Ben Waxman shared his thoughts about digital marketing in international student recruiting.

1. 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

2. What Your Peers Really Do With InternationalStudent Prospects
Spoiler Alert: It’s Not Pretty

3. The Student College Fair Experience
3

4. “Hey There, I’m Prospect #297”
4

5. Is Anyone Going To Respond?
5

6. Let’s Find Out
6

7. 32%
50%
13%
5%
No response
Responded within 24 hours
Responded in 2 to 5 business days
Responded within 2 weeks
7
Response Rates:
60 Institutions randomly selected from US, Australia, Canada
Mystery Shopper Email Inquiries

8. Analysis of Responsive Institutions
8
68%
32%
No Chinese Materials
Have Chinese Materials orofficers who can speakChinese
n=41

9. 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

10. College Fair Mystery Shop -Beijing
10
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

11. 11
54%
46%
Institutions with no response
Institutions with response
College Fair Mystery Shop -India
n=13 US Institutions

12. Exemplary Institutions –Email Test
12
Chinese Language Documents

13. 13
Exemplary Institutions –Fair Test

14. Exemplary Institutions –Fair Test
14
Chinese Language Documents

15. Digital Content Marketing Tools
15

16. 2 Days
EMAIL
1
1 Week
EMAIL
2
EMAIL
3
2 Weeks
EMAIL
4
1 Month
Prospect
CONTACT FORM
Digital Marketing Automation

17. Industry Insights
Mobile App
For more information, please contact
Ben Waxman, COO & co-founder: bwaxman@intead.com
e-Publications
Many Resources on Intead.com

18. Seth Gummere |General Manager, USA
Hotcourses, Inc

19. Why are inquiries so important
19
72%of allstudents would alwaysenquire 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

20. How to drive conversion
20
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 East
Thailand
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

21. Competitive advantage?
21
Students fromAbroad, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, India and Chinaindicated that if they had to choose between two similar universities, they would apply to/enrollwith 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

22. Standing out in a crowd
22
2. Customize your response
Almost all countries expect a personalized or customized response (i.e. One written by an actual individual) over an automated, templatedresponse.
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 'Templatedresponse'
Taking a closer look...
This includes 95% of Singapore students and 90% of Vietnamese and Chinese students.

23. Easy ways personalize
23
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 saidthey’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).

24. Preferred modes of communication
24
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.

25. Keep in touch
25
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.

26. Binghamton University
International Recruitment: #BingRecruit
Tom Gaube |Director of Recruitment
Undergraduate Admissions| Binghamton University

27. Market share = compass
27

28. Travel Planning
28

29. What comes after (or during) travel?
29

30. How do we handle inquiries?
30
First line of defense:ops staff or trained student inters
Second line of defense: territory managers / counselors

31. How do we message to intlinquiries?
31
Inquiry comm. stream
•Domestic
•International
Counselor comm. stream
•Same for both
Ad-hoc Messages
•Holiday Greetings
•Lunar New Year Greetings
•Counselor Appreciation

32. What do our publications look like?
32

33. #BingSocialInternationally
33

34. Facebook
34

35. Weibo(Twitter in China)
35

36. Renren(Facebook in China)
36

37. YouKu(YouTube in China)
37

38. NaverCafe
38

39. Other tools that we use…
39

40. How do we use it?
40
Staff
Students
Success

41. How to best utilize?
41

42. Post in native languages
42

43. Post and Monitor Regularly
43

44. Engage Current Students
44

45. Post in the prime time of your audience
45

46. Challenges
46

47. Takes time.. and effort!
47

48. Quality control
48

49. What’s the ROI?
49

50. Appendix –Why ContentMatters
Calculating Cost of Acquisition
Sample Process for
•Email List Purchase
•Pay Per Click Purchase

51. 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 Studentfrom 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

52. 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 Studentfrom this PAID SEARCH –PPC PURCHASE
$694
$434
Pay Per Click Calculations
PPC Purchase: 1,000 clicks @ $1.25/click = $1,250