A contact request is a user’s first step towards an enrolment. But, in order to transform an interested visitor into an actual student or course participant you need a well thought out strategy. We want to give you an overview of what a successful conversion plan could look like – in this article you will find our best tips in three steps.
An increasing interest in education will indeed help to increase your chances of receiving more contact requests, but every information or contact request does not automatically lead to a conversion. It takes strategic effort and resources to maintain and manage the interest of your target audience properly. Prospective students and course participants often consider several different options before making a final decision. Keeping in mind that they may reach out to your competitors as well, it is important to have an effective follow-up strategy in place.
1. Respond quickly
We know that the users expect a quick response. A survey made by our colleagues at UniQuest shows that 82 percent of prospective university students expect a response to a contact request within 24 hours. By meeting these expectations, you will create an opportunity to build trust and a good reputation.
Younger generations in particular are used to real-time communication. This group also seeks contact via live chat to a greater extent than older generations.
To respond quickly is also about making potential students or course participants feel safe and comfortable. Also, you need to be able to provide support during their decision-making process. In order to satisfy the users’ great need for support you need both flexibility as well as resources. By doing regular follow-ups you will be able to assist, identify and solve problems easier and quicker.
2. Work proactively
To increase conversions, it is important to nurture and maintain relationships with potential students or course participants.
As an educator, it is important to be able to communicate through several different channels. A mix of one-to-one communication (such as phone calls or SMS) and personal one-to-many communication (such as emails) has proven to be the best strategy, according to data from our colleagues at UniQuest. To work proactively also includes intensifying the communication during certain periods. For that reason it is important to keep track of critical points in time and to have a plan for how the communication should be adapted for that period – a few weeks before the application period closes is an example of when the communication should be intensified.
2 Personalise your communication
Relevant content is personalised content, and vice versa. Potential students and course participants want content that is relevant to them in particular. Therefore, you should make sure to personalise the communication as early as possible.
To ceate the right conditions for personalised communication you should make sure to use a CRM system that provides all the necessary functions. With SRS, you can collect data from various channels and tools to get an overview of the journey from contact request to admission or booking. You can also view the collected data in an accessible way and use individual data to decide what, when and how to communicate. It may be about a certain type of content, a certain time or a certain channel. Collect and track data continuously to build high-quality profiles and use them as guidelines in your communication plan.
