StudyQA — Study abroad fair cancelled due to COVID-19? Recruit students online

Due to the global spread of the coronavirus COVID-19, all large-scale events are being postponed indefinitely. These include Higher Education exhibitions and fairs. Despite the unstable situation and the fact that some families and students have postponed their decision to study abroad, a substantial number of applicants are in search of a degree overseas. However, the cancellation of exhibitions has precluded thousands of families to meet with university representatives and learn about multiple available options to continue their education. One of the strategies to support the October 2020 intake and to diversify the student recruitment channels could be the digital marketing campaigns focused on relevant prospective student audiences and their families. 

The Lead Generation (LG) campaign is one of the most effective online strategies that help to increase awareness, strengthen the university brand and attract more international students. LG campaigns are custom developed digital marketing campaigns, which are designed to reach very targeted student audiences in a short period of time. They differ from listing on college search websites as they are not based on the organic website traffic, where any student, regardless of their educational background or financial ability can fill out the inquiry form. These campaigns use a variety of complex tools to identify, segment and reach the most relevant prospective student audiences. Currently, students spend over 6 hours daily browsing the Internet and social media with at least 2 hours on Instagram. These data are not new, however, not all universities invest in digital marketing campaigns still relying on more traditional means of communication and recruitment. An average LG campaign will incorporate 30 to 55 channels based on duration, targets, requirements for leads and budget. To decrease the amount of time admissions officers spend on following up all incoming leads, the leads could be followed up by phone by our telemarketing team and then segmented into several categories based on whether they fulfill the admissions requirements.

We understand that due to COVID-19 some recruitment plans had to be canceled last minute, thus, StudyQA will be providing significant discounts on the LG services to those, who have been affected. 

Please reach out to our Head of Partnerships - Victoria @ v.umnova@studyqa.com to discuss the options.