In today’s digital age, leveraging marketing automation and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools can revolutionise your recruitment efforts within the education industry. In fact, the process of attracting new students shares many similarities with generating leads. Lead generation in the education industry can be categorised as part of the B2C (business-to-consumer) sector, and it primarily focuses on identifying and enticing potential students who are interested in educational programs, services, or institutions.
Now, let’s explore the various ways in which educational organisations can utilise marketing automation and CRM to effectively attract students.ams workload, saving precious time and resources that can be used somewhere else.
With that said, here are five essential tips on crafting an effective ABM campaign with a CRM and Marketing Automation tool.
1. Acquiring Future Enrollees
There are several effective strategies to attract potential students in the education industry, and utilising CRM and Marketing Automation can significantly enhance your efficiency in each of these approaches. Here are some examples:
- Utilise Social Media and Search Engine Advertising: Connect your CRM and marketing automation software to your social media and search engine advertising accounts. This enables you to automatically gather lead contacts, monitor their interactions with your digital assets, and execute lead nurturing email campaigns.
- Implement Content Marketing: Engage in content marketing by creating valuable and informative materials such as blog posts, e-books, and webinars. These materials can entice interested leads and motivate them to provide their contact details,which can then be captured by your CRM. Subsequently, additional actions can be taken to engage with the generated contacts.
- Explore Chatbots: Consider using a chatbot designed for lead generation in the education industry. These chatbots can provide valuable information about programs, enrollment requirements, and financial aid on your school’s website or mobile app. They can also collect student information and follow up with more detailed assistance.
2. Building a Targeted Student Database
The foundation for successful student recruitment involves having a well-organised database. A CRM system facilitates the collection and storage of data on potential candidates, permitting segmentation based on criteria such as location, area of interest, preferred degree, and other factors. By organising this data, targeted marketing campaigns can be crafted for each group, increasing the chances of reaching the right candidates.
3. Personalised Communication
Marketing automation tools facilitate personalised communication with prospective students on a larger scale. Sending tailored messages and content that align with their interests and objectives establishes a stronger connection and nurtures their interest in your institution or organisation.
Personalised communication can be achieved by incorporating specific touch points related to individual contacts, such as their name, location, interested course and any pertinent information stored in the CRM as a property. Additionally, you can offer content that is more relevant to their specific needs, based on the segment to which they belong. For instance, the resources provided to a prospective international undergraduate student should differ from those sent to a prospective domestic doctoral student.
4. Automated Actions
Attracting students encompasses several stages, starting from the initial contact and leading to application submission. Marketing automation simplifies this process by handling follow-up emails and reminders automatically. The specifics of this process may vary among different automation tools, but most feature actions, triggers, and conditions. Automated workflows for follow-ups guarantee ongoing engagement with potential students, encouraging them to progress to the next stage in the recruitment process, all without requiring manual intervention.
5. Candidates Prioritisation
CRM systems can integrate Lead Scoring, allowing the prioritisation of candidates according to their interactions and engagement with your content throughout their digital journey. With the assistance of Marketing Automation, it becomes possible to identify precisely which prospective students fall into categories of cold, warm, or ready to enrol. This eliminates the necessity of expending human resources on cold-calling to determine their interest in a specific study program or crafting individual emails from the ground up. Marketing automation provides a considerably more efficient approach. Consequently, your focus can shift to the most promising prospects, optimising your employees both time and effort.
6. Lead Nurturing
Educational institutions commonly start the process of identifying potential students when individuals express interest in a program. However, not all students make immediate decisions about their education or career. Thus, focusing exclusively on immediate enrollment can lead to persistent recruitment difficulties. Marketing automation makes it possible to carry out lead nurturing campaigns, staying in contact with candidates over an extended period. This strategy emphasises the cultivation of ongoing interest among potential students. By consistently sharing informative content and updates, you can ensure your institution or organisation maintains a prominent place in their thoughts when they ultimately make a decision.
7. Review and Optimisation
Evaluating campaign performance is another crucial aspect of campaign management in the education sector. Marketing Automation tools offer valuable insights into campaign effectiveness. Regularly comparing various approaches through A/B testing is essential to understanding what works well for an organisation and what doesn’t.
By examining data related to open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates, one can refine their approach and enhance strategies over time. Data-driven decision-making plays a pivotal role in optimising recruitment efforts and achieving superior results.
Additionally, Marketing Automation tools enable the collection of feedback from candidates. Surveys can be sent to gather opinions on the application experience, interviews, and the overall perception of an institution or organisation. This feedback can provide guidance for improving strategies for recruiting prospective students.
Conclusion
Recruiting prospective candidates for an educational program requires a strategic and personalised approach. Marketing Automation and CRM systems provide a complete solution to streamline and enhance the entire recruitment process. By leveraging these technologies, an educational institution can effectively construct a focused student database, engage in personal communication with potential candidates, automate follow-ups, analyse data, and more. This method not only conserves time and resources but also enhances the prospects of successfully enrolling the most suitable candidates.
What's next for you?
Numerous marketing automation and CRM tools are available to elevate communication with potential students and promotional campaigns. For Southeast Asian organisations, “Lead Gen and CRM” from Constant Contact stands out as a top choice. This solution, along with its onboarding process, is customised specifically for SEA organisations. The “Lead Gen and CRM” team operates from Malaysia and has a proven track record of successful lead generation campaigns and digitalisation services in Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong. To explore how marketing automation and CRM tools can enhance your business operations, reach out to the “Lead Gen and CRM” team for a discussion.
