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Webinars and the student recruitment funnel

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“This is a guest post by Carolina Vargas from Web2Present. Web2Present is a company that produces student recruitment webinars for universities worldwide.”

This year, a large number of universities and business schools worldwide opted to use webinars as part of their recruitment strategy. Some student recruiters and marketers in the higher education industry might not know whether or not they should use webinars at the beginning or at the end of the funnel, but it’s a fact that they have been trying out the different funnel stages to see how webinars fit the best for their recruitment process, which is a great idea.

For a better understanding of the situation, we’ve created a funnel containing the different stages where universities have used webinars in order to contribute with the recruitment process. Also find below an extended explanation about the use of webinars on the different stages.How does webinars fit into the student recruitment funnel

1. Stage A: A tool to generate awareness

If your main goal is to generate awareness about a specific programme e.g. Full Time MBA, or to brand your school in specific countries, you should definitely consider using a webinar at stage A.  Why? Simply because webinars attract attention and positive awareness.When you get the chance to present your programme and university through a live and interactive session, students can clarify and drill down the parts that interest them the most by asking questions. Lastly, hosting a webinar will represent, at this stage, the first step to generate leads, that might represent qualified potential students for your university after follow up efforts.

2. Stage B: A tool to generate desire and application consideration

If your school or programme is already known, but you’ve noticed that there’s no interest or desire from the students to advance a step forward towards demanding more information about a specific programme, stage B is definitely the best stage to make use of webinars. Why? This will give you an opportunity to generate a desire in the students who are considering applying to your programme. Use creativity here! Why not do a master class or a workshop during the webinar? It’s a great idea to show students why it is totally worth considering your programmes by simply “simulating a real master class.”

3. Stage C: A tool to convert after a desire has been generated

If your main goal is to convince the student to apply for a specific programme, Stage C is definitely the one to focus on! If you’ve found yourself in the situation of getting lots of leads every week, hosting a webinar is an excellent idea to encourage students to submit an application. Take advantage of the interest that students have shown, and use the webinar to clear all their doubts and mostly to convince them to take the next step in the funnel: applications. Focus your webinar on the benefits of the university, of the programme, explain the admission process and inform about the costs. Also take into consideration for the webinar the students that you’ve been trying to follow up with during the last few months, as this might be the last smart step before they decide to apply.

4. Stage D: A tool to follow up with the student after they have submitted their application

If as a university you’re recognized and it’s pretty easy for you to recruit students, make use of webinars to help students going through the application process, and also to inform them what happens after they’ve submitted their application. A great benefit of webinars is that hundreds of students can join the event. Take advantage of this, and unify all the new students in just one informative session. For sure they will value all this attention from you, and that is especially true for international students.

After analyzing all the different possible ways of making use of webinars on the student recruitment funnel, we can conclude that the stage should be defined by taking in consideration the goals and the different marketing strategies that are used from the beginning until the moment of receiving an application.

Sit and think about how a webinar can contribute to generate leads, convert leads into applicants, or increase the satisfaction of new students that just enrolled in your university. After analyzing all these factors, ask yourself: Where does it makes more sense for you and your university to use a webinar in the student recruitment funnel? You might get the correct answer!

If you are interested in hearing more about how you can use webinars to recruit students, join our weekly webinar for professionals involved in the higher education industry.

 

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