When it comes to gaining new enrollments for your educational institution, you can’t depend on referrals.
​The reason? It's too easy! "Waiting until you're remembered" isn't a strategy that will allow you to reach as many potential international students as possible.

As a result, as each enrollment cycle begins, you start your marketing process from scratch, not understanding what has worked in the past. That's because you don't understand your conversion pattern from the Buyer’s Journey, which means: 

Visitor > Lead > Qualified Leads > Customers

Instead of starting your marketing process from square one each time, learn from what has worked in the past.

​Here are some tips on how you can improve your marketing using Inbound Marketing techniques. Use these tips to gain more control over the results of your marketing initiatives.

Educational institutions have historically had a traditional outlook, and that includes how they have attracted and retained students. Even so, as educational methods change (for example, distance learning is constantly expanding), institutions are using different strategies to attract new international students, offer more courses, and connect with their audiences.

In other words, marketing is now seen as a great strategy to attract new international students. Institutions now recognize themselves as businesses and strive for financial health in their results. 

Schools and educational institutions are experiencing a change in the way they acquire international students. These students are looking for ways to learn and qualify online, so having a digital presence is more important than ever.

Believe us, it's not enough to have just a website. You need a structured digital marketing strategy to attract your potential international student and then to start an amazing journey with them. 

The next step of the journey is to engage visitors and convert them into leads — as well as engaging and educating the future student during her decision-making process.

We spend a lot of time talking about and sharing social media facts and tips with you — for a reason. It’s where international students are, so marketing to them on these platforms should be a no-brainer. ​

Are you curious about what Chinese students are thinking and planning around studying abroad? We have been too. So, looking for insight, we conducted a survey. Here’s some of what we learned.

Who they are
Current Chinese students interested in studying in the U.S. skew slightly more male (57%) than female (43%). However, the number of young women is an increasing trend in international education from China. Traditionally, it has been largely dominated by male students, but over the last several years there has been an increase in women interested in studying abroad.

In marketing today, it’s all about being real and transparent. Instagram — used by 72% of teens for an average of 28 minutes per day — maximizes that opportunity. Students tend to watch live video nearly 12x as long as regular video posts, so this is a great way to get your information out there!

Our Director of Social Media, Mildred Stephens, advises, "Do a Live Session with your current or alum students. Students appreciate when you’re authentic and real with them. It’s more relatable."

In a recent Study in the USA Live Session with Nicole Awad, a student from Brazil studying at Hillsborough Community College (HCC), interested students were engaged and asked questions about tuition fees, what it's like to be a student ambassador, and the challenges she's facing. Also, Nicole highlighted that when she was researching schools in the U.S., she found helpful student testimonials online about HCC. 

Get in touch to set up a Live Session → ​

Delve into how to leverage student voices for international student recruitment at our NAFSA 2021 poster session on Thursday, June 3, 8am PT. Study in the USA's Sandra Halladey and Truckee Meadows Community College’s Natalie Brown, Ph.D. will share strategies and showcase the success of the TMCC student blogger program on StudyUSA.com.

Join us at NAFSA or contact our team for more information → ​

In news that will surprise no one, social media usage has increased over the last year. The ICEF Monitor reports that while average daily usage is almost 7 hours online, in the Philippines, Brazil, and Colombia, it’s more than 10 hours. Much of this is on mobile phones, and 44% of the total time spent on mobile is on social media and messaging apps.

So, make sure that you’re paying attention to and connecting with prospective students on your social channels. Or, use ours! Over the past year, our Live Sessions on Facebook reached 7,600,828 people.

Contact our team to set up a Live Session or a social media campaign today → ​