An Immersive Experience The future

AN IMMERSIVE

EXPERIENCE THE FUTURE OF PERSONALISED STUDENT RECRUITMENT

Hannah Ball loo s at the bene ts o s hools being able to offer prospe tive international parents ustomise in ormation hi h an be tailore to their nee s at the li o a button

The UK boarding environment has quickly adapted to the challenges posed by COVID-19. Recruitment of international boarders, in particular, is now taking a far more digital approach to reach a broader audience of parents. But how can schools differentiate and drive maximum parent engagement? The answer is by providing a personalised, digital customer experience.

Digital marketing is transforming the admissions process for international boarders. Many schools are using a digital marketing mix to grow their reach in international markets. But it is when these tools are used to personalise the customer journey that schools are seeing real success.

Schools are increasingly realising that personalisation should be intrinsic to their marketing activities to make a real impression on the customer. Parents are making a financial and emotional in estment in choosing a school for their child. Only by tapping into this through a personalised admissions process can schools differentiate and drive more admissions.

Digital: moving away from the impersonal

In past years, recruitment in international boarding has lacked personalisation. Most schools have offered a standard brochure or website sharing generic information but with nothing tailored to an individual family’s interests. Parallel, costly and environmentally unfriendly recruitment techniques such as overseas school shows have involved expensive air travel, hotel rooms and print materials. While this in-person approach allowed schools to build a one-on-one connection with the family, often momentum was lost when parents were sent home with a broad-based prospectus which didn’t re ect their interaction ith the school

he benefits of digital marketing long pro en in many consumer arenas are no being rolled out across the education sector. International boarding recruitment needs personalised, digital techniques; online advertising, email and social media marketing are all cost-effective, easy to implement, secure a wide reach and offer a reasonable level of personalisation.

Yet it is possible to go further still by using a marketing and admissions tool hich deli ers the exibility and capability to tailor information about a school to each and every family’s needs. The aim is to establish an emotional connection with a prospective family in order to offer a more complete experience of school life. And it works. Ian Hunt, CEO of Kazakhstan-based schools Haileybury Almaty and Haileybury Astana, is using a personalised communications platform to drive more student applications. Ian says; “Each family will embark upon a journey with us and at each stage we acknowledge their individual needs. This is a very powerful way to build up a rapport with a family who are making one of the biggest financial decisions that they ill e er make t certainly helps enormously to secure admissions to the school.”

an emotional connection

A bespoke, student-centred approach stands out

An independent school’s primary income stream is tuition fees and, with so many UK-based boarding schools recruiting internationally, the level of competition is high.

On average, a family will consider six or seven schools, each one with its own website and prospectus detailing information on the curriculum, extracurricular activities, pastoral care and more. With so many competing choices, how can a parent truly understand which school will be the best fi t

International parents are looking for a school which understands their child. Ultimately, they need a school that can support them through the momentous decision of where to send their child to school in the UK. Most schools currently provide the same information to each enquiry they receive. This can come across as impersonal and, thereby, not meet parents’ expectations. Only through digital marketing tools is there the exibility to offer a tailored, student-centred admissions experience.

Art, drama, sport … most pupils have their preferred subjects and passions. Digital marketing offers the capacity to customise promotional content to re ect the interests and priorities of each prospective student. Most schools have fantastic video and audio content as well as 360-degree tours – it is only through deploying this digital content that a family can truly visualise their child’s new life in its entirety. The British boarding lifestyle: your school’s own offering

Boarding school is a major life experience. Such a change, especially for an international student leaving their roots thousands of miles away, provokes many questions and concerns. Worries about the language, the culture and friendships need to be addressed in order to progress the customer enquiry.

Personalised, digital marketing is a means of communicating and reassuring the entire family on their specifi c concerns and queries. Everything that boarding life includes can be communicated better through digital. Daily routine, from wake-up bells to breakfast to afternoon games to evening supper, can all be authentically captured in video format. Day-to-day life in the dorms, including the quirks of sharing rooms and bathrooms, can be recorded in your school’s own unique context. Families can be offered an almost sensory-like experience, as though they can touch and feel the school from their own living rooms. Such strong visual content means that prospective boarders can almost envisage themselves there. Do your current marketing tools provide such an immersi e experience

Monitoring and tracking parental engagement

To progress more enquiries faster, marketing and admissions staff need to know how families are engaging with their content. The digital platforms they use need to provide easyto-read data at each point of the admissions process, allowing them to react at every stage of the funnel, ensuring fewer drop-offs. It is these near-misses that can make the difference.

With most digital tools, customer data can be tracked and displayed in one place, offering a snapshot of the admissions story. Schools should be monitoring which content parents are engaging with the most, how long they have spent viewing certain content – videos, for instance – and the all-important click-through-rate. These insights into the performance of your campaign can help inform future marketing activity.

And, over time, this data can lead to a competitive advantage. It can provide a clearer picture of a school’s potential customer base for more effective segmentation around customer demographics such as age, location, interests, and so on. Getting to know your customers better can help schools plan more effective marketing strategies and messaging to further reach and engage more prospects.

There is no doubt that being able to leverage the best of digital marketing techniques to differentiate your school and offer a personalised customer experience is a key way to drive student recruitment. ●

HANNAH BELL is the Marketing Manager for Kampus24 (www.kampus24.com); she previously worked for Oxford University Press.

2022 is here – but are you ready ? 2020 start of a new decade in a way no one could have imagined. 2021 has not been much fun. 2022 it is time to focus on you. One month has nearly gone – how are your resolutions? Are they a distant memory or have you actioned them? In 2022, do you want to continue your new year with your old experiences in mind? It is time for you to become the storyteller of your future. Put that school development plan or marking down and reach for a pen and paper. On 31st December, I opened a letter that I have written to myself of what I wanted to be able to say. Glass in hand, chocolates on the table opening this letter was very different. Professionally, personally and emotionally covid has had an impact on us all in different ways. Some of the things I had not achieved due to covid and travel restrictions. How about you? But, with the gift of being kind to myself, I looked at how I could change or adapt one item to move forwards. Sometimes the gift of being kind to ourselves allows us to reflect on what we really need to achieve and believe. What would you want your future self to say on 31st December 2022?

2022 is coming

– but are you ready for a new year? 2020 start of a new decade in a way no one could have imagined. 2021 has not been much fun. 2022 it is time to focus on you. How has 2021 been for you? Are the resolutions you set yourself a long time ago a distant memory For me, 2021 was guided by three words ‘ Be more lighthouse’ and I take these words into 2022 as a guide. What 3 words would you use to inform the direction your future self will be taking in 2022? Your 2022 story is up to you and it starts today with the first words you write. Happy 2022- it is time for you to start the next chapter strong one action at a time. Happy new year !

or have you actioned them? What lessons have you learned? On 1 January 2022, do you want to start your new year with your old experiences in mind? Every December, it is important to look at a review of your year to reflect on what did and did not happen. To get you started, you are not going to answer 20 questions, but I want you to take 20 minutes reflection on the year that was, using some of my favourite questions below. Now, it is time to grab a pen and get started… If you had to describe your 2021 in three words, what would they be? If someone wrote a book about your life in 2021, what kind of genre would it be? A comedy, love story, drama, film noir or something else? What advice would you give your early 2022 self if you could? How can you use the last month of 2021 to get a great start in 2022? What was the funniest moment of your year, one that still makes it hard not to burst out laughing when you think about it?

2022 is coming

– but are you ready for a new year? 2020 start of a new decade in a way no one could have imagined. 2021 has not been much fun. 2022 it is time to focus on you. How has 2021 been for you? Are the resolutions you set yourself a long time ago a distant memory What one thing would you do differently and why? What do you want to see, discover, explore? What do you want your everyday life to be like? Answer those questions, add in some of your own – and look at three steps to move forward. Make 2022 the year of you.

Written by Tracy Shand at Simply Boarding

or have you actioned them? What lessons have you learned? On 1 January 2022, do you want to start your new year with your old experiences in mind? Every December, it is important to look at a review of your year to reflect on what did and did not happen. To get you started, you are not going to answer 20 questions, but I want you to take 20 minutes reflection on the year that was, using some of my favourite questions below. Now, it is time to grab a pen and get started… If you had to describe your 2021 in three words, what would they be? If someone wrote a book about your life in 2021, what kind of genre would it be? A comedy, love story, drama, film noir or something else? What advice would you give your early 2022 self if you could? How can you use the last month of 2021 to get a great start in 2022? What was the funniest moment of your year, one that still makes it hard not to burst out laughing when you think about it? What one thing would you do differently and why? What do you want to see, discover, explore? What do you want your everyday life to be like? Answer those questions, add in some of your own – and look at three steps to move forward. Article written by Tracy Shand at Simply Boarding Make 2022 the year of you.

Written by Tracy Shand at Simply Boarding

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