Recruiting Intelligence

Imagine a mid-size, private university, call it Opportunity University, gearing up for a recruitment push in Vietnam – a new target market for the institution. Excited by the potential and the green light from the provost, the nimble international recruitment team of two assembles a marketing campaign targeting what they assume to be their typical international prospects: high school students motivated to get a liberal arts education at a US institution that will lead to future career success.  

The standard international student profile, right? (Wrong, but we’ll get to that.) Running on a tight budget and timeline, they repurposed a campaign strategy that had previously proven successful with the Indian market (a dominant source of students for their computer science graduate programs). The response, however, was not what they had hoped.

The errors of this somewhat exaggerated story highlight a critical marketing misstep: relying on shallow persona development. Not thinking this stuff through can lead to serious marketing misses. Anyone who takes a simple bullet list of traits and runs with it (high school student, career-minded, uses WhatsApp, seeking international education) is not taking their role as marketer seriously.  

Personas often get a bad rap from jaded marketers who have seen the process based on simplistic stereotypes and then relied on as a holy grail. We hear you! We are not seeking Hollywood stereotypes here.

But well considered personas do align your broader marketing team so that your communications speak with a consistent integrity to each potential student segment. Well-crafted personas are all about internal team alignment around a common voice and marketing approach.

Opportunities to Meet the Intead Team  
- NAFSA Region XI, Hartford, Connecticut, Oct. 27-29, 2024
- PIE Live North America, Boston, MA, Nov. 19-20, 2024
- AIRC, Seattle-Bellevue, Washington, Dec. 4-7 -- including our pre-conference global marketing workshop. A full day of Intead global intel (lunch included ; -). Details here. 

Bookmark this: Intead’s Resource Center 
Access 800+ articles, slides decks, reports with relevant content on any topic important to enrollment management and student recruiting.  Check it out.

Unlike the fictitious Opportunity University, institutions that think critically and dive deep into student persona analysis understand that the development of multidimensional profiles is foundational to successful student recruitment strategies. They get that personas, when thoughtfully crafted, can anchor the entire marketing team around a coherent, effective, audience-centered strategy. It’s a north star for guiding marketing tactic selection, content development, design, student interactions, and marketing execution which includes selecting recruitment channels. 

The process of creating marketing personas itself helps dissect the complex student decision-making process by considering the target audience’s lifestyle, challenges, media consumption habits, and underlying motivations. It is so much more than a surface demographic dig. What you uncover during the process can lead to really compelling marketing that will resonate with your prospects because you will have firm insights into their mindset, influencers, and ultimately, their choices.  

On more than one occasion we’ve seen the persona discovery process actually lead to market retreat because the more intimate understanding made it clear the audience and programs on offer weren’t a good fit after all. Better to find out in the early stages than committing to a no-win grind. A sort of check and balance of your strategy. 

Complex persona development is the kind of thing large consumer packaging companies are so good at. During one of our internal innovation sessions the Intead team got into a discussion about how understanding your audience plays out. One quick case study was P&G’s “Thank You, Mom” campaign from the 2012 Olympics (London). If you don’t recall what we’re talking about, see the link below. Let us know your reaction. Tip: grab tissues first.  

So much emotion, and yet, all they were selling was laundry detergent and other basic goods. They knew exactly who their target audience was and why they used their products. And no, it wasn’t to simply keep clothes clean. The tagline lays it out, "It takes someone strong to make someone strong. Thank you, Mom." Suddenly, I have this urge to buy Tide. But I digress… 

The lesson here is the student journey to your institution is so much more complex and life altering. Just imagine what a thoughtful, well-understood persona could do for your student recruitment. Read on for our tips (pass them on to your team) … 

Spoiler alert: It is simply not ok to tell prospective students you have a vibrant campus community. You gotta show them.  

Our goal: marketing messaging that resonates based on very real consumer connection. 

Human beings rally around things. We rally around our families (biologic or chosen), our sports teams (Celtics, Manchester United), our celebrities (TSwift, Beyonce), our professions (cybersecurity engineer, IP attorney), events (Rio Carnival, Chinese New Year), crises (Gaza, Ukraine), political issues (don’t get us started). 

It has a lot to do with shared experience over time. The connections we make with others who engage in a project, achieving a goal, together. As humans, we want to protect and bolster the things we love.

So, no wonder, people rally around their campus community. Having shared a period of time together and having a degree conferred by the same administrative body – these activities and achievements form bonds. 

We eat in the same cafeterias, walk the same halls and pathways, endure the same exam schedules, and wear the same cap and gown as we walk the same stages to receive our parchment pressed with our school seal. 

With the rise of online degrees, a new sense of shared experience develops.

Opportunities to Meet the Intead Team  
- NAFSA Region XI, Hartford, Connecticut, Oct. 27-29, 2024
- PIE Live North America, Boston, MA, Nov. 19-20, 2024
- AIRC, Seattle-Bellevue, Washington, Dec. 4-7, 2024

Bookmark this: Intead’s Resource Center 
Access 800+ articles, slides, reports with relevant content on any topic important to enrollment management and student recruiting.  Check it out.

There is far less connective tissue to draw students together with the online experience. Yet, there remains a common set of activities and the earned degree creates that same sense of pride in achievement born of concerted effort toward a shared goal. 

When we think about student recruitment from the prospective student point of view, as the university selection list gets shorter, the heart plays a larger and larger role in determining where they will enroll. In focus groups, the most common phrase is some form of, “After all the thinking, I felt this was the right choice for me.” (emphasis added) 

Here’s the thing: it’s hard to build student evangelists within your community when they see their education and their community as entirely transactional.  

Not rocket science. However, it takes the investment of dedicated time. This is more than a simple 90-minute brainstorming session with your team's marketing talent. There's trend data to evaluate, focus groups to convene, influencer affinity groups to build and manage. 

Sounds like a fair amount of work, right?

And when you think about those institutions out there who just seem to be crushing it, what do they seem to have going for them? Sure, they have the product mix and the measured price point. But what hits you right in the face is the vibe. That is the thing that gets you thinking, "Oh, I wish we had that connection to our audience."

That audience connection doesn't just happen. It is cultivated by talented, thoughtful, invested people who believe in the opportunity.

Below we share a few pointers. Please be in touch if you'd like to dive into a deeper analysis of the specific opportunities for your institution (info@intead.com). This is about the consumer insights the Intead team is so very good at identifying and leveraging. Read on… 

We don’t know who needs to hear this, but email is still alive and well. Thriving, in fact. And while all things social media are the marketing darlings of the moment, email, like the quintessential, foundational website, is an indispensable tool for your student recruitment. Some of you don’t believe us, we know. 

Consider this statistic: by the end of 2024, there will be nearly 4.5 billion email users worldwide—that's over half the planet's population. Chances are your target markets are among this crowd. What’s more, four out of 10 emails are opened through mobile apps (per Statista), putting your highly connected prospects just a notification away from your next message. 

“Sure,” you say, “But you’ve provided no age breakdown with those stats.” Mmm-hmmm. We hear you. 

The Intead team is gearing up for some amazing presentations and we hope you can join us. 

• NAFSA 2024 Annual Conference and Expo in New Orleans, May 28-31, 2024
• GMAC 2024 Annual Conference in New Orleans, June 19-21, 2024
• 2024 EducationUSA Forum in Washington, DC, July 30 - August 01, 2024

Let us know if you’ll share a cup of coffee and a conversation about all things global and digital (info@intead.com) 

Why should you place bets on email campaigns when prospective students are so enamored with hugely popular social media platforms and never (never?!?) check their email? For one, email has an unparalleled direct line to your audience. And, unlike other more entertainment-focused social platforms, messages delivered via email are not competing with a third-party algorithm – you send them, they receive them. Plus, emails tend to be easier for your audience to hang on to than say a TikTok post, giving these messages a longer shelf life.   

Essential to this discussion: at what point in your recruitment comms do you use email? To be clear, use email as part of your lead nurturing strategy, NOT as an initial attraction effort. Capture their attention and inquiry using other channels (fairs, social media, counselor referral, etc.). Email is just one element of your effort to deepen the engagement.  

Interestingly, 58% of Gen Z check their email multiple times a day, 23% check it at least once a day, 12% a couple times a week, and 5% once a week, per Campaign Monitor. So, the idea that email is a vintage, washed-up medium is truly a nonstarter. Email is mainstream and will be for the foreseeable future. Including it as part of your recruitment efforts just makes sense.  

Yes, social media is a must-have recruitment tactic. Should anyone on your team need a refresher on the importance of taking an omnichannel approach to marketing, check out this post. 

In the meantime, read on for actionable tips on how to improve your email marketing game to boost, and prove, your student recruitment metrics. It has SO much to do with your content choices... 

Until Threads, ChatGPT was the fastest-growing consumer app in history taking a short 2 months to amass 100 million users. Though Threads’ frenetic growth has tapered (and then some), interest in the AI tool has more than 1.4 billion visitors actively engaged with it each month.  

Today, it’s all about the tools we use that offer us shortcuts to our work as marketers. While ChatGPT is the latest shortcut tool, it is not so different in so many ways from the old school marketing template that saves us time and if misused (like ChatGPT) reduces, even eliminates, our creativity and effectiveness.

On the surface, we can point to a plan well executed, right? Our starting point has already been legitimized based on past performance (ChatGPT or some previously used design or report template). So, it stands to reason that using those tools will produce similar results. Uhm, maybe…

But probably not.

It is basic human nature. Use of shortcut tools often means we slack off on scrutinizing the details of what we are producing. Less scrutiny of what we produce and deliver to the world, less customization of our messaging and content, means we are prone to error. Some of those errors can be hugely damaging.

There goes our credibility with our target audiences.

Opportunities to Meet In Person 

The Intead team is gearing up for some amazing presentations and we hope you can join us. 

• 2024 AIEA Annual Conference in DC, Feb 18-21, 2024
• ICEF North America in Niagara Falls, Canada, May 1-3, 2024
• NAFSA 2024 Annual Conference and Expo in New Orleans, May 28-31, 2024

Let us know if you’ll share a cup of coffee and a conversation about all things global and digital (info@intead.com) 

Looking particularly at ChatGPT, its ability to read and synthesize the entirety of the internet is amazing, staggering. Searching and understanding for complex information and analysis of huge datasets - what a time savings. Useful with even not so complex information. If only it provided reliable results without blending information inappropriately and even fabricating results out of thin air. Recent ads we've heard from AI service providers include the claim, "hallucination-free AI." Uhm, what?

Can you truly promise that? How did we get to a place where you need to promise that? 

When even the experts cannot explain to us how and why AI is producing falsehoods, when we get information that might have completely fabricated results and basic users (non-subject matter experts) cannot identify which pieces of information are accurate and which are not, we are in serious trouble.

Read on for perspective and our actionable what to do checklist. We want to help you, as a marketer, use shortcuts like AI and marketing templates wisely and avoid falling into the banality of functionality – the death knell of any marketing effort and potentially, the killer of a brand's soul. 

Important Note to Readers: This is not another article on how to master ChatGPT prompts to get ‘genius’ responses.  

We’ve all heard about how company culture eats company strategy for lunch, yeah?

Last week, we wrote about how folks often confuse strategy and tactics. And we gave a little side eye to those colleagues among us who use the word “strategy” to appear smart and make others feel less than.

The cheat sheet on that one: replace the word “strategy” or “strategic” with “different” or “differentiation” and you’ll be able to get to the nub of the discussion topic quickly. Strategy has everything to do with position in the marketplace, which means how you stand out and leverage your differences against the competition. Tactics are all about the marketing tools and channels you use to make your institution’s valuable differences shine, be heard, and understood.

But in academic marketing (and virtually every other operation we can think of), how we achieve our strategic differentiation, how we meet our institutional goals, has everything to do with the team we have to do the work (the team that creates and delivers the product).

An interesting observation here: academic institutions really are all the same, right? Sure, there is R1 and R2, public and private, not-for-profit and for-profit, 4-year and 2-year, but these categorizations, when you get down to it, are not that significant, at least at the undergraduate level, right? They are all producing the same thing and in the eyes of the consumer, what is really different? They all have the same administrative and academic departments. And the rankings are a sham anyway, right?

Read on for how to counter that sad and ineffective point of view.

People look smart when they reference strategy. It elevates any discussion to greater importance as soon as the word strategy enters. Often, it gets others in the room thinking, “Right, maybe I’m not thinking about this strategically.” Followed by the thought, “What exactly would a strategic version of this discussion look like?”

The idea of strategy is often misunderstood. I fully admit, it really can be difficult. I can’t tell you how many discussions I’ve been in where people describe their tactical execution plan as the strategy. 

A simple example of why folks get confused, and I’ll use what we know best, the world of marketing: Your marketing strategy to enroll more students requires great marketing content. Content is a tactic you will employ to achieve your strategic goal. Yet, you will need a content strategy to be successful. So, content is not a tactic. It is a strategy, right? No, it is a tactic in this scenario. A tactic that needs its own strategy.

Oy vey.

Our team, of course, lives in the world of marketing strategy, planning, and execution. Today's post shares some insights into how to simplify the discussion and confirm when you are employing a strategy vs. discussing the tactical execution of any given initiative.

Read on and maybe we can shed some light on how to actually be smart in the discussion, not just look smart.

Of all the cities across the globe, more than half of international students studying in the U.S. between 2008 and 2012 on F-1 visas were from 94 different cities. This is a staggering fact. Think about it.

As we studied the SEVIS data, it certainly got us thinking: why do we only ever hear about the top 10 cities in recruiting? Aren’t there student fairs worth going to in other cities?

There are plenty of great cities out there where talented and eager international students are looking for options. And the opportunities to recruit from these second tier cities are clear for lesser known institutions. In this blog, we look at why and how to take advantage of these opportunities.

Bottom Line: Many of our clients are seeking to accomplish two recruiting goals: 1) enter new international markets where they currently have little or no name recognition among international students and 2) increase student recruitment from their current international markets against growing competition.

The only way to achieve these goals is to build local relationships (this takes longer than you think) and look at second and third tier cities as a way to capture markets that are strong but less accessible (meaning less competition).

Meet Us in Denver: We will be at the NAFSA 2016 Annual Conference in May presenting new data about the impacts of current economic and political events around the world on students’ plans to study abroad. Schedule a time to chat with us at NAFSA in Denver. We’d love to learn about your recruiting plans and share our latest research with you in person.

Now, our intrepid blogger, Emily will take us along a few roads less traveled

Should Instagram be one of your student recruitment tools?

Here's another question more to the point: Are you prepared to ignore the 50% of high school seniors searching for university options via Instagram?

Sure, go ahead and put your marketing budget into those slick mailers that cost $10+ per piece. You do know that they go straight from the mailbox to the recycle bin, right? Trust us, we have 17 year olds at home and watch it happen each week. Sorry, harsh but true.

In last week’s blog post we introduced you to all of the great things Instagram can offer to universities: ease of use, engaging content, targeting younger student groups, providing a glimpse of life on campus. All of these things are great for your digital marketing initiatives. And Instagram is constantly updating and evolving both their phone app and website to make the platform even easier to use.

In addition to those free features Instagram offers its users, the platform recently added advertising options. In this week’s post, Emily will introduce us to the how's and why's of advertising to students on Instagram.

QUICK SIDE NOTE: Can We Meet in Denver? We will be at the NAFSA 2016 Annual Conference in May presenting new data about the impacts of current economic and political events around the world on students’ plans to study abroad. Use this link to schedule a time to meet with us at NAFSA in Denver. We’d love to learn about your recruiting plans and share our latest research with you in person.

Now, on to Emily's take on Instagram...

You know the saying: you can do anything, but not everything. It applies to all aspects of life and work. And it really applies to those in the international student recruitment industry who travel.

Traveling for recruitment is a whirlwind. There is advance planning, the many activities, meetings, fairs and visits that you have scheduled for your trip. Did we mention the long days on your feet at the booth while struggling with jet lag? Best not to mention that part, right?

And then, of course, the most important part of recruitment travel: following up with leads. Wasn't the whole point of the trip to find prospective students and ultimately enroll them?

It is quite a lot to take on. And last time we checked, you only had two hands, one brain, and 24 hours in a day.

Of course you can do it, but not all at once. We know the challenges you face while traveling, we’ve talked to your peers in the industry and we hear you. So, to help with that most important part--the lead follow up--we’ve created a “Getting The Most Out Of Travel” worksheet for you to, quite literally, keep in your back pocket. 

The Bottom Line: making sure you are converting those student leads, which is really why you are spending those budget dollars on recruitment travel to begin with.

Setting up a plan is key. To effectively market your institution while traveling, you have to have a clear strategy in mind and a step-by-step process to reach your end goal. This downloadable worksheet might be just the thing to share with your team as a helpful checklist as you fly forward...

If we said it 1,000 times—and we probably have —it still wouldn’t be enough. Audience Segmentation is the fuel that drives your email and digital marketing to the next level. By segmenting your prospective international students based on geography, academic interest, TOEFL scores and other demographic information, your creative content will engage them in a way that stands out from your competition.

Here’s the thing, of the 4,000+ universities and colleges in the U.S., only a handful are doing this level of marketing. So, if you are wondering if you should make the effort…uhm, YES!

So the Intead team has created a worksheet that spells it out in 9 steps. Want to download a copy to share with your staff? Read on...