Are you struggling to capture the hearts and minds of prospective students? If so, you’re not alone. In the first episode of The Partnership Podcast - Higher Ed Marketing, host Penny Eccles addresses five reasons why you may not be attracting enough students to your institution. This episode looks at how to adjust your marketing strategies to ensure your institution resonates with your target audience.  

Building connections. Nurturing leads 

What do Saturday night TV’s Gladiators and HE marketing have in common? Both have to face the gauntlet, says Penny Eccles. So how can we, as marketers, conquer our own gladiators and start 2025 with a robust lead pool? 

In this episode, Penny begins by highlighting the importance of creating a memorable institutional story that uses clarity and repetition to resonate with potential students and stakeholders. 

She delves into strategies to ensure institutions remain on prospective students' radars by effectively generating and nurturing leads through human connection and early relationship-building efforts. She highlights the importance of leveraging CRM systems and looks at the role of social media in crafting a compelling narrative for your institution. Penny also addresses the pivotal role academic staff and wider stakeholders play in the student recruitment process. 

The episode wraps with actionable insights on ways to harness social media and content marketing to solidify your institution’s narrative and strengthen its appeal to potential students and their influencers. 

In This Episode

• How to make your institution’s story more memorable
• Assessing whether you are on your target audience’s ‘meaningful radar’ 
• Why you need to be treasuring your precious leads
• The importance of a functioning CRM system
• Why you should supply helpful content like you don’t want anything in return
• Why you should keep a record of what is, and isn’t, working
• How to engage wider stakeholders
• Summary of the five reasons why you aren’t attracting students to your institution
• Some of the things that are killing conversion rates 

Quotes

• “What have you done to spend time with your academic colleagues or your professional services colleagues to equip them to help you in your student recruitment and marketing endeavours?”
• “If you think that your best communication should start after your students apply, here's a brutal truth.  They've already been forming relationships with your competitors, and the likelihood is that you've hit that UCAS form because your institution is a filler.”
• “There are a lot of activities that are lead generating but don't currently generate the leads. A good example is HE fairs. I don't think universities are diligent at collecting as many leads as possible. Yes, of course, that conversation is crucial, but so is the lead.”