Make 2025 your data year – 3 tips on how to use data in marketing

Is 2025 your data year? The year you actually start using data to make smarter decisions and make more bang for your buck? Then here are three ways to leverage data.

1. Decide Your Next Campaign Message

Do you know what your prospective student’s main motivation is to study your programme?

When crafting a compelling message that captures your audience’s attention, data is a good source to rely on.?

Here’s an example from ESMT Berlin’s Senior Marketing Manager, Mariana Macedo , who looked at black and white data, to create colourful messages that appealed to users’ emotions:??

In ESMT Berlin’s Study Choice Advisor, 2526 prospective students who showed an interest in their Full-Time MBA were asked “Why are you considering an MBA?” As 39% said their main motivation was to “Make a ‘Triple Jump’”, Mariana integrated this data into their core marketing message:

While “Make a Triple Jump” rang true for 39% of candidates interested in a Full-Time MBA, the motivation amongst Part-Time MBA candidates looked very different. Part-Time MBA candidates said that their main motivation was to “Advance in my current career”.

2. Achieve Greater Email Engagement

Email is the preferred channel for engaging prospective students in our industry. To succeed, your emails must be relevant, personal, and, most importantly, timely—candidates expect immediate attention when they're ready to engage!

When a candidate has engaged with you somewhere, you have their attention right there and then. The window closes quickly.?

A candidate just downloaded your brochure? Boom, send an email!???

A prospect attended your webinar? Send a follow up about the event!

If you can connect quickly, this could be a game changer for a prospect’s engagement level with your communication:

3. Be More Personal In Your Student Consultations ???

But what about face-to-face interactions with your prospects – can data help you there? Well, we know that it’s important to approach each prospect as an individual – because they are. So before reaching out to them for a consultation, do your homework and find out what makes them tick. That way, you can tailor the conversation to be more relevant to the candidate.

In a Study Choice Advisor (SCA), you collect around 20+ data points on each candidate. Each data point helps to paint a picture of who the person behind the screen really is.?

“Anna is from Sweden, and considers herself to be a very social person who gets on easily with other people. She has some interest in responsible business, especially sustainable business models that address wide-ranging problems.?

Her main objective for considering a Master’s in Business Analytics is to gain the skills required to analyse data for effective decision making.

After finishing her studies, her ambition is to work as a consultant, where she has the ability to provide expert advice as a data analyst, examining financial data to help companies make sound financial decisions.?

When asked which campus she would prefer to study at, Anna would prefer to stay closer to home and study at the school’s London campus, rather than in the US. Additionally, when offered the chance to extend her studies by an extra 6 months in order to gain a dual degree, Anna would prefer to obtain only one degree and stick to one year of studying.

Although Swedish, Anna is proficient and able to study in English, as she is currently completing the final year of her Master’s in Computer Science at Leeds University. As a current student, it’s not surprising that she has zero years of work experience. However, she doesn’t require any funding in order to study, and would like to find out more about the Business Analytics programme by speaking to an advisor. She feels prepared to begin her next degree in 2026.”

Knowing all this about Anna, it’s going to be a lot easier to forge a connection and respond to her own unique needs.

Monthly Tip!

Mariana Macedo at ESMT shares her top tips on how to get started on a data-driven approach in your marketing:

1. Prioritise – focus on the data points and segmentation that makes sense for your audience
2. Make time to set up your email automation or get expert help – although it saves a lot of time once up and running, it can be very time consuming and present technical limitations
3. Even with technology helping us to automate the personalisation, human touch is still irreplaceable!

Wishing you a fantastic New (data) Year! ????