Automation, Data Science and AI in Marketing for Higher Education: The next wave of tech that University Marketing Teams need to know about...

I've been asked to present to the Universities Australia Conference on AI and Technology in Higher Education Marketing. In preparation for that presentation in front of a couple of hundred marketers from 39 universities across Australia I thought I might write this article to collect my thoughts on technology in marketing in general and specifically in Higher Education both of which are areas which have huge opportunity for growth I think...

A Huge Opportunity for the increased use of Technology in Higher Education Marketing

Before you read on it's important for you to know that before I became an academic, university lecturer, strategist and general purpose talking head around new technologies (AI and IoT in particular) I owned my own It services business for a number of years. In that business we sold and deployed hundreds of CRM, Content Management System and Marketing Automation Tools to a number of different industries including ones in Higher Education.

So I've talked to a number of universities in Australia over the years about what problems they have had from a Marketing perspective and what there challenges have been. What surprised me in many of those conversations is that in terms of technology usage most universities are still very basic when it comes to marketing. Many university marketing departments don't have a basic CRM system of if they do they don't have one single system which gives them a unified view of the student across the university rather they have silo'ed systems in various departments. Most don't have advanced Marketing Automation systems and many are still using spreadsheets, email, survey monkey and other basic tools when developing and delivering the marketing content to encourage the best and brightest to come through their doors. Having a good website should only be one small part of a Marketing departments technology stack.

Coming from a low base the question is where can university marketing organisations spend their investments in technology for the most effect? This article attempts to give some suggestions in this regard recognising that every university is on their own path in terms of marketing technologies and that some are more mature than others.

University Marketing is more Important than Ever!

So if you are questioning whether it makes sense to invest in technology for university marketing departments in the first place and think university marketing is all about events and talking to the prospective students then I will need to disagree with you and dispel those views before showing you some of the tech that can be used in university marketing. I would argue that the use of technology in university marketing is more important now then it ever has been at least for Australian based universities. When the Coalition government announced freezes to university funding programs that would leave over 10,000 student university places unfunded last year, the minister for education at the time rather cavalierly stated that universities could easily make up the short fall through recruiting more higher paying foreign students. Most universities already had strategies focused on recruiting foreign students from places like China and India. You only have to teach in the Universities that I teach at (University of Sydney and University of New South Wales) to know that foreign student recruitment is a big part of their business strategy. But when you are recruiting students who have many universities and in fact many countries to choose from and who are not bounded by geography you will need to have a different strategy for them compared to your domestic students. These are folks who will probably never have seen your facilities in person before taking a decision. As a result marketing and specifically digital marketing over the web will form a key part of the students first and probably sole impression of your institution. This makes the marketing function and digital marketing a key component of any universities foreign student recruitment strategy.

I personally found this out the hard way when I was teaching a course recently where the student numbers dramatically decreased from one year to the next. The course was part of the curriculum of a broader program of study that was specifically targeted at foreign students. Turns out that the marketing group of that particularly university had decided in the previous year to shift some demand generation funds from one area of study to another. This had an almost immediate impact on course enrolments for that program which reduced enrolments in the specific course I was teaching. My point is this, whilst foreign student recruitment has been a successful path to growth in the past for most universities it is a path that has a number of risks. The first and most obvious is geopolitical risk in the sense that if countries don't get along (ref. recent tensions between China and Australia) they may change visa requirements which may limit foreign student recruitment or put other bureaucratic barriers in place. But the second risk, and in my opinion the bigger risk, is that enrolments have become even more dependant on the constant ongoing and effective demand generation from university marketing departments and specifically effective digital marketing. You turn the tap off and the students will stop coming. An effective marketing organisation is now more important than ever to a university's success particularly those focused on foreign student recruitment.

The Search for the Best Students and the case for Technological Change in University Marketing

So having talked about the increased importance of the marketing function to higher education in light of the shift to increased foreign student recruitment and the general need for the improved use of technology, particularly in digital marketing, what are the biggest opportunities for the productive use of technology in higher education market in general? In order to answer this question I think you first need to consider what does the "ideal student to recruit" look like and how would you reach them?

To answer this question it should be obvious to state that most universities are seeking students that they think will be successful. Perhaps not the next Nobel prise winner but certainly someone whom has a decent chance of graduating and then perhaps going on to a masters program or alternatively getting a job (and boosting the universities employability statistics). So strong academic standing is always required. If its a foreign student then reasonably decent English language skills as well.

So how so you reach these ideal candidates? Well the first thing to consider is that as millennial's (those born around the turn of the century and now approaching their 20's) they don't think or act like the rest of the population. They are digital natives whom are very much on the forefront of the current waive of digital disruption. Technologies such as Facebook and Twitter are now "old school" for them. They are much more interested in social sites such as Snapchat and Instagram or if you are looking at foreign students then WeChat. In a digital world of soundbites and 128 character broadcasts it shouldn't be surprising that these millennial's also have evolved to have attention spans which are proven to be less than your typical Goldfish :) so you have to grab their attention quickly. These students also have parents, where English often is not their first language, that are actively engaged in their choice of education institution given the significant investment it represents to the family. So you also have to recognise that you are effectively marketing to multiple audiences, the students and their parents. Finally as we have previously said, in this age of increased foreign student recruitment, these students typically live many times zones from the higher education institutions they are considering attending. So a capability to provide a 24/7 response to enquiries and engagement outside of your local office hours is also critical.

What all this means is that you need digital marketing technologies that can provide multi-lingual tailored content and responses to enquiries, real time over multiple channels including social channels in a 24/7 fashion. The content provided has to be highly tailored and capable of attracting a highly discerning audience with short attention spans in a highly competitive market.

Many universities don't have this capability or are just building it. So a technology road map that supports these goals is absolutely critical. The purpose of this article is to look at some of the technologies that address these issues as they are applied in the higher education sector. Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies are definitely at the forefront but what is AI?

What is Artificial Intelligence?

This is a question that I have to answer repeatedly when I am advising CIOs and CEOs on their AI strategy. The short answer is that AI is a broad set of technologies which enables machines to reason, understand and interact like humans. These technologies allow machines to learn and form conclusions with imperfect data, interpret the meaning of text, voice and images and to interact with people in natural ways.

If you have read my previous LinkedIn articles on AI you'll know that I often talk of Narrow vs. General AI. Narrow AI is Artificial Intelligence used for a specific business process (e.g. recognising cancerous growths on MRI images or identifying fraudulent credit card transactions). General AI is where intelligence is applied across a broad spectrum of situations, examples of which might be C3PO from Star Ware or Data from Star Trek. Just like the examples I've used it is important to know that Narrow AI is very much here and now where as general AI is at this point science fiction probably another 30 years off before becoming a practical reality. It's important to define these limitations when talking about AI in any application.

But why now for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and specifically Narrow AI? Well a few things have happened over the last few years which have made Narrow AI a reality. The first is the amount of data we now have. AI's require a lot of data in order to be effective and with the world forecast to have over 163 zettabytes (that's trillion gigabytes) by 2025 we are now at a point where there is enough data to build effective AI models. The second is the availability of computing power. With the advent of cloud computing we now have the ability to apply the large amounts of computing power that these's AI's need in a fairly short periods of time very easily. The third and final reason is that the maths has just gotten better. There are annual contests where Machine Learning (ML) boffins compete to create the best AI models. Every year the models get better and better and it is only in the last few years that the models and the maths that drive these models has made these machines more effective than humans at image or speech recognition.

So having explained what AI is (and is not), and established what higher education marketing needs to achieve to drive growth for universities now lets look at some examples of AI in Higher Education Marketing and how it can make a real difference today...

Intelligent Search - the next evolution in Search

Most higher education marketing departments are well aware of the concept of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and the need to make their institution easy to find when a student using an existing search engine like Google or Bing. But what happens when the student actually gets to your website?

Intelligent search generally refers to the concept of using a combination of AI, information about the student gathered through other sources (website cookies, previous website visits, IP based location information, referral website etc) and a series of pre-built personas to personalise the experience of the student once they hit your websites. The reality of it is there is heaps of information you can collect about the person hitting your website without even knowing their name. This allows you to provide a much more tailored experience. Referring back to the previous comment about the fact that millennial's typically have an attention span shorter than a gold fish you need to be able to present them with content that is relevant to them within the first few seconds or minute they are on your website otherwise they will unfortunately go somewhere else. Recent examples of this include a recent website refresh by University of Western Australia where modern technologies were used to give students a highly customised experience.

AI Based Real Time Translation - for multi-channel tailored communication

For those of you whom have read my blog posts before you would have heard of me talk about AI based real time translation. This allows you to present content and converse with students and perspective students in their native languages. The reason why the tools are AI based is that the more you converse using the tool the better they become at translating and relating intent. I've actually used this technology in my class room to great effect (see picture adjacent). This same technology can be accessed through easy to use Application Program Interfaces (APIs) and added into your website, chat, Microsoft office and other technologies. Many folks would say that because they are targeting students with good English language skills they don't need to provide multi-lingual capabilities with their websites. But the reality of it is English based websites are often not visible to Chinese or Indian based searches. You can also refer back to my earlier points in that you are not just marketing to the students themselves but their parents whom may have no English language skills at all. So being able to provide content in the prospective students native language is highly advantageous. A number of universities such as Monash University have been very successful in adopting multilingual website strategies.

Self Teaching AI's for Predictive Recruitment

There is a form of Artificial Intelligence called Reinforcement Learning which has received renewed interest over the last several years. For those of you whom would like a detailed explanation of what is Reinforcement Learning you can read my LinkedIn Article called "Machines whom Teach Themselves". Classical AI requires the machine to be taught how to behave. This is why it is often referred to as Supervised Learning. But with Reinforcement Learning the machine teaches itself by trying out new things and then seeing how much benefit it gets from trying those new things always looking to optimise it's overall reward. The reason why Reinforcement Learning is so interesting is that it has been proven significantly more effective in a number of situations that Supervised Learning and in some circumstances where you don't have enough data classical AI doesn't come up with effective recommendations. You can see Reinforcement Learning in use in Netflix. Netflix will make recommendations to you on shows to watch based on what you've watched in the past. But occasionally it makes suggestions that might be a little bit out of left field. It's doing this because it is teaching itself your preferences, essentially using Reinforcement Learning. You see similar functionality in online music services like Spotify.

One current application for this type of AI in Higher Education Marketing is in the form of real time course recommendations to students. Often students are not sure what programs they might be interested in when they surf a universities web site. In reference to my previous point in this article universities can use intelligent search to come close to the mark. But to really understand what the student wants, Reinforcement Learning or AIs that teach themselves is the only way to go. Essentially the AI will make a number of recommendations that it knows the student will be interested in and then take some "educated guesses" as to some course options that the student might be interested in. If the student clicks on those educated guesses then the AI has learnt something about the student and will make better recommendations the next search the student undertakes.

Chat bots for Student Enquiries and Improved Student Service

Probably one of the most popular solutions in recent years used by universities to reach out to prospective and existing students is what is commonly known as the Chat bot. Again if you want more information on how Chatbots work in a University context you can refer to my LinkedIn Article entitled "Chatbots for Student Enquiries". The reason why Chatbots are so popular is because they communicate to the students in a way they want to be communicated to (i.e. via chat). Take a bunch of millennial's put them into a room and they will inevitably revert to playing on their phones talking to each other over chat then actually talking in person. With 24/7 availability and no wait time, in the language they prefer and with almost instant response over the channel (Snapchat, WeChat, Facebook) that they prefer, Millennial's will use Chatbots way more often they they will use voice or email. You'll find a number of deployments of Chatbots already in Australian universities including Deakin's, UTS, University of Australia, University of Sydney and so on. In fact Deakin's won the AFR Award for best new technology off the back of their implementation of a Chatbot.

Speech (Google Home and Amazon's Alexa)

One other practical use of AI technologies is in the use of personal assistants like Google Home and Amazon's Echo. Essentially these devices represent yet another channel over which students can communicate to the previously mentioned Chatbots. You'll find a number of universities in Australia undertaking projects to enable students to be able ask queries about courses and admissions using personal assistants like Google Home and Amazon's Alexa. These personal assistants are also very helpful for disabled students whom are visually impaired or have reading difficulties.

Student Enrolment Forecasting for the better targeting of Marketing Funds

The last suggested opportunity for the improved use of technology in university marketing is in the area of forecasting. Speaking as a university lecturer myself one of the biggest frustrations I have is that no one can give me an effective forecast of my class numbers until just before semester starts. AI provides one solution to this problem. AI models can incorporate large amounts of data about student specific factors such as grades, ATAR scores, age, work experience, financial support, program of study etc. combine these with external macro economic factors like the health of the economy, visa programs etc. to then predict the probability of the student accepting the offer of enrolment. Research has shown that these models can be 80% accurate. Given enough data AIs can see patterns in the data that humans are incapable of seeing. The idea here would be for University Marketing departments to use these AI base models to forecast student enrolments and thereby more effectively allocate their marketing dollars for the best effect.

So what does an AI deployment look like in University Marketing?

It's important to understand that most of the technologies I've spoken about in this article do not replace any existing systems. They are intended to lay over those existing systems and provide them with more "smarts". As a result they can be relatively quick to deploy. The challenge with AI in my experience is generally not the technology but more importantly it is the data. If you don't have the source data or the ability to generate it quickly then this is what will slow down or prevent you delivering an AI based solution. That's why for most organisations I recommend doing a quick 1 day feasibility assessment first to make sure you understand how you want to design the system, what it will be connecting into and is the data you need there to facilitate the AI solution and if not how hard is it to get the data. But assuming all the data is there and the systems you are overlaying the AI are relatively modern and connectable then you can often have one of these solutions in place in less than 6 weeks.

Conclusion - Technology Spend in Marketing should be a key focus for most Universities

In this environment of reduced government funding and increased reliance on foreign student recruitment, higher education marketing departments are even more critical to growth strategies of universities than ever before. In order to be successful these university marketing organisations need to effectively employ more classical technologies such as CRM, Marketing Automation and Content Management Systems. But they also need to consider more leading edge technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) for student engagement, targeted digital marketing and the effective allocation of marketing investments. I've listed a few of these potential solutions in this article. But there is no doubt in my mind that AI and other advanced technologies for marketing will have a significant role to play in any universities near future technology strategy.

David Goad has 20 years plus of consulting and business strategy experience and is currently a Postgraduate Fellow at the University of Sydney studying IoT and AI. He carry's certifications in AI and Business Applications from Microsoft and advises enterprises on their AI and IoT Strategies. If you would like more information on AI or IoT Strategy feel free to contact David at [email protected] .