Recruiting Intelligence

Raise your hand if you are already onto the recruiting potential in Chile. On the fast track as an emerging economy, Chile is attracting more attention from the international community. Chileans see value in receiving an education and gaining relevant experience abroad. Chile’s movement toward a more global perspective will likely help recruiters enhance their recruiting capabilities in the country.

While small by many measures (a population of nearly 17M people and just 8,000 students studied abroad in 2012), Chile's economy has seen steady and consistent growth for the past 35 years. That trend has slowed a bit recently, but the long-term trend is still up and impressive. 

Our long-term readers will recognize the approach this post takes to analyzing a specific country and its potential for international student recruitment. In other posts, we've focused on many Asian and Southeast Asian countries. We thought we'd look to the America's today. And with this post we offer one last plug to the lastest research we will be presenting at the upcoming AIRC and ICEF conferences in December. There are still a few slots left for our 3rd annual ICEF Pre-conference Global Marketing Seminar for Education Institutions.

Bottom Line: While some challenges stand in the way of attracting Chileans to the U.S., 2,513 Chilean students chose U.S. institutions in 2014, as reported by IIE's latest Open Doors Data. The common barriers to international education (language and financial constraints) are beginning to be removed and the U.S. is becoming an increasingly attractive education destination for young Chileans. Well crafted social media campaigns and a solid agent network are likely your best bets for reaching those seeking to study abroad. An ESL program or other language support is going to be an important element for U.S. institutions recruiting from this region. Finally, we recommend focusing on your institution's strongest graduate level academic programs rather than diluting your message by promoting your university overall. Be bold and clear with what differentiates your institution.

Now, let's turn to Emily so she can tell us what time it is in Chile...

This week we want to compare your university education to roasting a chicken. No, really.

We want you to consider a lesson learned in the grocery industry about marketing. What in the world would your international student recruiting plans have to do with roast chicken you ask? Perhaps not quite as much of a stretch as you might think.

Here at Intead, we are always looking at what industry does, how it markets, what it tracks. And we apply those lessons to academia. It keeps us on our toes.

Bottom Line: Supermarkets learned a while back that advertising focused on cooked meals attracts customers better than showing raw ingredients. For university enrollment, focusing on jobs and outcomes is critical in today’s academic marketing. The message resonates with students and parents alike. So you might want to rethink all those images of happy students on the quad, or engaged in classrooms. The ascending career needs to be present, and perhaps even dominant, in your advertising.

We will be discussing these approaches to academic marketing at the upcoming AIRC and ICEF conferences in December. Are you going? We’d love to meet you face-to-face instead of keyboard to screen! There are still a few slots left for our 3rd annual ICEF Pre-conference Global Marketing Seminar for Education Institutions.

More on using outcomes in your marketing below.

Ryan Craig, Managing Director of University Ventures, joins Michael Waxman-Lenz, CEO and co-founder of Intead, in a discussion about the key insights of his forthcoming book College Disrupted: The Great Unbundling of Higher Education. Listeners will enjoy his perspective on the future of higher education in America.