Five tips for cutting through the noise

Today’s international student market is crowded and challenging, resulting in many institutions being unsure about how to stand out in such an oversaturated market.

If you’re a marketer, or work in the student marketing & recruitment team at a higher education institution, you’ve likely felt the frustration of trying to cut through the noise and connect with your target audiences. In fact, the rise of AI tools may have inadvertently resulted in less traffic to your website.

Thankfully, IDP always has solutions at hand. Thanks to our expertise in digital marketing and global student recruitment, we’ve compiled a list of five actionable tips to help elevate your institution’s messaging and ensure it reaches the right audience.

Before crafting any recruitment strategy, it’s essential to identify and understand your target audience in detail. Once this audience is clearly defined, you can develop or promote the products and services deemed most appropriate in addressing your audiences’ concerns. For instance, IDP's FastLane service was created to meet international students' demand for quick, reliable university responses, allowing them to receive in-principle offers faster than standard applications.

A simple method of effectively promoting such products and services is the implementation of a relevant Call to Action (CTA). However, it is important to avoid using generic prompts, such as “Learn More”, and instead opting for more engaging, action-oriented prompts, like “Book a Consultation”. Having a more direct and specific approach with CTAs will help your target audience and their concerns feel more valued and seen, as opposed to the CTA seeming more like a passive exercise in information gathering.

While banner ads may result in lower click-through rates, they remain a valuable tool for reaching new markets, enhancing brand visibility, and expanding audience engagement. Incorporating banner ads into your marketing strategy can help introduce your institution to prospective students who may not have been actively searching for you, widening your reach and influence.

And while last-click attribution channels – such as Meta and LinkedIn – may yield high click-through rates, it’s important that marketing budgets are not solely allocated to these channels. In today’s dynamic sector, diversification is key to achieving success.

Furthermore, while banner ads may result in fewer clicks, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t value the impressions they yield. In fact, impressions are vital indicators of reach with high impression counts signifying broad audience engagement, thus helping to lay the groundwork for future engagement strategies.

With the ubiquity of smartphones, prospective students are now far less likely to conduct their research with a laptop or desktop computer. It is essential that your institution’s landing pages primarily cater to mobile users to ensure less bounce rates and more seamless and engaging experience.

With a mobile-first design, prospective students can enjoy a more enhanced user experience, with simplified navigation, faster load times, and clearer CTAs. Furthermore, with mobile-first landing pages being more effective at guiding users towards desired actions – such as completing inquiry forms or registering for an event – institutions are more likely to achieve higher conversion rates.

That said, it’s still vital your institution continuously monitors the performance of the landing pages, particularly A/B testing to identify the elements resonating most with target audiences. A conversion rate of 4-6% is ideal for university landing pages.

AI-generated branded messaging is everywhere these days, and audiences are yearning for authenticity more than ever. This is particularly true for prospective international students. Harnessing user-generated content (UGC), which features genuine stories and experiences from current students, can resonate more strongly with their prospective counterparts.

In fact, incorporating UGC on your institution’s website can lead to deep visitor engagement. Research has shown that UGC posts on websites or social media tend to achieve higher engagement rates compared with standard brand content.

Prospective students desire current student content, and utilising tools like The Ambassador Platform can help facilitate the generation and management of such valuable UGC.

The importance of data-driven insights cannot be overstated. By regularly analysing target audience data and emerging trends and themes, your institution can ensure its marketing remains relevant and optimised.

Tools like the Conversation Insights feature on The Ambassador Platform enable institutions to detect prevalent topics in real-time discussions. For example, a surge in inquiries about financial assistance indicates a need to produce content focusing on funding options and affordability.

By consistently staying abreast of such trends and maintaining active collaboration with other departments, such as student recruitment and country managers, you can empower your institution to strengthen its targeted content and messaging for greater impact and relevance.