Recruiting Intelligence

You’ve probably heard this: Content is King. In the digital marketing age, this line is talking about the power of great content to draw customers. For example, if the Netflix library shows you the type of movies you like, you are likely to subscribe to the service.

And speaking of subscribers, a note to all of our loyal readers: Intead’s Recruiting Intelligence Blog will take its annual summer hiatus and be back to your inbox the first week of September. We hope you have a great summer.

Now, our intrepid blogger Emily shares her take on how great content can be created and used to attract international students. Be sure to wear your creativity cap as you read. What engaging, sharable content can your institution produce?

You’ve heard us talk about this before: the power of digital marketing. Unlike other forms of marketing, call it “old school” where measuring results and learning required far more investment, digital marketing provides analytics that tell you where you can improve.

If you are coming the the NAFSA conference in Boston in just a few weeks we will be presenting on this topic.

The learning from digital marketing campaigns can keep you repeating your successes, not your mistakes. And with the marketing landscape and student mobility trends shifting constantly, the analytics that tell us what works are becoming increasingly important as we allocate scarce resources.

So, what does that mean to you?

Although students are the ones who will ultimately attend a higher education program, the role of parents cannot be minimized. International parents seem to play an even greater role in school selection than American parents. Armed with this knowledge, the next logical question is: What do parents want to know?

What factors need to be considered in developing a strategic plan for international student recruitment? Which stakeholders need to be involved in that process? Though there isn't a one-size-fits-all solution for all institutions to these questions, we'd like to use this post to give you some factors to consider as you develop or augment your strategic plan.

Does this sound familar? Your institutional leadership has announced that you will be embarking on a campaign to increase your international student population. By 2017 you need to increase the number of international students by 100, 500, 1000 students. Are you really prepared for an influx of international students?

I recently had the pleasure of connecting with Lavinia Yang, Executive Director of First Study, a Taiwanese education consultancy. Ms. Yang shared in depth responses about the recruiting landscape in Taiwan. Higher education professionals with an interest in developing or expanding recruitment in Taiwan should read Ms. Yang's insightful responses to my questions.

At the 2014 NAFSA Region VI Conference, I attended a terrific session given by Mindy Yiu and Ann Rahmat of Miami University (Ohio). These knowledgeable higher education professionals presented a session titled Tired of Traveling Alone: How to Form a Consortium Travel Group. Since many of our readers are in the position of planning travel we would like to share the highlights of this session.

President Barack Obama’s announcement at the end of 2014 that the US would be restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba opened the floodgates for articles and newscasts about what this will mean for US businesses. There are a range of businesses elbowing to enter the Cuban market, but what does this mean for the higher education sector? What will this mean for study abroad programs in Cuba, language schools that see possibility in opening in Cuba, and, in particular, what will renewed diplomatic ties with Cuba mean for Cuban students who seek to attend institutions abroad?

Brazil is the buzz word in international education recruitment these days. And we know that you want to learn as much as you can about Brazil. What do you need to know about Brazil in order to make your recruitment strategy more effective? This podcast will give you a great deal of useful information to build or expand your Brazilian student recruitment.

In 2014 our research and editorial teams worked hard to bring you engaging and cutting-edge blog articles. As we enter 2015 we thought a retrospective of the best and most popular Intead content of 2014 was in order-- just in case you missed anything the first time around.