What universities get wrong about student acquisition

One of Australian's biggest exports is education. We benefit from world-class education institutions that are chosen by students the world over as their path to a better future and better understanding of the world.

I've been privileged to work with a dozen of Australia's universities over the last decade, and have been able to see 'how the sausage is made' in how students join and onboard to life at uni.

The biggest and most prestigious universities - the Group of 8 for example - have taken new student acquisition as fait accompli for so long that they've struggled to keep up with changing approaches in customer marketing and CX that have become the norm in other industries.

Universities get three things wrong? in student acquisition - which are by no means limited to the big end of town!

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1. Talking about themselves to their base - think like product marketers

Every university has a target cohort, often of domestic students, who often live locally, know the university by reputation (and from having information hammered into their skulls during high school).

These students usually don't even need to apply through the university, and can access everything they need through the various state-based Admission Centres. For that reason, it doesn't make sense to think of these students in the way of a standard marketing journey - the work of justifying your reputation, showing the features and benefits of study and whatever 'TOP X of Y' statistics you have. That work has already been done!

Instead - their focus should be on the product - the specifics of the courses on offer and how those products are a unique facet of the broader 'feelings' they have around each institution. Think like a product marketer, and justify what your Bachelor of Business is compelling to your base.

2. Focusing too much on the bottom of the funnel - the job is already done!

Deciding to study at university takes ages - some folks are considering for years and years. Despite that, so much of the focus of marketing teams is infiltrated with performance marketing focus towards the bottom end of the funnel: getting students to apply and enrol.

Widening the funnel will drive revenue - to be sure - however the job of bringing students to the point of decision has been done - perhaps for weeks, months or years at that point.

The ceiling of what will continue to show value is far lower than if marketing teams can take a multi-moment approach, and begin to identify the points along the student decision journey where influencing shows greatest effect. Unfortunately, that leads us to…

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3. Missing moments that matter

Universities - like ecommerce, finance and almost every other consumer-facing industry - focus too much on the jobs they force users to do, rather than the jobs users want to do.

This means if students have to apply via a portal, teams will measure and track that portal to the end of the earth - but meaningfully overlook the steps the student took on their path to get there.

For example, degree page views and engagement is a critical moment for any student in whether they decide to commit to study and these views are considered mostly as 'browsing a catalogue' by university teams. This should be a critical stage in the middle of the student funnel, where the opportunity is taken to nurture each and every student considering study.

Most teams struggle to find these moments that matter, as it requires a combination of analytics know-how and UX research to truly capture.

Finding these moments provides teams with a true guide book on influencing students and would greatly accelerate marketing teams' capability without the need to buy new technology, or invest millions.

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