have access to the internet via a mobile device 400m 3G mobile subscribers 532m The top 2 video websites attract 400m viewers every month Users of instant messaging in China

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35 Device Distribution - China 3% 21% Laptops & Desktops Mobile Phones 76% Mobile grew 121% in 2014 Tablets Top 3 Online Activities Search Social Media Video

36 Facebook Top Posts - Rankings

37 Managing Enquiries Big Top

38 5 Key Takeaways Understand what your students challenges are at different times of the student journey to address in your content accordingly Alter messages dependant on the platform you are using and use data and creative collectively to cut through 3. Capture data at the point of enquiry to use later on in conversion tactics 4. Split test ads and copy to ensure you reach the highest quality student 5. Ensure you are tracking every element of your strategy to prove ROI

39 Holly Rich Higher Education Client Partner