How do you differentiate one university over another? Ask any senior marketing professional in the Higher Education sector and they’ll recognise the importance of differentiating what their university has to offer over that of another. Yet the truth of the matter is that, as soon as you look past a university’s location, upon first glance many universities can appear to be very homogenous and indifferent from their rivals. Of course, universities are defined by the types of courses they deliver, but a prospective student will often know what course they want to study, so it then becomes a question of how to differentiate your university over those with a similar set of programmes.
As the HE landscape continues to evolve and students become a far more discerning set of consumers, HEI marketing professionals recognise the need to demonstrate the benefits of what makes their institution stand-out from the competition. And to do this, key performance indicators, such as satisfaction or employability levels, are often used as a means to highlight a good return on a student’s investment. Of course, this is very important to do and something the government has advocated, which is only too evident through the introduction of Key Information Sets. But, if all universities are making similar claims, can they really be used as a means to differentiate? And besides, surely with so much data now available for prospects to sift through, this only leads to more confusion?
For those of you reading this with absolutely no responsibility for the recruitment of School Direct places, or the recruitment of any kind of teacher training course for that matter, you might think that there is little point in reading on. However, if you have a general interest in student recruitment and raising the profile of your course, I would urge you to stick with this blog, especially if you are concerned with ensuring the best return on your marketing expenditure. The marketing principles discussed within this blog really can be applied to any course at the University.
A Game Changer
A change of government policy and the introduction of a new course called School Direct not only changes the rules of the game but also presents new challenges for student recruitment. Raising the awareness of new course provision can often be a challenge in itself, but with School Direct this responsibility doesn't just sit with the university that the school, or group of schools, have decided to go into partnership with, but also with the school itself.
With winter setting in and the Christmas break not far away, it’s time to think ahead to next year’s Applicant Day cycle starting in January. From now onwards and throughout the spring term, applicants will be receiving offers from their prospective institutions. Their task is now to hone their five or so application choices and decide where they really see themselves studying and living for the next three or more years. And that’s where Applicant Days are designed to help.
By the time Applicant Days come around, the priority for most applicants is figuring out the distinctions between courses at different universities. It’s likely that they’ll be visiting elsewhere too, and directly comparing institutions and courses. Our cycle of Applicant Days running between January and the start of May provides opportunities for applicants to visit us throughout the period that sees their offers come in and decisions having to be made.
The subject sessions at Applicant Days are the perfect opportunity for departments to engage with their applicants at this stage in the application cycle and really show off the many benefits of our courses. It’s then our job in MRA to build the rest of the days around these sessions and help reinforce the value of the whole ‘Chester Experience’ – the result hopefully being to convert attendees into budding 2013 entrants.
I’ve been having a look at some of the survey feedback about what prospective students most enjoyed about last year’s Applicant Days, plus things they thought could be improved upon. A summary of this data will be forwarded to Faculty Deans over the next couple of months.
In the meantime, here are a few illustrative quotes from last year’s survey and our top tips for planning successful subject sessions.
Friendly information from the experts
Given that applicants are taking the time to visit us to find out more about their course, it’s important that they’re able to meet with relevant subject staff where possible. Being able to meet and ask questions of the people who will actually be teaching them leaves visitors better informed and able to envisage what their time with the Department will be like. Previous visitors have also been impressed with the friendliness of staff and an altogether personable approach that really helps Chester stand out from the crowd:
"I liked the relaxed, friendly atmosphere”
“Very friendly and welcoming Professor, plenty of opportunity for questions”
“I was pleased to meet a member of staff I will be working with in the future”
“A specific course teacher would have been helpful”
“It would have been nice to have talked to someone who actually ran the course”
Help from current students
Of course, the real experts in student life at Chester are our students! We know from visitor feedback there’s nothing better than getting information straight from the horse’s mouth. Involving current students in subject sessions - perhaps through Q&As or tours of the department - is a great way of contributing to the day’s personal touch , not to mention a great resource and help to staff.
“There were students from first and second year speaking which helped to get a feel for the university from a student’s point of view”
Timely and relevant information
A number of those who decide to visit us on an Applicant Day will have already visited us at one of our recent Open Days. It’s worth being mindful of this when planning what you will be delivering on Applicant Days as it shouldn’t simply be a case of repeating the same old formula.
“It was disappointing that it was exactly the same information and presentation that I had received on the Open Day I attended”
Notwithstanding this, remember that our visitors are further along the applicant ‘journey’ than before they applied: they will now be seeking specific information about modules, field trips, assessment methods and so on, and comparing this to their other offers. They are also likely to be in a better position to absorb positive messages about graduate employability at this stage; another key area for differentiation between institutions.
Keeping it informative, engaging and professional
… Not too much of a tall order, right?! First and foremost, applicants want to come away equipped with in-depth, relevant information about what their chosen course will entail. But as the recent parent’s blog post on our campaign site highlights, visits to events like Applicant Days are all about getting a ‘feel’ for the place and people at a university. We’ve had some great feedback from applicants who have been really inspired by meeting enthusiastic staff and students, seeing departmental facilities and engaging in activities as part of the subject sessions:
“Great tutor. Interaction. Ability to ask questions. Good to see equipment”
“I enjoyed it when we did a small workshop as it was fun and not too pressured”
“I enjoyed seeing the facilities and previous students’ work”
“We enjoyed the way [the tutor] sold both the course and the University. He was informative, interesting and held our attention throughout the session”
This is all worth thinking about when planning the format and delivery of your sessions. In terms of timing, do make sure to use the full time allocated for the subject sessions (this is your one chance to really sell the course – seize it!). Equally, please make every effort not to overrun as delays tend to impact on the rest of an applicants’ day, which was noted by some in last year’s survey feedback.
Of course, there are always going to be latecomers, and occasions where the best planned schedules go awry! Due to the variety of our programmes and the nature of Applicant Days as being designed around applicant choice, it’s inevitably difficult making ‘one size fit all’. The best feedback from staff and students has been where sessions have been adaptable and tailored to fit the occasion – often, this is when we are able to demonstrate Chester’s personal touch at its best:
“It was small and informal ... it made it very easy for me to ask any questions and get the most out of my day”
Finally, think about the overall impression given by the materials you use on the day and update them as required. If you’d like any advice on printed materials or would prefer to use a PowerPoint template that integrates with other materials used by MRA, please let us know.
Myself and Mark Hoddell will be in contact with relevant colleagues about the forthcoming Applicant Days – but if you do have any questions or queries in the meantime please get in touch:
In an earlier blog post, Neil mentioned something called
the ‘University of You’ campaign. Conscious that much of our work isn’t seen
by the wider University community, I think that it’s important to explain some
of the concept and campaign planning that goes into recruiting new students. In
doing this, you’ll get a better feel for what we do, why we do it, and
how we plan and integrate our activities.
So, what on earth is the ‘University of You’ campaign?
Well, every year we face increasing competition to generate applications for
our undergraduate courses and every year it becomes more important to work
smartly while really trying to stand out from the crowd. Factor in the changing HE landscape for 2012 entry and we figured it was more important than ever
to speak to our prospective students through
the channels that they use while
addressing their concerns.
So, the ‘University of You’ campaign is our 2012
undergraduate recruitment campaign. It’s the plan we put together to generate
the 20,000 applications that we are now working with to secure our 2012
intake. The campaign is based on the simple premise that by working directly with our prospective students to build meaningful relationships, we stand a far
better chance of generating a high number of applications from a well informed
and engaged group of individuals.
Planning
Planning campaigns is always fun. Over a number of
sessions we get the team together to thrash out ideas and concepts. We work and
rework ideas, change artwork and strategy and end up… sticking lots of brightly
coloured post-it notes to our walls:
My
office wall – where the magic happens
But while we try to be as creative as possible at this
stage, we always make sure we focus on developing and keeping to a set of core
messages. These key principles then inform the entire campaign that follows.
For 2012 entry, our core messages were created to speak
directly to our prospective students and to address the issues pertinent to
them while at the same time attempting to differentiate the University of
Chester from other universities.
There were numerous messages that we needed to get across
in this campaign:
The benefits of a university experience
Value for money
Employability and careers
Uniqueness – augment your studies with a range
of experiences to make yourself unique
Specific combinations
Risk reduction – why choosing Chester is not a
risky option
Stories – the real-life of the University
However, there had to be a key overarching theme to hook our
prospects. And this is what we went for: Personalisation.
By placing the
student at the heart of everything we do and offering an amazing mix of
additional opportunities, our graduates can really stand out in the fierce
graduate job market of the future. And that, in a nutshell, is the core message
of the campaign: Choosing the University of Chester gives you so much freedom and support to develop as an individual that it really is the University of You.
Execution
So, satisfied with our concept and our core messages, we set
out to create an engaging and fresh multimedia campaign that would generate
interest in the University and encourage prospective students to interact with
us.
As I’ve said, we love a bit of direct marketing here in
MRA and what better way to get the ball rolling than with a piece of targeted
direct mail? Armed with a database of hot leads (segmented by the course
individuals were interested in applying for) we hit the doormats of around
55,000 prospects in the first weeks of September 2011 at exactly the time they
would be thinking about getting their UCAS forms for 2012 entry completed. Why
direct mail? Well, firstly it’s harder to ignore than an email, a text message
or a printed advert and, secondly, because of who else would see it. We wanted
parents to engage with the campaign too and learn about the benefits of their
offspring applying to Chester.
As Neil has mentioned before on the blog, we don’t
communicate with prospects without a call to action.
And the call to action here was clear. We had created a beautiful stand-alone
website filled with the core messages of the campaign and we wanted to drive
traffic to it.
Phase
one. Getting the message out there
The University of You phase one campaign website was a
genuinely engaging and user friendly experience. Quirkily designed to help
differentiate us from the competition, the site navigated left to right across
the user’s screen rather than up and down like a traditional website. It was filled
with snappy content and bespoke video and generated excellent feedback from
users. Most importantly, it really started to hammer home our key messages and its
own call to action – to order a prospectus or to book for an Open Day.
The site was ably supported online by bespoke University of You Facebook and twitter
content and its success was shown by massive October Open Days and an unprecedented level of interaction with prospective students.
But where are we up to now? Well, the campaign isn’t over
and now we have moved into a second, ‘conversion’ phase. We all know that
generating a high number of applications is important but converting these
expressions of interest into students is the key and phase two, the applicant zone, launched
in February of this year to coincide with the end of the on-time application
cycle and keep our applicants engaged with the 'University of You' message.
Results
Has it worked? Yes, the evidence would suggest that the
campaign has been successful. Of course, we won’t know the final outcome of
2012 recruitment until later on in the year but what we do know is that the
level of engagement we have had with our applicants this year has been better
than ever (more on this to follow from Adam) and that the messages we worked so
hard to create and communicate are really getting across.
The campaign has really refreshed our thinking and
brought renewed clarity to the way we communicate with prospective students.
And what’s most important is that the messages are rooted in truth. We really
do have a unique offering here at the University. There really is enough to
offer our students to augment their course so that they can stand out as unique
graduates in a crowded marketplace. It’s something we should all be very proud
of.
