Content tips for institutions to engage with the Turkish student market

Expert insights: Q&A

We spoke with Esengul Kercin, Senior Country Marketing Executive for Hotcourses Turkey, to hear her insights on how institutions can engage prospective Turkish students and drive more interest and demand for their institution. In the last 12 months, Hotcourses Turkey has had visits from over 3 million prospective international students alone.

What are your top tips for institutions to engage with prospective Turkish students?

Esengul: It’s important to Turkish students to know whether courses offer career paths or not. It is therefore crucial to let them know about your institution’s career services, alumni services and graduate outcome surveys. Institutions should also reply as soon as possible when prospective students contact them.

What messaging by institutions tends to drive high interest to Hotcourses Turkey and ultimately sway Turkish students to choose an institution?

Esengul: I can confidently say that content about scholarships, student benefits and career progression is highly engaging for researching prospective students.

Which media should institutions be on (e.g. video) and on which platforms should they have visibility to best engage with Turkish students?

Esengul: Instagram is still the top medium in Turkey. It’s highly recommended for institutions to create content for this medium to engage with prospective students. In my opinion, bespoke images, videos, and infographics work better than stock images.

How can institutions use alumni stories and experiences to attract prospective students from Turkey?

Esengul: Sharing an alumni student’s experience and education journey, starting from their school days, is a very effective way to increase engagement and promote your university. These types of personalized career path and success stories can be very attractive to prospective students.