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Presented at
Region X + XI
October 2014
Albany, NY
Tom Gaube | Director of Recruitment
Undergraduate Admissions | Binghamton University
Seth Gummere | General Manager, USA
Hotcourses, Inc
Ben Waxman | Chief Operating Officer
International Education Advantage, LLC
A Mystery No More: Successfully Engaging Prospects
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What Your Peers Really Do With International Student Prospects
Spoiler Alert: It’s Not Pretty
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The Student College Fair Experience
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“Hey There, I’m Prospect #297”
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Is Anyone Going To Respond?
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32%
50%
13%
5%
No response
Responded within 24 hours
Responded in 2 to 5 business days
Responded within 2 weeks
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Response Rates:
60 Institutions
randomly selected from
US, Australia, Canada
Mystery Shopper Email Inquiries
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Analysis of Responsive Institutions
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68%
32%No Chinese Materials
Have Chinese Materials orofficers who can speakChinese
n=41
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9
19%
31%27%
12%
12%
No response
Responded within 24 hours
Responded in 2 to 5 business days
Responded within 2 weeks
Responded within 1 month
College Fair Mystery Shop - Vietnam
n=26 US Institutions
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College Fair Mystery Shop - Beijing
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25%
53%
18%
4%
No response
Responded within 24 hours
Responded in 2 to 5 business days
Responded within 2 weeks
n=28 US Institutions
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54%
46%Institutions with no response
Institutions with response
College Fair Mystery Shop - India
n=13 US Institutions
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Exemplary Institutions – Email Test
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Chinese Language Documents
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Exemplary Institutions – Fair Test
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Exemplary Institutions – Fair Test
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Chinese Language Documents
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Digital Content Marketing Tools
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2 Days
EMAIL
1
1 Week
EMAIL
2EMAIL
3
2 Weeks
EMAIL
4
1 Month
Prospect
CONTACT FORM
Digital Marketing Automation
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Industry Insights
Mobile App
For more information, please contact
Ben Waxman, COO & co-founder: [email protected]
e-Publications
Many Resources on Intead.com
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Seth Gummere | General Manager, USA
Hotcourses, Inc
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Why are inquiries so important
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72%of all students would always enquire before applying to a university.
Taking a closer look...
92% of Latin American students & 89% of Brazilian students said ‘Yes’.
Yes
No
Maybe
Can't say
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How to drive conversion
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1. Respond quickly
Almost all students expect a response within 48 hours.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Abroad Malaysia Singapore Brazil LatinAmerica
Middle EastThailand
India China
Within 24 hours
24-48 hours
Within 7 days
Within 2 weeks
More than 2 weeks
Latin America is the exception, 38% selecting 'Within 7 days'
* Abroad = Students using Hotcourses
Abroad
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Competitive advantage?
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Students from Abroad, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, India and China indicated that if they had to choose
between two similar universities, they would apply to/enroll with the one that responded fastest!
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
Abroad Malaysia Singapore Brazil LatinAmerica
MiddleEast
Vietnam Russia Thailand India China
Yes
No
Can't say
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Standing out in a crowd
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2. Customize your response
Almost all countries expect a personalized or customized response (i.e. One written by an actual
individual) over an automated, templated response.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Abroad Malaysia Singapore Brazil LatinAmerica
MiddleEast
Vietnam Russia Thailand India China
Personalised response
Templated response
Can't say
Brazil the exception, 67% selecting 'Templated response'
Taking a closer look...
This includes 95% of Singapore students and 90% of Vietnamese and Chinese
students.
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Easy ways personalize
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0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
Individual (named) member of staff
Department
Either
Can't say
Additionally more than half of all students said they’d prefer all ongoing
communications to be with the same person
3. Sign it from an individual
Abroad, Malaysia, Singapore, Brazil, Vietnam and India all prefer a response
signed from a specific individual staff member (whom they can continue the chain of
communication with).
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Preferred modes of communication
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88% of all students selected
email as one of their
preferred modes of
communication.
More than half of Malaysian
and Latin American
students also selected
phone to respond by.
83% of all students expected
email responses to be in their
own language (including 92%
of Latin America students and
89% of Russian and Thai
students).
Over half of all students
(54%) expected phone
responses in their own
language, while 57% of
Russian students expected
video chat in Russian.
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Keep in touch
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88% would be happy to receive
further emails with additional content (e.g. Latest news from your campus)
HOWEVER, these should only be once a week
(although Middle Eastern and Thai students who would
be happy to receive these more than once a week)Plus, this is your chance to
acquire them as social media
followers!
81% of all students would
follow a university they’re
enquiring to on social media too.
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Binghamton UniversityInternational Recruitment:
#BingRecruit
Tom Gaube | Director of Recruitment
Undergraduate Admissions | Binghamton University
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Market share = compass
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Travel Planning
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What comes after (or during) travel?
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How do we handle inquiries?
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First line of defense: ops staff or trained student inters
Second line of defense: territory managers / counselors
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How do we message to intl inquiries?
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Inquiry comm. stream
• Domestic
• International
Counselor comm. stream
• Same for both
Ad-hoc Messages
• Holiday Greetings
• Lunar New Year Greetings
• Counselor Appreciation
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What do our publications look like?
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#BingSocial Internationally
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Weibo (Twitter in China)
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Renren (Facebook in China)
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YouKu (YouTube in China)
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Other tools that we use…
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How do we use it?
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Staff Students Success
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How to best utilize?
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Post in native languages
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Post and Monitor Regularly
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Engage Current Students
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Post in the prime time of your audience
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Takes time.. and effort!
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Quality control
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What’s the ROI?
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Appendix – Why Content Matters
Calculating Cost of Acquisition
Sample Process for
• Email List Purchase
• Pay Per Click Purchase
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Scenario I Scenario II
Email distribution 10,000 10,000
Email open rate: Better Content Lowers Cost 12% 7%
Net views 1,200 700
Click-through to registration 20% 20%
Net registrations/inquiries 240 140
% completing an application 5% 5%
# of completed applications 12 7
% admitted 50% 50%
% of students enrolling 30% 30%
# of students enrolled 1.8 1.05
Direct Cost per Enrolled Student
from this EMAIL LIST PURCHASE$2,389 $4,095
Pain Point #2: Calculating Cost of Acquisition
TOEFL Email List Purchase: 10,000 Names @ .43/name = $4,300
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Scenario I Scenario II
Clicks 1,000 1,000
Registration % (from landing pg) 12% 12%
Registration # 120 120
Response to follow up communication:
Better Content Lowers Cost
50% 80%
Net registration/inquiries 60 96
% completing an application 20% 20%
# of completed applications 12 19.2
% of students admitted 50% 50%
# of students admitted 6 9.6
% of students enrolling 30% 30%
# of students enrolled 1.80 2.88
Direct Cost per Enrolled Student
from this PAID SEARCH – PPC PURCHASE$694 $434
Pay Per Click Calculations
PPC Purchase: 1,000 clicks @ $1.25/click = $1,250