How Higher Education Marketing Professionals Can Use Data to Drive Student Recruitment Campaigns in the UK
We explore how higher education marketing professionals can use data to drive their student recruitment campaigns in the UK, highlighting a number of examples of innovation in this area across the sector.
Competition across the higher education sector is intensifying; in an increasingly saturated market, providers are having to find new ways to highlight their unique offering and attract the most promising talent. In this environment, it is more important than ever for higher education marketing professionals to use data to drive their student recruitment campaigns.
However, knowing where to start isn’t always easy. In this article, we outline the ways that HE marketers can use data to drive their decisions and strategic planning. We also look at a series of examples of innovation from across the sector, which can serve as inspiration for professionals looking to expand and enhance the way they use insight to inform their student recruitment campaigns.
How can data be used to improve student recruitment?
There are a number of ways in which data can be used to improve student recruitment. For example, data can be used to:
Identify and target prospective students: By understanding the characteristics of their ideal students, such as their location, demographics, and interests, higher education institutions can target their marketing campaigns more effectively.
Understand student behaviour: By tracking student behaviour on their websites and other online channels, higher education institutions can gain insights into what their prospective students are looking for and how they make decisions.
Measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns: By tracking the results of their marketing campaigns, higher education institutions can determine what is working and what is not, and make adjustments to their campaigns accordingly.
How are HE marketers using data in novel ways to drive campaigns?
There are a number of innovative ways in which higher education marketing professionals are using data to drive their student recruitment campaigns. For example, some universities are using data to create personalised marketing campaigns that are tailored to the individual needs and interests of each prospective student. Other universities are using data to develop predictive models that can help them identify students who are most likely to apply.
Below we’ve put together a list of examples demonstrating how higher education marketing professionals are using data to drive their student recruitment campaigns in the UK:
University of Nottingham: The University of Nottingham has developed a data-driven marketing strategy informed by insights from prospective students and the university’s position in the global higher education market. Running with the slogan ‘normal never changed the world’, this campaign used tools such as Google’s Market Explorer to identify global markets where demand for HE was growing quickly and compared this information with the likelihood that prospects in those locations could afford to study abroad. As a result, this campaign helped to identify and target prospective students with messages that felt relevant to them and an offering that was feasible given their circumstances.
University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University: In collaboration with the local council, in 2022 the two major universities in Sheffield launched ‘Sheffield Your University City’, a new campaign to enhance the reputation of the city from a HE perspective. The organisations used market research to identify that Sheffield had a ‘perception issue’, with low associations for younger audiences and inaccurate, outdated perceptions among older ones. Using this insight, the organisations work together to develop a precise target market of prospective students based on prior attainment, location and socioeconomic status. The universities then target these students with personalised outreach and support, which has increased their likelihood of applying and enrolling. They also ran a brand uplift study after the campaign to measure the impact and understand the success of campaign, which would then be used to inform future strategic planning.
University of Salford: The “Match made in Salford” campaign both generated data and created it. Prospective students were encouraged to download and sign up for an app, which then required them to provide information such as predicted grades and career interests. The app then generated a selection of courses at the university that uses could ‘swipe’ right or left on, in Tinder-style fashion, to indicate their interest. As a result, not only was the content and course information students received personalised according to the data they provided; the university was then able to use the activity from the app to better understand their audience.
Insight and Innovation
Data can be a powerful tool for higher education marketing professionals. By using data to identify and target prospective students, understand student behaviour, and measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, higher education institutions can improve their student recruitment efforts and achieve their student number goals.
Here on HE Professional, we’re always exploring the latest ideas and innovations for professional service leaders and practitioners across the higher education. To keep ahead of the trends, subscribe to our free roundup and receive fresh content straight to your inbox every week.
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