The software toolbox for Higher Education marketing and recruitment

The goal of a university’s recruitment strategy, whether for online or on-campus programs, is simple: to secure the best applicants that fit their profile. A large applicant pool can help secure the opportunity to do just that, and targeted recruiting, based on firm marketing principles, will ensure that the pool consists of students who fit the profile. So, what sort of tools are higher education institutions using to support these efforts?

The CRM

According to Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association (UCISA), Microsoft Dynamics is the most popular CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system and in use at 36 responding member institutions (32%). Hobsons (10%) and Salesforce (9%) were also popular choices, among other CRM’s such as Hubspot, Blackbaud and ProEngage.

A slightly worrying aspect is that 17% of respondents indicated that various CRM systems are in use at their institution. As consultants we always recommend that a single CRM is used and departments are trained to input data according to a well defined standard, which allows collaboration and highly increases productivity across functions.

The primary purpose for using a CRM tool is student recruitment (most common), followed by marketing and alumni relationships. According to the study, 61% of CRM systems are delivered as software as a service, with 26% being delivered in-house.

The BI tool

The same study highlights the wide range of Business Intelligence (BI) systems in use at responding UCISA member institutions, with Microsoft Reporting SSRS being the most popular (19% of respondents). Tableau was second (14%) and SAP-Business Objects third(12%). Other systems mentioned were Qlik, Logix4, InPhase and SAS.

In most of our projects, a good BI tool sits at the core of any data-driven product. We help universities consolidate their marketing data, from a wide range of source like Google Analytics, Hubspot, mailing tools, etc. into a single platform which can then surface actionable insights to the BI tool.

The Niche solutions

While the CRM and BI tools should generally be seen as core to the marketing and recruitment operations of a higher education institutions, there are several niche solutions that can add significant value at different stages of the marketing funnel.

Peer recruitment

One area that has seen significant growth in the last few years is peer recruitment. In essence, a peer recruitment tool, such as The Access Platform (TAP), allows you to leverage your student ambassadors to engage potential applicants in a very personal way. TAP allows you to connect leads with ambassadors via chat and ask for ambassador generated content to use on your social media channels. Used right, these tools give you a great advantage in scoring your leads and investing heavily in the ones that are likely to apply.

Chatbots

Chatbots allow you to automate conversations with your leads. While not as personal as peer recruitment tools, chatbots such as GeckoEngage are extremely useful when it comes to events, when your team is likely to answer the same questions over and over. This frees up your team to focus on more important tasks and ultimately reduces the total cost of running an event.

Branding tools

Keeping a consistent brand across multiple marketing channels, sometimes run by different departments, has always been a challenge. Branding tools such as Outfit allow you to strengthen your brand integrity with consistent collateral and a central control point for branded content that ultimately increases the time to market.

In conclusion

There is no lack of marketing tools for higher education recruitment professionals to adopt. Ultimately, in our opinion, it all comes down to having a good data driven approach behind everything that your institutions does. Our recommendation is to use the tools that help you do your job faster, change the tools when you find better ones and always have a consolidated data platform that can surface insights via your BI tools. This data platform is what we do at Cloud Officer and we would love to talk to you about your institution’s strategy.