The document discusses the challenges and strategies related to marketing channel optimization in higher education recruitment, particularly focusing on Malaysia's competitive landscape. It presents survey data from over 9,000 respondents, emphasizing key factors influencing university selection, such as teaching quality and academic reputation, and highlights the importance of digital marketing and social media engagement. Insights from various demographics reveal trends in communication preferences and interests among prospective students.

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Marketing Channel Optimisation:
Achieving competitive advantage in
higher education recruitment
Fabian Marrone
VP of Marketing
22 January 2014

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Lack of strategy and direction
Malaysia has stiff competition when it comes to
the recruitment of international and domestic
students — the brain drain
Legacy channels are harder to measure
Digital marketing — in-depth reporting, data and
analysis
Big data, student profiling and behaviour
mapping
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Why marketing optimisation?

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9237 people responded
420 of whom were Malaysian
179 countries
184 nationalities
331 lines of enquiry
5 universities and 3 web assets
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Survey framework

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Survey framework
Demographics and study interests
Information sources and influences
Awareness and engagement
Communication preference and frequency
Final report can be split by:
- aggregated result (domestic, international and total
cohort)
- region
- country and nationality
- other groupings (BRICS).

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Demographics

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48% of respondents have a
household income of less than
$USD25k
72% of Malaysians

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14% access information about
institutions on a mobile device
20% for Malaysians

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18% of international students
are interested in distance
learning and 38% in part-time
study
14% and 29% respectively
for Malaysians

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MOOCs
Which country do
you currently live in -
Response
Very
interested
Philippines 39.71%
Indonesia 26.42%
China (PRC) 25.26%
Vietnam 19.09%
India 14.02%
Singapore 13.82%
Malaysia 13.24%
Country/region % very interested
Africa 18.11%
Americas 25.50%
Asia 17.48%
Europe 17.56%
Oceania 21.47%
Total 19.03%
MOOCs Very interested
Very interested 19.00%

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Information sources

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Web, email and online
prospectuses and are the top
three sources of information
Web, uni fairs and email
communications
respectively for Malaysians

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Teaching quality,
subjects available,
and academic reputation are
the most important (top three)
factors when selecting a
university
In comparison, tuition fees
rank third for Malaysians

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Scholarships,
teaching quality and
academic reputation are the
most important (top three)
factors when choosing between
two universities
Scholarships, academic
reputation and tuition fees
rank in the top three for
Malaysians

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Teaching quality is the most
important (#1) factor when
selecting an institution
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Engagement and awareness

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43% are following you on social
media
46% of Malaysians are
following universities on
social media

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Almost half of Facebook users
also use Google+

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Nearly three-quarters of all
Chinese respondents are Sina
Weibo users, but half also have
Facebook

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Twice as many people (17.29%)
engage with social media
{events and fairs at 8.17%}
In Malaysia, it’s more equal
at 55% and 54%
respectively

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Malaysians are more likely to
communicate via social media
than the average

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India students have the highest
use of social media

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Communication and frequency

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Throughout their ‘journey’, all
students, including Malaysians,
want institutions to get in touch
via email at a weekly frequency

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Thank you